The old pirate hid his loot well. Blackbeard's treasure in Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced isn't sitting in a chest on a beach with a big X painted on the sand. It's buried underwater, inside a cave, behind two explosive-sealed walls, and guarded by sharks. Ubisoft wasn't feeling generous when they designed this one.
Here's the lowdown on what makes this quest tick and what you actually get at the end of it.
The quest doesn't start until you finish something else
That's the part most players miss. Blackbeard's Treasure doesn't appear in your quest log out of nowhere. You have to complete the main story mission "Do Not Go Gently" first, after which the game hands you Blackbeard's treasure map. Unlike the all treasure map locations guide that covers the standard buried chests with coordinates, this particular map skips the grid reference entirely and drops you straight into a named side quest instead.
The destination is Anotto Bay, a small enclave sitting north of Kingston on the map. First-timers approaching by sea will get jumped by enemy ships, so either come ready to fight or fast travel directly if you've already visited the location.
What's actually waiting inside that cave
The entry point is a wooden staircase and diving bell on the left side of the bay. Dive down, pass the colorful fish and the old minecart, and you're in the tunnel system. The path isn't a straight shot.
A shark ambush hits right before the first corner. After that, the tunnel splits. The right path leads upward toward the treasure. The left path has sea urchins and another shark, but also a regular chest if you want the detour.
Once you're out of the water and into the cave chambers, the quest shifts from underwater navigation to combat. Two quarreling pirates in the first chamber will actually blow themselves up if you wait a moment before engaging, which saves you the trouble. The remaining enemies need to be cleared the old-fashioned way.
The key mechanic here is the explosive barrel doors. Two separate stone walls block your path through the cave system, and both require a small red barrel placed against the wall and detonated with your pistol from a safe distance. The first blocked wall is on the east side of the first dry chamber. The second is on the northeast wall of the larger cave behind the waterfall, up on a ledge. Barrels are scattered nearby in both cases.
There's also a locked chest in the first chamber that you cannot open during the quest. The NPC carrying the key won't spawn while Blackbeard's Treasure is active. You'll need to return after completing the quest to deal with that one.
The reward that reframes the whole quest
After the second wall goes down and the cutscene plays, the quest doesn't end in the cave. You're sent back to Great Inagua to open a chest at the docks.
Here's the thing: there's no gold. No massive pile of reales waiting inside. The reward is Blackbeard's portrait, a cosmetic collectible that carries more narrative weight than any currency stack would. It's a deliberate subversion from Ubisoft, using the promise of pirate treasure to deliver something personal to Edward's story instead.
For players hunting every collectible and side quest in the game, the portrait matters. For players who went in expecting a big payday, the reaction has been... mixed, based on community chatter since the game launched.
What most players miss is that the quest is really about the journey through the cave, not the chest at the end. The underwater navigation, the explosive puzzles, and the staged enemy encounters make it one of the more mechanically varied side quests in the game.
If you're working through everything the remake has to offer, the full Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced guides collection covers sea shanty locations, pet unlocks, and the rest of the buried treasure map system to keep your playthrough moving.
