Skull and Bones: How to level up your ship

As you prepare to leave the Red Isle and travel to Africa’s coast or the East Indies, one thing you need to consider is leaving port with a strong ship. You need to level up your ship in Skull and Bones, and here’s how to do it.

You level up your ship in Skull and Bones by equipping better weapons, armor, and furniture pieces to raise its rank. By equipping higher-level gear, your ship’s own level will slowly climb upward. And the higher your ship’s level goes, the more likely you’ll survive the choppier waters of Ubisoft’s pirate adventure.

Where to level up your ship in Skull and Bones

You can equip said gear at any outpost or town with a port. The pirate den of Saint-Anne is likely going to be your port of choice since that’s where you’ll do a lot of crafting. Enter the dock menu and enter the ‘Manage Ship’ tab to begin equipping items. Different ships can carry a certain amount of weapons, with higher-rank ships offering more slots for guns and furniture. A good rule of thumb: The bigger the ship, the more the guns.

Each ship comes with a default rank. The initial starting ship is Rank 1, for example, while the medium-sized ships start at Rank 5. As you equip more items, the level will increase. For example, you could start with a Rank 3 ship but end up as Rank 6 depending on the power of equipped items.

Items have a level and power rating, shown as a Roman numeral and a crossed cannon icon respectively. Your default Culverin I cannons add 15 level points, for example, while the rarer Culverin III offers 45. Armor is also exceptionally vital to your ship rank, but you can only equip one armor type at a time. Weapons and furniture slots will increase based on ship size, letting you shoot up in level.

Why do you need to level up?

To be clear, “levels” or rank in Skull and Bones more or less refer to your survivability. You’ll find that the deadliest of ships are much higher in level than others. Your level 3 tub probably shouldn’t play with a level 9 Rogue unless you want your ass turned to splinters.

As you expand further into the game, you’ll find tougher and tougher foes. So, hit up the Refinery, craft more powerful ships, and keep on keelhaulin’.