Earning 50,000 Reales is not too difficult, and should come naturally with story progression. That having been said, in order to upgrade both the Jackdaw and your hideout for
and
as well as upgrading Edward’s swords, pistol and outfits you’re going to need a lot more that 50K - it'll set you back 420K just to upgrade the ship and hideout.
The easiest way to make money in AC4 is to make extensive use of Kenway’s Fleet, notably by using the app Ubisoft have made available on the Google Play store (
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ubisoft.as...) and iTunes (
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/assassins-creed-iv-black-fla...).
Unfortunately, at the time of writing, Ubisoft have yet to make it available for Windows phones, and only tablets and high-end Android phones can run the version on the Play store.
If you have a supported device, it becomes a seriously good source of income; if not, the below tips are still good for playing the mini-game from inside the Jackdaw’s cabin but, unless you’re playing the game every day, it’s not quite the money-spinner it could be.
The basic premise of Kenway’s Fleet is that ships you capture in the main game can subsequently be sent out to deliver cargo whilst you’re off plundering more ships; you earn money from these missions, much like the assassin missions in previous AC games, as well as getting a couple of extra treasure maps required for fully upgrading the Jackdaw. Missions take place in real-time so, if it says a mission is going to take 36 hours, it really will be a day and a half before you can collect the rewards and send that ship out again, hence why the ability to play the app when you ought to be working is so important.
My tips for playing the Fleet to maximum advantage are as follows: -
- Keep as many of your shipping lanes ‘safe’ as possible. This not only earns you goods to trade, and gemstones for repairing ships and purchasing more docks, but also reduces the damage your ships take on missions
- When entering a gun battle, if you don’t like the match-up you’ve been given, back out and go back in. The ships you have to face change every time you select a battle, but the rewards do not. A lane marked ‘hazardous’ will eventually result in just facing a gunboat if you back out and go back in enough times.
- Always keep a Schooner available for use in the top battle slot, with the speed bonus. A level 8 Schooner will usually beat anything else to a shot if placed here, and a level 11 Schooner will always get the first shot away, every time. Facing a gunboat will be a one-hit win, and everything else will be stunned for a moment, enabling your other ships time to get a more substantial hit in – I usually go with a Schooner and two Brigs, or Schooner, Brig and Frigate, depending on the adversaries.
- If you’re playing the Fleet from inside AC4, rather than the app, you have the option to speed up or heal friends’ ships. As well as being nice for your friends, this earns you fire-barrels for use in the mini-game. Do it.
- Don’t be afraid to use fire-barrels when necessary. You can launch them yourself (instead of waiting for your ships to get into a firing position), they do a reasonable amount of damage, and using them can prevent you from having to use precious gemstones to repair your ships.
Bear in mind that plundering larger ships in the main game is necessary to reap the biggest rewards, but getting just a couple of lower-level ships can prove lucrative, and allow you to upgrade the Jackdaw enough to hunt the larger ships needed for larger payouts.
Using the above methods, and playing the app whilst at work, could regularly see me picking up nearly 100,000 Reales if I didn’t get to play AC4 for a day or two.