Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced Guide: How to Sink Every Legendary Ship
Sending these massive naval juggernauts to the bottom of the ocean requires a lot more than just mashing the fire button.
The Caribbean is a dangerous place, but nothing tests your captain skills quite like the Legendary Ships. Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced brings back the original five terrifying vessels and throws a brand new endgame boss into the mix. You will face six ships across five distinct encounters, and each one brings a unique gimmick designed to shred your hull into pieces. Winning these battles is a matter of brute force mixed with very specific tactics. If you sail into these map corners unprepared, you are going to spend a lot of time staring at the desynchronization screen.
Essential Upgrades and Spawning Mechanics
Before you waste your afternoon getting blown out of the water, you need to put in some groundwork. You absolutely must fully upgrade your ship and recruit all three naval officers.
These officers completely change the flow of combat. Tobias Smith lets you fire an extra salvo of cannonballs, Lucy Baldwin unlocks a perfect brace to negate incoming damage, and The Padre grants you the ram dash attack. I highly recommend wrapping up all the new side content and grabbing these officers first. You can track them down easily using my AC Black Flag Resynced new content unlock guide.
If you mess up and need a rematch, don’t panic. With the exception of the story locked HMS Ipswich, all of these bosses respawn over time. If a ship icon refuses to pop up on your map, sail directly to its coordinates and then fast travel to a different location. This trick forces the game to refresh the area and spawn your target.
Legendary Ship Locations and Threat Levels
You can tackle the original four encounters in any order, but I highly suggest starting with La Dama Negra to get a feel for the difficulty spike. Here is exactly where you need to sail to pick a fight.
Single Ship Boss Fights
Taking on a single massive Man O' War requires patience and a strict adherence to their specific combat loops. Don’t get greedy with your shots.
La Dama Negra
Found in the southwestern corner, this is the easiest fight of the bunch. This ship relies heavily on devastating mortar barrages, but its hull is heavily armored on the port and starboard sides. The trick is to exploit its massive weak points at the bow and stern. You need to stay extremely close to negate its mortar advantage. Get right behind the ship and repeatedly hit the stern with your bow chasers. When it inevitably stops moving to prepare a mortar strike, drop your own mortars directly on top of it. Stay braced while your cannons recharge to shrug off the return fire.
El Impoluto
Located in the northwest, this aggressive monster loves to ram you head on. It will smash into you, sail in a wide half circle just outside your cannon range, and then charge you again. To beat it, you just need to copy its exact moves. Avoid the initial impact by hoisting your sails and steering away at the last possible second. Once you are facing it side on, unleash your broadside cannons. When it charges again, meet it with your own ram attack. Keep hitting it with mortars while it turns around out of range, and rely on your perfect brace to survive the close quarters exchanges.
HMS Prince
Sailing in the southeast, this ship uses the weather against you. A thick blanket of fog makes it nearly impossible to see your target. The absolute first thing you must do is mark the HMS Prince with your spyglass. Even when it vanishes into the fog, the UI marker will still show up on your HUD if you get close enough. The fight has three main phases. Between each health segment, the ship sails off at high speed and blindly bombards you with mortars for a couple of minutes. Don’t try to chase it. Hoist your sails, stay relatively stationary, and only move in wide circles to dodge the incoming yellow mortar circles. When it finally reappears, hit it head on with a ram dash and unload your burning shot.
The Twin Terrors and The Endgame Boss
The final two encounters throw the standard rulebook out the window. You will need exceptional situational awareness to survive these fights.
HMS Fearless and Royal Sovereign
You will find this nightmare duo in the northeastern corner of the map. One ship has black sails and the other has white sails. The golden rule here is to never sail between them. If you get caught in the middle, they will instantly rip you to shreds with a synchronized broadside attack.
Their movements are choreographed. They will sail alongside each other and then take a sharp turn to face you. Hit them with your mortar during this turn, follow up with a ram dash on one of them, and then fire at their backs as they sail away. Crucially, you must damage both ships evenly. If you sink one while the other still has full health, the survivor will set itself on fire and violently ram you repeatedly. Keep their health bars balanced, and remember that you can’t board either ship to repair the Jackdaw mid fight.
HMS Ipswich
This is the brand new encounter introduced in the remake. You won’t find this ship roaming the open world. Instead, you face the HMS Ipswich during the closing stages of the new A World Without Gold endgame chapter in Sequence 11.
Like La Dama Negra, this ship is heavily armored. Chipping away with standard cannons takes forever. The optimal strategy requires playing heavy defense. Stay entirely behind the ship to avoid its broadside cannons and brace whenever it fires mortars. You are simply waiting for it to drop fire barrels into the water. The second you see those barrels, snap to them with your swivel gun and blow them up right against the enemy hull. This causes massive structural damage. Repeat this loop until it sinks.
Spoils of the Sea
Surviving these brutal encounters makes you the undisputed ruler of the ocean and fills your pockets with some incredible loot.
Sinking the original five ships rewards you with the highly coveted Devil of the Caribbean achievement. In the original release, this was how you unlocked the charge ram ability. As a quick reminder, that ability is now tied exclusively to The Padre officer quest, so do not panic when it doesn’t unlock here.
Every time you sink one of the classic Legendary Ships, you earn a massive payout of 12,000 Reales. You also unlock their unique cosmetic ship parts, including wheels, hulls, sails, and figureheads to equip on the Jackdaw. Taking down the HMS Ipswich doesn’t yield a massive cash prize, but it does reward you with the exclusive HMS Ipswich Ship Model to display proudly.
