How to get Wood and Metal in Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced

In Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced you’re going to need to get Wood and Metal on a regular basis, so our guide will show you the quickest way to keep your Jackdaw upgrades ticking over. This includes tips on spotting the right targets for the resources and how to walk away with more of the goods once a fight is done. Get it right and you’ll never find yourself stuck at the Harbourmaster wondering where your next batch of wood and metal is coming from.

Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced is Ubisoft’s remake of the 2013 original, rebuilt on the latest version of the Anvil engine and released on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC in July 2026. As before, you’ll be cruising the Caribbean as unlikely hero Edward Kenway, who starts out as a pretty petty pirate, but soon becomes embroiled in the eternal battle between the Assassins and Templar Orders. Naval combat remains one of the biggest parts of the experience, and with Wood and Metal being the main two resources for upgrades, you’ll be chasing them constantly if you want the Jackdaw to be ready for tougher fights.

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How you actually get Wood and Metal

The method itself is refreshingly uncomplicated, because you get Wood and Metal by taking out other ships. There’s no elaborate system to learn here — just get comfortable engaging enemy vessels out on the water, since that’s where the vast majority of your Metal in particular is going to come from. There is an important exception to this, which is the destruction of Forts, but this is a bit more limited in number of options, despite giving you more metal per Fort, so we’ll cover this in more detail below.

Sizing up a target first

Before committing to a fight, it’s worth pulling out your spyglass and giving the ship a proper once-over. As you approach, you’ll see a star rating that gives you a rough idea of how tough that ship is compared to your own. It only takes a second to check, and it can save you from picking a fight you’re simply not equipped to win yet.

You can also see what cargo it’s carrying, including the amount of metal you’ll net, so it’s definitely worth a check before you engage. As you might expect, the tougher the ship, the more resources you get from it, but it means that it’ll be a tougher fight, so you need to weight this up before you launch into battle.

Opening with mortar shots

Once you’ve decided a ship’s worth attacking, don’t wait until you’re right alongside it to start dealing damage. It’s a handy way to land a hit from a distance before the enemy’s even close enough to properly return fire, especially if your mortar has been upgraded. Getting that early damage in gives you a head start on the rest of the fight, so it might be a good idea to prioritize that upgrade if you haven’t already.

Handling the close-range fight

As the enemy ship closes the gap, keep an eye on how it’s manoeuvring. If it looks like it’s lining up to ram you, angle the Jackdaw away from the attack rather than trying to power through it. Do this well and the enemy ship should end up drawing alongside you instead — exactly where you want it. Once you’re broadside to broadside, that’s your cue to really start piling on the damage.

Don’t forget to use your Heavy Shots as well as your standard cannons, as they deal higher damage and you don’t have to aim to fire. There’s still a cooldown window to be aware of, but it’s all about managing your impact in any naval battle.

Board it, don’t sink it

This is the step that decides how much you actually walk away with. Once you’ve beaten a ship down, resist the temptation to keep firing until it sinks. Board it instead. Boarding means that none of the stores in the hold sink to the bottom, so you get more wood and metal for your efforts. Let the ship sink and some of that cargo goes down with it, meaning you get less for your trouble. So the rule of thumb is simple: get the ship to the point of defeat, then board rather than finish it off with more cannon fire.

You’ll have to fight the enemy crew to bring down their moral to allow you to take charge of the defeated ship, but once you do that you can then use it to repair the Jackdaw. What this means is that you can farm a number of ships for wood and metal without needing to return to a dock to get it fixed up.

An easier route for Wood

Metal, realistically, only comes from combat, so there’s no way around taking ships out if that’s what you’re short on. Wood is a little more forgiving, though. Alongside whatever you loot from fights, you’ll also spot it floating around in the ocean as debris from time to time. It’s not something to rely on as a main strategy, but it’s worth keeping an eye out for as you sail between islands as it’s free resources for zero risk.

Don’t forget the forts

Ship-hunting will carry you a lot of the way, but the forts scattered around the Caribbean are well worth a mention too. Capturing one hands you a solid, one-off dump of Metal — a handy shortcut when you need a big chunk in one go rather than chipping away at it ship by ship. The catch is that there’s only a limited number of forts on the map, so once you’ve worked through them, that option runs out. Treat it as a nice early boost alongside your usual ship-hunting rather than something you can lean on indefinitely.

Putting it together

Strip it all back and the process looks like this: spot a ship, check its star rating with the spyglass, soften it up with mortar fire from long-range where you can, angle away from any ramming attempts to draw it alongside you, finish the fight, then board rather than sink it to actually collect the loot. Grab any forts you come across for a quick Metal boost, keep an eye out for floating Wood in the water as you sail, and lean on ship-hunting as your main, repeatable source once the forts are gone. Stick with that approach consistently and Metal and Wood will keep flowing in naturally, leaving the Jackdaw ready for whatever the Caribbean throws at you next.

Check out our computer games section for more news and features on Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced, or visit the official website at https://www.ubisoft.com/en-gb/game/assassins-creed/black-flag-resynced.