General advice Shadow Tactics Guide

Last update: 05 December 2016

F5 (quick save) and F8 (quick load) are your best friends

Save the game as you begin each mission. Should you make a stupid mistake, you'll be able to quickly load the game without loosing too much progress. Always save the game when you're in a safe position, which means when your agents are hidden and well-placed, the enemy isn't looking for them and there's no alarm. Use quick save before any tricky assassination or after having eliminated several isolated guards. Also, do it each time before you attempt to sneak past the guards undetected or after you've spent some time on planning.

Hide corpses

It may seem like the obvious thing to do, but it's good to be diligent about it. While you'll steadily clear the map of enemies as you progress through each mission, you should still dispose of the bodies. There are many ways to do this - bushes, buildings, wells, baskets, bodies of water, or nearby gorges. You can also use Mugen to "stash" bodies in isolated places, such as rock ledges or rooftops. If things go south, enemy reinforcements will find no bodies on the ground and abandon the search faster.

Use hiding spots

Bushes, houses, water. These are the places where you agents will be invisible to their enemies. To hide in the bushes, your character must be crouching; in that case, the enemy may stand right beside them and be none the wiser. Unless he's in the search or alarm/pursuit mode. That's when he will start searching the bushes as well, and things will get serious. Buildings are the safest bet, only the entering/exiting animation takes some time, which may be a matter of life and death in some cases. If a guard's patrol route doesn't lead inside a particular building, you can use it freely as a hideout. Same with water. If a guard hasn't seen a character jump into the water, such character is virtually invisible. Any of the aforementioned places can be used to hide the bodies of dead enemies.

Check enemy field of view

It's essential in this game. Period. It's also the biggest advantage you will have over your enemies. Always check the area and nearby enemies with this tool before you attack. Otherwise, you are bound to be caught red-handed when you're least expecting it. Knowing their field of view (FOV) will enable you to anticipate which obstacles will completely or partially block enemy's sight and use it to remain undetected. If you're far enough, you can move freely while crouched, even inside enemy's FOV. If, however, you're standing, and the enemy will start "locking on" to you, your character will move slower until they are able to leave enemy FOV. When a guard notices your character, his FOV will gradually change color to yellow. If the color reaches your character, you'll be detected and the guard will raise an alarm.

Alarms

If an enemy sees your character or finds a guard you had killed, he will raise an alarm (red exclamation mark). Any enemies in a wide area will be noticed and will come running to the location of the body or the last reported location of your character. Furthermore, this will spawn additional enemy reinforcements in some nearby houses. With so many guests, the map will get somewhat crowded, making it impossible for you to win in head-on combat. Enemies in pursuit mode will also search nearby bushes and enter buildings, where your agents will be at their mercy and unable to defend themselves.

You can check which building are "hosting" enemy reinforcements by hovering the mouse cursor over the door. If a red exclamation mark appears, this house may cause you trouble in the future. Avoid hiding in such buildings, and if you intend to pull off a "loud" plan, do it far from there. Take care to plan your actions as to avoid such situations.

Do not waste ranged weapons

You will be tempted to use them, but bear it. They may seem like a bliss, but you'll never have enough bullets. Only sometimes you will encounter cases containing ammo for Takuma's rifle. Use firearms only when you're cornered but would like to avoid loading the game. Shoot only enemies that are far away and/or otherwise inaccessible to your warriors. Mugen's is the only firearm capable of taking down heavily-armored samurai.

Watch out for unique map conditions

Throughout the game, you will be facing some of the missions under less than favorable conditions, namely by night and in snowy areas. In the latter case, you will have to watch out for the footprints left by your agents on the snow. Should the enemy find them, they will quickly shift into search mode. Footprints left by Aiko in disguise will raise no suspicion, though. You can use it to your advantage to lure an enemy to a remote location. In the night, enemy FOV is limited by lack of light sources. Small ones can be "turned off", same as torches carried by the enemies. Extinguished light sources, however, are quick to draw enemy attention, and the first enemy who notices such a situation will approach to turn the light back on. Enemy "sees" lack of light from afar away. It has its cons (may invite unwanted guests) and pros (when you lure a patrol straight into an ambush).

In some of the missions you will encounter battles and allied warriors. Enemy will usually avoid such places, but if you are detected, your agents will become top score targets for enemy riflemen. In some moments the mission script will advance the frontlines, and your allies will mop up the enemies.

Look for opportunities to cause accidents

Sometimes, you will find devices or objects (such as icicles) which will allow you to get rid of an enemy in seemingly unforeseen circumstances. Enemies that will come to investigate such an event will spend some time searching the area, but not for long, eventually assuming that their dead comrade must have gathered some bad karma in previous life and got his just reward. Mugen is able to throw boulders, directly causing such unfortunate "accidents" - assuming he remains unnoticed.