We have a new Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag guide for you, on how much it will cost to fully upgrade Jackdaw. It won’t come cheap, but if you’re reading this, this is what you want to know anyway.
Maximizing weapon upgrades costs 274,000 cash, 2,500 wood, and 4,905 metal. Getting the most storage costs 32,100 cash and 400 cloth. Finally, harpoon upgrades cost 9,400 cash and 250 wood. In total, it costs 315,500 cash, 2,750 wood, 4,905 metal, and 400 cloth.
Whatever you do, you will have to board a lot of ships to get Jackdaw maxed out. Even if you board a Man-Of-War, it will have 105 of a single item at most, and those have the most cargo of all ships. It would take 50 Man-Of-Wars to get enough metal alone.
However, there are many things you can do to speed this up. Of course, you can follow our previous guide on how to take out Man-Of-Wars without your Jackdaw taking any damage at all. If you don’t want to take the trouble, you can sink it from afar, and loot half of the cargo from the ocean floor.
Subsequently, save storage upgrades for last. You can carry 1000 units of each resource from the onset, and that’s more than enough to carry what you will be able to acquire in the process of upgrading. You will also want to sell cloth once you get 3 cloth for your crew’s quarters. It doesn’t cost much at 5 cash, but can accumulate when you collect from your crewmates.