We have a new miniguide for Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag, teaching you how to take a Man-of-War without the Jackdaw taking any damage.
This guide is necessary because the Man-of-War, with its 50 to 100 or so cannons, is very difficult to take in naval battles. They have strong defenses, deal a lot of damage, and are especially dangerous after you have weakened them. They also have the most cargo, so the least damage means retaining as much of that precious cargo as possible.
The system is simple, if laborious, and is one of those things were you just have to follow the game’s logic even though this is not how it would play out in real life.
So, assuming you’ve sighted a Man-of-War you want for yourself, you jump off the Jackdaw and swim your way across towards it. Once there, you kill everyone on board, no exceptions. Because of how the game is designed, everyone will be on deck, so no need to go inside and find other sailors. This tutorial shows the player using swords exclusively, and basically eschewing any stealth, and hopefully you’ll be at a level where fighting is a cinch for you too.
Once you’re done, you swim your way back to the Jackdaw, bring it around close to the Man-of-War, and hit it once. Yes, you have to.
Once you hit it, you’ll get a single button prompt to board. Press that for the Jackdaw to come closer, move over to the other boat and finish the boarding from there. And there you go.
