Best Jackdaw upgrades in Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced

Mortar

Image: Ubisoft via Polygon

You want to unlock Mortar upgrades because it is the best weapon on your ship. It doesn’t shine because of its damage potential (the weapons with the highest damage are fire barrels and heavy shots), but because it allows you to fight from a safe distance. Using it is not an easy task since you must time your shots correctly, so the enemy can’t escape them all. However, if you master this weapon, you can deal enough damage to an enemy’s ship while avoiding being hit by their cannons. In addition, this is your main weapon against forts.

Broadside Cannons

These are the bread-and-butter guns of your ship. Most of the time, you want to make every shot count when firing your broadside cannons, so it’s always good to have more cannons. Every tier of this upgrade increases the number of cannons on the side of the ship, which affects the damage output with all the three types of shots you can use — round, heated, and heavy. Spending your reales and materials on this upgrade early on is a better option than doing so for each shot separately.

Heavy Shot and Mortar Storage

Once you have covered your bases with higher defenses and damage output, it’s time to invest in carrying more ammo for your cannons. Heavy shot and mortars are powerful weapons, but you’re punished by missing shots since you can carry limited ammunition for each. That’s why you want to grab the Heavy Shot Storage and the Mortar Storage upgrades to have as much ammo as possible. These are fairly cheap compared to others on this list and will definitely give you the upper hand in some battles.

Harpoon and Harpoon Storage

Harpooning is an important secondary activity in Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced since it allows you to collect crafting materials. Early on, you only need to hunt regular sharks, but as you progress through Edward’s journey, you’ll encounter stronger animals like killer whales.

Image: Ubisoft via Polygon

Since these are higher-tier prey, they have better defenses and attack stats. To face them, you will need to prioritize the Harpoon upgrade to increase your damage to take them down. Even that may not be enough depending on the animal you’re hunting. To boost your chances, be sure to also buy the Harpoon Storage upgrades, which increases the number of harpoons you have during a harpooning session.