Gamebreaking bug on "The Forts" mission after watching the cutscene

[Irukandji]

Just wanted to bring this to some attention but I got hardlocked after this mission. After the cutscene, the game prompts you to open the map with the tooltip on the bottom of the screen, but the map button brings up your main menu instead, with absolutely no other way to open the map, leaving you unable to proceed, and you can't exit the mission. I've tried using different controllers or switching to keyboard to fix this, but nothing. Almost like the game forgot the map exists. I have found no workaround for the issue. This has pretty much left me completely stuck unable to continue by any means, or exit the mission.

Just wanted to warn some people, I have no idea what triggered this, so I don't know how to tell you to avoid it. But in case this does happen to someone, make a fallback save before you start the mission and attack the fort, or you could get stuck like I did if you don't.

Thanks for reading

[Shin Happens]

Ok, I have just played this mission, I alt tabbed to the forums while the game is on pause now....

Everything worked perfectly for me!

After I take the fort the map automatically opens for me. Just so you see which region has now been uncovered and made safer to travel in. I close the map with ESC.

Then the next step is to go to the Jackdaw and to inspect your fleet mission map. Since this mission unlocks fleet missions. You go to your cabin, open the fleet map and inspect it all and then you can close the map again and that is it.

So something must be very wrong on your end, because for me the map was opened automatically after the cutscene with Torres.

If this is a bug I hope they patch it for you soon. Not too many people may probably encounter this.

[Irukandji]

Hey thank you for the information, interesting to know that the map automatically opens. Seems to have skipped that for me. I can go into the captains cabin and send a fleet, look at the tutorial and such.

So I sent a fleet and left the cabin, but nothing seems to be happening yet. I'm currently standing around letting the timer on my fleet ship tick down with some hope that it'll do something. I've clicked on every menu that I can that's related to Kenway's fleet but no luck I'm afraid.

Yeah, doesn't seem to be a common bug. There's two posts about it that I know of on the bug reports page, one I made and someone else's. At least it's not affecting everyone.

[Sir_Trigmeister]

I currently have this same bug.

[Sir_Trigmeister]

OK, So I scrolled down on the Load game screen and picked an autosave from before I took the Fort, on completion the bug was no longer present and I can continue the game as normal. Hope this helps.

[Sru]

am having the same issue currently, have you found the solution to it or still managing around the bug?

[Irukandji]

Sorry to hear you have the same problem, I managed to fix it with the suggestion above by loading autosaves. I had 3 different autosaves during the same mission, after the cutscene and when the bug occurred. But loading the earliest one still sorted it out and reset the mission objective, and then told me to use the fleet. after that, my map was fixed. Maybe try that out, hope it works out for you.

[rooooooooooooot]

Unfortunately the game autosaves every time you enter the ships cabin and in trying to figure out a solution to this bug all my saves are now from after the fight.

My game is essentially soft locked until Ubisoft patch this bug as there is no way I am restarting 15 hours of progress.

Very upset I can no longer play this game I spent $70 on.

[The Hausenberg]

Originally posted by Shin Happens:

Ok, I have just played this mission, I alt tabbed to the forums while the game is on pause now....

Everything worked perfectly for me!

After I take the fort the map automatically opens for me. Just so you see which region has now been uncovered and made safer to travel in. I close the map with ESC.

Then the next step is to go to the Jackdaw and to inspect your fleet mission map. Since this mission unlocks fleet missions. You go to your cabin, open the fleet map and inspect it all and then you can close the map again and that is it.

So something must be very wrong on your end, because for me the map was opened automatically after the cutscene with Torres.

If this is a bug I hope they patch it for you soon. Not too many people may probably encounter this.

This just happened to me today. Your suggestion of inspecting the fleet in the cabin seemed to have worked and saved my playthrough, so thank you so much for mentioning this. I really hope they fix this soon, because its absolutely game breaking.

[Płyn do chłodnicy]

Same issue on this mission,but PlayStation 5

[Son of BlackSmith]

To everyone facing this bug, I tried every solution I read but non-worked for me
except (keep relodging your previous auto saves until you get a mission 'speak to quartermaster')

[Koji]

I’m stuck on this now no previous auto saves to work with

[hardphaestus]

Same.

[Salty Exxer]

Same here. Going to try the two suggestions.
Edit: Going to the ship/captain's quarters and accessing the fleet mission map seems to have fixed it for me.

[FrostyDog-90]

FIX (PC) — Map won't open after "The Forts" mission
First, try loading an older save from inside the game (before the fort). If you have one, that alone might fix it.
If not (most people won't, since it autosaves right through the bug), get one back via Windows:

1. Close the game + fully quit Ubisoft Connect (right-click tray icon → Exit). Even on Steam, this game runs its saves through Ubisoft Connect in the background.

2. Go to: C:\Program Files (x86)\Ubisoft\Ubisoft Game Launcher\savegames\<your ID folder>\

3. Inside, you'll see a numbered folder for this game (the exact number may differ depending on whether you bought via Steam or Ubisoft Connect — just look for the one that was recently modified, matching your play session).

4. Right-click that folder → Properties → Previous Versions.

5. Pick a version from before you got stuck → open it.

6. Copy all files inside → paste into the real folder → Replace when prompted.

7. In Ubisoft Connect: Settings → uncheck "Enable cloud save synchronization" (stops it re-downloading the broken save).
Steam users: right-click the game in your Steam Library → Properties → Updates tab → uncheck "Enable Steam Cloud synchronization" (stops it re-downloading the broken save).

8. Launch game → Load → pick the restored older save.

Note: I tested this on the Ubisoft Connect PC version specifically, but since Steam also relies on Ubisoft Connect for saves in the background, the same steps should work — just adjust the folder number if it looks different. You'll have to redo the fort mission again after loading the older save, but it worked perfectly for me right away.

[hardphaestus]

Originally posted by FrostyDog-90:

FIX (PC) — Map won't open after "The Forts" mission
First, try loading an older save from inside the game (before the fort). If you have one, that alone might fix it.
If not (most people won't, since it autosaves right through the bug), get one back via Windows:

1. Close the game + fully quit Ubisoft Connect (right-click tray icon → Exit). Even on Steam, this game runs its saves through Ubisoft Connect in the background.

2. Go to: C:\Program Files (x86)\Ubisoft\Ubisoft Game Launcher\savegames\<your ID folder>\

3. Inside, you'll see a numbered folder for this game (the exact number may differ depending on whether you bought via Steam or Ubisoft Connect — just look for the one that was recently modified, matching your play session).

4. Right-click that folder → Properties → Previous Versions.

5. Pick a version from before you got stuck → open it.

6. Copy all files inside → paste into the real folder → Replace when prompted.

7. In Ubisoft Connect: Settings → uncheck "Enable cloud save synchronization" (stops it re-downloading the broken save).
Steam users: right-click the game in your Steam Library → Properties → Updates tab → uncheck "Enable Steam Cloud synchronization" (stops it re-downloading the broken save).

8. Launch game → Load → pick the restored older save.

Note: I tested this on the Ubisoft Connect PC version specifically, but since Steam also relies on Ubisoft Connect for saves in the background, the same steps should work — just adjust the folder number if it looks different. You'll have to redo the fort mission again after loading the older save, but it worked perfectly for me right away.

It worked! Thank you so much! Now I get to have fun this weekend 😁