Tutorial video from a skull and bones A technical beta version has leaked online, offering some details about the long-awaited pirate adventure.
According to a leaked video posted on Reddit, it looks like you’ll start the game in a pirate lair located on an island. Here you can finally craft new ships and equipment. You can also get supplies for sea expeditions, sign contracts, and socialize with other players.
Throughout the game, you’ll gain a reputation for tracking through notoriety. The higher your notoriety, the more chances you unlock. You can expand your notoriety by entering into “high risk, high reward” contracts, which are deals you make with NPCs in the world. If successful, you will be rewarded. If you fail, you will be punished. Some contracts can even be shared with up to three people. Other activities such as exploration, looting, treasure hunts, world events, etc. will also increase your notoriety.
Before setting sail on the high seas, you need to make sure your boat is in stock. The most important items are rations, water, ammo and repair kits. You also need to make sure you look like a pirate before venturing out. To customize your look, you can visit the studio to beautify yourself.
You will start the game as a novice pirate, and your starting ship will be a small ship with one mast. However, as your notoriety grows, you’ll be able to build bigger and stronger ships, each with their own unique playstyle. Ships also have loadouts, which you can change depending on your playstyle and goals.
The crew and your ship need to be taken care of, so you need to pay attention to your ship’s health and crew morale. For this boat, this is where a repair kit comes in handy. With the crew, morale drops over time, so you’ll need to provide them with food or drinks to boost morale. If morale drops below a certain level, the crew will defect and take control of the ship.
At sea, if disaster strikes and your ship sinks, you will respawn at the nearest discovery lair or outpost. Most of your cargo is recyclable, and you can pick up the rest from the wreckage of your ship. For the latter, you need to be quick, as other players can steal the cargo from the wreckage.
You can collect resources from animals and islands. Animals will give you meat and skins, and islands will give you items like ore, fiber, and wood, which can be refined into crafting resources. Crafting lets you unlock blueprints and use your refined resources to craft furniture, stronger ships, and weapons, all of which lead to a range of perks.
As you navigate the oceans, you’ll want to use your binoculars to find trade routes or other ships that you can loot for cargo and firepower. If you sink a ship a little further away from yourself, you will only gain a small amount of cargo, as some of it will be lost in the water. Getting close and boarding will maximize your gains. Be careful outside, because the same fate will befall you if you draw the attention of other players or privateers.
The tutorial video states that while the game can be played solo, you may prefer to play with friends. You can join with others using the binoculars, and once joined, you can use the abilities of the synergistic playstyle, ships and weapons. Also, playing with other people will also make it easier to defeat more deadly enemies in the ocean.
During the game, you can also attack forts, loot settlements, and even participate in world events.
Last month, Ubisoft launched the Skull and Bones Insider Program, allowing testers to play early versions of the game in real-world conditions. Those in the program will broadcast the builds currently in progress and assist the development team by reporting issues, bugs, and general feedback.
Whether the leaked video today was posted by someone in the Insider Program is unclear, but it seems likely.
Announced at E3 2017, Skull and Bones has been in development since 2013 and began as a fork of Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag. Instead of being released as a post-launch update, the project became its own title and was developed at Ubisoft Singapore.
Originally announced as a cooperative multiplayer game to contend with PvP and environmental factors, the rebooted game was originally slated for a 2018 release, before being pushed back to 2019. In May of that year, the game was again delayed into Ubisoft’s 2020/2021 fiscal year. It is now expected to arrive sometime between now and March 2023.
