Black Flag Resynced Faces Fresh Spoiler Fears After Leaked Plot Turn
If you jumped into Assassin’s Creed 3 at launch, you might recall how a database entry from Kaniehtí:io leaked the game’s major reveal—that Haytham was, in fact, a Templar—well before the moment lands during Charles Lee’s initiation. More than a decade later, Ubisoft is stirring up similar concerns, because Black Flag Resynced also lets slip a major plot turn.
Note: spoilers for Black Flag Resynced.
In the opening stretch of Black Flag Resynced, Benjamin Hornigold—an important figure associated with helping set up the Brethren of the Coast in Nassau—is framed as a mentor for Edward Kenway. That perception holds for much of the early game. Then, by Sequence 10, Hornigold’s true status is revealed: he has stepped away from piracy entirely and accepted a pardon to serve the West Indies Templar Order. With that new role comes a grim use of his insider knowledge, as he hunts down the very comrades he used to run with.
The moment plays like a gut-punch betrayal, culminating in one of Kenway’s most personal assassinations. Kenway vents his anger, denouncing Hornigold and calling him something along the lines of a “snake.” However, if you’re playing the Resynced remake, that shock no longer hits cleanly. The twist is effectively spoiled the instant you open the Animus Database, because Hornigold is already listed under the “enemies” category before Sequence 10 even arrives.
It’s 2012 All Over Again
- A Reddit user, AlteredBridge51, was the first to point out that the Animus Database was giving away the upcoming reveal, though the warning didn’t spread widely at the time.
- After checking directly, we confirmed the issue ourselves by loading an earlier save and opening the Animus Database. The game does, in fact, flag Hornigold as an enemy before Sequence 10, undermining one of the story’s most emotionally heavy sequences.
- This mirrors what happened back in 2012 with Assassin’s Creed 3, when codex-style information also spoiled something players were meant to discover during the narrative.
- Ubisoft handled the earlier situation by patching the relevant codex entry, so players who wanted to explore colonial American history and lore weren’t punished for reading.
It’s now fairly common knowledge that Haytham is a Templar, largely because of his notably slow-burning introduction—something many players still remember as being more “build-up” than “instant confirmation.” But at the time, the prologue was often read as simple setup for Connor, including how the Assassins took shape across the Americas. In other words: people didn’t expect the father to be the turncoat.
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Benjamin Hornigold is also based on a real historical figure of the same name, who similarly made the shift from pirate to pirate hunter. That background may make the twist easier to predict for players who have already studied Golden Age history. Still, for newcomers who don’t have that context, it’s disappointing to have the story’s reversal undercut so openly. Ideally, a patch will come soon that places Hornigold under “Allies” instead of “enemies” until the proper point in the sequence, preserving the intent of the reveal.
