When it comes to Assassin's Creed: Black Flag Resynced, there isn't actually a whole lot that's fundamentally 'new'. This remake is very much that, a remake, meaning most of the activities, collectibles, secrets, they are as you remember them from the original Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag except now with a glossier coat of paint.
While you may remember where to find certain hidden goodies or use existing walkthroughs to hunt down elusive collectibles, what you may have forgotten or may need a refresher on is in regard how to best take advantage of the game's economy and how to quickly generate money to rebuild Great Inagua and improve the Jackdaw to make naval activities easier. If that sounds like you, keep on reading.
How to earn money in Assassin's Creed: Black Flag Resynced in the 'early game'
Making money in Assassin's Creed: Black Flag Resynced gets easier as the game progresses. It's as they say, you have to spend money to make money. But that belief is hard to put into practice when you're broke to begin with.
When the stabilisers are finally removed and the wider Caribbean starts to become your oyster, there are a few activities which are ideal for making cash incredibly quickly. For one, hunt down the chests found on each island and location. You can find these by synchronising with Viewpoints, as the chests icons will then be put on your map. Opening these is usually as straightforward as finding the chest and interacting with it, with the caveat that some are defended by enemy units. Typically speaking, chests will give you between 400 and 1,000 gold each, so they are a vital way to quickly notch up funds.
Beyond this, find treasure maps on deceased skeletons and hunt down their buried chest. These are usually stacked with money and goodies, allowing you to generate funds without putting yourself at much harm.
Otherwise, if you manage to get your hands on sugar and rum from resource crates, you can easily sell these resources for cash, but it's worthwhile also hanging onto these as they'll come in handy later. Speaking of resources...
What not to do in the 'early game'
...Don't sell wood, metal, or cloth resources. You'll need this for upgrading the Jackdaw, and as much as the quick funds might be alluring, these resources are far harder to come by compared to regular coins.
Beyond this, in the earlier portions of the game, the Jackdaw isn't good for much beyond simply navigation and exploration. Don't try to use your ship as a beast on the open waves, hunting vessels and plundering them for loot. You'll end up spending more money on repairs than on net gains, so save yourself a headache and keep that aggression bottled up for another day.
Finally, fight the urge to spend money at stores. And we mean on anything. Try not to buy new swords or pistols, and don't buy ammunition or remedies either, unless you're desperate for them. You can loot most of the latter from corpses or widely around levels, and upgrading your swords or pistols won't actually improve Edward a great deal, at least not in the earlier stages.
Once you're through the 'early game', what's the best way to earn money?
Once you're named captain of the Jackdawn and you've unlocked a Harbourmaster, you'll be tempted immediately to buy new items for your vessel. Try to avoid doing so for the moment. You won't have to wait much longer, we promise, but stockpiling funds for what's about to come is truly, truly helpful in the long haul.
You'll want to save your funds until you reach Great Inagua. This is the home hideout area for Edward and his fleet, and it's a settlement you can improve with a few minor upgrades. We are talking minor as Black Flag never really reached true RPG-level role-playing, so there are three upgrades for the main manor and then seven settlement facilities to improve, some with three tiers to unlock. These upgrades aren't exactly cheap and if we had to throw an approximate number out there, it wouldn't surprise us if you needed 100,000 gold to fully upgrade Great Inagua.
We'd suggest starting by improving the manor to unlock the collection box, improve its capacity, and improve the rate at which it earns passive cash. These are the most expensive upgrades of the bunch, but once they're done, head into town and build the fishing wharf and Treasure Dealer, the only two new facilities compared to the original game. You'll want these as they improve the cash generated passively by the hideout, improving the amount of money you can collect.
From here, you can simply start spending money elsewhere while frequently returning to Great Inagua to collect funds from the collection box.
Once the hideout is refurbished, what's next?
Now comes the huge amount of time and emphasis required to improve the Jackdaw. Our advice would be to improve the hull armour, the damage of your mortar and broadside cannons, and also the number of your broadside cannons. You could refer to these areas as your ship's health and damage output, if we were treating the Jackdaw like an RPG character, so work on these core attributes as long as you can before then leaning on improving swivel guns, adding a ram, enhancing crew quarters, and expanding storage.
When the Jackdaw is in a good and comfortable state, you can head to the open waves and start smashing up schooners, brigs, and maybe even the odd frigate. We'd suggest avoiding man 'o' wars and larger frigates until the Jackdaw is mostly fully upgraded, but you can start causing havoc against the other kinds of vessels and even taking on smaller forts. On this latter point, forts hand out a lot of cash and make it possible to begin utilising Kenway's Fleet, another passive fund generation system, albeit one that's less effective compared to Great Inagua, at least early on. Essentially, you can send captured ships on missions and assignments, where often the reward will be a lump sum of cash. The catch is that you'll need to spend money on repairing ships, could have ships sunk, will need certain kinds of ships for certain missions, and not every mission will reward cash. So use the system but don't expect to rely on it.
Lastly, by this point, you'll likely be able to take on Assassination Contracts and even Naval Contracts. These are rudimentary and basic side quest-like challenges asking you to kill an enemy or smash up a certain ship. Typically, the Assassination Contracts are a breeze to complete and reward good money, while the Naval alternatives can be tougher, likely being reserved for 'late game', should you still need money by then.
Other quick tips and tricks worth keeping in mind
While these are most of the tips and tricks you'll need to become a wealthy whale inhabiting the Caribbean, there are a few final strategies to keep in mind that are handy for upping your finances that little bit further.
- Loot everything - It sounds silly, but looting everything goes a long way. Whether it's corpses or just general trash around the world as you pass, if you loot everything, you'll always have resources and likewise you'll add a steady stream of pennies into your pocket. Every penny counts, right?
- Repeat warehouses - Yep, you can repeat these if you need a quick influx of cash, assuming you've given each warehouse the time required to restock its stores.
- Sell excess animal pelts - If you skin every animal you kill, you'll have an abundance of pelts and items that are only really useful for unlocking the various special outfits for Edward. Once you've unlocked these, pelts and animal items are mostly just there to be sold, so reap the rewards.
