Assassin’s Creed 4 Black Flag Resynced Trophy Guide & Roadmap

This is a completely luck-based random trophy. Sometimes you will see “Burning Ship” events at sea, they get marked by a white icon when nearby and have a 5-minute timer before disappearing, similar to Lead Convoys. These are NOT ships you defeat and board. They are separate random events and they are very rare. The Burning Ship Events have a bunch of lootable boxes on them that give money. The ships are already burning when you find them and you don’t need to fight them. They look like this on the map (completely randomized locations):

You need to get extremely lucky to find a Burning Ship event that also has a chair in the middle of the deck to sit on.

There’s an estimated 5% chance that a Burning Ship Event has a chair. So not only are the events themselves rare spawns, you need to get doubly lucky that one also has a chair. Some players might get one first try, others might not find a single one in 50 hours playtime, making this the most frustrating trophy overall.

Burning Ship Events can spawn any type of ship (Schooner, Brig, Frigate, Man-o-War) and the chair can spawn on any type of ship, but it seems to be more common on Burning Brigs.

Luckily, there is a way to farm it and get this in a couple minutes!

1. Make a manual save in Great Inagua manor (826, 444).
2. Fast travel to “The Black Trench” shipwreck in Castillo de Jagua region (184, 425 – available after Sequence 06 – Mission 01: Diving for Medicines). Castillo de Jagua region has the best chance to spawn burning ships with a chair. As soon as you spawn at the shipwreck use the scope with to look around if a Burning Ship spawned. Important: if you recently completed a Burning Ship event (looted the boxes and it sunk), it might not spawn a new one for a few hours of playtime as they seem to have a hidden cooldown before spawning new ones.
   
3. If Burning Ship DOESN’T spawn: reload your manual save at Great Inagua manor and fast travel to The Black Trench again. Each time it gives a chance to spawn a new Burning Ship event (estimated 20% chance). The fast travel forces the game to randomly regenerate events.
4. If Burning Ship DOES spawn: board it and check if it has a chair in the middle of the deck to sit on. You can already see the chair with the scope from a distance. If there’s no chair, reload the save and fast travel again. It still requires a lot of luck but with this trick you can somewhat reliably spawn many Burning Ship events in quick succession.

» Assassin’s Creed 4 Black Flag Resynced – All Fort Locations

» Assassin’s Creed 4 Black Flag Resynced – All Character Portrait Locations

This requires finding all Art Collection Pieces and Portraits. You can view these under Codex > Database.

There are 11 Portraits, 41 Art Collection: Art Pieces (contains 2 more Furniture than needed), 9 Art Collection: Paintings, 20 Art Collection: Ship Models. When you scroll over them it shows a hint on the right side how they are obtained. The weapons are viewed in your inventory and are bought, found in the world, obtained as quest rewards. There are a few more Swords than needed but you need all Pistols (owners of the Deluxe Edition get 1 more Pistol than needed).

Totals: 9 Paintings, 7 Table Decorations, 2 Large Table Decorations, 3 Furniture, 27 Shelf Decorations, 1 Outfit, 18 Swords, 12 Pistols, 20 Ship Models

• Fleet Planning Room: 1 Painting, 4 Table Decorations, 20 Ship Models, 3 Portraits
• Main Hall: 4 Paintings, 1 Table Decoration, 2 Large Table Decorations, 1 Furniture
• Bedroom: 3 Paintings, 1 Table Decoration, 2 Furniture, 1 Outfit, 1 Portrait
• Weapons Room: 1 Painting, 1 Table Decoration, 27 Shelf Decorations, 18 Swords, 12 Pistols
• Treasure Cove (Downstairs): 7 Portraits (one is on staircase)

The most tedious part is getting the 18 random Art Pieces from Kenway’s Fleet. These are exclusively obtained from sending Brigs on piracy missions via the Fleet Planning Room. They don’t drop from Schooners, Frigates, Man-o-Wars. Only Brig Piracy can give them. Whether you get a mission that gives an Art Piece is entirely random and they take 30-60 minutes each time. When you only have a few pieces left the chances get extremely low. You should work on this from the start, get 5 Brigs from hard-difficulty regions (they have more health), conquer the Forts to open up the full sea map. Then run 5 Brig Piracy missions simultaneously. Before accepting the mission report, make a manual save. Then accept the report, check if you get a mission that gives an Art Piece, if not reload save and accept report again to roll new missions. Sometimes it can take 15+ save reloads to get a single mission with an Art Piece. You can tell if a mission gives an Art Piece because it will show a unique icon in the rewards with a value of “1”:

The other Art Pieces are bought at the General Store and found in the world (Chests, Treasures, Local Events). Paintings are from looting each Warehouse once. Portraits are found in the world and rewarded from Side Quests. Ships are from defeating each type of ship once (some from story and 1 called “Ipswich” from questline “A World Without Gold”).

You reach Great Inagua after Sequence 04 – Mission 01: This Old Cove. The shopkeepers will be marked on the map, talk to them at the harbor of Great Inagua to restore their buildings. Of General Store & Harbourmaster you only need the first level. The other buildings only have a single level.

This costs a total of 23,100 Reals. The most reliable way to get money fast is to conquer Forts, open chests in Underwater Shipwrecks, board Man-o-Wars and take their Captain’s Lockbox in hard difficulty regions, and use Kenway’s Fleet to send Schooners on trade missions.

1. General Store = 500
2. Tavern = 100
3. Harbourmaster = 500
4. Brothel = 6000
5. Campfire = 6000
6. Treasure Dealer = 5000
7. Fisherman’s Wharf = 5000

First you need to restore the building “Treasure Dealer” in Great Inagua (Coordinates: 817, 448). Talk to the treasure hunter at the docks to restore this building, he’s available after Sequence 04 – Mission 01: This Old Cove.

Then in his shop you can see 5 maps that can be restored after you find all their pieces. These also cost huge amounts of materials so you’ll want to use Kenway’s Fleet and send Brigs to piracy missions to farm the materials. You can also destroy ships to get the materials.

Which map you restore doesn’t matter. The easiest are the “Restored Digested Map” and “Restored Tattered Map”. The Digested Map has only 2 pieces and Tattered Map 3 pieces. While farming all 18 Collection Pieces from Kenway’s Fleet for  Dilettante you should get enough materials.

1. Restored Weathered Map (6 Pieces +350 Spice) – 5 pieces are obtained from the locked chests in the 5 Caves, 1 piece is bought from the treasure dealer in Great Inagua. In total this costs 350 spice to restore (200 to buy the 6th map piece, 150 to restore map). Spice is commonly looted from ships in the southern regions. After going to all “?” icons you can press on the map to filter for the caves. In each cave you must kill the pirate leader and loot the key from his body to open the chest. The 5 caves are: Jiguey (535, 511), San Juan (454, 462), Anotto Bay (590, 245), Petite Caverne (864, 237), Ambergris Key (28, 159). The key in Anotto Bay might not spawn on the first visit, if no enemy drops it then come back after 2 hours when the enemies have respawned.
2. Restored Yellowed Map (10 Pieces + 100 Aloe) – these are random rewards from Kenway’s Fleet, exclusively from sending Schooners on trade missions. This is completely random but you can see a “map” icon on the fleet map before sending a ship. This is the hardest map to get and requires the most luck. After conquering a fort in each region you can run 5 schooner missions at the same time to improve the odds. You can make a manual save before accepting the fleet reports, if the next set of missions doesn’t show a map piece as reward you can reload the save to roll a new set of quests. Aloe is sometimes obtained from Kenway’s Fleet piracy missions in the southwest region.
3. Restored Digested Map (2 Pieces + 200 Rum) – both pieces are randomly dropped by the White Jaguar on Great Inagua island (825, 439). It takes a long time to respawn, so check back occasionally. The jaguar icon gets marked on the map, you can mark it and use autonavigation by holding to find the spot. Just come back every 2 hours to loot the white jaguar again until you get both pieces. The same jaguar drops both pieces but only one at a time. Rum is looted from ships in Gibara region.
4. Restored Tattered Map (3 Pieces + 200 Sugar) – random rewards from boarding pirate hunter ships and taking the captain’s lockbox. Only the Frigates and Man-o-War pirate hunters can drop them, not the brigs. They are the ships that spawn at wanted level 3-4 to hunt you down (the ones with red sails). The ones at Wanted Level 1-2 don’t drop them. Board the ships, defeat the crew, pick “Captain’s Lockbox” as reward. These are less random and seem to be guaranteed drops. Sugar is looted from ships in Gibara region.
5. Restored Preserved Map (4 Pieces + 150 Tobacco) – random rewards from looting Warehouses. There are 9 Warehouses total. After discovering all “?” icons you can press on the map to filter for them. These have a 2 hour cooldown and the chance seems very low. Personally after doing all 9 Warehouses once I only got 1 of 4 pieces. But you need to do all Warehouses anyway to get paintings so if you’re lucky you might get the maps too. You can shorten the cooldown by using Kenway’s Fleet and sending Frigates on missions. Tobacco is commonly looted from ships in the southern regions.

There are 3 tavern games. Each of them comes in 3 difficulty levels from 1 star to 3 stars. Winning the easy 1 star version is enough, you don’t need to beat the 2-3 stars. There is a playing table at each tavern, if he’s not available buy a drink at the bar to spawn some enemies, beat them up and the minigame will unlock. There will be tutorials for each game when you sit down at the table. Below are the locations of the easy 1-star versions:

1. Nine-Man Morris – Salt Key Bank (Dry Tortuga region – 467, 605)
   
2. Checkers – Andreas Island (Eleuthera region – 543, 697)
   
3. Fanorona – Crooked Island (Gibara region – 777, 520)
   

Street Fights are RANDOM Side Activities that get marked with a chainlink symbol  when nearby. There will be some enemies guarding a group of pirates. Kill the enemies and free the pirates without any of them dying. These side activities spawn randomly on almost any inhabited island. You find them most frequently in the large cities: Havana, Nassau, Kingston. Simply run around Havana for 2 minutes and you should get one of these to appear.

A Smuggler’s Chest can be found in Jiguey cave (Coordinates: 535, 511). It’s the locked underwater chest in the middle of the cave where enemies are. Defeat the enemies to loot the key from them, then open the chest with it. The enemy next to the big brute has the key.

You can also find Smuggler’s Chests in other caves, there are 5 total that you will reveal while unfogging all “?” icons on the map.

» Assassin’s Creed 4 Black Flag Resynced – All Underwater Shipwreck Treasure Chests Locations

Go to a Warehouse, these always have a bell. Let the guards see you, wait for one to ring the bell and headshot him with the pistol for an instakill ( to aim > to select pistol > to shoot).

You can filter for Warehouses on the map by pressing > Warehouse. For example, this can be done on Matanzas in Dry Tortuga region (Coordinates: 304, 620). The enemies at warehouses respawn after 2 hours, so it’s not missable even if you’ve finished all Warehouses already.

Wild Pigs are found on Cape Bonavista (Coordinates: 152, 588). They get marked on the map by a white pig icon. When a pig fights you, wait for it to do a red charge attack and dodge it so that time slows down. Repeat 3 times, can be the same pig and you are allowed to miss dodges in between. You don’t need 3 perfect dodges in a row.

A Great White Shark harpooning spot can be found in Cruz region at Coordinates 490, 303. It will get marked by a white harpoon icon when going near it. Interact with the harpooning spot, then you will be on the rowboat holding a harpoon. To perform a “Perfect Shot” aim with > hold > release  when the reticle emits a pulse. You will see the reticle getting smaller quickly, if you release the aim button when the reticle is small you do a perfect shot for more damage. Don’t hold  for too long.

Ocelots are found on Abaco Island (Coordinates: 583, 807). The trophy is slightly misleading, you don’t need 2 Ocelots for it, you can parry one and the same Ocelot twice in a row. When the Ocelot attacks press to parry. When done correctly it will knock the Ocelot back and you won’t take damage. Walk toward the Ocelot to bait it into attacking again.

The rope dart is automatically unlocked in Sequence 03 of the story. To hang enemies you must be in stealth on a tree branch or a wooden beam. When an enemy is underneath the tree/beam, you will get the “Hang” prompt appearing on that enemy. Pressing will hang the enemy. It only works from tree branches and wooden beams specifically. You must hang 10 enemies total, but in some cases it might take a few more kills to unlock the trophy.

If an enemy is too far away you can pull them in with the rope dart ( > + ), then quickly press . You can also whistle while below a tree to attract enemies ( ), but don’t whistle while sitting on top of trees as the enemies will spot you.

Plantations with climbable trees work great for this. The best locations are:

• Tortuga (848, 350 Punta Guarico region) – from where you spawn on fast travel, climb the trees on the left of the farm. You should find 2-3 enemies standing directly below trees leading to the warehouse. You can also lure nearby enemies, or run away after being spotted and kill more while they search the area.
• Cat Island (707, 666) – from where you spawn on fast travel, enter the farm straight ahead and look slightly to the right in the direction of the warehouse to see a climbable tree. There are multiple trees leading to the villa uphill with 2 enemies standing still below them. You can also lure more enemies by whistling.
• Kingston southern Warehouse (605, 156) – jump down the viewpoint and climb over the tree branch toward the warehouse, there is usually an enemy standing below the branch.

Between these locations you should easily get 5 kills. Then wait for the enemies to respawn. It takes a long time for warehouse enemies to respawn so check back after a few hours to farm more kills. If you don’t want to wait you can lure more enemies by whistling or get detected and have them search the area. Note that kills can’t be farmed by reloading saves.

Smoke Bomb is an automatic story unlock from Sequence 02 – Mission 01: Lively Havana. Afterward you can select it with + and throw it with + .

This is best done when boarding ships, there are many enemies close together. Alternatively, you can attack enemies in cities or plantations and lure them close together.

First, upgrade the Pistol Holster to the maximum (Level 4) to carry 4 Pistols. This allows you to shoot 4 times in quick succession. The Level 2 upgrade is story-related from Sequence 03 – Mission 01: This Tyro Captain. Level 3 requires 2 Rabbit Pelts which come from hunting Rabbits (e.g. in Nassau at 597, 760 in the Eleuthera Region). Level 4 requires 4 Bull Shark Skins which come from Harpooning Locations on the sea in Dry Tortuga and Gibara regions. You craft upgrades from the inventory by clicking the anvil icon in the bottom right.

Now you have to kill 4 enemies using pistols within 5 seconds. This requires you to kill one enemy with each shot without missing. If you miss a shot the reload can make you take longer than 5 seconds.

The easiest option is to go to a plantation (e.g. Matanzas at 304, 622) and get 4 enemies to low health so they will die in 1 hit. Lure them to you and put them to sleep using the Blowdart (story unlock from Sequence 04 – Mission 04: Overrun and Outnumbered). Now shoot the sleeping low-health enemies with the pistol, one shot each.

Alternatively, you can also do it by headshotting 4 enemies quickly for instakills. Putting them to sleep first makes it easier as they won’t move. If you get them to low health first you can kill them by shooting the body instead of headshots. It also helps to upgrade the Sleep Dart and Dart Pouch so you can carry more ammo and they stay asleep longer. Another method is to board a ship, get multiple enemies to low health, throw a smoke bomb and use quickshot with + to instakill them.

First, you need a sword that has 4 “Maximum Takedowns”. You can check this in the inventory when scrolling over the sword. You can buy “Officer’s Rapiers” from the General Store in Great Inagua after upgrading it to Level 2 (available after Sequence 04 – Mission 01: This Old Cove).

Now perform a parry on a blue glowing attack with and quickly do 4 takedowns with . This is easy when boarding ships because you have lots of enemies close together. Plantations (Warehouses) also have lots of enemies. You must be quick to do the takedowns.

First, you need to advance the story to unlock the Smoke Bomb and Berserk Dart. Both are automatic story unlocks. Smoke Bomb is unlocked in Sequence 02 – Mission 01: Lively Havana. Berserk Dart is unlocked in Sequence 04 – Mission 04: Overrun and Outnumbered.

Now damage a ship and board it (preferably a Brig). Shoot an enemy with Berserk Dart so he has a purple icon over his head ( + to switch between Sleep Dart & Berserk Dart > + to shoot) > throw smoke bomb ( + to select smoke bomb > + to throw it) > run toward the enemy and kick him against the railing ( to run > + to kick) > press when the “Takedown” prompt appears.

You should get the Takedown animation that performs a kick to push the enemy over the railing. It won’t work every time. Sometimes the Takedown won’t kick him all the way over the railing or it uses the hidden blades to kill him. The enemy needs to fall over and into the water.

You’ll want to kick the enemy against one of the shorter railings. It works well on Brigs (the medium-sized ships with a ram at the front), there are parts of the railing that are lower and enemies fall over more reliably. Running toward the enemy before kicking him also helps, this ensures you will face him head-on for has a better chance to trigger the Kicking Takedown. Avoid takedowns from the side as these trigger the hidden blade.

Full Quest List:

Sequence 1: Prologue

1. Edward Kenway

Sequence 2: The Spanish Main

1. Lively Havana
2. …And My Sugar
3. Mister Walpole, I Presume
4. A Man They Call the Sage
5. Claiming What’s Due
6. The Treasure Fleet

Sequence 3: The Republic of Pirates

1. This Tyro Captain
2. Now Hiring
3. Prizes and Plunder
4. Raise the Black Flag
5. Sugarcane and Its Yields
6. Proper Defenses
7. A Single Madman

Sequence 4: Nothing Is True…

1. This Old Cove
2. Nothing Is True…
3. The Sage’s Buried Secret
4. Overrun and Outnumbered

Sequence 5: The Forts

1. The Forts
2. Traveling Salesman
3. Unmanned

Sequence 6: The Siege of Charles-Towne

1. Diving for Medicines
2. Devil’s Advocate
3. The Siege of Charles-Towne

Sequence 7: The Hammer Falls

1. We Demand a Parley
2. The Gunpowder Plot
3. Commodore Eighty-Sixed
4. The Fireship

Sequence 8: Marooned

1. Do Not Go Gently…
2. Vainglorious Bastards
3. Marooned

Sequence 9: Trust

1. Imagine My Surprise
2. Trust Is Earned

Sequence 10: The Observatory

1. Black Bart’s Gambit
2. Murder and Mayhem
3. The Observatory

Sequence 11: Everything Is Permitted

1. To Suffer Without Dying
2. Delirium
3. Everything Is Permitted

Sequence 12: The End of the Journey

1. A Governor No Longer
2. Royal Misfortune
3. Tainted Blood
4. Ever a Splinter

Epilogue

1. Ending Scene

Go to a tavern and keep buying drinks until you pass out. A tavern can be found in Nassau. It’s one of the first locations you will visit during the main story. Walk up to the bar and interact with the bottle on the counter to start drinking. You have to drink at least 5 times to pass out.

1. Schooner
2. Brig
3. Frigate
4. Man-O-War

Here’s what the map icon looks like:

You also automatically learn a new shanty after Sequence 08 – Mission 01: Do Not Go Gently…, so technically this is an unmissable story-related trophy. Even if you never collected one you earn the trophy at that point.

First, you need to recruit officer “The Padre” to unlock the “Ram-Dash” ability. You also need at least the first ram upgrade for your ship, purchasable from any harbourmaster. Then while sailing your ship you can use ram dash ability with + . When done correctly, you will see your ship’s ram in a first-person view and deal massive damage. Look at ships with to see what type they are, you need to find one that’s a “Brig”. They are medium-sized ships with a ram on their front (bigger than schooners but fewer cannons than Frigates). They are often found in Gibara and Eleuthera region but they will also spawn at Wanted Level 1 to hunt you. Attack the Brig and wait for it to drive toward you. Brigs frequently try to ram you as it’s their main attack. When you hear the “horn sound” it’s trying to ram you. Then press + to hit the Brig head-on with Padre’s Ram-Dash ability. It won’t work without this ability.

To recruit The Padre, finish his first two Officer Quests “A Second Chance” & “Loyalty, Discipline, and Courage”.

Officer Quest: A Second Chance – available after Sequence 04 – Mission 01: This Old Cove, then press on map to select it from Officer Quests – Location: 446, 620 at “Caracol”.

Officer Quest: Loyalty, Discipline, and Courage – available after “Officer Quest: A Second Chance” – Location: 648, 348 at “Cumberland Bay” –> Padre is recruited after completing this quest.

Once Padre is recruited you can scroll over his officer icon under Ship Menu > Arsenal, there it shows his ability is the Ram-Dash. This ability has a cooldown before it can be used again.

» Assassin’s Creed 4 Black Flag Resynced – All Legendary Ships Guide

Then during naval combat hold before taking any damage to perform a “Perfect Brace”. Your crew will crouch down and you will negate most of the damage. If you try it before recruiting Lucy it won’t count. Also see All Officer Locations.

If you own the Deluxe Edition you automatically start out with a legendary cosmetic for each slot which also counts for the trophy.

You will also need all 12 Ultimate Plans for the final upgrades. Each upgrade costs money and materials. Materials are quickly obtained by conquering Forts and money is quickly obtained from chests in Underwater Shipwrecks. Also run 5 Schooners via the Fleet Planning room in Great Inagua manor, they passively collect money. Boarding Man-o-Wars and taking their Captain’s Lockbox in hard difficulty regions also gives around 5500 Reales each time. The Diving Bell is automatically unlocked in Sequence 06 – Mission 01: Diving for Medicines.

Total Cost:

• 315,800 Reales (including the cost of fully upgrading the Harbourmaster & choosing to buy the Diving bell instead of obtaining it for free from story)
• 4755 Metal
• 2750 Wood
• 550 Cloth
• 12 Ultimate Plans

» Assassin’s Creed 4 Black Flag Resynced – All Ultimate Upgrade Plan Locations
» Assassin’s Creed 4 Black Flag Resynced – All Jackdaw Ship Upgrades

First, you must advance the story to reach Long Bay island during Sequence 10 – Mission 03: The Observatory (Coordinates: 498, 226). It will then stay marked on the map and you can still fast travel to it after the story. You can’t enter the island before this point.

Long Bay Location:

There are 3 bodies hanging off ropes on this island. You need to shoot them in the head from close range with the pistols. Hold to aim > to select pistols > to shoot. When you aim at the head the cursor will turn red. When done correctly the bodies will fall down to the ground.

Body #1 – hanging off the northern viewpoint. Climb to the very top of the viewpoint to get close enough to shoot it:

Bodies #2 & #3 – jump off the viewpoint from the first body, go forward to the start of the beach and enter the right path, look up to see two bodies hanging off the roots above the path. It’s the path that leads from the northern viewpoint back to your ship. Both bodies are hanging very close to each other. Very close to the beach with the viewpoint.

The lowest point is found at the Underwater Shipwreck “The Black Trench”. It’s unlocked after Sequence 06 – Mission 01: Diving for Medicines and will get marked automatically in region “Castillo de Jagua” (Coordinates: 184, 425). You also get the Diving Bell at this point in the story, which lets you visit the Underwater Shipwrecks.

After using the Diving Bell and arriving in the Black Trench, swim forward and to the right until you reach a big shipwreck with an Air Barrel on it. From the air barrel at the middle of the shipwreck, swim straight down into the dark trench. At the bottom of the trench you find a broken diving bell, swim near it to unlock the trophy. If the trophy doesn’t unlock immediately, swim around the diving bell a few times from different angles.

» Assassin’s Creed 4 Black Flag Resynced – All Cartographer Locations