Ubisoft's Monday maintenance for Skull and Bones is the biggest systems change the game has had in a while, and it did not come with a new ship or a new boss. Ammunition is gone. Every weapon on your ship now fires without drawing from a stockpile, every leftover cannonball and mortar bomb in your account has been turned into Silver, and every Ammunition Crate Blueprint you owned has been taken back and paid out at its full store price.
On top of that, Year 3 Season 2 (Crimson Waters) runs two weeks longer than planned, Blackwood's picked up a weekly Gildmark to Abyssal Essence trade, and the patch clears out a batch of bugs that players have been reporting since September. This guide covers every number Ubisoft published, what to do with your refund mail, and how the changes play out on the water.
When the October 19 Maintenance Happened
Ubisoft announced the maintenance on Steam on Friday, October 16, under the title "Maintenance 19th October - Ammunition removal, Season extension, and bug fixes." The listed start was 8 AM CEST / 5 PM AEDT / 11 PM PT on October 18, with an estimated duration of about two hours.
For players in the US Central time zone, that put the servers down at 1:00 AM CT on Monday, October 19, with service expected back around 3:00 AM CT if the estimate held. Most North American players slept through it, which is the point of that slot.
There is a second, shorter maintenance on the way. On Monday, October 19, Ubisoft posted "Additional maintenance 20th October - Calendar update and routine maintenance," scheduled for 8 AM CEST / 5 PM AEDT / 11 PM PT (19th Oct), lasting about one hour, and focused on "routine server checks and calendar update to reflect the season extension."
If you play late on Monday night in the Americas, plan your session around that second window. Do not start a long Heralds of the Abyss run at 12:45 AM CT on Tuesday.
Ammunition Removal: What Actually Changed
The patch note is short and blunt. Ubisoft lists three points:
- Weapons no longer require ammunition to be stocked in your ship cargo or warehouse to fire.
- All existing ammunition inventory and ammunition crate blueprints have been removed from player accounts and fully reimbursed.
- Tooltips no longer show any ammo type for the specific weapons.
What it changes in practice
Anyone who has played Skull and Bones for a few seasons knows the ritual. Before a long session you check your stacks, top up whatever your loadout eats fastest, and then find out halfway through a world event that you forgot one weapon type. Running dry in the middle of a fleet fight was never a skill check. It was a chore you failed.
With ammo gone, the only things that decide whether a weapon is firing are its reload, your positioning and whether you are still afloat. That shifts the conversation about loadouts away from "what can I afford to keep stocked" and toward "what actually kills things fastest."
Your cargo and warehouse just got lighter
The most immediate quality-of-life win is space. Ammo stacks used to live in the same cargo hold and warehouse as your materials, trade goods and loot. Those stacks are now gone from every account.
That lines up neatly with one of the items Ubisoft has kept on its "Top Community Feedback under investigation" list for weeks: storage space filling up too fast. The October 19 notes still list it as under investigation, so do not read the ammo removal as Ubisoft's final answer to storage. It does, however, hand back every slot your ammo used to occupy. A few practical things to do with that room:
- Sort your warehouse the first time you log in. Gaps where ammo stacks used to sit make it easier to see what you actually have.
- Stop selling materials early just to make room. If you were dumping crafting materials to keep a hold free for ammo, you can hang on to them now.
- Carry more loot home. With ammo no longer taking cargo, a longer run before docking leaves more room for what you pick up.
Ammunition Refund Rates (Per Unit)
Every unit of ammunition still in your inventory when the maintenance started was converted to Silver. Ubisoft's rates are per single unit, so the totals scale directly with how much you hoarded. The third column is simple arithmetic for 1,000 units of each type to give you a sense of scale.
A few observations from those numbers:
- Mortar Bombs and Buoy Shells pay the most, at 5 Silver each. If you stockpiled either, that is the line where your refund mail gets interesting.
- Giant Ballista Bolts are the only mid-tier rate at 3 Silver.
- Cannonballs, Rockets, Sea Fire Oil, Bombard Bombs and Torpedoes all convert at 1 Silver. Even a big cannonball pile only turns into a modest Silver payout.
Ammunition Crate Blueprint Refunds
The second part of the compensation covers Ammunition Crate Blueprints. Ubisoft says these were "removed and reimbursed at their full store purchase values in Silver or Pieces of Eight (Po8)." Here is the full table from the announcement:
How to read it:
- Standard Crates come back in Silver, ranging from 45 Silver (Cannonball) to 2,020 Silver (Rocket).
- Deluxe I Crates come back as 15,000 Silver for Mortar Bomb, Rocket, Buoy Shells, Giant Ballista Bolt and Sea Fire Oil, 12,000 Silver for Torpedo, and 11,000 Silver for Bombard Bomb and Cannonball.
- Deluxe II Crates all come back as 200 Pieces of Eight, regardless of ammo type.
Ubisoft only uses the phrase "full store purchase values." The notes do not say anything extra was added on top, and they do not mention compensation for any time spent using the crates.
Where Is My Refund? How to Claim It
The refunds do not land in your wallet automatically. Ubisoft's instructions:
- Refunds are delivered directly to your In-Game Mailbox.
- No expiration: the mail has no expiration date, so you can claim it whenever you are ready.
- Currency caps: if accepting the reimbursement would push you over your maximum Silver or Pieces of Eight capacity, clear enough room before you claim the attached total.
Some sensible ways to make room before you click claim:
- Buy what you were already going to buy. If you had Silver purchases or upgrades queued up, do them before you open the mail.
- Do not panic-spend Pieces of Eight. The Deluxe II refunds are 200 Po8 each, which is usually easy to fit. If you are sitting near the Po8 cap, think about cosmetics or items you actually want rather than burning it on filler.
- Remember there is no rush. The mail does not expire. If your Silver is near the cap tonight, play a session, spend, and claim later in the week.
Loadout Implications Now That Ammo Is Free
The notes do not touch weapon stats in this patch beyond the specific fixes listed later, so nothing here is a balance change. What has changed is the cost of running certain weapons.
Ammo-hungry weapons are back on the table. If you avoided a weapon type because keeping it stocked was a pain, that reason is gone. Rockets, mortars, torpedoes and ballistas all run on equal footing now in terms of upkeep.
Experimenting is cheaper. Trying a new loadout used to mean crafting or buying a stack of a new ammo type before you even knew whether you liked the weapon. Now you equip it and sail out.
Seasonal synergies are cleaner to test. This patch also fixes the Adaptive Arsenal seasonal bonus so that weapon damage values increase properly with certain weapons, and corrects Blowback to deal flat damage instead of percentage-based damage. If you dropped either because the numbers looked off, it is worth a fresh test now that you can swap weapons without worrying about supplies.
Fire builds on the Junk get simpler. Crimson Waters launched on August 18 with the Junk and a lot of seasonal gear built around Burning and sustained fire. A Junk build that wants to keep firing for an entire Heralds of the Abyss run no longer has an ammo clock ticking in the background.
Y3S2 Extended by Two Weeks
The second headline item is the season itself. Ubisoft's wording: "Y3S2 will be extended by two weeks as we prepare for upcoming changes next season." The team added that it will "share more details on what's coming, closer to the season's launch," and that the Seasonal Calendar will be updated with the latest events by 20 October 2026 at 06:00 UTC, which is 1:00 AM CT on Tuesday, October 20.
What the notes do not include is a specific new end date for the season or a start date for the next one. The updated calendar is where those should appear, so check it in game after the Tuesday maintenance rather than relying on guesses floating around social media.
How the extension affects your seasonal grind
Two extra weeks changes the math for anyone behind on seasonal progression.
- Smuggler Pass: if you were short of the milestone you wanted, you just got two more weeks of daily and weekly Job Board challenges to close the gap. The Season 2 notes moved Job Board contracts onto a cycle of daily and weekly Smuggler Pass challenges, so extra weeks mean extra challenge rotations.
- Seasonal Mastery: "Dislike for the Seasonal Mastery Reset due to grind associated" is still on Ubisoft's community feedback list. The extension does not change the reset, but it does push it back two weeks, which gives you more time on your current Mastery tree before it resets.
- Abyssal Essence: more weeks of the season means more weeks of the new Blackwood's exchange, covered next. With a weekly cap, every extra week is another 1,500 Essence of potential.
- No need to rush the last week. If you had planned a big push for what you thought was the final weekend, you can spread it out instead.
New Blackwood's Trade: Gildmarks for Abyssal Essence
The October 19 notes add a new exchange at Blackwood's:
- Where: the Weekly Section of the Buy and Sell menu at Blackwood's.
- Rate: 100 Abyssal Essence for 1,000 Gildmarks.
- Limit: 15 exchanges per week, for a total of 1,500 Abyssal Essence per Den.
Why Abyssal Essence is worth buying
Abyssal Essence is the Crimson Waters currency tied to the Abyssal Fleet. According to Ubisoft's Season 2 patch notes, it drops from Abyssal Fleet content and is used in mod transfers or at Blackwood for rewards such as cosmetics, Adept Modded Weapons and the craneless Barque skin Crown of Ruin.
Until now, the realistic way to build Essence was to fight the Abyssal Fleet, and the best of that content sits in World Tier 4 with Heralds of the Abyss. The new exchange gives you a second, slower lane: turn surplus Gildmarks into Essence on a weekly budget.
Where do Gildmarks come from?
Ubisoft's Season 2 notes (which spell the currency "Guildmarks") list them as a reward from the overhauled Job Board, with Medium contracts paying 300 Smuggler Points and 100 Guildmarks. At that rate, a single exchange of 1,000 Gildmarks is ten Medium contracts' worth, so plan accordingly. The Season 2 notes list Smuggler Points as the reward for Easy and Hard contracts, not Gildmarks.
Practical approach for the exchange:
- Spend your stockpile first. If you have been sitting on Gildmarks with nothing to buy, the first week of the exchange is the obvious time to convert some of it.
- Decide on a target. If you are saving for a specific Adept Modded Weapon or a mod transfer, work out how much Essence you still need and buy only that.
- Keep fighting the Abyss. The exchange is a supplement, not a replacement. Heralds of the Abyss also drops rare mods and weapons the exchange cannot give you.
- Note the "per Den" wording. Ubisoft caps the trade per Den. The notes do not spell out further detail, so plan around the 1,500 cap per week.
The Easy contract Essence fix
One related fix is easy to miss. Ubisoft fixed "an issue that caused Abyssal Essence to be rewarded for completing 'Easy' difficulty Job Board Contracts." If you were farming Easy contracts and seeing Essence drop, that was a bug and it is now closed. The new Gildmark exchange is the sanctioned alternative.
Full Bug Fix List
The rest of the patch is fixes, and several are marked "[Player reported]" in Ubisoft's notes. The dev team also left a few jokes in the notes. Here is every fix, grouped the way Ubisoft grouped them.
Audio
- Fixed an issue where multiple shanties failed to trigger during standard navigation. (Player reported)
- Fixed an issue where Title Screen and Store BGM plus UI audio were missing. (Player reported)
Combat
- Fixed an issue where the Abyssal Stigma status effect could not be removed by using a Restoration Kit.
- Updated the "Perforate" Mythic Mod description to clarify that projectiles can pierce the same enemy ship multiple times, dealing reduced damage with each pierce.
- Fixed an issue where the Blowback perk dealt percentage-based damage instead of flat damage. (Player reported)
- Fixed an issue where Kraken Eye weakpoints remained highlighted during Phases 1 and 2 of the Kraken event.
- Fixed an issue where Iron Thunder remained charged up even after Elite ships fired out ballistas during Heralds of the Abyss.
- Fixed an issue where certain sea monsters could be defeated in a single hit by targeting their weakpoints.
Contracts
- Fixed an issue where objective text was unclear about how to deliver items to the Buoy during the "Domain: Philippe La Peste" seasonal contract.
- Fixed an issue in Bloodsoaked Silver where traitors remained invincible, preventing contract completion. (Player reported)
- Fixed an issue that caused Abyssal Essence to be rewarded for completing "Easy" difficulty Job Board Contracts.
Stability
- Fixed an issue on GeForce NOW where downloading a micro-patch prevented the game from launching. (Player reported)
- Fixed an issue causing players to hit multiple errors and fail to join games because they were still on the older build. (Player reported) Players on an old build now get booted to the Title Screen so they update.
- Fixed an issue where players could not rejoin Sea Monster activities after network disconnections near the end of the event.
Faction War
- Fixed an issue where War Asset drops from War Convoy ships were inconsistent when their routes crossed non-contested territories.
Graphics
- Fixed an issue where flags failed to dither on the Junk Ship when Rockets or Springloaders were equipped.
- Fixed an issue where the Booming Fortune Firework animation was cut off on the player screen.
Localization
- Fixed a localization issue where the "Perforate" Mythic Ascension Mod used the same Korean term as the "Pierce" damage type. (Player reported)
Others
- Various client and server crash fixes.
Ship Loadout
- Fixed an issue where weapon damage values did not increase when using certain weapons under the Adaptive Arsenal seasonal bonus.
- Fixed an issue where Reachwarden Repair Long Guns experienced unusual stacking buffs on healing over time.
Store
- Fixed an issue where the Store Voucher "Voucher Available" label was missing from the Pause Menu for voucher owners.
- Fixed an issue where the Emissive label was missing for the Abysslit Eye Color under the Dreadtide bundle.
UI/UX
- Fixed an issue where the Seasonal Infamy Leaderboard displayed an incorrect reset timer.
- Fixed an issue where the event HUD remained stuck on the final stage after completing Heralds of the Abyss.
- Fixed an issue where the scrollbar was non-functional in the Legendary Kingpin Boost information panel.
What Ubisoft Is Still Investigating
The notes close with two lists. The top community feedback under investigation:
- Frustration with the limited new content added in the game.
- Storage space filling up too fast.
- Dislike for the Seasonal Mastery Reset due to the grind associated.
- Balance pass on Kraken difficulty and scaling.
- Unbound Reaper goes invisible.
- Reachwarden's Touch of Argus stacks do not consume correctly after reaching maximum on Corvette.
- Physician ledger does not apply damage properly with weapons that have soul mending.
- Events playing incorrect music, or no music at all.
- Missing cosmetic rewards after completing Freeman's Investigations (Grave News, Crown of Ukuta, etc).
Your First Session After the Patch: A Checklist
If you just want the short version of what to do when you log in:
- Open your In-Game Mailbox and look at the refund totals before claiming anything.
- Check your Silver and Pieces of Eight against their caps. Spend down first if the refund will not fit.
- Claim when there is room. The mail does not expire, so there is no penalty for waiting.
- Sort your cargo and warehouse now that the ammo stacks are gone.
- Revisit your loadout. Try weapons you avoided because of ammo upkeep, and retest Adaptive Arsenal or Blowback builds after their fixes.
- Visit Blackwood's Weekly Section and decide how many Gildmark to Abyssal Essence trades you want this week, up to 15.
- Check the Seasonal Calendar after 1:00 AM CT on Tuesday, October 20 for the updated event schedule and season length.
- Retry Bloodsoaked Silver if the invincible traitors stopped you before.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Skull and Bones still need ammo?
No. Since the October 19, 2026 maintenance, weapons no longer require ammunition stocked in your ship cargo or warehouse to fire. Ubisoft removed all existing ammunition from player accounts, refunded it in Silver, and weapon tooltips no longer show an ammo type.
How much Silver do I get for my cannonballs and other ammo?
Cannonballs convert at 1 Silver per unit, as do Rockets, Sea Fire Oil, Bombard Bombs and Torpedoes. Giant Ballista Bolts convert at 3 Silver each, and Mortar Bombs and Buoy Shells at 5 Silver each. The conversion applies to every unit you had in inventory when the maintenance ran.
What do I get back for Ammunition Crate Blueprints?
Ubisoft refunded every owned Ammunition Crate Blueprint at its full store purchase value. Standard Crates return between 45 and 2,020 Silver depending on type, Deluxe I Crates return 11,000, 12,000 or 15,000 Silver, and every Deluxe II Crate returns 200 Pieces of Eight.
Where is my Skull and Bones ammo refund?
The refund is in your In-Game Mailbox. It is not added to your currency automatically. Ubisoft says the mail has no expiration date, so you can claim it whenever you are ready.
What happens if my refund would go over the Silver or Pieces of Eight cap?
Ubisoft's instruction is to clear enough space under your maximum currency capacity before claiming the attached total. Spend some Silver or Po8 first, then claim the mail. Because the mail does not expire, you can wait until you have room.
When does Skull and Bones Y3S2 end now?
Ubisoft extended Year 3 Season 2 by two weeks but did not publish a new end date in the October 19 notes. The Seasonal Calendar is being updated by October 20, 2026 at 06:00 UTC (1:00 AM CT) to reflect the extension, alongside a roughly one-hour maintenance, so check the in-game calendar after that.
How do I exchange Gildmarks for Abyssal Essence?
Go to Blackwood's and open the Weekly Section of the Buy and Sell menu. Each exchange costs 1,000 Gildmarks and gives 100 Abyssal Essence. You can do it 15 times a week, for a maximum of 1,500 Abyssal Essence per Den.
Why was there a second Skull and Bones maintenance on October 20?
Ubisoft scheduled an additional maintenance for 8 AM CEST on October 20 (11 PM PT October 19, 1:00 AM CT October 20), lasting about one hour. It focuses on routine server checks and updating the calendar to reflect the two-week season extension.
Final Take
The ammo removal is a rare live-service change that takes something away and leaves almost everyone better off. You lose a resource you had to babysit, you get cargo and warehouse space back, and you are paid out for every unit and every crate blueprint at published rates. The only real homework is the refund mail: check your caps, spend down if needed, and claim when it fits.
The two-week extension and the Gildmark exchange are a catch-up package. They do not answer Ubisoft's own top feedback item about limited new content, and the team is open that the extra time is about preparing next season. Use the window to finish your Smuggler Pass, push Abyssal Essence toward whatever Adept weapon or mod transfer you are chasing, and keep an eye on the updated calendar after the Tuesday maintenance for what comes next. We will update this guide if Ubisoft publishes the new season end date or more detail on the next season.
