There are three key upgrades for your ship, Jackdaw, in Assassin’s Creed Black Flag that you will want to get as soon as possible. We also provide list and tips for a few more essential upgrades you should unlock early on.
If you want to safely and efficiently get around the map for the main story or to gather resources, you’ll need to focus on upgrading your ship as soon as you can.
The Big Three Upgrades
There are three big ship components that you’ll want to focus on in the early game. These are the Round and Heated Shot, Broadside Cannons, and Armored Hull.
Round and Heated Shot Requirements
| Tier | Effect |  |  | HML |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| I | Base | I | ||
| II | +30% Damage, 30% Total | 900 | I | |
| III | +40% Damage, 70% Total | 4,000 | II | |
| IV | +40% Damage, 110% Total | 12,000 | III | |
| V | +50% Damage, 160% Total | 35,000 | Yes | III |
Broadside Cannons Requirements
| Tier | Effect | |  | | HML |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| I | Base, Capacity 6 | I | |||
| II | Capacity 8 | 70 | I | ||
| III | Capacity 10 | 2,000 | 150 | I | |
| IV | Capacity 12 | 4,000 | 300 | II | |
| V | Capacity 14 | 8,000 | 350 | II | |
| VI | Capacity 16 | 12,000 | 500 | III | |
| VIII | Capacity 18 | 20,000 | 650 | Yes | III |
Armored Hull Requirements
| Tier | Effect | |  | | | HML |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| I | Base, 600 Armor | I | ||||
| II | 1,200 Armor | 1,000 | I | |||
| III | 2,000 Armor | 4,000 | 200 | 100 | I | |
| IV | 3,200 Armor | 15,000 | 500 | 200 | II | |
| V | 5,000 Armor | 30,000 | 750 | 400 | Yes | III |
The Round and Heated Shot and Broadside Cannon upgrades increase your damage output. These are your main weapons found port and starboard (left and right sides of your ship).
Upgrading the shots will increase the damage each shot does, while upgrading the Broadside Cannons increases the amount of shots you fire.
Early on, you’ll mostly encounter lone schooners. As you go into more dangerous waters, enemy ships start to travel in groups.
They can flank you and you’ll be receiving damage from all sides. Investing in armor early on will help you survive longer so you can make more use of your broadside cannons.
Other Useful Upgrades
If you want some cheap yet powerful upgrades early on, get the Heavy Shot, Mortar, and Ram upgrades. The Heavy Shot is a blind fire weapon for your broadside cannons that deal large damage early game.
You cannot aim the Heavy Shot, so it’s used for when another ship is extremely close to you. It shares a cooldown with the Round and Heated Shots of your ship.
The Mortar is a long ranged weapon that can sink schooners in one shot. After upgrading it to level II, it can take down two-third’s of a brig’s health. It takes some getting used to as you have to aim where the target is going due to the four second travel time of the mortars.
The Ram will increase your collision damage when you hit an enemy ship with your bow (front of the ship). Brute force is a good way to chunk off enemy ship health and the ram is nothing but brute force.
Recruit Ship Officers
Recruiting Ship Officers will provide unique abilities that’ll help you survive fights. You can initially find two officers after completing the quest “This Old Cove”.
A third officer you get late game will grant a powerful mortar variant. Focus on getting the Master at Arms and Shipwright early on as those are the only options available then.
Master at Arms – Ram Dash
Recruiting a Master at Arms will give you the Ram Dash ability. This has a somewhat lengthy cooldown but when you use it, you’ll go at a high speed into a target and deal a large amount of damage.
Shipwright – Perfect Brace
Recruiting a Shipwright will give you the Perfect Brace ability. When you normally brace, you reduce a good amount of damage. With the Perfect Brace, you can mitigate most of your incoming damage. You do this by bracing right before you’re hit by cannon fire, a ramming vessel, or explosives in the water.
Get the Double Shot
After getting a few ship upgrades and building up your confidence, sail to Fort Dry Tortuga in the northwest corner of the man. It’s directly north of Havana, but be sure to be fully stocked on ammo.
Since the fort is a stationary target, it’ll be very easy to destroy the fort’s cannons from a good distance. By staying a good distance away, you’ll have more reaction time for a Perfect Brace when the fort’s cannons fire at you.
After disabling the defenses, dock at the fort and clear the enemies found there. Save some bullets to deal with the final room where the Commander is. When you take over Fort Dry Tortuga, you’ll earn the Double Shot!
The Double Shot is a Front Cannon weapon that has a low arch, but fires numerous round shots ahead of you. It’s a great way to deal damage to ships in front of you that are up close.
