There are 10 total ships you can acquire throughout your time in Skull and Bones. Each ship has a different name and class and you need to be a specific level to captain certain ships. One of the best early-game ships you can build is called the Defender, which is in the Hulk class.

As you might expect with a name and class like that, the Defender is a part of the Tank Ship Type, meaning it has extra defenses and specializes in reducing damage when bracing. You can read more about the Tank and the other Ship Types in our previous Skull and Bones guide. For now, though, if you want to get your hands on the Defender, you need to find its blueprint in a specific spot on the map.

Defender blueprint location in Skull and Bones

All ships, weapons, and other parts require you to find a blueprint before you’re able to craft them. Sometimes the blueprints are awarded to you after completing a quest, but for the most part, you’ll be purchasing these blueprints through merchants around the map in Skull and Bones.

For the Defender specifically, you’ll have to travel to the Sacred Tree outpost in the Red Isles region. I’ve previously gone over where to find the Sacred Tree, but it’s located west of Sainte-Anne down a series of canals near the Hova’s Hill part of the map. At the Sacred Tree, you can find a Fara Warrior merchant right near where you dock. This Fara Warrior is the only merchant in Skull and Bones that sells the blueprint for the Hulk ship class, which right now only includes the Defender.

You can purchase the Hulk ship blueprint for the following materials:

• 12 Fine Jute
• 6 Bronze Ingots
• 6 Iroko Plank
• 1,080 Silver

All of these resources are fairly easy to obtain in the early game of Skull and Bones. You can find Fine Jute by harvesting Jute around the map and bringing it to a Refinery. The same can be said for Bronze Ingots if you bring the Refinery plenty of Copper as well as Iroko Planks, which are refined from Iroko wood.

As for the Silver, if you need some extra cash, I suggest completing contracts and main story quests. You can also Plunder settlements if want extra resources along with more Silver.

Whenever you have the necessary materials for the Hulk ship blueprint, you can purchase it from the Fara Warrior, head to the Shipwright in Sainte-Anne, and then craft the Defender. Once it’s finished building, you can equip it as your active ship at any dock.