Underwater shipwrecks hide blueprints and treasure — but sharks, moray eels and air management make them the tensest exploration in the game. The blueprints down there unlock some of the Jackdaw's best upgrades.
Diving tips
- Unlock the diving bell in the story before you can reach shipwrecks.
- Surface at air pockets and conch shells to refill your breath before it runs out.
- Distract sharks and moray eels (use crewmates and hiding spots) rather than fighting them head-on.
- Wreck blueprints unlock the Jackdaw's best upgrades — worth the risk.
Staying alive down there
- Move between seaweed and wreck cover to break a shark's line of sight.
- Whistle to lure predators away from the chest you're trying to reach.
- Watch the air meter constantly — plan your route to air sources before you descend.
- Grab everything on a run; wrecks are out of the way, so you won't want to return.
What's worth diving for
- Jackdaw upgrade blueprints — the main reason to brave the wrecks.
- Treasure and reales chests tucked inside the hulls.
- Rare crafting materials you won't find on land.
- Some sharks guard the best loot — lure them off before you grab it.
Seven wrecks, and what is actually down there
| Down there | How much |
|---|---|
| Shipwreck dive sites | 7 |
| Chests across them | 61, tracked separately from the map’s other chests (68 with the 7 secret ones; Vandal’s wreck-by-wreck count comes to 66 with them) |
| Ultimate Upgrade Plans | 6 of the 12 — half the Jackdaw’s elite tier |
Diving opens at Sequence 06 – Mission 01: Diving for Medicines.
That is the story beat the advice above means by «unlock the diving bell», and nothing underwater is reachable before
it.
Sixty-one chests is a campaign, not a detour. Which turns the advice above —
grab everything on a run, because you will not want to return — from a preference into the plan: work a wreck
until it is empty. And the six plans down here are why a Jackdaw stalls one tier short; the rest come from
treasure maps.
Still to verify
Cross-checked on 5 September 2026 against PowerPyx, a Steam Community guide and ConsolePulse — which agree on the 7 shipwrecks, the 68 chests split 61 regular plus 7 Secret, the 6 diving-side Ultimate Upgrade Plans against the other 6 from Treasure Maps, and that Sequence 06 – Mission 01: Diving for Medicines unlocks the Diving Bell. Re-checked on 26 September 2026 against Vandal’s Resynced guide, which agrees on the 7 wrecks and the 6 plans found in them but counts 66 chests; the table now gives both totals. What is still unverified is the only thing reading cannot settle — nobody here has played it.