Uploaded April 2016 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
More glitches in Assassin's Creed: Black Flag!
twitter.com/findlestick
Points of interest (note: written in a rush):
1. Some Treasure Map break-outs:
(a) I broke out of the 'sail-to-land' trigger/prompt. This allows you to sail to the area that you are normally forced to sail to with the sail-to-land prompt.
As expected, the area is actually a cardboard cut-out.
(b) You can break-out of the 'abandon boarding' prompts. Selecting yes, makes the menu graphics and game graphics to be overlayed, when entering the menu.
Selecting no, makes Edward get stuck to the ship's wheel. However, if your crew wins the battle (or if they are all killed), you don't get the victory battle or desynchronized...just a softlock.
2. Footage of exploring Anotto Bay without water. Sometimes Anotto Bay doesn't have a roof of collision, which lets you dive down there and run around on the sea floor. However, the camera angles are so terrible that it's difficult to explore much. But I really would like to activate some sort of prompt that you'd normally only use while swimming, but while walking. But that's a test for next time I visit this game.
3. Some basic tests of the weapon mechanics. I didn't show it all in the vid, since it made for dull footage, but I switched to blow darts while shooting the gun (while keeping aimed pressed). This causes the reticle to focus on the back of Edward's head, if you then switch to guns and enter the water while aiming, Edward keep holding the blowpipe permanently. He'll hold it no matter what action he does, climbing, swimming, holding the ship's wheel, cutscenes and he'll even load gunpowder into the blowpipe.
Also, if you switch to swords, he will hold the blowpipe like it is a sword and the other sword is displaced through his arm.
4. Mini-game glitch – if you enter 'tactical camera' view - but then make a move at the same time as you switch to 'normal camera' view – but then suddenly quit, Edward still thinks he's playing the game when it's actually over. He gets softlocked staring at the guy's groin.
5. Early access to maps-data – it's possible to access a part of the game's memory, where all the maps are stored, thanks to a navigational loophole in the menus.
To activate the glitch you firstly need to examine a map in your inventory, but then exit back to the game by avoiding pressing “back” (like the game wants you to). Instead, exit back to the game by pressing select a couple of times.
Now, if you enter the 'change equipment' area of the Cabin - instead of it giving you options to change gear - the game strangely gives you access to totally different menu options which lists all of the maps, even if you only have one map.
Not in vid: if you activate the glitch, and then enter the inventory and access the 'Jackdaw Upgrades' or 'Edward Upgrades' the game shows you all the maps like you saw in this vid (instead of Jackdaw or Edward upgrades).
More tests needed...
6. Anotto Bay swimming glitches and out-of-bounds – There's an area at Anotto Bay where the 'stealth swim' water overlaps with the 'diving' water. Not sure if this is known, but I couldn't find a mention of it anywhere.
Anyway, this lets you access Anotto Bay before you've even gotten the Diving Bell, I tried all sorts of obvious shenanigans to try to trick the game into thinking that I had the bell. Tests like playing through the area from start to finish, engaging in all its activities, hitting savepoints and restarting from main menu etc. but the game just wouldn't take the bait. I did all this hoping I could trick the game into loading the “Diving for medicines” memory as soon as you get to Havana, thus skipping loads, but...bleh!
However, this glitch lets you explore the entire ocean while swimming underwater. I tried to swim down as far as I could, but it turns out that the ocean is only about four Jackdaw-lengths deep, where there's a solid floor of collision. And if you go to the Harpooning locations you can swim with models of sharks, whales etc.
Also, if you cross a certain boundary, Edward's animation gets stuck in a pose. You can swim in this pose like a torpedo.
It turns out that deep sea diving is actually a proper swimming state like in God of War. So if we can find an oob spot in the water's surface that doesn't have 'water collision' we will be able to swim around on land. It would be interesting to interact with game-elements in this state. However, the ocean is so damn vast that it seems unlikely, still...
More glitches in Assassin's Creed: Black Flag!
twitter.com/findlestick
Points of interest (note: written in a rush):
1. Some Treasure Map break-outs:
(a) I broke out of the 'sail-to-land' trigger/prompt. This allows you to sail to the area that you are normally forced to sail to with the sail-to-land prompt.
As expected, the area is actually a cardboard cut-out.
(b) You can break-out of the 'abandon boarding' prompts. Selecting yes, makes the menu graphics and game graphics to be overlayed, when entering the menu.
Selecting no, makes Edward get stuck to the ship's wheel. However, if your crew wins the battle (or if they are all killed), you don't get the victory battle or desynchronized...just a softlock.
2. Footage of exploring Anotto Bay without water. Sometimes Anotto Bay doesn't have a roof of collision, which lets you dive down there and run around on the sea floor. However, the camera angles are so terrible that it's difficult to explore much. But I really would like to activate some sort of prompt that you'd normally only use while swimming, but while walking. But that's a test for next time I visit this game.
3. Some basic tests of the weapon mechanics. I didn't show it all in the vid, since it made for dull footage, but I switched to blow darts while shooting the gun (while keeping aimed pressed). This causes the reticle to focus on the back of Edward's head, if you then switch to guns and enter the water while aiming, Edward keep holding the blowpipe permanently. He'll hold it no matter what action he does, climbing, swimming, holding the ship's wheel, cutscenes and he'll even load gunpowder into the blowpipe.
Also, if you switch to swords, he will hold the blowpipe like it is a sword and the other sword is displaced through his arm.
4. Mini-game glitch – if you enter 'tactical camera' view - but then make a move at the same time as you switch to 'normal camera' view – but then suddenly quit, Edward still thinks he's playing the game when it's actually over. He gets softlocked staring at the guy's groin.
5. Early access to maps-data – it's possible to access a part of the game's memory, where all the maps are stored, thanks to a navigational loophole in the menus.
To activate the glitch you firstly need to examine a map in your inventory, but then exit back to the game by avoiding pressing “back” (like the game wants you to). Instead, exit back to the game by pressing select a couple of times.
Now, if you enter the 'change equipment' area of the Cabin - instead of it giving you options to change gear - the game strangely gives you access to totally different menu options which lists all of the maps, even if you only have one map.
Not in vid: if you activate the glitch, and then enter the inventory and access the 'Jackdaw Upgrades' or 'Edward Upgrades' the game shows you all the maps like you saw in this vid (instead of Jackdaw or Edward upgrades).
More tests needed...
6. Anotto Bay swimming glitches and out-of-bounds – There's an area at Anotto Bay where the 'stealth swim' water overlaps with the 'diving' water. Not sure if this is known, but I couldn't find a mention of it anywhere.
Anyway, this lets you access Anotto Bay before you've even gotten the Diving Bell, I tried all sorts of obvious shenanigans to try to trick the game into thinking that I had the bell. Tests like playing through the area from start to finish, engaging in all its activities, hitting savepoints and restarting from main menu etc. but the game just wouldn't take the bait. I did all this hoping I could trick the game into loading the “Diving for medicines” memory as soon as you get to Havana, thus skipping loads, but...bleh!
However, this glitch lets you explore the entire ocean while swimming underwater. I tried to swim down as far as I could, but it turns out that the ocean is only about four Jackdaw-lengths deep, where there's a solid floor of collision. And if you go to the Harpooning locations you can swim with models of sharks, whales etc.
Also, if you cross a certain boundary, Edward's animation gets stuck in a pose. You can swim in this pose like a torpedo.
It turns out that deep sea diving is actually a proper swimming state like in God of War. So if we can find an oob spot in the water's surface that doesn't have 'water collision' we will be able to swim around on land. It would be interesting to interact with game-elements in this state. However, the ocean is so damn vast that it seems unlikely, still...
