Best Weapons in Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced

Best Weapons in Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced Quick Overview:

• AC Black Flag Resynced has 3 types of melee weapons and a host of supporting weapons
• Non-melee weapons can be used as a special attack mid-combat or for special takedowns
• Each weapon has a damage stat, and melee weapons have a different number of takedowns
• There are 3 known weapon rarities: common, rare, and legendary
• Weapons can be bought, earned, or found.

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Best Melee Weapons in AC Black Flag Resynced

As of writing this, not all weapons have yet been discovered, so my ranking list is limited only to what I have seen in public sources such as YouTube videos and such, but there’s already enough to go off of.

Rank	Weapon	Type	Rarity	DMG	Max Takedowns	Perk
1	Dragon's Fang Swords	Cutlass	Legendary	38	4	Kills temporarily increase attack power
2	Ezio's Swords	Cutlass	Legendary	25	3	Can Perfect Parry unstoppable attacks
3	Serpent's Fang Cutlasses	Cutlass	Legendary	38	3	Perfect Parries recover some health
4	Altair's Swords	Cutlass	Legendary	25	4	Takedowns recover some health
5	Blades of the Damned	Pistol-Sword	Legendary	38	2	Breaking Defense can set enemies on fire
6	Lightserver's Blades	Cutlass	Legendary	38	2	Increased Heavy Strike range
7	British Colonial Cutlasses	Cutlass	Rare	25	3	None
8	Espada Ancha	Cutlass	Rare	13	4	None
9	The Fortune	Cutlass	Legendary	20	3	Hits after a Heavy Strike kill generate Reales
10	British Cutlasses	Cutlass	Common	17	2	None
11	Spanish Cup-hilt Rapiers	Rapier	Common	17	2	None
12	Officer's Smallswords	Rapier	Common	13	2	None

Personally, to me, I’ve always used whatever weapon type I fancied in the moment, never really settling on one. It always came down to preference, and with time, I would just grow bored with the currently used weapon, so I would switch to something else, even if its stats are worse. What will you choose - more damage, or bigger Chain Takedown? It’s up to you. Now, I know this probably raises a ton of questions; I’ll explain everything below, but it all starts with the combat system rework.

How Weapons Work in Black Flag Resynced

If you’ve played the original, you might remember having two swords, a couple of pistols, and a bunch of other gadgets, including the hidden blades. The combat worked the same way it did in Assassin’s Creed 3 - you either attacked or held block and then pressed attack when the enemy attacked to insta-kill an enemy with a cool animation. If the enemy tried to block you, you had a bunch of options to interrupt that.

In Resynced, things have been reworked a lot, but the core idea is the same. Now, every enemy has a Defense (like posture in Sekiro), which you can break by attacking with light attacks. Once the defense breaks, the enemy is stunned, and you can use a Takedown on them. For defense, you have dodges, rolls, parries, and perfect parries. The last one allows you to insta-kill an enemy if you pull it off. Other defenses either give you a bigger window where you can keep attacking or deplete the enemy's defense faster.

By the way, you have light attacks, heavy attacks (each weapon type has a different kind), kicks, and leg sweeps. And of course, you can use your other weapons/gadgets mid-combat. But if you spam the same type of attack, the enemy will adapt and start countering it by blocking or something else, so you have to remember to use different kinds of attacks if you want to be effective.

The Chain Takedowns are also back, and they work the same way they did in the original. If you manage to break or stun multiple enemies that are close to each other, you can then use the special Chain Takedown to kill them all in a single cool animation. And that’s where weapon stats come in.

Weapon Stats

From the equipment screens I have found, each melee weapon can have:

• Weapon class - cutlass, rapier, gun-sword, etc.
• Rarity - Common, Rare, Legendary (possibly more)
• Damage
• Maximum Takedowns - how many enemies you can kill with Chain Takedown
• Perk - additional effects, usually only for Legendary weapons

Damage represents the weapon’s direct offensive power. For example, we got:

• 13 Damage on Officer’s Smallswords and Espada Ancha
• 38 Damage on Lightserver’s Blades

If I’m honest, there doesn’t seem to be too much of a difference between these weapons, even though the damage on one is 3 times higher. It seems that the game still wants you to use your other attacks and gadgets for killing enemies faster, rather than just the damage value. The developers also confirmed this design choice by saying that you’ll be able to finish the game with the starting swords, so it’s not going to be as bad a loot nightmare as, say, in AC Origins or Valhalla.

Maximum Takedowns

This is arguably the most important new weapon stat.

After a Perfect Parry, Edward can trigger a Chain Takedown against nearby enemies. The number of enemies he can kill depends directly on the equipped weapon.

Better weapons can have increased Maximum Takedowns.

I’ve seen weapons with:

• 2 Takedowns
• 3 Takedowns
• 4 Takedowns

Four is currently the confirmed maximum.

Ubisoft also explains that advanced enemies can block a Chain Takedown while their defense is active. Edward can fire a Flintlock between kills to break that defense and continue the chain.

This creates some very real stat tradeoffs.

One has almost three times the Damage. The other can potentially kill twice as many regular enemies after a Perfect Parry.

That is exactly why the eventual ranking cannot simply sort the weapons by their damage numbers.

Heavy Strikes

Every main melee class has its own Heavy Strike.

The tutorial capture shows another useful detail: Heavy Strikes are specifically encouraged:

• at the end of combos
• after dodging attacks

Ubisoft also says they provide the highest direct damage but require a brief wind-up.

So each weapon has two layers of identity:

Special Perks

Certain higher-end and bonus weapons have unique perks.

We currently have two fully known melee perks:

• The Fortune - After killing with a Heavy Attack, subsequent hits generate 20 Reales
• Lightserver’s Blades - Heavy Strike range is increased

The bonus weapons from the Master Assassin Character Pack and Blackbeard’s Crimson Pack are also officially described as having unique perks, although most effects remain unknown.

Weapon Types

Now, let’s finally talk about weapon types, starting with the melee ones. These are the proper weapon classes shown in the equipment UI:

Weapon Type	Heavy Strike	Main Use
Rapier	Powerful thrust that can pierce enemies	Single-target damage and reach
Cutlass	Wide swing that hits multiple enemies	Crowd control and group fights
Pistol-Sword	Fires two shots at one or two targets	Burst damage and versatility

Ubisoft officially defines these as the three weapon-dependent Heavy Strike styles. For now, the least demonstrated weapon type is the Pistol-Sword, which I’m pretty sure is a new kind of weapon that wasn’t in the original. But then there are other weapon types: 

Category	How It Is Used
Flintlock Pistols	Aimed shots, Quick Shots, defense breaking, later Gun Kata
Hidden Blades	Stealth assassinations and contextual combat takedowns
Rope Dart	Pulls enemies, interrupts attacks, sets up Sweeps and Ground Takedowns
Blowpipe	Fires Sleep and Berserk Darts
Smoke Bomb	Disorients enemies, enables assassinations, and creates escape opportunities

So there are 8 broad combat categories confirmed, but only 3 itemized melee classes that currently make sense for a traditional weapon tier list. Pistols will probably need their own ranking once we have their stats.

The Rope Dart, Blowpipe, and Smoke Bomb are officially treated as tools rather than normal equipment weapons. Hidden Blades are not a selectable open-combat weapon either.

So, even though you can find Rare or Legendary pistols,  they wouldn’t be as different from each other. Sure, they’ll have different damage that they deal when used, and maybe different perks, but their use is still too limited compared to the swords.

You can use a pistol as a special attack during combat when using your swords (when you have two pistols, you’ll be able to shoot twice without reloading), or when outside of direct combat, you can use your pistols as a regular ranged weapon to, for example, start a fight by killing one enemy with a headshot. So, it’s not like pistols will have different movesets or special attacks, unlike swords.

How to Get Weapons in AC Black Flag Resynced

Weapons can be bought or found in treasure chests all over the map, underwater, in caves, in fortresses that you attack, and so on, just like in the original game. Upgrading the General Store at Edward’s Hideout also gives access to:

• Rare weapons
• Legendary weapons
• Outfits
• Decorations

The store has three upgrade levels. This is probably one of the major sources for late-game weapons. But you can always visit traders at cities like Nassau to buy whatever weapons they have there.

Animus Keys

Ubisoft confirms that Animus Keys found while exploring can unlock:

• Weapons
• Outfits
• Ship cosmetics

The exact weapon rewards are still unknown.

Contracts and Side Activities

Assassin Contracts and Naval Contracts now have updated rewards, including new items that did not exist in the original game. Ubisoft has not yet published a full reward table, so I would say contracts are a potential weapon source, rather than claiming every contract rewards weapons.

Pre-Order Bonuses

The Master Assassin Character Pack includes:

• Lightserver’s Blade, called Lightserver’s Blades in the actual game UI
• Darkworker’s Pistol
• a trinket
• an outfit

The weapons and trinkets have unique perks.

Blackbeard’s Crimson Pack includes:

• Crimson Sword
• Crimson Pistol
• Crimson Costume

The sword and pistol each have a unique perk. The pack is the pre-order bonus and is also included with certain launch or Collector’s Edition configurations.

 

 

All Known Black Flag Resynced Weapons So Far

Here is the full working table.

Weapon	Type	Rarity	Damage	Max Takedowns	Range	Draw Speed	Perk	Acquisition
Officer’s Smallswords	Rapier	Common	13	2	N/A	N/A	None seen	Starting weapon
British Cutlasses	Cutlass	Common	17	2	N/A	N/A	None seen	Unknown
Spanish Cup-hilt Rapiers	Rapier	Common	17	2	N/A	N/A	None seen	Unknown
British Colonial Cutlasses	Cutlass	Rare	25	3	N/A	N/A	None seen	Unknown
Espada Ancha	Cutlass	Rare	13	4	N/A	N/A	None seen	Unknown
The Fortune	Cutlass	Legendary	20	3	N/A	N/A	Hits after a Heavy Strike kill generate Reales	Exact source unknown
Lightserver’s Blades	Cutlass	Legendary	38	2	N/A	N/A	Increased Heavy Strike range	Master Assassin Character Pack
Dragon’s Fang Swords	Cutlass	Legendary	38	4	N/A	N/A	Kills temporarily increase attack power	Dragon Storm Character Pack
Ezio’s Swords	Cutlass	Legendary	25	3	N/A	N/A	Can Perfect Parry unstoppable attacks	Animus Hub Exchange, 1,500 Keys
Altair’s Swords	Cutlass	Legendary	25	4	N/A	N/A	Takedowns recover some health	Animus Hub Exchange, 1,500 Keys
Serpent’s Fang Cutlasses	Cutlass	Legendary	38	3	N/A	N/A	Perfect Parries recover some health	Sea Serpent Character Pack
Blades of the Damned	Pistol-Sword	Legendary	38	2	N/A	N/A	Enemies sometimes catch fire after their Defense is broken	Hellfire Character Pack
Crimson Sword	Rapier, likely	Legendary	Unknown	Unknown	N/A	N/A	Unique perk, effect unknown	Blackbeard’s Crimson Pack
Naoe’s Shadow Blade	Unknown	Legendary	Unknown	Unknown	N/A	N/A	Unknown	Animus Hub Exchange
Spanish Officer Pistols	Pistol	Common	N/A	N/A	Unknown	Unknown	None seen	Bought in the first port
Captain’s Wheellock Pistols	Pistol	Rare	N/A	N/A	Unknown	Unknown	None seen	Underwater chest
Darkworker’s Pistols	Pistol	Legendary	N/A	N/A	22	1.50	While Anonymous, pistol shots do not consume ammunition	Master Assassin Character Pack
Diabolist’s Pistols	Pistol	Legendary	N/A	N/A	20	1.20	Pistol shots set enemies near the target on fire	Hellfire Character Pack
Dragon’s Roar Pistols	Pistol	Legendary	N/A	N/A	28	1.50	Pistol range increases after a pistol-shot kill	Dragon Storm Character Pack
Fury of the Deep Pistols	Pistol	Legendary	N/A	N/A	28	1.50	Heals slightly after firing a headshot	Sea Serpent Character Pack
Crimson Pistol	Pistol	Legendary	N/A	N/A	Unknown	Unknown	Unique perk, effect unknown	Blackbeard’s Crimson Pack

There’s obviously going to be more weapons to find, and I will list them all here and how to find them so you can always use this table to locate any weapon in the game! Speaking of…

How to Find The Fortune Legendary Cutlass Swords in AC Black Flag Resynced

One of the confirmed locations where you can find a legendary pair of cutlass swords called the Fortune is in the Manor. There are several chests there, but the one you’re looking for is tucked away in some overgrown ruins, just behind the open wooden gates. Use the screenshot for reference. Its perk gives you some reales for each hit after a Heavy Attack kill, which is more of an amusing bonus rather than a useful one. I doubt you’d need it to farm Reales, as there are literally better ways to get bigger cash outs in this game. In case you find yourself lacking money, remember, you’re a pirate, after all!

F.A.Q.