Assassin’s Creed Odyssey How to Recruit Ship Crew Lieutenants

In Assassin’s Creed Odyssey you can recruit Lieutenants for your Ship, the Adrestia. You can recruit almost any enemy soldier you come across to make them part of your crew.

Recruiting new people for your Ship Crew

1. Knock them out in Combat: Unequip your weapons in the inventory so you’re fighting with bare fists. Then punch the enemy until he’s knocked out. Defeat all other enemies so you exit combat and press L3 / Left Stick over the knocked-out soldier to recruit him or her. You can also use the Sparta Kick skill to knock out enemies. It’s only important that the final hit is non-lethal. You can weaken enemies with weapons beforehand and just land the last hit with bare fists or Sparta Kick skill.
2. Quest Rewards: Some NPCs can be recruited from Side Quests, Message Board Quests, and Story Quests. These are usually higher quality but it’s rare.

After recruiting them you still need to go to the ship menu, click on Special Lieutenants, and pay them a little bit of money to hire. They will then fight alongside you when boarding new ships. The selected Lieutenants can also be called to combat via the “Call to Arms” skill. The active Lieutenants give special bonus boosts for your ship as well.

Where to find Legendary Lieutenants:

Legendary Lieutenants (golden color) are the best in the game but also the rarest!

There are three methods how you can find them easily:

1. In enemy Forts: Use your eagle to scan all enemies in the fort before attacking (press L2 / LT for stationary mode). When aiming at enemies in stationary mode it shows the enemy’s rarity in the top right corner. I found legendaries frequently at For Tiryns in Argolis.
   
2. Mercenaries: Some high-ranking mercenaries may be Legendary. So ideally, always knock out Mercenaries instead of killing them. They have the best ability boost for your ship.
3. From Ubisoft Club & Beating the Story: One legendary ship recruit is from Ubisoft Club, it’s “Evie” and she’s for free. Another is for beating the main story (Sequence 9).

How to increase Ship’s Lieutenant Limit:

By default you can only have one active recruit. However, this can be increased by upgrading the Ship’s hull. To get enough resources, dismantle gear you no longer need, sink ships, and collect the Ancient Tablets found in Ruins. Also See Ancient Tablet Locations Guide.

How to Get new Crew Skins (Cosmetic Item):

You can also change the skin of your entire ship crew in the ship menu under Cosmetic Items. These are mostly from exploring Underwater Locations, but also from some side quests. Ubisoft Club also has some Crew Skins for free (e.g. an all-female crew). This doesn’t affect gameplay, it only changes the visual appearance of your crew members on deck.

That’s all there is to know to recruiting new people for your ship in AC Odyssey. Now get out there and build a strong crew, happy sailing!