Players, are you ready to conquer the ocean? Skull and Bones Season 1 is in full swing, and mastering some important endgame strategies is key to standing out in the seasonal content.
In this guide, we’ll focus on some key tips in the endgame. If this interests you, stay tuned to unlock the secrets to success in Skull and Bones.
Complete The Main Quest & Unlock Exclusive Weapons
The first step to starting the endgame is completing the main storyline. The plot revolves around two Kingpins of Red Isles where you start, John Scurlock and later Admiral Rahma of East Indies.
Completing this major mission is crucial as you become the new pirate boss, as it not only allows you to unlock new game mechanics but also access to the epic Long Nines Cannons from John Scurlock and Epic Torpedo from Admiral Rahma.
These advanced weapons significantly increase your ship’s capabilities. But they can be bought with Skull and Bones Silver only. And both require special commodity produced in your Distillery and Lab to unlock Helm, so don’t delay your main quest progress. Because after completing the major story, you still need to collect enough materials to get these top weapons.
As for some of the side quests, I recommend completing them selectively as they offer limited Skull and Bones items rewards unless you are early in the game and don’t have access to Helm production.
Unlock Helm
When you complete the main mission activity, you will gain access to Helm, and a Smugglers Network will open. This allows you to run a Distillery and Lab to produce luxury commodities such as Rum and Opium, and sell them to John and Rahma at a high profit.
After unlocking Helm, you will enter Supply Network, which provides daily contracts for the raw materials needed for your high-end products.
Please don’t ignore these events. To afford the advanced weapons offered by Kingpins, you will need to produce over 2,000 bottles of refine Rum and Black Lotus Opium. This process takes enough time and requires upgrading your facilities. So while you’re completing your main quest, make it a habit to visit Hub every day to pick up Smuggling Quests and keep your Distillery and Lab up and running.
Once your inventory exceeds 2000 units of each product, you can sell the remainder to John and Rahma for 100 Skull and Bones Silver for sale per unit, which basically eliminates any worries about running out of funds once you unlock Helm.
Take Over Manufacturing
You will then have access to manufacturing facilities starting in Red Isles, which can be found on the map in Helm tab. These manufacturing facilities are also the major source of producing Pieces of Eight currency.
Initially, the manufacturing facility is not under your control, which means you cannot yet benefit from their production. Taking over these manufacturing facilities is crucial, and the key to unlocking it lies in Hostile Takeover event.
During this event, a timer will be displayed in the lower left corner of the map. You need to conquer a prominent area by defeating many ships and, potentially, other players. This is essentially a PVP event.
While this may sound scary to non-PVP players, the event only lasts about 5 minutes. And it’s a challenge in every manufacturing, and once you get into manufacturing, it’s here forever.
Interestingly, these events are not often attended by many players. We can easily see if anyone else is attending and opt out or change places if necessary.
In my experience of taking over 20+ manufacturing, I’ve only encountered other players a few times, and often they weren’t engaging in combat. Because victory depends on damage done to ships, whether against other players or not. So even if neither of you are attacking each other, you win and own manufacturing by doing the most damage to the other ship.
Once you own a manufacturing company, you can fund it to start producing Pieces of Eight. This will allow you to purchase advanced weapons, unlock new manufacturing areas and increase production.
Your strategy should focus on taking over and owning all available manufacturing. A key initial goal is to conquer all manufacturing in Red Isles and accumulate 5,000 Pieces of Eight. This will allow you to explore Coast of Africa region, focusing on high-margin Harufu production.
Farming Pieces Of Eight
Once you enter Helm Black Market, you’ll find that Black Market manager holds blueprints for the top ship weapons and attachments that can maximize your ship’s level and keep it at level 12 in Season 1.
However, Silver and Pieces of Eight are required to buy Skull and Bones items. This is where it is crucial that we have manufacturing and running continuously to produce currency.
There are two principal ways to get Pieces of Eight. The first is to complete Order Registry contract in Helm. These contracts involved shipping produced items to distant locations by sailing. In return, you will receive substantial monetary rewards.
Your focus should be on controlling all of Red Isles’ manufacturing facilities, which can help you collect Pieces of Eight consistently and regularly.
When your manufacturing facility is running at capacity and there is currently nothing to collect, turn your attention to completing Order Registry contract.
Upgrade Manufacturing
Once you’ve accumulated over 2,000 units of Rum and Black Lotus Opium each and unlocked Coast of Africa region, it’s time to consider upgrading your manufacturing facility.
Start by converting White Rum into Gold Skull Rum and Blue Lotus Opium into Black Lotus Opium in your Distillery and Lab. This upgrade is accessible through Helm’s upgrade options.
Upgrading each of your manufacturing facilities to at least level seven will increase the output of each manufacturing Pieces of Eight. But upgrading to higher levels also comes with diminishing returns. Therefore, once these Helm and manufacturing upgrades are complete, it makes more strategic sense to upgrade multiple factories to level seven, rather than focusing on a single factory.
All in all, these are the essential activities for completing the endgame, and mastering them can speed up your progress toward earning epic items and reaching the top of the leaderboards. Also, don’t forget to participate in various world events to hunt ships, which may reward you with additional epic items. But remember, these rewards are not guaranteed and the chances are slim.
That’s it for today. Hope you get to the top of the leaderboards and dominate the high seas!