SegmentNextLocations
None of the places in this bucket is a destination. Each one is a key to something else, and once you see the chain the Caribbean stops looking like a scatter of icons. A fort opens a stretch of sea and puts treasure maps on your map. A tavern sells you the location of a map for the price of a drink. A dig site pays out a ship plan. That plan is what lets you take the next fort.
What Each Location Opens in Assassin's Creed 4 Black Flag
| Place | How many | What it hands you | Page |
|---|---|---|---|
| Naval forts | 10, in three difficulty levels | A restricted sea region opened permanently, and treasure maps on the world map | Naval forts |
| Underwater shipwrecks | 11 dive sites and caverns | Half the elite design plans in the game, plus animus fragments and loot | Shipwrecks |
| Taverns | 8 | A bar fight, the Barfly achievement, and a treasure map location for 200R | Taverns |
| Warehouses | 8, three open at a time | Money and resources, with a bonus for never raising the alarm | Warehouses |
Forts are the ones that change the map
Ten naval forts stand between Edward and the parts of the sea the game will not otherwise let him sail. Every one of them is a two part fight: bombard the outer defences from the Jackdaw until they fall, then dock and finish the job on foot by killing between one and three Captains, which opens the way to the Fort Commander. Kill him and the fort and the water around it belong to you for good.
The forts come in three tiers and the tier is a shopping list rather than a warning. The first three are Level 1 and will fall to a barely upgraded Jackdaw. The four in the middle are Level 2 and want reinforced armour and advanced weapons. The last three are Level 3, and the honest advice is not to sail at them until elite plans are on the ship. Weather is the other variable people miss: Conttoyor and Charlotte both sit inside permanent storms that shove the ship off its line, and Chinchorro's weather turns bad partway through the fight, so speed matters there in a way it does not elsewhere. Take Smoke Bombs, loaded pistols and Blowpipe ammunition ashore. All ten, with coordinates and the assassination route for each, are on the naval forts page.
The dive sites hold the Jackdaw's best parts
Nothing underwater is available until Sequence 6 and its Diving for Medicines mission are behind you, so a player who goes looking early will find a locked bell and nothing else. After that the wrecks become the single most valuable errand in the game, because half of the twelve elite design plans are down there. La Concepcion holds the ram, Devil's Eye Caverns the swivel guns, San Ignacio the hull armour, the Kabah Ruins the round shot, the Blue Hole the broadside cannons and Antocha the mortars, which between them cover most of what the Jackdaw fights with.
Two of the eleven sites are not dives at all. Petite Caverne and Jiguey are caves you sail into and clear on foot, which makes them the gentlest introduction to what the rest hold. The genuine dives run on one resource, air, and one obstacle, sharks, and the rhythm never changes: move between air barrels, use the seaweed patches as cover, and wait for a shark to turn away rather than trying to outswim it. Site by site routes are on the shipwrecks page.
Taverns and warehouses are the short errands
All eight taverns work the same way. You talk to the barkeep, somebody spills a drink on you, and a brawl breaks out; win it and the tavern is unlocked. Do that at all eight and the Barfly achievement is yours. The part worth knowing is what the barkeep does afterwards, because for 200R every one of them will tell you where a treasure map is, and those maps are the front half of the buried treasure hunt in our items guide. The Kingston Crown sells the Misteriosa map, Arroyos sells Santanillas, Corozal sells Cayman Sound, and so on down the list on the taverns page.
Warehouses are the one activity here on a timer. Only three of the eight can be plundered at any moment, and looting one puts another of the remaining five back into rotation about five minutes later, so this is something to dip into rather than clear in one run. Each is a small stealth puzzle with the same three steps: find the key holder with Eagle Vision, get him alone with a whistle, then reach the door without being seen. Save them until you have the blowgun, because the marksmen on the roofs are what turn a quiet raid loud, and there is a bonus for finishing without the alarm going up. Routes for all eight are on the warehouses page.
Where all of this ends up is the ship, and the side systems that pay for it are in our mechanics guide. The Assassin's Creed 4 Black Flag guide hub puts the whole loop in order.