Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag Resynced has received its final major patch, introducing a New Game+ mode that was absent from the original 2013 release. This update also brings a challenging new Nightmare difficulty setting and a host of bug fixes and quality-of-life improvements.
With New Game+, players can restart their journey as Edward Kenway with certain progress intact. This includes Edward's tools, upgrades, weapons, and trinkets, as well as all of the Jackdaw's upgrades, officer abilities, and pets. Money, materials, trade goods, and unlocked customizable outfits will also carry over. Hideout progression, perks, art collection, and Kenway fleet ships remain, though forts will need to be recaptured as the map's fog will reset. Quest-related items will be removed, and a new currency is introduced for New Game+ playthroughs.
To enhance replayability and offer a fresh challenge, Resynced's New Game+ mode will progressively increase in difficulty. Elite Soldiers will appear more frequently, and higher-rank ships will set sail with greater regularity. This difficulty can stack up to five times, providing an escalating challenge for persistent players.
New Game+ Currency and Cosmetics
New Game+ introduces a unique currency earned through challenges and looting chests. This currency can be used to purchase new outfits and items not available in a first playthrough, offering additional cosmetic rewards for those who engage with the mode.
Nightmare Difficulty
The update also includes a new 'Nightmare' difficulty mode, which can be applied to the entire game or toggled for specific aspects like ground combat, stealth, and ship combat. In Nightmare mode:
- Ground combat sees enemies dealing 1.8x damage, reduced parry timing windows, and the removal of the white glint on enemy attacks. Ranged enemies will fire more often, and the one-shot kill safety is disabled, meaning players must be extremely cautious of all incoming damage.
- Stealth is made more challenging with greatly reduced detection time, extended investigation time, and enemies that can hear the player moving faster than a walk. The required height for hiding in elevated spots is increased from 4m to 6m.
- Naval combat sees all ship damages increased.
- Activities are also affected, with underwater sharks dealing more damage, double damage from urchins and jellyfish, faster oxygen meter depletion, and increased damage from harpooning wildlife.
Additional Content and Fixes
Beyond New Game+ and Nightmare mode, the patch includes new takedown animations reminiscent of the original game, along with new cosmetic items. A lengthy list of bug fixes addresses various issues, including problems with offline mode launches, rogue wave frequency, display of Blackbeard items, fast travel to unsynchronized viewpoints, game freezes during tavern mini-games, camera field of view alterations, pistol customization, rope dart attachment in cutscenes, persistent trinket healing effects, world map icon updates, accessibility narration, aiming and assassination glitches, tool handling, raising travel sails, chest icons on wrecks, Codex entry locations, world map graying out, hidden gear display, Jackdaw visual repairs, enemy snapping animations, stability improvements, muffled gunshot sounds, diving controls with mouse and keyboard, and specific quest-related bugs across multiple storylines and naval contracts. The Rift: Edward's Memories also received fixes for parkouring issues.