10 Things to Know Before Playing Skull and Bones

10 Things to Know Before Playing Skull and Bones

Welcome to MojoPlays, and today we’re looking at everything you need to know before “Skull and Bones” releases.

Character Creator

As per the closed beta, the character creator in “Skull and Bones” isn’t very deep – but, it DOES still have one. You choose from a handful of pre-set faces, various skin tones tied to those faces, a few body types, along with different hairstyles and colors. You can also add tattoos, scars, and injuries from your time spent on the high seas. If you’re looking for a deep character creator, you’re likely going to be disappointed – it’s certainly not on the level of “Fallout 4” or “Baldur’s Gate”. But considering “Skull and Bones’” biggest rival is “Sea of Thieves” and its Infinite Pirate Generator, maybe this will still offer players enough choice.

Crafting

It’ll come as no surprise that an MMO about being a pirate has a crafting system. You’ll be sailing around the map to gather an array of resources to craft all manner of items for your ship, as well as to create advanced, high-value goods to sell. Maybe you don’t want to steal everything, though; you might want to build an independent trade network, creating fine wares to hawk outside the control of the various East India Companies. However, gathering items does require you do QTE minigames, that appear so small on screen that you might not initially see that you’re supposed to be doing something.

Ships

Not only will you be crafting things to use and sell, but you’ll also be crafting all your ships. Do quests to unlock blueprints and then take those blueprints to the skilled workers and tradespeople in the world’s pirate dens; in the beta, this was only Sainte-Anne. They’ll then build you a ship. You also keep your old ships in your fleet, and can use different ships for different situations, depending on what you need. Whether you prioritize having a lot of cargo space, manoeuvrability, or sacrificing all of that to load up with cannons to send Europe’s navies down to Davy Jones’ Locker with ease - it’s your choice. You can also customize your ships with cosmetics.

Ammo

You won’t have unlimited cannonballs in “Skull and Bones”. On the one hand, this absolutely adds to the game’s realism as a pirate simulator, since no ship in real life can hold infinite cannonballs. On the other, this was a mechanic that didn’t exist in “Assassin’s Creed’s” many naval games. In “Black Flag”, the game that spawned “Skull and Bones”, you never need to buy regular cannonballs; you only need to buy heavy shot and mortar rounds. In “Skull and Bones”, if you’re planning on engaging in combat, you’ll have to plan ahead and ensure you’ve stocked up on ammunition. But they’ll also appear as loot out in the world, so this shouldn’t be too hard.

Setting

It’s no secret that “Skull and Bones” has had a difficult development. Part of the problem is that the setting changed numerous times throughout. Initially, it was centered around the Caribbean, just like “Black Flag”. It then went to the legendary world of Hyperborea, a northern realm that appears in Greek mythology. Finally, though, it’s settled on the Indian Ocean. This makes sense since the game was primarily developed by Ubisoft Singapore, and Singapore is right on the eastern edge of the Indian Ocean. It sets it apart from other Caribbean and Atlantic-focused pirate games, too, ensuring it’ll have its own identity.

Progression

You keep a lot of your progression upon dying in “Skull and Bones”, and upon starting a new session. You don’t have to go through the tedium of rebuilding your pirate fleet every time, which is a huge boon, nor do you lose your ship even if it gets destroyed in combat. You will, however, lose your ship’s cargo. If you sail to the place where you died, you can retrieve this cargo, but so can everybody else in the game if they choose to go after your stuff. You’ll have to decide whether all that loot was worth it, or whether you’re better off trying to get it back some other way. Just remember to keep building up your warehouse stash.

Co-op

“Skull and Bones” supports up to three-player co-op. Not only is it simple enough to play the game with your friends, but you can easily band together with other players you encounter out in the world if you so choose. This is sure to make the game significantly more fun, since part of the pirate fantasy is teaming up with other pirates so that you can take on bigger foes and go home with greater treasure – even if you do have to split it. We’ll have to wait for the full release to see just how much more fun the co-op is than the single-player, but if you really do want to play solo, you shouldn’t find yourself too hampered.

Difficulty

We don’t know all the details of how the in-game difficulty works yet, and this is likely to be one of the areas Ubisoft continues to tweak up to and post-launch. We do know that the bigger your pirate crew, the harder the game becomes, with higher-level enemies appearing to account for the fact you have a major advantage. But there also seems to be some very forgiving difficulty scaling regardless, with many players of the beta finding that the game wasn’t too difficult even when they strayed into harder areas. Your mileage may vary, and we’ll have to see how customizable the difficulty is when the game launches.

PvE and PvP

A lot of people were concerned about “Skull and Bones’” PvP a few years ago, until Ubisoft developers assured everyone that PvP was optional and that there would be separate, PvP servers. PvP makes the pirate simulation that much more realistic, since you can turn on your allies and keep your treasure trove for yourself. But if you just want to have a relaxing time on the seas sinking enemy ships, it’s definitely good to have the option to avoid being griefed in PvP entirely. However, recent leaks from Ubisoft suggest that this may have changed, and that PvP will actually be a much more important part of the game that you can’t always avoid. We’ll have to wait and see.

Release Date

So, when can you FINALLY get your hands on “Skull and Bones”? According to Ubisoft, its next and final release date is February 16th, 2024. But you’ll be able to play it three days early if you pre-order – that is, three days early but still about six years late. It was, of course, originally slated to release way back in 2018, which was still five years after the release of its progenitor, “Black Flag”. It’s then seen myriad delays and platform changes, but it seems like it WILL release in February whether it’s ready or not. Hopefully, it IS ready, after so much time in the oven, but we’ll see. It’s also only coming to PS5, Xbox Series X and S, and PC; not last-gen consoles, and no Google Stadia.

Let us know in the comments whether you’ll be playing “Skull and Bones” at launch or are willing to wait even longer.