While Skull and Bones is mostly about sailing the sea to take down ships, plunder and loot, there are moments when the game asks you to go out of your way to hunt some wildlife. These usually take the form of hippos, crocodiles and sharks, though you’ll soon realise that most of them can only be found in inaccessible areas with a large ship. Here’s a quick guide on how to hunt those magnificant animals using a Dhow.
First and foremost, you might be wondering what a Dhow is. Skull and Bones never outright tells you what it is but in case you’re like me who has no knowledge of boats and wandered aimlessly around, it’s the first little vessel you get at the beginning of the game following the shipwreck. You can select this in the shipyard menu by simply switching out your ships.
How to Hunt Hippos and Crocodiles
If you’re brave enough to take your Dhow out to open sea and fight some sharks, there’s also that option but a less riskier option is to use your Dhow to access bodies of water normally found in the centre of islands. When you bring up your map, you’ll notice little openings that lead into those bodies of water – openings that are way too small for a regular ship but not for a Dhow.
Guide your Dhow through those openings to sail near markers usually showing animals like hippos or crocodiles. Most importantly, you can’t go into a hunt without some weapons. Thankfully, you can craft spears of varying levels at most harbours by the blacksmith. Inititally, lower-levelled spears will be challenging against crocodiles. They deal little damage against the predators who can, in turn, deal pretty high damage to you.
Charge up your spear throws and land your hits to deal damage. If you want to score a bit of extra damage and temporarily stun a crocodile (or a hippo), wait for them to lunge at you. This will give you a few brief seconds to throw a spear into their mouth, which will stun them for a few moments and keep them still near the Dhow.
Hunting crocodiles, hippos and other wildlife gives you their skin as valuable crafting materials that you’ll eventually need on your journey. It’s not easy, at least in the first few hours of the game but it can be done. On that note, shooting sharks and other animals with your cannons destroys their skin. It’s fun but there’s no reward in doing so.
Skull and Bones is now available for PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC. Make sure you also read up our guide on how to change your appearance and unlock cosmetics.