Treasure hunting in Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced sounds straightforward until you realize the developers actually moved island boundaries and reworked the visual clues from the original. Your muscle memory from 2013 is dead weight here.
All 22 treasure maps follow the same rule: you physically need the map in your inventory before the dig prompt appears. No map, no chest. That means tracking down the skeleton or corpse holding the clue first, then sailing to the burial site. The two locations are almost never on the same island.
Early Caribbean hauls worth grabbing first
The opening stretch of the game gives you access to several chests that fund Jackdaw upgrades before bounty hunters become a serious problem. Cape Bonavista kicks things off with a map found near a Mayan stone in the mountains, while the actual chest sits in a cave on the southern beach where the game begins, yielding 1,500 Reales. Havana follows shortly after, with a map near the dried river by the church and a chest at the base of a fort tower that drops the Queen Anne's Figurehead plus 3,000 Reales.
The Abaco Island and Andreas Island pair are worth doing back to back since you pass through both during early story missions. Abaco's map leads to Salt Lagoon's northwest beach for the Serpent Figurehead and 3,000 Reales. Andreas Island's map sends you back to Abaco for the Earth Monster Relief and 2,500 Reales from a semi-submerged shipwreck on the northeast shore.
Mid-game blueprint hunting across the central islands
Once the full map opens up, the treasure chains start crossing larger distances and the rewards shift toward ship upgrade blueprints. The New Bone chest, sourced from a map at Salt Lagoon's northeastern edge, holds the Maize Deity and 3,000 Reales. Mariguana Island hides its map behind flowery vines in a central cave system, with the chest buried on a tiny sandbank off Andreas Island containing the Harpoon Strength ultimate plan.
Great Inagua has a map tucked in a cliff cave west of the docks after the story clears the location. That one sends you to Nassau's swampy southwest for the Elite Sails design. The Tortuga to Matanzas chain puts the chest behind a waterfall near a Mayan puzzle and rewards the Mortar Storage ultimate plan. Both are sitting at 3,000 Reales each.
Here's the thing with the Pinos Isle maps specifically: the island holds two separate treasure chains. The first sends you to Cayman Sound for 4,000 Reales. The second map is inside the northern fortress next to a broken pillar, requiring you to fight through guards before sailing south.
Late-game and smuggler den rewards
The final stretch of treasure maps sits behind diving bell progression, late-story unlocks, and some genuinely hostile smuggler dens. Cayman Sound to Petite Caverne drops the Heavy Shot Storage ultimate plan after a fight through the main cavern. The follow-up chain from Petite Caverne to Tulum reaches the far western edge of the world map for the Fire Barrel Storage ultimate plan.
Nassau to Isla Providencia is gated entirely behind campaign progress. Once Providencia unlocks, three palm trees near the southern beach shipwrecks mark the dig spot for the Governor Outfit and 2,000 Reales. The Havana to Anotto Bay chain requires swimming through underwater mine shafts to reach a chest below a wooden platform, rewarding the Crimson Cloak outfit.
The final four chains cover Santanillas to San Juan, Ile a Vache to Jiguey, Corozal to Ambergris Key, and Isla Providencia to Long Bay. The last one, ending on Long Bay's eastern beach just south of three wooden huts, drops the Scottish Broadswords and closes out the full collection. Outfits like the Pirate Captain and unique ship designs like the Gilded Hull are scattered across these late entries, making them worth the extra sailing time even after the main story wraps.
What most players miss is that several of these chains create natural loops. The map found at the chest location of one chain is often the starting point for the next, so working through them in sequence saves a significant amount of open-water travel.
For exact coordinates on every single one of the 22 locations, the full treasure map locations guide has every dig spot mapped out. If you're also working toward full completion, the all Rift locations guide covers the alternate reality quests that unlock separately from the treasure system.
