Ubisoft is adding New Game+ and a Nightmare difficulty to Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced with Title Update 1.0.8, which goes live on October 27 at 7:00 AM PT / 10:00 AM ET (14:00 UTC). The company calls it the final major content update for the game, with smaller quality of life updates planned afterward. It applies to PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC.
How New Game+ works
New Game+ starts a fresh run while keeping most of what Edward Kenway has built. According to Ubisoft’s patch notes, that includes tools, upgrades, weapons, trinkets, outfits, hideout progress, Kenway fleet ships, codex items and store purchases.
Some things reset. Officers must be recruited again, forts must be retaken because the map fog resets, and quest related items are removed. Each playthrough raises the difficulty, up to five times (New Game+++++). Elite Soldiers show up more often and max rank ships patrol the waters.
There is also a new currency called Escudos, earned through challenges and by looting chests you already opened. Reales can be exchanged for Escudos at the General Store, and Escudos buy items exclusive to New Game+.
Nightmare mode
Nightmare Difficulty can be turned on at any point in the story, and Ubisoft says it can be set separately for combat, stealth, naval and activities. The patch notes list the changes:
- Ground combat: enemies deal 1.8x damage, parry timing is shorter, ranged enemies fire more often and the one-shot kill safety is disabled.
- Stealth: detection is much faster, investigation lasts longer, and Edward must be at least 6m above an enemy to hide in a high spot, up from 4m.
- Naval: all ship damage is increased.
- Activities: sharks hit harder, urchin and jellyfish damage is doubled, oxygen runs out faster and harpooned wildlife deals more damage.
Other additions and fixes
Takedown animations from the original game return, including hidden blade, unarmed, single sword and gunblade. Ubisoft also added six new hidden community chests, some with rewards the community asked for, plus new outfits, pet skins, trinkets, sails and crew options earned through exploration, New Game+ progress and hidden challenges.
The bug fix list covers offline mode launch failures after a lost server connection, fast travel to unsynchronized viewpoints in Havana and Long Bay, freezes during some tavern minigames and several quest soft locks.
What it means for readers
Patch sizes listed by Ubisoft are 15.5 GB on Xbox Series X|S, 4.5 GB on PS5 and 4.3 GB on PC, so check free space before the update goes live. On the PlayStation Store in Canada, the Standard Edition is listed at $79.99 and the Deluxe Edition at $89.99 in Canadian dollars; Deluxe adds the Master Assassin Character Pack and Master Assassin Naval Pack. The game is also available through Ubisoft+.
