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Short answer: Start with Mortar and Mortar Storage, then buy Broadside Weapons, Front Weapons, and Armored Hull. This is the practical first-upgrade order presented in IGN’s July 9, 2026 guide, not a universally proven ranking. Move Armored Hull earlier if survival is your immediate problem, and raise the Great Inagua Hideout’s Harbormaster whenever the next tier is locked.
The recommended first-upgrade order
The Jackdaw’s early improvements cover two needs: dealing enough damage to end naval fights and surviving long enough to use that damage. A sensible starting route is the following:
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| Order | Upgrade | Primary role | Why it belongs here | What is not established |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mortar | Offense | IGN’s first-upgrade coverage puts it at the front of the sequence, making it the best starting purchase for a damage-focused route. | No published tier-by-tier range, damage, reload, or ammunition figures are available in the cited coverage. |
| 2 | Mortar Storage | Offense and ammunition capacity | IGN discusses Mortar Storage alongside Mortar as an early priority, so it keeps the opening weapon useful for more of a voyage. | The sources do not state the exact capacity increase or material cost. |
| 3 | Broadside Weapons | Offense | After the mortar pair, the guide moves to the Jackdaw’s side-mounted weapons. Ubisoft confirms that weapon upgrades can increase damage and weapon numbers. | No exact broadside damage, number of weapons, or price is supplied. |
| 4 | Front Weapons | Offense | Front Weapons follow Broadside Weapons in the practical guide order and add another offensive category to the ship’s kit. | The reviewed sources do not provide numerical tier comparisons. |
| 5 | Armored Hull | Defense | IGN includes the hull after the listed weapon upgrades. It is the natural next step when your damage route is established. | There is no cited armor percentage, hit-point value, or survival threshold. |
Use the table as a purchase plan, not as a mandatory build. Ubisoft describes Jackdaw upgrades in broad terms—higher weapon damage, stronger defense, more weapons, and related improvements—while the exact values shown in your game depend on the tier you have unlocked. The order above is a guide-based starting recommendation rather than the result of a controlled comparison of every possible build.
Why this order is useful, but not universal
IGN’s July 9, 2026 guide and video are the basis for the specific sequence. They identify Mortar, Mortar Storage, Broadside Weapons, Front Weapons, and Armored Hull as the first upgrades to pursue. That gives a new captain a clear route through a menu that otherwise presents several competing categories at once.
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Neither that guide nor Ubisoft’s official naval explanations establishes that the sequence is mathematically optimal for every player, difficulty setting, encounter, or later balance update. There is no cited table of comparative damage, armor, resource cost, or time-to-kill values. “Best” therefore means best practical order to start with, not a guaranteed optimum.
Your own failure pattern is a legitimate reason to change the order. If the Jackdaw is surviving encounters but taking too long to finish them, keep the offensive sequence. If you are repeatedly losing before you can use your weapons, bring Armored Hull forward. That adjustment is a play-style recommendation, not a tested ranking.
How Jackdaw upgrades work in Resynced
Resources come from ships and exploration
Enemy vessels carry resources used for Jackdaw improvements. Ubisoft notes that higher-level ships can provide more loot, so tougher targets may accelerate progression when you can defeat them reliably. The trade-off is risk: attacking a stronger ship to obtain better materials can cost repairs, crew, or a failed encounter.
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Edward takes the resources he has gathered to a Harbormaster and buys the available improvements there. The purchase screen is the authority for your current tier, required materials, and price. Because the cited sources do not publish a complete cost list, do not rely on a fixed online number for a particular upgrade; read the requirement shown in your edition and current build.
Upgrades affect several kinds of naval performance
Ubisoft describes the system as improving weapon damage, strengthening defense, increasing the number of weapons, and adding other ship benefits. Those descriptions explain the purpose of each category, but they do not disclose every stat change. Treat the category name and the in-game description as more reliable than an unverified spreadsheet or an old pre-Resynced guide.
The Harbormaster controls access to higher tiers
The Great Inagua Hideout’s Harbormaster has three levels. Raising it increases both the number and the tier of Jackdaw upgrades available. IGN likewise notes that, after the manor is unlocked, later upgrade tiers require Harbormaster investment. If a purchase is missing even though you have enough resources, check this progression gate before assuming the save is broken.
A step-by-step route from the first visit to a stronger Jackdaw
- Reach a Harbormaster and inspect the Jackdaw menu. Note which Mortar, Mortar Storage, Broadside Weapons, Front Weapons, and Armored Hull tiers are currently available. Record the materials and reales shown on your own screen; published sources do not establish universal prices.
- Open the Great Inagua Hideout progression. If the next tier is unavailable, invest in the Harbormaster rather than spending resources on a lower-priority item merely because it is visible. The hideout’s three Harbormaster levels determine how far the ship’s catalogue can expand.
- Gather the materials for Mortar and Mortar Storage. Target ships you can defeat consistently. Higher-level vessels may carry more loot, but do not treat that as a reason to attack a ship that routinely destroys you.
- Buy Mortar first when the two purchases are separated. Then add Mortar Storage as soon as its requirement is met. IGN presents the pair together as the opening priority; the exact order between the two is less important than completing both early.
- Add Broadside Weapons. Once the mortar pair is in place, use the next affordable broadside tier to expand the Jackdaw’s offensive capability. Ubisoft confirms the general weapon benefits, but your menu supplies the exact tier effect.
- Add Front Weapons. Continue through the next available front-weapon tier rather than spreading scarce materials across unrelated categories. If Front Weapons are gated, return to the Harbormaster requirement shown by the menu.
- Buy Armored Hull. This is the fifth item in the guide-based sequence. Move it ahead of a weapon purchase if your recent losses show that defense, not damage, is limiting progress.
- Recheck the menu after each Harbormaster level. New tiers can change which purchase is affordable and which category addresses your current problem. The route is a loop—inspect, gather, buy, and reassess—not a one-time checklist.
Mortar and Mortar Storage: the opening priorities
What Mortar contributes
Mortar is the first named offensive upgrade in IGN’s practical order. It is therefore the clearest opening choice for a player who wants to improve the Jackdaw’s ability to pressure enemy ships before investing in the later weapon categories. The official material confirms that weapon upgrades can increase damage, but it does not publish a universal damage value for each mortar tier.
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Why Mortar Storage is paired with it
Mortar Storage is covered with Mortar as an early priority because a weapon improvement is more useful when you can continue using it during the voyage. The name indicates a storage or ammunition-capacity function, but the reviewed sources do not state the exact increase. Buy it according to the requirement shown in your current menu rather than assuming a fixed number of extra shots.
Completing the pair before branching into several unrelated categories keeps the opening plan easy to track. It also avoids spending the first scarce materials on upgrades whose benefits you cannot yet access because the Great Inagua Harbormaster is under-leveled.
Broadside Weapons and Front Weapons: build out offense
Broadside Weapons
Broadside Weapons are the next offensive category in the guide-based route. Ubisoft’s general description says weapon improvements can raise damage and increase the number of weapons, so a broadside purchase should be evaluated as an offensive expansion rather than as a defensive substitute. The exact effect depends on the tier displayed in your game.
If your ship is already surviving engagements and the limiting factor is how long fights take, Broadside Weapons are a reasonable continuation of the Mortar route. If you are losing crew or hull before you can complete an attack, pause here and consider whether the next available defensive purchase would solve the actual problem more directly.
Front Weapons
Front Weapons follow Broadsides in IGN’s sequence. They give the offensive plan a second firing direction, but the available sources do not quantify their damage, weapon count, cost, or relative value against broadside tiers. Keep the recommendation practical: buy the next front-weapon tier when it is available and affordable, unless your recent encounters clearly show that survival needs to take precedence.
Avoid treating “Broadside first, Front second” as a law of naval combat. It is the order presented by the dated guide, and it is a useful default because it prevents early resources from being scattered. Players who have a different engagement pattern can change the order after checking the displayed requirements and the results of their last few fights.
Armored Hull: when defense should move forward
Armored Hull is fifth in the recommended first-upgrade list and is the first explicitly defensive item in that sequence. Ubisoft describes Jackdaw improvements as bolstering defense, but neither Ubisoft’s overview nor IGN’s guide supplies a percentage increase, a hit-point total, or a number of additional volleys survived. Any precise armor claim would therefore be unsupported.
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Use Armored Hull earlier when your combat log is dominated by incoming damage rather than insufficient firepower. That includes repeated defeats against ships you can damage substantially, situations where repairs consume the resources you just collected, and runs in which crew losses prevent you from boarding or finishing the encounter. In those cases, a defensive purchase can be more useful to you than following the nominal fifth position.
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Conversely, if you are comfortably surviving but cannot end fights efficiently, keep the weapon-first route and take the hull after Front Weapons as IGN recommends. The decision should follow the problem you are actually experiencing, not an assumed armor statistic.
Resource gathering: sinking is not the only choice
Why boarding can pay more
Ubisoft explains that boarding can yield more than simply sinking a ship. A successful boarding may let you repair the Jackdaw, lower your wanted level, add the captured ship to Kenway’s Fleet, and, on larger vessels, take a Captain’s Lockbox containing additional reales. Those options make boarding attractive when you need a mixture of materials, money, and ship-state benefits.
The cost is crew
Boarding affects crew numbers, so the larger reward is not free. A depleted crew can leave you unable to board the next target or complete an encounter safely. Replenish crew at taverns, by rescuing pirates on land, or by finding castaways before committing to another boarding-heavy run.
A practical gathering loop
- Choose an enemy level you can defeat without regularly losing the Jackdaw.
- Board when the expected materials or Captain’s Lockbox justify the crew cost.
- Use the boarding choices deliberately: repair when hull damage would otherwise force a retreat, lower wanted level when that is your immediate constraint, or add the ship to Kenway’s Fleet when that supports your broader progression.
- Replenish crew before the next high-risk encounter instead of assuming the previous boarding reward covered every cost.
- Return to a Harbormaster once the required resources are available and buy the next upgrade in your current route.
This loop is why resource collection should not be reduced to “sink the highest-level ship available.” A larger target can carry more loot, but a failed attack yields no useful upgrade progress and may leave you with fewer crew and a damaged ship.
Harbormaster investment at Great Inagua
The Great Inagua Hideout’s Harbormaster has three levels, and those levels expand the number and tier of Jackdaw upgrades on offer. This is a progression system, not merely a shop location. When a weapon or hull tier is unavailable, the first diagnostic question is whether your Harbormaster level satisfies the requirement.
When to spend on the Harbormaster
Invest as soon as the menu identifies the Harbormaster as the blocker for the next meaningful upgrade in your route. Delaying the investment can leave you holding materials that cannot yet be converted into a stronger Jackdaw. On the other hand, do not spend resources blindly: confirm that the next Harbormaster level actually unlocks the category or tier you intend to buy.
What the three levels do—and do not tell you
“Three levels” is the published count for this system. It does not provide a price for each level, a fixed material bundle, or a universal schedule for when every ship upgrade appears. Read the requirement in your edition and current build, and treat third-party cost lists as unverified unless they match the game’s current display.
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Resynced introduces recruitable officers with permanent ship perks. These perks complement purchased Jackdaw upgrades; they do not replace the Harbormaster system or make Mortar, weapon, and hull purchases unnecessary.
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Lucy Baldwin
Ubisoft identifies Lucy Baldwin as an officer whose quest unlocks Perfect Brace. The perk is tied to completing her quest, so it is a parallel objective rather than a material purchase at a Harbormaster.
The Padre
The Padre’s quest unlocks Ram Dash and adds a boarding-party fighter. That combination affects both ship capability and boarding strength, making the officer relevant to players who choose the higher-reward boarding route.
Because officer perks and ship tiers are different systems, plan them together. You can pursue an officer quest while gathering materials, but do not count a perk as a substitute for the defensive or offensive category your current Harbormaster menu says you need.
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Adjusting the order for different problems
If you are being sunk
Move Armored Hull ahead of Broadside Weapons or Front Weapons after confirming that the losses are caused by incoming damage rather than an inability to finish a nearly defeated target. Keep Mortar and Mortar Storage early if you can still afford them without delaying the defensive purchase that will let you complete future resource runs.
If fights are taking too long
Stay with Mortar, Mortar Storage, Broadside Weapons, and Front Weapons before adding the hull, provided the Jackdaw is surviving consistently. This is the closest match to IGN’s first-upgrade order and to Ubisoft’s emphasis on weapon damage and weapon count.
If materials are the bottleneck
Do not chase a higher-level ship solely because it may drop more loot. Farm targets you can defeat reliably, board when the crew cost is acceptable, and check whether a Harbormaster level is the true gate. A lower-risk route that produces steady resources can advance the ship faster than repeated failed attacks on a stronger vessel.
If boarding is central to your play style
Protect crew availability as carefully as hull strength. Boarding can provide repairs, wanted-level reduction, fleet additions, and Captain’s Lockboxes, but each boarding action changes your crew situation. The Padre’s boarding-party benefit is useful in this context, while Armored Hull can protect the ship during the approach and aftermath.
Troubleshooting unavailable or ineffective upgrades
The upgrade is not listed
Check the Great Inagua Harbormaster level and any manor-related progression requirement first. The system intentionally withholds later tiers until the appropriate investment is made.
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You have resources but cannot buy the tier
Read every requirement in the purchase panel. Having one material or enough reales is not proof that all conditions are met. The exact prices and material combinations are not published consistently in the cited guides, so the current in-game panel should take precedence over an old list.
The ship feels no stronger after purchase
Confirm which tier was purchased and what the description says it changes. Some upgrades affect weapon damage or count, while others improve defense; a weapon purchase will not solve a hull-survivability problem, and a hull purchase will not shorten fights. The reviewed sources do not provide numerical stat deltas, so judge the result through the next comparable encounters rather than expecting a specific percentage.
You cannot gather enough materials
Use a repeatable target, vary between sinking and boarding according to crew condition, and replenish crew at taverns, through land rescues, or by finding castaways. Higher-level ships can carry more loot, but the safest profitable target is the one you can defeat and recover from consistently.
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Several commonly repeated claims should not be treated as confirmed facts for Resynced unless your current game displays them:
- There is no cited universal price list for Mortar, Mortar Storage, Broadside Weapons, Front Weapons, Armored Hull, or the three Harbormaster levels.
- There are no sourced tier-by-tier values for weapon damage, ammunition capacity, weapon count, armor, range, reload time, or survival thresholds.
- The guide-based order has not been presented as a laboratory-tested ranking across every play style or encounter.
- The exact patch or build number for the reviewed Resynced coverage was not reported, so balance changes after the cited July 9, 2026 material could alter availability or values.
These limits do not make the purchase route unusable. They define how to use it responsibly: follow the practical order, verify the requirements and effects in your own menu, and move defense forward when your losses demonstrate that offense is no longer the bottleneck.
Availability if you do not own Resynced
Ubisoft lists Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. The official coverage identifies Standard, Deluxe, and Collector’s editions; the Collector’s Edition includes physical collectibles. Edition contents and store availability can change, so confirm the details for your platform before buying. None of those edition differences changes the upgrade logic described above.
A compact checklist for your next voyage
- Check the Great Inagua Harbormaster level before farming for a locked tier.
- Target Mortar and Mortar Storage first under the guide-based route.
- Follow with Broadside Weapons, then Front Weapons.
- Take Armored Hull fifth by default, or earlier when incoming damage is ending your runs.
- Board for additional rewards only when you can afford the crew cost.
- Replenish crew at taverns, through land rescues, or by finding castaways.
- Use Lucy Baldwin’s Perfect Brace and the Padre’s Ram Dash as parallel officer progression.
- Trust the requirements and descriptions shown by your current Harbormaster menu over unsupported numerical claims.
For most new captains, the practical answer remains Mortar, Mortar Storage, Broadside Weapons, Front Weapons, and Armored Hull, with Great Inagua Harbormaster levels keeping that route open. Treat it as a flexible starting plan: the best next purchase is the one that fixes the problem currently preventing your Jackdaw from completing profitable fights.
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