Assassin's Creed 4: ship upgrades ensure you become the terror of the Caribbean

In Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag, your ship works like an extension of your character, becoming more powerful as the game progresses. During gamescom, VG247's Sam Clay spoke with content manager Carsten Myhill on all things nautical.

According to Myhill, when players first start the game, they will notice that the entire map is open to them: no need to sail the seas and dock in all ports for it to unlock.

However, there is a caveat to this: some ports will be guarded by large, armed to the teeth ships such as Man-of-Wars. Like your character going into an over-leveled fight, your ship would be destroyed in no time flat if it were to sail near these floating beasts.

Like your character though, your ship can be upgraded to handle anything thrown at it providing it has the proper armor and weaponry. In order to face off with a fleet of warships, Edward Kenway will need to loot, plunder, steal and do whatever he has to do to earn enough coin to upgrade the Jackdaw.

Then, he can set sail for these heavily guarded forts and ports and give the armada a run for its money. There has to be a reason these ports are so heavily guarded, right? Once you are ready, you can try and find out.

It all sounds rather interesting, and with the ability to go wherever you wish on the map from the onset, it gives you time to devise a ransacking plan as you work on becoming the most feared pirate to sail the crystal blue waters of the Caribbean. Awesome.

Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag hits PC, PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii U on October 29 in North America and November 1 across Europe. It’ll come to PS4 as a launch title and Xbox One later on.