Assassin's Creed: Black Flag Resynced - Fort Serranilla Capture Guide

Assassin's Creed: Black Flag Resynced is filled with all types of dangers you'll need to survive if you want to be a successful pirate. From enemy crews to giant sharks to fearsome legendary ships, there's a ton of things in the Caribbean trying to make you past tense.

One of the trickiest is Fort Serranilla, which is the toughest fort in the entire game to capture, and it's not even relatively close. Boasting not only the strongest and most numerous defensive structures, but this place also has a five-star Man O' War you'll need to deal with. Here is how to take down this fort, so you aren't sent down to Davy Jones' Locker.

How To Capture Fort Serranilla

Located at coordinates 317,118 in the Serranilla region, this fort is on a small island where nearby naval battles frequently break out between the English and Spanish. Because of this, capturing the fort can be tricky, as you can accidentally aggro the nearby Spanish vessels, in addition to the Man O' War docked right outside. Managing this is key to your victory, as it's so easy to become overwhelmed by the sheer amount of projectiles being fired at you.

Before attempting this fort, I recommend improving your Hull's armor to the max, along with your Mortar's damage and ammo count. This fort is a pretty wild difficulty spike compared to the others, so make sure to upgrade as much of the Jackdaw as you can before engaging.

Phase One

When you approach the fort, I recommend circling around the back to start, so you come up behind the Man O' War. This will let you launch a sneak attack without the fort spotting you, giving you a brief window to inflict as much damage as possible to the ship. Open up with a volley against its stern and then quickly maneuver to stay behind this ship.

The Man O' War is most dangerous when you are alongside it, so avoid trading broadside exchanges, as you can take a heavy amount of damage in a matter of seconds. Couple this with the fort's mortar constantly hammering down on you, and it's easy to get the Jackdaw destroyed. Try to remain behind the Man O' War and use a combination of Bowchasers and the Swivel Gun to take chunks out of this boat's health bar.

You can also occasionally angle the Jackdaw so you can broadside the back half of the Man O' War with Heavy Shot before moving back behind it before it can retaliate. Don't worry about whether you leave the fort's range during this battle, since we are focusing on the Man O' War first; the fort repairing itself isn't important at the moment.

Additionally, you won't want to fully destroy the ship, since a successful boarding allows you to repair the Jackdaw. Sinking it won't provide any benefit, so use this as a way to restore some health to take on the fort's defenses. There's also a chance that the game will autosave right after you bring down the Man O' War, which can save you a ton of time if you die while fighting the fort.

With the Man O' War down, approach the fort but try to stay out of various emplacements' effective range. While you'll still need to deal with the mortar, you can use your own long-range mortar to hammer away and weaken the defenses. This is key to surviving this section of the fight, as the fort deals a comical amount of damage, so mitigating this is key to actually destroying all the defenses.

Once you've softened up (or outright destroyed) at least half of the defenses with the mortar, you can begin launching broadside attacks with Heavy Shot and using the Swivel Gun to target weak points. Again, you need to play defensively whenever possible, as the fort will attack more frequently and deal more damage the lower its health gets.

There's also a chance it may summon a Frigate to help fight. If this happens, drop everything and focus on the boat. The Master at Arms' ram attack is especially good against these boats. You can deal a lot of damage while closing the gap for an easy boarding opportunity to repair the Jackdaw a second time.

Regardless, the key to survival here is always bracing (or avoiding) the mortars from the fort and ensuring you use your own long-range attacks to deal as much damage as possible. Fighting the fort head-on is suicide, so play it safe and take your time systematically blowing up parts of this structure until you can invade it.

Phase Two

Thankfully, the actual on-foot portion is comically easy by comparison. While you will need to fight through a bunch of Spanish soldiers, it won't be anywhere near as difficult as the previous section. Make good use of your pistols and the explosive barrels to take down entire groups of enemies.

The big foes to watch for are the ones carrying blunderbusses. These will not only set Kenway on fire, but also deal quite a bit of damage. Prioritize them in every fight, and it should be smooth sailing as you ascend the fort. If you're struggling, wait for your crew to engage the soldiers and kill them whenever they're distracted.

When you can breach the captain's room, quick-fire your flintlock pistols to decimate the three guards inside before they can even retaliate. Killing the commander is key, as this will ensure your capture of the fort even if there are soldiers remaining. Once you've captured the fort, the surrounding area will be revealed, and you'll earn some money and materials for your trouble!