Skull & Bones Update 1.000.014 Live With Season 3 Content, Adds Battle Junk Ship, New Weapons & More

Skull & Bones Season 3, known as Into the Dragon’s Wake, is now live and brings a tidal wave of new content including a new Battle Junk ship, extra weapons, and heaps more. You can read the full details in the Skull & Bones update 1.000.014 patch notes below.

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New Ship: Battle Junk

• Available after 45 Tiers unlocked in the Smuggler Pass.
• Medium sized, Tank type
• A resilient juggernaut suited for distracting opponents, withstanding damage, and creating opportunities for allies to engage or escape.
• Perk: Provoke
  • Weapon-hits within 200m range apply “Taunt” charges. Applying “Taunt” with this ship makes target vulnerable to 50% increased weakpoint damage from all sources.
• Increases Brace strength by 150% and Brace strength recovery by 25%.
• Available upgrades:
  • Better navigation
  • More furniture slots
• Secondary Perk: Endure
  • Receives 2% less damage per attack each time incoming damage is braced. This effect can stack up to 20% and expires if no damage has been braced in the last 12 seconds.
  • Inflicts “Taunt” charges to hostile targets within 125m while bracing against hits.

Divine Thunder

• Epic Long Gun
• Hits to a target’s weakpoint have a 35% chance to summon a devastating Lightning strike that deals 3000 Electric Damage. Also adds 20% of damage as Electric Damage and Piercing Damage, as well as increasing damage to weakpoints by 75%.

Immortal Vessel Armour

• Epic Armour
• Prevents a killing blow from sinking this ship and this ship becomes invulnerable for the next 6 seconds. The effect has a 180 second cooldown.
• Other available rewards – New Rare Armour: “Volta’s Ward”
  • Insulation – Reduces damage from the “Stormstruck” status effect by 25%.

Charge Stores

• Epic Minor Furniture
• After triggering the “Stormstruck” status effect on a target, increase damage from the next attack by 50%. Also increases charge rate of the Ablaze status effect by 10% on targets already affected by the “Stormstruck” status effect and increases damage of Electric weapons by 5%.

New Weapons

Phoenix Talons

• A Demi-cannon that packs a punch which you may obtain by defeating Li Tian Ning. It is made to focus the threat of your enemies to you.
• Slot: Quadrants
• Perks:
  • Eighteen Strikes: Landing 18 hits in a single volley instantly deals 1888 Burning Damage. This effect deals 200% as much damage on a target with the Ablaze status effect.
  • Provoking: Hits on a target cause build-up of the Taunted status effect.
  • Burning II: Adds 20% of damage as burning damage.

Heaven’s Mandate

• This devastatingly powerful cannon has spectacular lightning powers. Defeat the Shadowbeast for a chance to obtain it.
• Slot: Quadrants
• Perks:
  • Heaven’s Wrath: If a target is afflicted with the Electrified status effect, hits have a 15% chance to summon a devastating Lightning strike that deals 1500 Electric Damage
  • Electric II: Add 20% of the damage as Electric damage.

Imperial Jade

• “Imperial Jade” is a precious, highly valuable form of jade from the Far East, also known as the Middle Kingdom.
• Season 3 sees the coming of the Dragon’s Claw faction to the Indian Ocean, partially to ensure the flow of exotic goods smuggled from the east such as jade remains undisturbed. “Imperial Jade” refers both to a jade of higher grade and quality, associated with the Emperor’s court, who would display such pieces in their palace.
• However, like other precious goods before, pirates and smugglers will attempt to circumvent high taxes and create their own supply chains to meet the demands of their clients… and take a cut of the profit for themselves.
• Imperial Jade can be obtained from Li Tian Ning and Commander Zhang Boss battles or from Guarded Trade routes (Dragon Claw). These are new trade routes that the Dragon’s Claw has set up.
• This seasonal Helm Ware can be exchanged for Pieces of Eight at the Supply Network and Order Registry, or exchanged for Seasonal equipment from the new vendor, William Blackwood.

Updated Controls: Mouse & Keyboard

Selection States and Behaviours

• Hovering over an item will no longer select it by default. Mouse-and-keyboard players can now left-click to select the item and scroll tooltip details (without performing a mouse navigation from item grid to tooltip).
• Removed the concept of switching between inventories in the warehouse. Now, hovering over the item will contextually switch to the active inventory.
• Interacting with items, such as bringing up the action’s menu, can now be done by right-clicking.
• Double-clicking on a hovered item will perform the first action in the action’s menu (such as consume, discard, or transfer an item).
• Improved overall visuals for clarity.
• Improved visual clarity for when an element is clickable or not.
• Improved scroll bar visuals.
• Reduced opacity of the button prompt in the objective tracker in cases where it cannot be triggered.

Ease of Use in Menus

• Ship loadouts (including Weapons, Armor, Furniture, and Cosmetics) now use horizontal tabs instead of vertical tabs, allowing mouse-and-keyboard players to switch between tabs by simply hovering over the category icon.
• When an action menu is shown, clicking anywhere outside of the action menu will close it.

Key Binds

• Decoupled settlement interaction and disembarking button-remapping options – each of them can now be separately bound.
• Supported [Hold] options for most [Press] keys that can be rebound.
• Added a shortcut to directly access Journal [J] by default.
• Rebound toaster notification keys for [F1] and [F2] by default.
• Rebound cancellation of rebinding keys to [Hold][Esc] by default.

Map Navigation

• Zooming in/out on the map will now be based on the mouse cursor location, not the middle of the screen.
• Zooming in/out of the map with the mouse wheel is now possible when the Journal is open.
• Dragging the map with a mouse now retains the mouse cursor and follows a 1:1 ratio, allowing the screen distance moved by the map to correspond to the equal amount of screen distance moved by the mouse.
• While dragging the map with a mouse, the mouse movement is clamped to the edge of the map.

Mouse and Keyboard Exclusive UI

• A new horizontal “action bar” is shown instead of the “action wheel” in the HUD when in mouse-and-keyboard control scheme.
• Switch quickly between three different action bars with the mouse wheel, with a total of 12 quick action slots. Note: players using a controller can also switch the different action wheels by pressing and holding DPAD UP/DOWN buttons.

Third Person Camera View

• A new Third person camera view has been added to the game as an alternative for the already available First-Person camera.
• The Third person is set as the default camera when setting sail for the first time.
• A new action wheel button option has been added. This will allow you to toggle between First-Person Camera and Third Person Camera. For new players, this is automatically configured in your action wheel. For existing players, you may add this action wheel option to your action wheel under the “Cosmetics” tab as “Switch Captain Camera“.

Action Wheel

• The default action wheel set up has been updated:
  • Wheel 1: Toggle Rear Camera changed to Switch Captain Camera.
  • Wheel 2: Switch Captain Camera changed to Toggle Rear Camera.
  • Wheel 2: Added Toggle Vanity Camera I, II, III, IV.

Interface Presets

• Choose between 4 UI presets, each with varying degrees of UI details:
  • Tactical: Full display of gameplay information.
  • Default: Balanced display of gameplay information.
  • Immersive: Minimal display of gameplay information.
  • Off: No gameplay information displayed.

Increased drop rates for Epic and Rare equipment from Boss Chests

• The “Collect All” benefit allows players to automatically collect all Pieces of Eight from every active manufactory within the territory. Collections fees cost 5% of the total sum of collected Pieces of Eight.
• Specific Territorial Benefits will be carried over to and stay active in the next season, these Benefits will be indicated in the Helm Empire Management page.
  • “Collect All” benefit for certain territories
  • “Cost Reduction for Sea People by 10%” benefit.

Helm Empire Cost Rebalance

•The “Empire Administration” upgrade will overall require less Pieces of Eight to reach the highest capacity of manufactories players could own.

Rebalancing Elites and Multiplayer Scaling

• Multiplayer Scaling has been adjusted and will start at 2 players instead of 3. Previously we used different scaling values depending on the activity. This has been made into a single universal scaling value for consistency.
• The scaled values that come from having more players are:
  • Hull Health
  • Weakpoint Health
  • Damage per shot (Depending on ability of the boss)
• Hard ships have slightly less health and slightly more damage.
• Merchant Convoys, Elite Ships, and Sea Monsters have been tuned to become easier to increase accessibility to solo players. Their overall health and damage have been reduced depending on the context.
• Forts and towers remain unchanged for now with more plans coming for the future.
  • Dev note: In our examination of the data collected over Season 1 and Season 2, we have adjusted the balance on elite content (Merchant Convoys, Elite Ships and Sea Monsters) to ensure they remain accessible for solo players, while still providing a reasonable challenge for groups of at least 2 players or more.

Furniture Update: War Drums

• Old effect: “Reduces Crew Stamina Depletion by 50% while trimming in combat”
• New effect: “While trimming, reduces Crew Stamina Depletion by 50% and increases armour rating by 200.”
• Dev note: This change is intended to make the War Drums furniture a more viable option by both removing the combat-requirement and providing an armour increase while trimming.

Reward Update for Rempah Merchant Convoy

• New Reward added – Rare Minor Furniture: “Langrage Barrels”
  • Increases Charge Rate of the Torn Sails status effect on a target by 8%.
  • Increases duration of the Torn Sails status effect on a target by 8%.

Vendor Updates: Rahma and Scurlock

• New item available from Rahma – Rare Minor Furniture: “Density Furnace”
  • Increases Charge Rate of the Flooded status effect on a target by 8%
  • Increases duration of the Flooded status effect on a target by 8%
• New item available from Scurlock – Rare Minor Furniture: “Shell Packing Station”
  • Increase Area-of-effect Radius of Bombard weapons by 7%.
  • Reduce Reload Time of Bombard weapons by 7%.
• New blueprint of existing equipment will now be available.

Sea Monster Changes

Lestari and Mega Lestari

• Its attacks now favour targets with high health.
• Lowered the time it spends circling near the edge of world after phase change from 15 to 10 seconds to reduce the time it spends away from the players.
• Easier to interrupt the encircle, in order to decrease the time it stays away from the player.
• Increased the speed it travels underwater while repositioning to cut down the time it’s not visible to the player by half.
• In the last combat phase, it will reposition at normal swim height to make it easier to hit.
• Last combat phase starts later to allow players to get more comfortable with the fight before the high intensity phase.

Mega Lestari

• Reduced number of Ambush attacks in the last combat phase, to increase chance to deal damage to it.
• In the last phase, increased the number of Bite attacks.
• Decreased time it spends underwater before an Ambush attack.
• Overall, the time spent underwater is reduced, making it easier to shoot.

Reduce negative effects of Headwind

• The penalties for headwind will only apply when the ship is trimming or at full sails to keep its occurrence more consistent.
• The speed penalty is reduced from the 5-8 knots range down to 1-2 knots.
  • For the Dhow and small ships, they will experience a speed reduction of 1 knot.
  • For medium ships, they will experience a speed reduction of 2 knots.
• The navigation widget arrow is updated. When in irons (ship has stopped), the arrow will now show an orange arrow instead of red.
• The visual effects have been reduced – the player’s vision is less obscured now while facing strong winds.

Recommended Activities

• Events that are in the warm-up phase will no longer be included in the Recommendations.

Update to Onboarding

• Updated the onboarding flow, players will no longer play through the Atolls introduction, instead will be transported to start at Sainte-Anne after the introductory sequence.

Dynamic Trade Routes

• Trade routes will evolve and change according to active World Events or Seasonal Events.

Smuggler Pass Items

• Smuggler Pass exclusive equipment can no longer be traded, sold, salvaged, jettisoned, and lost on death.

Removed status effect impact on Towers

• The following status effects can no longer be applied to towers:
  • “Torn Sails“
  • “Flooded“

Updates to Codex

• The codex has been updated to include recent content, including content release of Season 3.
• Clues are now more specific in mentioning which world event or contract the item OR blueprint can be obtained from.
• Tracking functionality is currently not available for items like weapon, armour and furniture. However, the clues on how to obtain their blueprints will still be shown.

UI Improvements

• When vanity items are displayed in contracts information, mailbox, inventory or Smuggler Pass, they will now show a decorative border for ease of identification.

Ship Perk Updates

General

• New Effect applied upon Ramming.
  • New effect: “Ramming a target will reduce its Armour by 100 for 30 seconds”.
  • Dev note: Ramming is a difficult manoeuvre to pull off, as it requires both time and a degree of precision to set up, and the payoff is not rewarding enough. This change gives ramming in general a bit more purpose than just basic damage.
• Additional Effect added to Support-type ships.
  • Additional effect: “Increases Hull Health restored by Repair Weapons by 5% per Repair Weapon equipped.”
  • Dev note: This addition to these ships is intended to promote the “repair” playstyle and reward players who make the choice to have more repair weapons equipped, as they are sacrificing DPS to do so.

Brig

• Updated Perk: Artificer
  • Unchanged: “Consecutive weapon hits to targets increases effectiveness of subsequent Contraptions by 2%, capping out at 30%. Resets if more than 11 seconds pass between hits. Reduces Reload Time of auxiliary weapons by 10%, as well as for nearby friendly ship”.
  • Additional effect: “Increases Hull Health restored by Repair Weapons by 5% per Repair Weapon equipped.”
• Updated Perk: Evolved
  • Original: “Buoys you deployed last longer.”
  • Updated: “Increase weapon damage and repair efficiency of auxiliary weapons by 10%”.
  • Dev note: The original upgraded perk for Brig felt too niche/too tied to the Springloader weapon, with unclear value for players. As such, we came up with a new perk that covers more ground and better fits the identity of Brig that we want it to have – a ship that is great with auxiliary weapons (including Springloader).

Snow

• Improved Perk: Tenacity
  • Original: “Brace Strength recovers by 4% per second, while bracing”.
  • Updated: “Brace Strength recovers by 5% per second, while bracing”.
  • Dev note: This change is meant to give the snow a bit of a boost to stay competitive in terms of survivability with other ships after the general decrease to damage mitigation in previous updates.
• Updated description of perk: Vindictive
  • Original: “After bracing, increase weapon damage by 20% for 20 seconds”
  • Updated: “After bracing damage, increase weapon damage by 20% for 20 seconds.”
  • Dev note: This is a localization update to clarify the conditions under which the 20% damage increase will happen.

Cutter

• Updated perk: Unburdened
  • Original: “Restores Severe Damage by 0.5% and Hull Health by 0.5% per second. Restores Hull Health of all friendly ships in a 100m radius of a repaired target by 2%. Restores 60% more of Hull Health on a friendly ship while using a Repair Weapon.”
  • Updated: “Restores Severe Damage by 0.4% and Hull Health by 0.4% per second. Restores Hull Health of all friendly ships in a 100m radius of a repaired target by 2%. Restores 60% more of Hull Health on a friendly ship while using a Repair Weapon.”
  • Additional effect: “Increases Hull Health restored by Repair Weapons by 5% per Repair Weapon equipped.”
  • Dev note: Passive self-repair capability of Cutter ships is performing a bit too well, hence tuning down the effects by 20%.

Barque

• Updated perk: Revitalized
  • Original: “Restores 0.5% of Severe Damage and 0.5% of Hull Health per second, as well as for nearby friendly ships. Restores 15% Stamina, 10% of Severe Damage and 60% more of Hull Health on a friendly ship while using a Repair Weapon”.
  • Updated: “Restores Severe Damage by 0.4% and Hull Health by 0.4% per second, as well as for nearby friendly ships. Restores 15% Stamina, 10% Severe Damage and 60% more of Hull Health on a friendly ship while using a Repair Weapon.
  • Additional effect: “Increases Hull Health restored by Repair Weapon by 5% per Repair Weapon equipped.”
  • Dev note: Passive repair capability of Barque ships is performing a bit too well, hence tuning down the effects by 20%.

Bedar

• Updated perk: Lancer
  • Original: “Increases damage from ramming by 25% and reduce slow effect of Torn Sails by 50%. Applies Flooded to an enemy ship upon ramming.”
  • Updated: “Increases damage from ramming by 25% and gain additional speed while pursuing an enemy ship within 300m. Applies Flooded to an enemy ship upon ramming and slows its Reload Speed by 30% for 30 seconds.”
  • Dev note: We’d like to see players use different types of weapons and we’re thus adjusting the Bedar’s base perk to have a stronger identity as a rammer that provides utility.

Brigantine

• Updated perk: Bullhorn
  • Original: “Increases damage from ramming by 45% and reduces duration of Torn Sails effect by 40%. Applies Flooded to an enemy ship upon ramming.”
  • Updated: “Increases damage from ramming by 45% and gain additional speed while pursuing an enemy ship within 300m. Increase Flooding weapon damage by 20% and deal 20% more weapon damage to Flooded targets.”
  • Dev note: Like for Bedar, we’re adjusting the Brigantine’s identity; we want it to be identified as a ship that, in addition to being a rammer, is also efficient with Flooding weapons
• Updated perk: Headstrong
  • Original: “When moving at 12 knots and above, increase Ram Damage by 70%.”
  • Updated: “Increases damage from ramming based on current speed (capped at 80%). If target is Flooded, deal additional 7000 damage when ramming.”
  • Dev note: Likewise, for the upgraded perk, we want to solidify its identity and improve the synergy between ramming and Flooding.

Hulk

• Updated perk: Bullhorn
  • Original: “Reduces Brace Strength depletion by 20% when hit”
  • Updated: “Increases Armour by 250 for 30 seconds after bracing hit”
  • Dev note: Damage mitigation is very strong and poses issues when compounded such as being immune to damage. As such, we are changing Hulk’s perk to boost armour instead, and to encourage more active gameplay.

Bedar

• Updated perk: Jousting
  • Original: “Ramming a target reduces its Armour Rating by 150 and increases own weapon damage by 10% for 30 seconds.”
  • Updated: “Increases damage from ramming based on current speed (capped at 150%). Ramming a target reduces its Armour by 300 for 30 seconds instead.”
  • Dev note: This one gets a treatment that rewards ramming more the faster the ship goes and provides additional utility by reducing the target’s armour significantly.

Barge

• Updated description of perk: Devouring
  • Old: “Inflict Torn Sails when hitting an Ablaze target.”
  • Updated: “Builds up Torn Sails when hitting an Ablaze target.”
  • Dev note: Updated localization to be more specific of trigger condition of this perk, based on player feedback about how it triggers.

Improvements & Bug Fixes

The full list of Bug Fixes will be updated in the coming days for the release of Season 3 on August 22nd. If you come across a bug please report it using the Skull and Bones Bug Reporter: Skull and Bones – Bug Reporter (ubisoft.com)

Contracts

• Fixed an issue where repair status does not progress, causing the player to get stuck in contract “Defender’s Overture“.
• Fixed an issue where the progress for the contract “License to Lease” was blocked as the player was able to delete letter without reading.
• Fixed an issue where the “Empty Trunks” token can be transferred to the warehouse and persisting throughout the contract “Nightfall Missives“.
• The “Empty Trunks” contract item will no longer take up a slot in the inventory.
• Fixed an issue where the player is stuck in loading after they enter the Helm Office when asked to meet Yanita for the second time.
• Fixed an issue where players were able to complete the contract “Delicate Alliance” without equipping “Heralds’ Honor” vanity set.

Manufactory Defense

• Fixed an issue where reinforcement ships spawn inconsistently while in the Manufactory Defense activity at Damai Settlement.

Recommended Activity

• Fixed an issue where Recommended Activities does not display the World Event that is closest to the player’s current ship rank.

Plunder

• Fixed an issue where Megafort Oosten plunder progress stops and cannot be completed
• Fixed an issue where players are unable to properly leave plunder while abandoning if the timer runs out while the player is outside of the plunder area, but still within a close enough distance to the plunder target.
• Fixed an issue where the plunder awarding more silver than intended at certain thresholds.

Furniture

• Fixed an issue where players were able to equip multiple leather rope grips furniture on one ship.

Fast Travel

• Fixed an issue that prevented players from fast travelling to World Events when a Manufactory Defense is going on, even when the player has not joined as a participant.
• Added an error message to indicate condition as to why Fast Travelling is unavailable to players.

Weapon

• Fixed an issue where launched torpedoes experience unusual pathing in rivers.

Items and Vendors

• Fixed an issue where the “Rigging Station” blueprint is unavailable from the Black Market. Please note that the item will be available on rotation in the Black Market in Season 3.

Archives

• Fixed an issue where some letters under the Clan of Fara knowledge was not obtainable.

Stability & Optimization

• [XBOX] Fixed an issue where application redirects player to main menu with error message “Failed to perform operation” appears upon completing introduction.
• Fixed an issue where players are unable to connect (OWL-00029002).

Graphics

• Fixed a visual issue where the Brig does not have a rudder.
• Fixed an issue where a structure was observed floating above Fort Louis.

Vanity and Character Customization

• Fixed an issue where players are unable to equip different hair colour and facial hair colour.
• Fixed an issue where the captain’s eye colour has a different preview than shown in the icon during Recreate Captain at the Vanity Atelier.
• Fixed an issue where the following vanity sets were missing from the Vanity Atelier:
  • Fara Fury
  • Compagnie Elite
  • Dinosaur Set
• Fixed an issue where the colour of the “Sapphire’s Gaze” is missing the glow.
• Fixed an issue where the Dush Swashbuckler set clips onto the captain.
• Fixed an issue where “The Fool Tarot” set was misnamed as “The Tarot” set.
• Fixed an issue where the pants and belt from the Dark Swindler set shares the same name.
• Fixed an issue where two cosmetic items shared the same name “Gambler’s Grin“.
• Fixed an issue where the ornaments from “Ashen Lady” set are reversed or upside down on various ships.

UI/UX

• Fixed an issue where the Capture Button is missing in photo mode on PS5.
• Fixed an issue where placeholder text is observed after crafting ships at Shipwright.
• [Mailbox] Fixed an error message text to indicate reason why mail cannot be accepted
• Fixed an issue where “Onwards to the End” helm decor icon does not correspond to actual décor piece.
• Fixed an issue where “Invalid/Invalid” text is observed for fraction of second in contract card when player abandon the “Untold Treasure” contract.
• Fixed a typo in the “Stolen Crescendo” contract where Compagnie was misspelled.
• Fixed an issue where percentage sign appears twice in the description of the Sambuk upgraded perk ‘Firebug’ in the preview.