Crafting is how you push Edward Kenway past his starting kit in Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced. Every meaningful upgrade to his health, pistols, darts, and smoke bombs runs through the same system, and each one costs a specific set of animal materials you have to hunt or buy. Knowing what each recipe wants before you start saves a lot of aimless sailing.
Quick answer: Crafting unlocks after you complete the Sequence 3 memory “This Tyro Captain.” Once it’s active, open your inventory, select the Anvil icon, and craft any upgrade for which you already hold the required materials.
When crafting unlocks and how to use the Anvil
Crafting isn’t available from the opening hours. The feature turns on once you finish the Sequence 3 quest “This Tyro Captain,” which is also where the new Rope Dart enters the game. After that, you can build upgrades any time from the Anvil icon in the inventory menu, provided you’re carrying the materials.
Two dart abilities sit further back. The Sleep Dart and Berserk Dart upgrades only become available after you complete Sequence 4 and reach Tulum during the mission “Overrun and Outnumbered.” If those recipes aren’t showing up, that’s the reason. Everything else opens once the Anvil is active and comes down to gathering the right skins.
You’ll know a craft worked when the upgrade applies to the matching gear slot and the recipe drops out of your available list. Pistol and holster upgrades tend to come first in the story, so it’s worth pre-collecting their materials early to unlock full capacity the moment the recipes appear.
Pistol holster and ammo recipes
The holster upgrades raise how many pistols you can carry, topping out at four, while the ammo pouches expand your bullet reserve. These are the earliest crafts you’ll reach.
| Recipe | Materials | Where to find |
|---|---|---|
| Pistol Holster I | 2x Ocelot Pelt | Abaco Island (582, 808) |
| Pistol Holster II | 2x Rabbit Pelt | Nassau (590, 762) |
| Pistol Holster III | 4x Bull Shark Skin | Gibara Seas (516, 599); Dry Tortuga (190, 669) |
| Pistol Ammo Pouch | 2x Wild Pig Hide | Nassau (586, 764); Cape Bonavista (152, 588) |
| Pistol Ammo Pouch I | 2x Capuchin Monkey Pelt | New Bone (402, 89) |
Health upgrade recipes
Each health tier adds to Edward’s base health, so surviving tougher fights depends on working through all four. The later ones lean on sea creatures, which are harder to hunt without ship upgrades.
| Recipe | Materials | Where to find |
|---|---|---|
| Health Upgrade | 2x Iguana Leather | Abaco Island (580, 811) |
| Health Upgrade I | 4x Hammerhead Shark Bone | Gibara Seas (651, 587); Eleuthera (776, 735) |
| Health Upgrade II | 4x Jaguar Pelt | Cape Bonavista (161, 592) |
| Health Upgrade III | 4x Great White Shark Bone | Cruz Seas (495, 299) |
Dart recipes: Sleep, Berserk, and Dart Pouch
The Sleep and Berserk Dart recipes extend how long each effect lasts, while the Dart Pouch upgrades raise how many darts you can hold at once. Remember that the Sleep and Berserk recipes stay locked until you reach Tulum in Sequence 4.
| Recipe | Materials | Where to find |
|---|---|---|
| Sleep Dart | 2x Crocodile Leather | Matanzas (300, 618); Nassau (583, 758) |
| Sleep Dart I | 4x Killer Whale Skin | Conttoyor Seas (37, 557); Cruz Seas (423, 423) |
| Berserk Dart | 2x Deer Hide | Salt Lagoon (723, 602); Kingston (625, 180) |
| Berserk Dart I | 4x Humpback Whale Skin | Castillo de Jagua Seas (226, 378) |
| Dart Pouch | 2x Howler Monkey Skin | Cape Bonavista (155, 591); Cat Island (710, 663) |
| Dart Pouch II | 2x Red Howler Monkey Skin | Isla Providencia (487, 23) |
Smoke bomb recipes
The smoke bomb upgrades each add one more bomb to your carry limit. Iguana Leather doubles up here, since it also feeds the first Health Upgrade, so it’s an efficient early hunt.
| Recipe | Materials | Where to find |
|---|---|---|
| Smoke Bomb Pouch | 2x Iguana Leather | Abaco Island (580, 811); Great Inagua (809, 433) |
| Smoke Bomb Pouch I | 2x Hutia Hide | Cayman Sound (301, 306) |
Farm animal materials faster
Most recipes want animal skins, and you won’t always find enough of one creature in a single visit. The reliable fix is to reset spawns. Fast travel to another location, then return to the same hunting spot and the animals repopulate. There’s no loading screen when swapping between your ship and an island, so this is quick when the animals sit near the coast.
If a spot refuses to respawn after one fast travel, hit a couple of other hunting areas before coming back and it should reset. Focus your hunting on the larger hubs like Nassau, Havana, Great Inagua, Tulum, and Kingston, where several animals spawn in one place. Tracking those against the recipe tables cuts down the number of trips you need.
Tip: Don’t sell off spare hides the moment Edward’s upgrades are done. Several shop purchases ask for skins on top of gold, so hold onto extras until you’re certain you no longer need them.
Buy hides instead of hunting
You can also trade for skins at a general store using bones. Every land animal you kill yields one bone, and pelts usually cost about 3 to 5 bones each depending on rarity. The catch is selection. Early on only a limited range of pelts is stocked, and you need to upgrade the general store in Great Inagua to reach the exotic materials, with the full list available at level 3.
To make sea materials less painful, buy the Tavern and Harbormaster after you unlock Great Inagua in Sequence 4. Those make hunting large sea creatures, including Great White Sharks, far easier. Upgrading the Fisherman’s Wharf there doubles the skins you pull from sea animals, which speeds up the whole grind. If you’re sitting on plenty of Reales, the Treasure Dealer will sell the exact animal parts you need outright.
Bones are best saved rather than spent on gear, though. They’re the harder resource to acquire and go toward rare ship items, including the skeletal crew armor, which costs 100 bones on its own. Hunt for Edward’s upgrades and keep the bone reserve for the ship.
