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The Jackdaw is Edward's ship from the very start of Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced, and it stays with him all the way through to the end of the game. Upgrading it fully earns you the silver "Ship This" trophy, but don't let the trophy tier fool you into thinking it's a quick job. The earlier upgrades are simple enough, but the final tier of each ship component requires upgrade plans in addition to materials, and tracking down all of those plans takes a genuine investment of time and exploration.
Basic upgrades: materials and where to find them
The first few tiers of each Jackdaw upgrade require three materials: metal, wood, and cloth. None of these are hard to come by if you're playing the game at a reasonable pace. The primary sources are enemy ships and plantations. When you defeat and board a ship at sea, you'll plunder its cargo, which typically includes a mix of all three materials. Plantations scattered across the Caribbean islands can also be raided on foot for wood and cloth in particular. If you're actively doing missions and exploring the map rather than rushing the story, you'll likely have enough materials for the basic upgrades without needing to grind specifically for them.
All upgrades are purchased through the Harbourmaster, found at any friendly port. The upgrade screen is divided into Weapons, Ship, and Storage categories, and you can see exactly what materials and plans each upgrade requires before committing to it.
Final tier upgrades: plans and where to find them
The last upgrade on each ship component is where things get considerably more demanding. On top of requiring a larger quantity of materials, each final upgrade also needs a specific plan to unlock it. Plans are not sold anywhere and cannot be farmed from ships. They are found in two specific places: underwater shipwrecks and buried treasure chests.
Finding plans in shipwrecks
Shipwrecks appear on the world map marked with diving bell icons. To access them, you need the diving bell, which is tied to the main story and unlocks as you progress naturally through the campaign. If you haven't got it yet, just keep playing and it will come. Once you have it, sail to any shipwreck location and dive down to explore it. Inside each wreck you'll find several standard treasure chests and one special secret chest, which always contains a plan. Work through the shipwreck locations methodically and you'll pick up a significant portion of the plans you need this way.
Finding plans through treasure maps
The second source of plans is buried treasure, which is found by following treasure maps. Every location in the game has its own set of collectables, including treasure maps. You can check what a location contains by opening the world map, zooming out, and hovering over the location icon, or by pressing and holding the touchpad on the PS5 controller while you're physically inside a location. If a location lists a treasure map as one of its collectables, pick it up and follow the coordinates shown on it to find the buried chest.
A few of these treasure locations sit inside areas that are locked behind story progress. If the coordinates lead somewhere you can't reach yet, don't worry about it and come back later. Once you find the correct spot, simply dig up the chest. Most buried treasures contain a plan, though some are for ship vanity items rather than functional upgrades, so you may need to collect more than you'd expect before you have everything required.
Quick tip: Before spending time hunting plans, check the upgrade screen at the Harbourmaster first. It shows exactly which plans are still needed for each upgrade, so you can cross-reference that list with the shipwreck and treasure map locations you haven't cleared yet, rather than exploring blind.
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