In September 2021, I reported Twitter A few key details about Skull & Bones from multiple sources. Nearly eight months have passed and new details have been provided and leaked online that suggest they are accurate.
One of the biggest controversies I initially reported on the game was that Skull & Bones wouldn’t have any kind of player-versus-player combat on land, and the game only featured naval combat. At the time, it was believed that Ubisoft didn’t include gameplay in player combat at all, as the game was still in rough development; however, the latest playtests suggest that’s not the case. In Skull & Bones, land-based or even ship player-versus-player combat is impossible.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0GoI06_czo
In fact, even though you can harvest materials in-game, including ore, wood, and food, you still can’t leave your ship. Instead, you need to view land resources from your ship and harvest materials with the click of a button. Looting settlements and forts is also limited to you staying on board, you need to weaken your desired targets with artillery fire first, and then have your crew “raid” your targets for you. Although you can leave your ship, you can only talk to NPCs to upgrade your ship, sell your loot, and more.
Since the game was first announced at E3 in 2017, it’s been known that Skull & Bones took inspiration from the naval battles of Assassin’s Creed Black Flag, and that’s still true today. Players will start out with a small boat and need to collect resources and loot to level up. Ships are available in five different classes, small, medium, and large, and can be built according to your own unique playstyle, such as combat, cargo, and exploration. As the ship types indicate, each different type of ship has different capabilities. Cargo ships will be able to hold more cargo, combat ships will take more and deal more damage, and exploration ships will sail faster.
Crew morale is one of the most important features in Skull & Bones, if their NPC crew members are low on morale, they will turn against you. Food and drink are the number one factor in keeping crew morale high, so players need resources to sell these items. If their morale is too low, your crew will take over or even destroy your ship.
The main content of the game is obviously ship battles, where players can fight other players’ ships as well as NPC ships. World events will allow you to shoot down large merchant ships for big rewards, but the source also said that once the game launches, world events will also include some mythical creatures. Kraken seems like a safe bet, as we’ve already seen a small teaser of it in Skull & Bones’ first trailer.
It’s hard to see where Ubisoft’s target audience is in Skull & Bones, as the game only seems to center around blowing up other ships and looting. The lack of on-foot exploration and combat is sure to make many people feel sour, and with the likes of Sea of Thieves already on the market, it looks like Ubisoft will be catching up and offering players something to enjoy on the board with.
Skull & Bones is still scheduled to release on current consoles and PC in April 2023.