Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag

• If you do all the major assassin missions (the assassin symbols, not the skulls) you get armor at your manor that is 25% damage reduction

• If you collect all the mayan steles (which isn't as hard as you think), you get armor that basically ignores being shot at which can be super useful. But please note that not all of the steles are available from the start.

• When you can, always go after a shanty, they're great and add to the experience. On the same note, don't feel like you have to get every animus shard unless you're a masochist because some of them are dumb.

• If you're not able to find the naval contract questgiver in one of the forts in the southwest part of the map, it's not a glitch. After you complete all of the other contracts the final one will be available there.

• Sea shanties are just for fun (as in your crew will sing)

• Animus fragments don't really do anything (except count towards the abstergo challenges that unlock some fun cheat codes for when you do replays)

• Treasure maps are mostly a way to get money, though there are some relics (appear at your base once you get it) and ship customization items buried

• The two I highly recommend are All the assassination contracts as they unlock a rather sweet pair of pistols and The diving missions since you find the final upgrade plans for each part of your ship during them.

• If you want immersion, don't get the Mayan armour. It hasn't got a hood, but Edward still uses the raise/lower hood animation.