TL;DR

• There are 11 forts to capture across the Caribbean in AC Black Flag Resynced.
• Each fort has a skull difficulty rating — one skull is easiest, three is hardest.
• Fort capture has two phases: naval bombardment first, then a ground assault on foot.
• The Punta Guarico fort is locked behind a story mission — you cannot capture it early.
• Rewards include fast travel points, fog of war removal, Reales, materials, and Kenway’s Fleet mission slots.
• Start with the three One Skull forts in Dry Tortuga, Eleuthera, and Gibara before tackling harder ones.

How to Capture Forts in Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced

Capturing Forts in Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced is one of the best things you can do for your playthrough. Forts unlock fast travel points, clear the fog of war across entire regions, drop Reales and upgrade materials, and open up new fleet mission areas in Kenway’s Fleet. This guide covers every fort location, the skull difficulty system, exactly how to take one down, and what you get for doing it.

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When Do You Unlock Fort Capturing?

You get access to the Jackdaw during Sequence 3, but the game does not formally explain forts until Sequence 5 in a mission simply called The Forts. That mission drops you into a weakened version of a fort as a tutorial for the mechanic.

The good news is you do not have to wait for that mission. You can sail to the One Skull forts and start capturing them as soon as you have the Jackdaw. Doing it early means you unlock Kenway’s Fleet faster and start earning passive rewards much sooner. The game just does not tell you this clearly, so a lot of players miss out.

One exception: the fort in Punta Guarico is tied to a main story mission and cannot be attacked until you reach that point in the campaign.

If you are still getting your bearings, our beginner tips guide covers the most important things to know in the early game.

All 11 Fort Locations in AC Black Flag Resynced

There are 11 forts spread across the Caribbean map, one in each major region. Every fort is marked on your map with a bright red castle icon from the start, so you can see them all even before you visit. Once you capture a fort, its icon turns gold.

The number of skulls next to a fort on the map tells you how tough it is. One skull is the easiest and three skulls is the hardest. Do not attempt Three Skull forts until your Jackdaw is heavily upgraded — they will tear through your ship very quickly.

• Dry Tortuga — Coordinates (223, 721) — One Skull
• Eleuthera — Coordinates (691, 761) — One Skull
• Gibara — Coordinates (627, 493) — One Skull
• Punta Guarico — Coordinates (745, 378) — Two Skulls (story-locked)
• Cruz — Coordinates (537, 360) — Two Skulls
• Castillo de Jagua — Coordinates (328, 537) — Two Skulls
• Conttoyor — Coordinates (75, 522) — Two Skulls
• Chinchorro — Coordinates (91, 334) — Three Skulls
• Serranilla — Coordinates (316, 118) — Three Skulls
• Charlotte — Coordinates (440, 245) — Three Skulls
• Navassa — Coordinates (700, 192) — Three Skulls

Start with Dry Tortuga, Eleuthera, and Gibara. These are the weakest forts and sit in the northern part of the map where you spend most of your early game time anyway.

How to Capture a Fort — Phase One: Naval Assault

Every fort capture works the same way. It is split into two phases. The first phase is a naval fight where you destroy the fort’s defenses from your ship.

As you approach, you will see the fort open fire with cannons. Each defensive section — walls and towers — has its own health bar. You need to destroy every single one before you can move on to the ground phase. Once a section’s health bar hits zero, those cannons are gone and can no longer fire at you.

Here are the key things to know for the naval phase:

• Use your Mortar early. Forts do not move, which makes them a perfect Mortar target. A well-placed Mortar volley can take out a full defensive section on its own, especially if your Mortar is upgraded.
• Keep moving. Forts have their own Mortars too. Watch for glowing orange circles in the water showing where the shells will land. Keep your ship moving at all times and press the brace button to reduce damage when a hit is unavoidable.
• Clear enemy ships first. Hostile ships sometimes patrol nearby and will aggro onto you during the fight. If you are still in combat when the fort’s defenses are gone, you cannot dock. Deal with them before or during the fight so you are clear to anchor when the time comes.
• Board ships to repair mid-fight. At tougher Two and Three Skull forts, if your Jackdaw is taking a lot of damage, board a nearby hostile ship and take it for repairs. Just make sure you stay within the fort’s area when you do this.
• Never break off and retreat. Forts slowly repair their defenses the moment you sail out of range. If you sail away mid-fight, you may have to start from scratch. Commit to the assault and stay in the fight.

Upgrading your Jackdaw before tackling the harder forts is essential. Our ship upgrade and customisation guide walks through everything you need to prioritise.

How to Capture a Fort — Phase Two: Ground Assault

Once every defensive section is destroyed, sail up to the fort’s dock and anchor. You will then disembark and storm the fort on foot with your crew.

This phase works very similarly to boarding a ship. Your crew will spread out and engage the guards, which distracts a lot of them and gives you openings for free assassinations. Keep pushing forward through the fort and killing soldiers. You can track your progress with the morale bar in the top left corner of the screen. Once it fully depletes, all remaining soldiers surrender.

Tips for the ground assault:

• Use your Rope Dart on Captains. The fort’s Captain will try to keep distance and shoot at you. A Rope Dart throw stuns them and lets you close in for a quick takedown or throw them off a ledge.
• Use your Flintlock Pistols when surrounded. If multiple guards crowd you at once, a double pistol shot can stagger or kill weaker enemies and buy you space.
• Let your crew do the heavy lifting. Do not rush in alone. Let your crew push forward first, use them as a distraction, and pick off guards who are focused on your crew members.
• Take your time. You are not on a timer. Move carefully through the fort and clean up guards as you go.

When the morale bar hits zero, you will be prompted to break down a door with a crew member. Behind it is the fort’s leader. They are not a proper boss — they fight like a tougher regular enemy. Kill them, a cutscene plays, and the fort is yours.

If you want to get better at the parkour needed to move quickly through forts and rooftops, our advanced parkour guide is worth a read.

What Do You Get for Capturing a Fort?

Capturing a fort gives you a solid stack of rewards all at once. Here is what you get:

• Fast travel point. The fort unlocks as a permanent fast travel location. This matters a lot as the map gets bigger and sailing everywhere takes time. Our fast travel guide explains how the system works.
• Fog of war cleared. Every location in the fort’s region is revealed on your map — islands, hunting grounds, smuggler’s caves, legendary ships, and diving spots. This alone makes forts worth doing early.
• Spanish Reales. Each fort drops a chunk of currency. In the early game especially, this helps pay for Jackdaw upgrades without having to grind ship boarding for hours.
• Crafting and upgrade materials. Wood, metal, and cloth drop alongside the Reales. These feed directly into ship upgrades. Check our crafting guide for how to use materials efficiently.
• Kenway’s Fleet mission region unlocked. This is the biggest long-term reward. Without captured forts, entire regions of the fleet map are locked. You cannot send ships on missions in an area until you own the fort there. Capturing forts expands your passive income system and is essential for getting the most out of the fleet.

The fleet system in Resynced has been reworked from the 2013 original. It is now more hands-off — you assign ships, come back later, and collect rewards. But it only works across regions where forts are captured. The more forts you take, the more missions your fleet can run at the same time.

Tips for Tackling Higher Skull Forts

One Skull forts are manageable with a lightly upgraded Jackdaw. Two Skull forts require more hull strength, better cannons, and ideally an upgraded Mortar. Three Skull forts are genuinely tough and should not be attempted until the Jackdaw is heavily kitted out.

Here are a few extra tips for the harder forts:

• Upgrade the Mortar first. A stronger Mortar makes the naval phase much faster and reduces the time you spend taking return fire.
• Board enemy ships for mid-fight repairs. At tough forts, there will almost always be hostile ships nearby. Board one during a lull in the fort fight to repair the Jackdaw. Make sure you do not drift out of the fort’s zone when doing this or the defenses will start repairing.
• Prioritise the towers that fire Mortars. Fort Mortars hit hard and are the biggest threat to your hull. Take them out first before focusing on the cannon walls.
• Come back later if needed. Nothing is missable. If a fort is destroying your ship, sail away, upgrade more, and come back stronger. The fort will not disappear and cannot be permanently lost.

For a full picture of how long it will take to work through all 11 forts alongside the rest of the game, our how long to beat guide breaks down total completion time.

Forts and Trophies / Achievements

Capturing all 11 forts contributes directly to the King of the Castle trophy and achievement. There is also the broader Cartographer trophy, which requires visiting every location on the map — and going near forts counts toward this even before you capture them. So even if a fort is too tough to take, sail close enough to register it on the map.

If you are working toward the platinum or full achievement list, forts are one of the most important things to complete early. They unlock fast travel across the whole map, feed Kenway’s Fleet, and make the rest of the completion checklist far easier to work through.

For other early trophies you can grab without much effort, see our guide on the Owned Trophy / Achievement — it can be unlocked within the first hour of the game on Abaco Island.

To track all the missions you need to complete alongside forts, our complete missions guide covers every main and side quest in the game.

Other Things Worth Doing Alongside Forts

While you are out capturing forts and clearing fog of war, a few other activities pair well with this:

• Collect shanties. Sea shanties are scattered across the Caribbean and keep your crew’s morale up. Our shanties guide covers where to find them and how to change songs.
• Hunt treasure maps. As you visit new islands while fort-hunting, pick up treasure maps along the way. Our treasure map locations guide and the dedicated Blackbeard Treasure Map guide are good references.
• Stock up on healing items. Ground assaults can be rough if your health runs low. Our guide on healing items and max health explains how to keep Edward in shape.
• Grab your pre-order or Deluxe items. If you bought a special edition, don’t forget to claim your bonuses. Our pre-order and Deluxe items guide shows how to get them.

For PC players, it is also worth checking out the best graphics settings guide and PC requirements guide to make sure the game is running well before you dive deep into fort clearing.

Frequently Asked Questions