As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
Main Story
- Edward Kenway is a self-trained pirate, yet he's able to completely bluff Templars as he uses hidden blades for the first time. And simply because he can, he canonically steals from each of them during the meeting.
- The re-birth of Edward Kenway and The El Dorado into a full-fledged pirate captain and pirate ship, The Jackdaw, respectively. The whole sequence is a joy to experience, especially when he decides to outrun the hurricane that sinks the rest of the legendary Spanish Treasure Fleet. The music, the pounding rain, the roaring thunder, the waterspouts, the killer waves, hell the whole thing seems like the God of the Seas himself is testing the worth of this ragtag pirate crew. Makes it pretty clear who Connor got his "do the impossible" mentality from.
- Just the way Edward speaks the phrase "Let's outrun this hurricane!". One part serious, one part thrilled, and one part casual like that's a normal thing for someone to do.
- Upgrading the Jackdaw and seeing its growth overtime is awesome, especially for those with an eye for detail, since most hull/weapon upgrades are visibly represented, with a focus on the Jackdaw and the crew cheering for the upgrades. You go from cowering in terror from a single brig, to using tactics, mortars and broadside cannons to take out five(-or-more) ships in a single battle.
- The mission "Devil's Advocate." Getting to take the helm of the infamous Queen Anne's Revenge and all forty of her guns.
- Topped when you get to steal a Portuguese Man of War and get to put all its awesome firepower to use. The ship ultimately goes on to become Black Bart's Royal Fortune. For added awesome value, you get to defeat that ship in the final sequence of the game, no matter how easy or hard it is for the player.
- Props to Benjamin Hornigold who, in Kingston, has one glimpse of the Jackdaw and immediately knows that Edward is actively spying on him and the other Templars, then immediately calls him out.
- He may be a Humanoid Abomination Devil in Plain Sight but Bartholomew Roberts, or 'Black Bart' is very cool. When he becomes a captain, he delivers a villainous "No More Holding Back" Speech that, for added awesome value, is Truth in Television and borrows from Charles Johnson's A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pyrates."In honest service there are thin commons, low wages, and hard labour. Yet as gentlemen of fortune we enjoy plenty and satisfaction, pleasure and ease, liberty and power... so what man with a sensible mind would choose the former life, when the only hasard we pirates run is a sour look from those without strength or splendour! Now, I have been among you six weeks, and in that time I have adopted your outlook as my own, and with so fierce a conviction that it may frighten you to see your passions reflected from me in so stark a light. But... if it's a captain you see in me now, aye then... I'll be your bloody captain! For I have dipped my hands in muddied waters, and withdrawing them find 'tis better to be a commander than a common man!"
- James Kidd or Mary Read is awesomeness itself. When was the last time a woman got to be not only The Mentor to the hero but also to another woman, Anne Bonny, who she empowers from a waitress to a fellow Back-to-Back Badasses and who serves as her Number Two while she Captains Jack's operation more or less. And while she's pregnant. Alas Too Cool to Live.
- Adewale is pretty awesome. He's the Only Sane Man, down and earthy, and a good friend. But he won't be Edward's enabler and tells him straight up, that he'd rather be an Assassin than sail under a selfish asshole like him. It's great to see a character who blossoms from The Lancer into a Hero of Another Story in the same game.
- His Establishing Character Moment? Directly after he and Edward break out of their chains, despite having just met, he proceeds to fill the other half of Bash Brothers with Edward. Edward whistles for one guard's attention, chokes him behind from the corner, then Adewale rushs straight in and deals with the other target, repeated for a total of three times - there's even one case where it's two men he takes down without raising the alarm, with little effort. note
- Retroactively, Woodes Roger's assassination is this, as at the end of the game it's revealed he survived. This makes him the second person to have survived a direct hidden blade assassination, in addition to Shakulu. And more than that, Shakulu had heavy armor; Rogers had none of that.
- Sure, Blackbeard dies - but he goes out in a blaze of glory, being chopped down on a burning ship...
- It's very much possible to defeat El Tiburon with nothing more than a pistol (or four). This in turn crosses into Fridge Brilliance: El Tiburon is a heavily armored brute who fights more like someone from Ezio's time (though he also has a pistol of his own), but that means nothing when Edward can just whittle him down him with bullets without ever crossing blades. In a way, it shows just how much the old forms of combat have given way to newer ones.
Gameplay
- The fact that the Animus doesn't desynch if Edward dives off of the Jackdaw, swims towards an enemy ship, boards and captures it single-handedly — thereby foregoing the need for a naval combat against that ship — means that it's entirely possible that he actually did this at least once!
- The sheer amount of freedom you have in this game. Going purely by the Animus's mechanics, it elevates Edward's reputation far above what's stated. In his youth, he could dive deep in a diving bell, rob chests from under the shadows of sharks and live to tell the tale, and harpooned Great White Sharks and whales. And he's defeated several legendary ships, amongst many other lesser ones.
- Taking down a Legendary ship. Even with a fully upgraded Jackdaw, you can't just trade broadside volleys with them; you have to outmaneuver them instead. In ascending order of badass, we have:
- The HMS Prince, generally considered the weakest of the four fights, is nonetheless a titan who will slaughter any mid-to-high level ship that gets too close. Getting within several dozen miles of it will trigger a thick, blinding fog in which it will hide. While you're struggling to figure out where it is, it will rain down powerful mortars on you; if you find it, it will not hesitate to open up with thunderous broadsides or its bow guns at what can easily turn out to be point-blank range, turning the battle into a deadly game of Hide-and-Seek. Capping it all off is the way it seems to actively invoke the image of the Flying Dutchman, with its ragged appearance and the mysterious fog sending your crew into paroxysms of pants-wetting terror at the sight of her.
- La Dama Negra is fought in a heavy rainstorm, but the loss of accuracy from the rain will soon turn out to be the least of your worries. It's got souped-up broadside volleys always lit aflame, and powerful mortars - not only do the latter avert Crosshair Aware by not displaying the telltale yellow-red reticules, but The Black Lady will lead its shots, meaning you're toast if you're not very good at turning on a dime. The cherry on top? This ship's got ultra-thick armor on its sides and front. Attempting to hit it in those locations will trigger a text straight-up telling the player that the sides of the ship are invulnerable, forcing you to gradually chip away its health by hitting the less-armoured stern while dodging a near-constant rain of mortar fire and its powerful broadsides.
- One of two candidates for hardest fight is the Twins, properly called the HMS Fearless and its sister ship Royal Sovereign. Individually, they've got thinner skin than the others, but that's because you fight them at the same time. The two are lightning fast, complimenting their tactic of choice - flanking you on both sides and then hitting you with a double serving of their over-cranked broadside shots. Getting caught between them will get you blown out of the water, and their speed means they are very good at this. Think you can make the fight easier by hammering one until it's down? The other one will respond by going utterly berserk, lighting itself on fire and aggressively chasing after you at ramming speed, all the while pelting you with heavy cannon shots (which are also on fire) from its forward and broadside guns.
- The one most would say is the queen of them all, however, is El Impoluto. This ship seems to aggressively combine the tactics used by the others to become an utter nightmare. Despite its massive size it's capable of moving at incredible speed, easily outmatching that of the Jackdaw at its travel speed, negating your usual advantage of maneuverability. On top of that, it's tough as a motherfucker, such that it can easily afford to simply batter past your fire barrels or broadsides and casually shrug off the damage. If all this wasn't enough, the ship seems to be crewed entirely by rum-crazed maniacs who have made it their mission in life to park their ship on top of yours; its primary tactic is to charge straight at you, ram you hard enough to wipe out an entire life bar in one shot, then turn on its heel and repeat (possibly with a broadside to soften you up) until the Jackdaw is nothing but driftwood.
- The whole randomness of the game world can cause some truly awesome fights, like attacking an island fort during a storm while a water spout circles it, messing up with your aim and forcing you to a distance where it's even harder to make your shots hit... unless you have the luck, timing, and/or bravado to get in close and attack from the opposite side as the deadly vortex. If you're lucky, the spout might attend to any enemy ships trying to interfere with your assault.
- Sometimes, when sailing, you may come across ships that are about to go down in flames, where you can loot the cargo, and the pockets of the dead men aboard. One common layout the bodies have is a British/Spanish captain absolutely swarmed by dead pirates, implying that the captain killed them all before finally being brought down in an offscreen Dying Moment of Awesome.
