Black Marks
Black Marks is a 4-item collection quest feeding into Revenge Is Best Served Cold. Recovered from a Blackbeard Outpost on the Ancient Ruins island, an enemy camp, and a ship defended by Richard's Lieutenant. Quest-giver is Doctor Galen Skelton; rewards include a Seafood Platter and Thomas Richards' Journal.
Black Marks
Black Marks is the collection quest that gates the Thomas Richards boss encounter in Revenge Is Best Served Cold. The player must recover four Black Marks from three different sources across the Blackbeard Waters region around the Coastal Jungle biome. The quest is given by Doctor Galen Skelton as the intel-gathering step that reveals Richards's location.
Summary
Property | Value |
|---|---|
Quest-giver | Doctor Galen Skelton |
Feeds into | Revenge Is Best Served Cold |
Items to collect | 4 Black Marks (split 2 + 1 + 1 across three sources) |
Region | Blackbeard Waters (Coastal Jungle) |
Rewards | XP, 1x Seafood Platter, 1x Thomas Richards' Journal |
Where to Find the Black Marks
All four Black Marks are stored in containers labelled Richard's Crew Chests at the three locations below. The chest contents are pre-set; picking up any other loot in the same chest does not skip the Black Mark.
Blackbeard Outpost on the Ancient Ruins island (2 marks). The outpost sits near the Ancient Ruins POI in the Coastal Jungle. Two Black Marks are recovered here; the path inside the outpost is guarded by Blackbeard Pirates.
Enemy camp (1 mark). A smaller Blackbeard camp elsewhere in Blackbeard Waters. One Black Mark is looted from a Richard's Crew Chest inside the camp.
Ship defended by Richard's Lieutenant (1 mark). An enemy ship patrols Blackbeard Waters with Richard's Lieutenant aboard. Disable or sink the ship and recover the final Black Mark from the wreckage.
Recommended Preparation
The three sources span combat with Blackbeard Pirates on land and naval combat with a Lieutenant-captained ship at sea. Bring a balanced land loadout (a Slash or Crude melee weapon plus a firearm) and a Ketch with basic cannons. Expect roughly gear tier 4-5 level of encounter difficulty.
After Completion
Delivering all four Black Marks to Doctor Galen reveals Thomas Richards's exact location and opens the Revenge Is Best Served Cold boss encounter. The Thomas Richards article covers the fight itself (gear tier, pattern recognition, alternate strategies).
See Also
Revenge Is Best Served Cold - parent quest
Thomas Richards - the boss gated by this collection
Doctor Galen - quest-giver
Blackbeard Outposts - the POI category that holds two of the marks