Introduction
So Assassin's Creed Shadows is here and while reviews are both good and bad, people are still gonna be jumping into this game and playing it. So we've got some tips for you, some things the game doesn't quite spell out, and just a couple of useful things to know if you're getting started in this world.
Raid Castles for Legendary Gear
We got 10 tips, so let's get started off with number 10. It seems like some of the best gear in the game can be obtained by raiding castles and these rewards are always the same and you usually get some kind of legendary gear that has extra perks that make 'em particularly useful. Funny enough, one of the better pieces of armor you can get is actually found in the castle just to the west of the starting point of the entire game.
You know the hideout. We're talking about Katano Castle, it's one of the easiest castles to clear out with only a few main guys to kill and one treasure to loot. Do that and you'll get the Tools Master Gear Legendary Light Armor. What makes it so incredibly good is the perk, man. With this set equipped, every time you assassinate a guy, you'll also automatically throw a Kunai at the nearest closest enemy.
So it's a double assassination without having to actually unlock the double assassination skill. Actually, it's better because you don't even have to be close to the other enemy to pull it off. Enemies in this game are very often in pairs standing near each other, so having the ability to kill two guys at once right from the start of the game makes stealth so much easier.
Granted, if you unlock the tanto skill, you can do a double stabby assassination like you used to in the older games with two guys next to each other. But having the Kunai here with a little bit of range for an instant kill is just really nice. And if you're worried about the armor getting outclassed, just upgrade it at the blacksmith at the hideout.
Upgrading stuff is actually fairly cheap, so there's little reason not to do it, and if you find some armor you like better, then just switch over to this set when you need to do some double kills and then switch back to whatever set you like more. There's really no punishment or impact for this. Having that kill and then a Kunai throw at the beginning of the game is just really nice to have and really useful.
It's ridiculous how good this is. It basically unlocks what would usually be a very high-level skill right when you start, and that's never not useful. Also, it just is a really cool looking armor set.
Smoke Bombs Are Overpowered
Next at number nine, it is just kind of a running theme in these games at this point, but smoke bombs are and forever will be extremely overpowered and that's definitely holding true here in *Shadows*.
They're one of the first tools you can unlock and you can throw 'em whenever or wherever you want and they blind enemies for a set amount of time. While an enemy is in the smoke, you can get a free assassination on them. Yes, throwing the smoke tends to rile some enemies up, but if they catch you or you're stuck in combat, then throwing down a smoke bomb is basically an easy get out of jail free card.
Or if you don't want a guy to see you coming, there is one thing that makes smoke slightly less effective. Some enemies will actually walk out of the smoke, but they're still dazed for the few seconds they're in the cloud so you can still get some free hits on them. They don't immediately fight back or anything, so smoking them is still the better option.
One more thing to keep in mind is that even though you only have a limited supply of smoke bombs, the game is littered with tool refills in any location with enemies. So you can always expect to have double or triple the amount of bombs usually that you would've access to in any given location as long as you just look around for these little things.
So don't be afraid to chuck around smoke because it is as it often is in *Assassin's Creed* games just really, really effective.
Pet Animals for Hideout Decorations
Next, at number eight. Games love to just let you pet all the animals in the game. It's a ubiquitous feature in these kinds of open world games, but in *Shadows* there's actually a little added benefit to just petting these ambient creatures that are wandering around these little NPC guys.
Once you pet one of these animals, you then unlock them for your hideout. This works for wild animals too. You can't kill 'em in this game so you can pet 'em and collect them basically. You have to sneak up and draw them, but the reward is effectively the same. More animals to dump into your hideout and decorate it.
You'd think they'd only let you put down the one, but no, you can paint every free surface with animals until your hideout is just swarming with furry friends. It's awesome. We tried it. You can eventually hit a creature limit, but it's a lot higher than you'd automatically assume. Does any of this help you out in the game in any way? No, but getting swarmed by like an army of Akita puppies is just kind of its own reward.
It kind of feels like *Pokemon*. You're just going around petting everything and by petting them you're just collecting them. So catch 'em all.
Turn On Guided Exploration for Objectives
Next up at number seven years ago, we did advocate for playing *Assassin's Creed Odyssey* in explorer mode where the big obvious quest objectives are actually turned off and you gotta find them, but this time around we're gonna suggest the opposite.
Are we hypocrites here? Maybe, but let us explain. Here's the difference. Finding objectives in *Assassin's Creed Shadows* is a legitimate pain in the ass. It's significantly more time consuming and tedious trying to follow instructions because the world map is significantly more dense and difficult to navigate.
You're gonna wander around looking for stuff a lot. You don't have a pet bird that lets you easily pinpoint any objects anymore and the actual descriptions pointing out the general objective location are often pretty vague. Look, I get it's for immersion and to really be in the world and not just look at quest markers.
It is an admirable thing, but here after a while it just gets old. I guess they want you to use scouts to narrow down your search in the map, but scouts are kind of slow to refill and at first you don't really have a lot to spare. And even if you do use them, the search area for the quest can be huge necessitating a lot of tedious running around just trying to specifically spot your objective.
So with that, we suggest maybe if you don't like this, just turn on guided exploration mode in the settings, it cuts out all the tedium and you can just go to whatever your next objective is. It's not just useful for the main quest, it's actually good to have for finding those annoying lost pages at temples or for hunting down side quest assassination targets.
Does it kind of undo what the developers are going for here with kind of being immersed? Yes, but they give you the option and if you don't like it one way, you're free to switch. If you really have to play the intended way here, just remember that like you can find a lot of objectives just by holding down L2 to focus and then look around for any blue dots.
They can be faint if they're far, but you can see it. These are always your objectives. Sometimes they show up, sometimes it seems like they don't, but it's still better than nothing.
Use Yasake for Easier Combat
Now, next, over at number six, it takes a surprisingly long time to actually unlock the second playable character.
You spend so much time as Nawe that you might see little reason to switch. I mean, this other guy isn't good at stealth, so why bother playing as him you might ask?
So while yes, Yasake, the second character is basically incapable of engaging with half the systems in this game like climbing.
But when you just want to get something done and don't care anymore and just want to kill some dudes, he is the guy to use. With Nawe, this game is actually kind of challenging for an *Assassin's Creed* game and stealth is trickier and more complex and combat is actually dangerous sometimes, especially if you have the difficulty up.
But with Yasake, you're basically switching to easy mode when you play as him. He's got like mountains of health. He can block anything. He's got powerful long range weapons, multiple, and he's got a skill where he just automatically blocks all attacks for a while. He's basically untouchable. Once you've unlocked a few more of his skills, this isn't really like the most balanced character, like his strengths aren't balanced out by his weaknesses.
They just make it so you have no reason not to just fight everyone you see, and it's always the better option. Nawe is undoubtedly the more interesting stealthy character to play as, and she's got just more depth overall. But when you wanna just get something over with or again just lop off some heads, then Yasake is probably the character to play as.
Just know that when you're out exploring in the world, you're gonna discover things as him that you just can't get to because unfortunately he doesn't have a grappling hook and he's not the best climber.
Earn Knowledge Points Quickly
Now number five, along with the mastery points that you use to unlock new skills, in order to obtain better abilities that are locked by tiers, you have to first increase your knowledge, which is obtained in a few different sources, but it's most commonly obtained by doing little objectives in temples and doing these meditation quests where you have flashbacks and stuff.
Clearing out temples is the fastest way to build this up. And while they're gonna feel like pointless busy work at first, they just are really the best way to get more knowledge points.
The temples where they just want you to pray at a few shrines are really easy to complete in just a few minutes, but the ones that want you to find the lost pages are a bit more annoying. Your best bet with these is to just run around until you see a scroll icon appear on the compass on top of the screen, or just do what we mentioned above and turn on guided exploration mode.
Now we say to do this quick because getting at least that first knowledge rank is extremely useful. Some of the best abilities in the game are right here, like double assassinations with the Tonto or the Shinobi Bell if you want to distract some enemies. So if you want to unlock a lot of skills quickly, then just clear out some castles.
Every leader guy you kill does get you a free mastery point and some castles have up to five of these guys, plus they give you extra mastery points as a reward on top of that. It seems like castles are the quickest ways to power up in this game.
Enable Instant Kill Assassinations
Now at number four, there are a lot of people, especially old-school *Assassin's Creed* fans, who hate the newer entries in the series because you don't have guaranteed instant kill assassinations all the time. In the classic games, a kill was a kill, but now you have to rank up your character and get better gear, and sometimes stabbings just still don't work at all. It's not like the classic games where assassination equals death every single time.
So if that still bothers you, you do have the beauty of choice and option here. There is finally just an option to turn on instant assassinations, and it works exactly like you'd expect. It's buried into difficulty settings, but once it's turned on, everything you stab out of combat will just die.
Of course, it makes this game much easier than before and makes a lot of your mastery abilities pretty worthless. But hey, like we said, the option is there if you want it.
Save Scouts for Smuggling Resources
Now at number three, Scouts are a precious resource, so save them for when you really need them. And by that, I mean when you need to smuggle resources. In castles, outposts, and bandit camps, along with the regular assortment of stuff like treasure to find, there will be large caches of stuff that can only be obtained if you smuggle them by spending scouts on them who will then come back later and collect them.
When the seasons change, you'll get the rewards, which tend to be significantly more than the amounts you find normally. Other previous *Assassin's Creed* games all had different little gimmicks for getting resources like raiding ships in *Black Flag* or pillaging villages in *Assassin's Creed Valhalla*. Here, you sneak into a place and click on a thing to spend your scouts.
These are very handy and the best possible way to use the scouts in *Shadows*. It's so good that it's worth it just to buy replacement scouts from your HQ if you're going into a large castle or someplace you know will have a lot of resources. Just make sure that you have enough guys to carry out all that stuff.
Just save your money for buying up new bureaus on the map screen and refilling scouts there. Don't bother buying equipment from stores because most of the time you'll end up finding better stuff from chests anyway. It's also best to, like I said, try not to burn them too much on the map looking for objectives.
The more scouts you have available, the less time you'll waste searching for resources. You can get 'em in bulk with these guys.
Manage Day-Night and Seasonal Cycle
Next, at number two. I don't know why these games can't be consistent about this. Sometimes they let you wait from day to night. Sometimes they don't. *Shadows* is one of them where they don't. There's no way to automatically transition between day to night, at least from what we've seen.
It seems like you just have to wait, which is pretty annoying considering the game has this darkness mechanic that makes sneaking around at night significantly easier than it is during the day. So, you know, people don't see you. You can't automatically switch, but you can at least still plan ahead.
I guess we could suggest like how the game works is that there's a 48-minute cycle. Days last 24 minutes and nights last 24 minutes, with every two minutes taking one in-game hour. On the top of the day-night cycle, there's also seasons to worry about. These change every two to three hours, and you can see how far along they are by the meter on the upper-right side of the world map screen.
That little thing here—the compass—shows the current season and how far it's progressed. Now, changing the seasons resets some things, and again, you get the resources from the scouts, but a lot of it's cosmetic. Still, when it's winter, that can change things pretty dramatically. There's heavy snow that takes longer to walk through. There's less vegetation to hide in and frozen water that you can't dive into. So sneaking might be trickier in winter sometimes.
If you don't want to switch seasons, then you can sort of lock in the current season by never hitting any loading screens. The seasons don't change dynamically, so you have to leave the map in order for the seasonal cutscene to trigger. These happen when you fast travel, go back to your hideout, and when you complete main missions. So if you want to stay in the current season, just never fast travel and stick to the side content I guess to extend it.
Complete Random Encounters
Now at number one, complete random encounters. I know it's not the most exciting final point, but these things actually are worth doing every once in a while. Basically, if you see someone trying to talk to you, help them out—beggars on the street, nobles or merchants getting harassed by bandits—all these people are technically worth helping out.
Most of the time, they don't really give you anything all that's interesting, but they point out a side quest or some intel. And occasionally they'll point you towards something actually interesting, like the location of some legendary treasure that alone makes doing these random little encounters worthwhile. They take like a minute and there's no way in hell we would've found some of this stuff on our own.
Treasure, yes, but also a couple of weird things. There's some cool, creative Easter eggs and some wacky NPCs you might find with some help from just killing somebody that's beating up a stranger. So give it a shot.
Conclusion
But those are 10 tips we got for you if you're jumping into the world of *Assassin's Creed Shadows*. Let us know if you have any other tips. Of course, if you stumble upon your own stuff, leave them in the comments here. They do legitimately help people out—people do look. If you enjoyed this article and it helped you out, click the like button—it legitimately helps us.
Thank you. But you know, we put out articles every single day, so subscribe and you won't miss 'em. Thanks for reading, and we'll see you guys next time.
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