Ubisoft has shipped the first major post-launch patch for Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced, and version 1.04 is rolling out on PS5 right now. The update weighs in at 2.44GB and covers a wide spread of fixes across gameplay, visuals, quests, and general stability.
The game launched roughly a week ago, so getting a patch this size out this quickly is a decent sign that Ubisoft is paying attention. Nothing in these notes rewrites the experience, but several of the fixes address bugs that were actively getting in players' way.
The lighting fixes players were waiting for
One of the loudest complaints since launch has been the game's oppressive darkness. Interior spaces, caves, and ship boarding sequences were leaving players fumbling around in near-blackout conditions, even when windows were open or torches were present. Update 1.04 addresses multiple lighting issues for indoor areas and caverns, and also tweaks the weather system to push more sun and clear skies into the rotation. The original game was never this dark, so this correction brings the remake closer to the tone players remember.
Quest blockers and progression fixes
A handful of quest-specific bugs made it into the patch, and a few of them were genuine stoppers. The mission "A Governor No Longer" had players getting stuck against an Animus wall with no way forward. "The Observatory" had allies failing to arrive on cue alongside Roberts. The quest "The Other Brother" allowed players to assassinate Upton prematurely, which could break the sequence entirely.
The patch also resolves a conflict between "Imagine My Surprise" and "The Commander's Ruse" that prevented both from being completed simultaneously. The "Rift: Wayward Desires" zipline issue is fixed too, where players were missing the second zipline after falling from the first.
Gameplay and combat corrections
The patch clears up several moment-to-moment issues that were breaking flow. Players can no longer clip through a ship's hull while swimming, and the bug that locked characters in place immediately after exiting a mini-game is gone. The double jump that appeared when advanced parkour was enabled has been removed.
Two notable combat fixes: the El Tiburon boss fight now includes hints on how to break his defense, which was genuinely unclear for a lot of players, and the Rope Dart and Smoke Bomb aiming states now correctly restore after taking a hit. The harpooning-to-boarding transition bug that could leave players stuck mid-sequence is also resolved.
Perhaps the most disruptive fix is for the Jackdaw disappearing after an upgrade while docked. Losing your ship with no obvious way to recover it was a hard stop for anyone who hit it.
World, UI, and audio cleanup
The world layer gets some tidying too. Animus wall issues, fast travel bugs, and out-of-bounds access points have all been addressed. Floating bushes are now grounded. On the UI side, location activity icons that vanished from the map after rebooting the game will now persist correctly, and the desync screen freeze caused by rapid menu opening and closing is fixed.
Audio gets one specific fix: killing an enemy was triggering a sound effect that made a single body drop sound like several. Small thing, but the kind of bug that sticks in your head once you notice it.
PC players get a fix too
One platform-specific note: PC players running custom graphics settings were getting cutscenes locked at 30fps regardless of their hardware. That cap is now removed, so custom config users should see cutscenes match their actual performance settings.
Full patch notes at a glance
Update 1.04 does not add new content, but it does make the experience noticeably cleaner across the board. If you have been holding off on diving into the Caribbean because of early-launch jank, this is a reasonable point to start. For everything you need to get the most out of the remake, the AC Black Flag Resynced guides cover everything from hideout upgrades to finding every buried treasure chest across the open world.
