Personally I prefer battling the bigger ships and risk dying for the high reward . But when fighting schooners and brigs , if you ' ve made a couple of upgrades already you should be able to take them without boarding . The little gun thing on the side aim at groups of enemies and powder barrels . When grinding , don ' t lower notoriety , the hunter ships carry ship upgrading material . Metal is the rarest resource so don ' t start a fight with any ship that doesn ' t have any . If one joins a fight , so be it , take it , but don ' t waste your time in a fight where no metal is gained . As you sail around collecting metal , the rest will follow . As for what to upgrade , personally I just do whatever is available as soon as possible and have no problem .