Tips & Tricks

Captaincy

• Upgrade the Jackdaw before Edward — the ship wins the game.
• Sail with the wind and use swivel guns to finish weakened ships for clean plunder.
• Board convoys' loaded merchantmen for big metal and wood hauls.
• Keep the Fleet stocked with captured ships for passive gold.

Combat & stealth

• Keep smoke bombs and berserk darts for boarding actions and fort assaults.
• Use the rope dart and air assassinations to thin guards before a fight starts.
• Brace before enemy broadsides at sea to survive the toughest naval duels.
• Eagle Vision first on every stealth job — tag targets and plan the route.

Completion

• Synchronise viewpoints so you never hunt collectibles blind.
• Do a dedicated hunting run early to max your pouches and health.
• Clear a region's fort, then sweep its collectibles in one loop.
• Grab shanties whenever you pass them — the easiest collectible on the water.
• On Title Update 1.0.7 (1 September 2026) or later? Two completion bugs are gone: a region not revealing itself after taking its fort and synchronising 100 %, and world-map icons not updating once every activity in an area was done. If a fort's region still looks unfinished on an older build, that was the game, not you. The same patch lets you hide Edward's pistols and the trinket glow, and adds a rescuable animal that turns up at the Hideout.

Making money

• Board and sell cargo from convoys — the fastest reales early on.
• Run naval and assassination contracts along your sailing routes for steady pay.
• Keep Kenway's Fleet dispatched for passive income while you play.
• Sell surplus trade goods and duplicate resources at harbour shops.

Numbers behind the routine

• Fifteen or sixteen Naval Contracts are scattered around the map (gamepressure, Consolepulse, Vandal and EliteGuias count fifteen, Game8 sixteen), paying roughly 1,200 up to 3,600 Reales apiece once you land the bonus objective — stack a few from one port before a sailing loop.
• Thirty Assassination Contracts exist in total; clearing every one nets the Spring-Steel Swords plus a running total in the tens of thousands of Reales.
• Eleven regions each hold a fort — only Punta Guarico is locked to the story — and capturing every other one is its own completion trophy.
• Harpooning opens up in Sequence 3: start on Bull Sharks before stepping up to Great Whites, Killer Whales and Humpbacks once your rowboat and harpoon damage are upgraded.

Cross-checked