Black Flag Resynced Jackdaw Officers: Lucy, Padre, and Deadman Perks
The short answer
Recruit Lucy Baldwin first if naval survival is your problem, the Padre first if you want a more aggressive boarding-and-ram playstyle, and Deadman Smith first if you already aim broadsides confidently. All three officer perks are permanent once recruited, so this is an order question rather than a painful build choice. Lucy’s Perfect Brace is the safest first payoff; the Padre’s Ram Dash is the most immediately dramatic; Deadman’s extra broadside volley is the best damage multiplier for a confident gunner.
Resynced’s officers are not crew members you rotate through a menu. Ubisoft says they are automatically assigned and equipped when recruited, and their perks remain unlocked. Complete the recruitment quest, get the benefit, then continue the remaining quests if you want their stories. That makes each officer a durable addition to the Jackdaw rather than another inventory item to babysit.
Lucy Baldwin: recruit her for defense first
Lucy Baldwin is a legendary shipwright. Her perk is Perfect Brace: time Brace correctly and it can almost completely nullify incoming damage. That is not glamorous, which is exactly why it is the best first recommendation for most players. Better defense protects bad positioning, buys time to learn a new enemy pattern, and makes a boarding decision less dangerous when another ship is still trying to turn the sea into splinters.
Ubisoft places Lucy at Salt Key Bank, imprisoned aboard a Man-o-War. Edward must sneak aboard and free her. Her story does not need to be fully completed before she joins the crew, so take the recruitment as soon as the quest permits rather than delaying a permanent survival tool for optional narrative cleanup.
Lucy is the correct first target when you are losing fights to incoming volleys, forts, or a poorly timed escape. She does not replace hull upgrades or sensible positioning. She gives a skilled reaction a much bigger reward, which is exactly what a defensive tool should do.
The Padre: the best all-round offensive officer
The Padre is a former Master-at-Arms serving a small village in Punta del Caracol. Help him and convince him to return to piracy. Once recruited, he joins boarding parties when you capture or loot disabled ships and unlocks Ram Dash, a high-speed collision attack for the Jackdaw.
Ram Dash matters because it arrives much earlier than its original-game equivalent. Ubisoft notes that the old reward came after defeating all four Legendary Ships, too late to be broadly useful in the story. In Resynced, the Padre makes it a real mid-game tool, with increased damage and a dedicated camera. It turns the bow into an answer for ships that have drifted into the wrong place, and it gives an aggressive player another way to control range.
Choose the Padre first when you board often, enjoy initiating fights instead of absorbing them, or want the strongest blend of personal combat and ship offense. He pairs naturally with the boarding versus sinking guide: disable a valuable ship, board for double loot, and let the Padre make the deck work faster.
Tobias “Deadman” Smith: take him when your broadsides already land
Deadman Smith is a Master Gunner. His permanent perk adds an additional aimed broadside volley with minimal cooldown between salvos. In plain terms, he rewards players who already line up broadsides well. The perk increases damage over time without asking you to change target selection or learn a new defense timing.
Deadman also connects to the upgraded mortar system. Ubisoft describes Deadman’s Cohort as a mortar enhancement with a secondary mode that saturates an area with manually aimed Carcass bombs. His recruitment becomes available through the A World Without Gold questline, so he is the one officer you should not plan an entire early-game route around. When the story opens the door, he is a strong reason to revisit naval damage priorities.
Pick Deadman first only if he is available and you are already winning naval engagements through consistent aimed broadsides. His damage is excellent, but it does less for a captain who is losing ships before the cannons are lined up. Lucy prevents that failure; the Padre gives an easier aggression tool; Deadman makes an already-functional gun deck vicious.
The recommended order by playstyle
| Your problem | First officer | Why |
|---|---|---|
| You take too much damage | Lucy Baldwin | Perfect Brace makes correctly timed defense dramatically stronger. |
| You want faster, closer fights | The Padre | Ram Dash and boarding support change the tempo immediately. |
| Your broadsides are accurate but slow | Deadman Smith | The extra aimed volley raises sustained naval damage. |
| You board every valuable ship | Lucy, then Padre | Secure the sea first, then speed up the profitable deck phase. |
| You are preparing for difficult ships | Lucy, then Deadman | Defense creates consistency; added broadside pressure converts it into wins. |
Do not confuse officers with upgrades
Officers complement the Jackdaw upgrade path; they do not replace it. The Harbormaster still controls the number and tier of ship upgrades you can buy, and higher-level enemy ships still provide the resources that fund those purchases. A Perfect Brace cannot make an under-upgraded hull invulnerable, and an extra broadside cannot compensate for missing weapon tiers.
The efficient loop is to pursue the officer whose perk solves your immediate weakness while continuing to invest in ship fundamentals. Recruit Lucy before a difficult run, use the safer fights to secure resources, improve the Jackdaw at the Harbormaster, then take the Padre or Deadman when their offensive payoff matches the ships you are hunting.
The practical takeaway
No officer is disposable, because each perk remains permanently unlocked. Start with Lucy for the safest and most broadly useful benefit. Go to the Padre when you want to turn boarding and ramming into your preferred answer. Take Deadman when the story makes him available and you are ready to turn accurate broadside play into faster kills.
For the rest of the progression loop, see the Great Inagua upgrade order and the naval overview. Recruit the people who fix the fight you are actually losing, not the perk with the most dramatic name.
Sources
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