Assassins Creed Shadows: Tips and Tricks

Assassin's Creed Shadows complicates the series' formula somewhat, having two protagonists with different play styles and expanding the investigation system. On this guide page, you will find several useful tips that will come in handy when you start playing the game. We describe how to mark enemies, how to explore the game world, what to pay attention to during exploration, and what to spend money on.

• Mark enemies, objects and mission objectives
• Explore as Naoe
• Have scouts on standby
• Expand the hideout
• Buy out kakuregi
• Pay attention to the recommended level
• Accept side missions immediately
• Stick to the roads
• Prioritize the gear level

Mark enemies, objects and mission objectives

Both characters can mark enemies and focus on observing the surroundings by holding the left trigger on the controller (interestingly, this is a completely separate mechanic from the iconic eagle vision, which only Naoe has access to). However, an even more useful use of this skill is discovering important items and mission objectives. They are marked with dots of different colors - loot and keys are gold, collectibles and side objectives are white, and mission objectives/targets are blue. So if you're looking for clues to complete a location or searching for a mission target in a larger area, use the enemy marking mechanics, and the game will show you where to find your target.

You can read more about this topic on the page Is there an Eagle vision?.

Explore as Naoe

After completing the first act, you will unlock the ability to freely switch between the heroes. Yasuke specializes in combat and is capable of single-handedly clearing entire enemy fortresses, but he is significantly slowed down by his heavy armor. Exploration as Yasuke is therefore much more difficult - the samurai is slow and climbs poorly. Therefore, it is best to explore the game world as Naoe, who can reach rooftops and viewpoints thanks to her agility and grappling hook. We write more about the differences between the characters on the Naoe and Yasuke page.

Have scouts on standby

Scouts are a very important resource, thanks to which you can discover the exact locations of targets based on the clues. Complete the side task that appears right next to the hideout as quickly as possible - it is very short, and it will reward you with two scouts that will be given to you permanently. While exploring enemy territories, you may also come across large piles of resources. If you have two free scouts, you can assign them to it, and they will move the resource to your hideout at the end of the quarter. Scouts that have worked restore automatically at the end of the quarter or manually, by assisting randomly encountered civilians or buying out scouts in kakurega.

We write more about this topic on the page How do scouts work?.

Expand the hideout

Expanding the hideout is profitable. By doing that, you will gain useful bonuses. Constructing new buildings can, for example, increase the number of scouts you have, reduce the number of scouts required for smuggling, upgrade the allies summoned during battles, or allow you to upgrade equipment in the forge. So expand your hideout whenever you have the opportunity - you will gain the most resources by infiltrating enemy areas (marked on the map with a red diamond), finding stacks of resources you can smuggle in these areas and assigning scouts to them. We've described this topic in more detail on the Hideout page.

Buy out kakuregi

Kakuregi are tiny hideouts located in cities and settlements. Buying a kakurega costs 800 mon, which you can do directly on the map. They are worth the money - kakuregi serve as fast travel points, you can buy scouts in them, replenish rations, tools and ammunition for free, store items in the stash and accept contracts - randomly generated missions rewarding you with money and experience. So they are very useful buildings, where you can easily prepare for the next task.

Pay attention to the recommended level

Although Assassin's Creed Shadows has an open world, the game still has a recommended order of exploration and missions. Pay attention to the recommended levels of regions, enemy bases, tasks, and objectives - the lower they are, the sooner the game expects you to deal with them. You should also pay attention to the level of the reward for the task - if it is significantly higher than your current level, the game probably expects you to deal with it later. You cannot use the equipment until you reach its level.

Accept side missions immediately

Even if you're not interested in dealing with side missions, it's worth accepting them right away. Many side missions in Assassin's Creed Shadows are tasks that you will complete automatically while playing the game - for example, collecting a certain amount of resources or killing a certain number of bandits in a given region. You can therefore forget about many missions right after accepting them, as they will complete themselves while you are exploring or following the main storyline.

Stick to the roads

Although the world of Assassin's Creed Shadows is vast, its size is somewhat deceptive - a significant part of the world consists of dense forests, which don't have much to offer you. Their exploration is problematic and usually pointless, your character will have to struggle through the thicket, and riding on a horse in the forest is almost impossible. Most of the game's content can be found along the roads, so you should stick to them.

Prioritize the gear level

While playing Assassin's Creed Shadows, you will acquire a multitude of various weapons of different rarities and levels. However, you will quickly realize that a weapon's level is much more important than its rarity. The health of opponents scales very quickly with each level, so even a legendary weapon quickly loses its power if it is several levels below your current character level. Therefore, remember to change your equipment every few levels or continuously upgrade your favorite gear in the forge. Read the page in our guide: Best Weapon, to learn more.

See also:

1. All quests
2. How do skill trees work?

Assassin's Creed: Shadows

March 20, 2025

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