Beginner Tips And Tricks For Assassin’s Creed Shadows

Beginner Tips For Assassin’s Creed Shadows

Assassin’s Creed Shadows is much easier to settle into once you understand how its two protagonists, progression systems, and exploration loop work.

The early game is mostly about learning Naoe’s stealth tools, unlocking fast travel points, building your Hideout, and saving your best upgrade materials until you actually have gear worth keeping.

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Turn On Helpful Settings Early

Before you get too deep into the game, check the gameplay settings.

Useful options include:

• Auto-Loot
• Guaranteed Assassination
• Adjustable combat difficulty
• Adjustable stealth difficulty
• Brightness settings

Auto-Loot is especially useful because it automatically collects nearby enemy drops, saving time and helping refill tools like Kunai and Shuriken.

Guaranteed Assassination is great if you want stealth kills to feel more traditional and less dependent on enemy health bars.

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Use Naoe For Stealth

Naoe is your best choice for infiltration, rooftops, castles, and quiet objective clearing.

She can:

• Use the Grappling Hook
• Crawl through small spaces
• Move across rooftops and tightropes
• Use Shinobi tools
• Assassinate enemies quietly

Her best early tools are Kunai, Smoke Bombs, Shuriken, and the Shinobi Bell.

If stealth starts falling apart, drop prone, break line of sight, or use a Smoke Bomb to reset the situation.

Very professional shinobi behavior. Nobody needs to know you panicked.

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Use Yasuke For Combat

Yasuke unlocks later, but once you have him, he becomes the best choice for open fights.

He is slower than Naoe, but much stronger in direct combat and better suited for enemies who refuse to go down quietly.

Use weapon types based on the fight:

• Long Katana for duels
• Naginata for reach and crowd control
• Kanabo for armor breaking
• Bow for ranged pressure
• Teppo for heavy single-shot damage

When enemies are knocked down, use ground finishers quickly. Letting them stand back up is just giving them unnecessary hope.

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Upgrade Your Hideout Early

Your Hideout matters more than it first appears.

Early upgrades make resource gathering, scouting, gear improvement, and progression much smoother.

Prioritize:

• Forge
• Stables
• Study

The Forge lets you upgrade gear. The Stables improve scout resource runs. The Study increases your scout count and helps narrow search zones for quests.

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Do Not Upgrade Early Gear Too Much

Early weapons and armor get replaced quickly, so do not spend all your Mon and rare crafting materials upgrading gear in the first stretch of the game.

A good rule is to wait until around level 20 before heavily investing in upgrades.

Before that, use whatever has the best stats or perks and keep moving.

Your early-game sword is not your forever sword. It is a temporary coworker.

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Unlock Synchronization Points

When entering a new province, unlock nearby synchronization points first.

These are your fast travel locations and will save a huge amount of time later.

Naoe’s Ascension Boost skill makes this much faster because it improves her climbing speed with the Grappling Hook.

If you want smoother exploration, get that skill early.

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Use Scouts Often

Scouts are extremely useful for revealing quest objectives, tagging resource stockpiles, and speeding up exploration.

Use them to:

• Reveal objective locations
• Tag castle stockpiles
• Smuggle supplies back to the Hideout
• Narrow search areas

Scouts may feel limited at first, but they can be restored and upgraded through Hideout progression.

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Learn The Map Icon Colors

Use Eagle Vision and observation tools constantly when entering restricted areas.

Common highlights include:

• Blue markers for mission objectives
• White markers for collectibles
• Yellow markers for loot and resources

This makes it much easier to plan your route before jumping into a castle full of guards and immediately regretting your confidence.

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Hunt Knowledge Points

Your level increases your stats, but Knowledge Rank unlocks higher skill tiers.

Some of the fastest ways to earn knowledge points include:

• Kuji-Kiri
• Kata
• Horse Archery
• Lost Pages
• Optional exploration activities

Do these naturally while exploring instead of saving everything for later.

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Stick To Roads While Exploring

Traveling directly through forests and mountains sounds faster, but it often turns into climbing rocks, fighting terrain, and getting your horse stuck on weird angles.

Roads are usually better because they lead to:

• Shrines
• Temples
• Castles
• Side quests
• Fast travel points
• Optional activities

The scenic route is nice until the mountain decides it hates you.

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Use Kofun Candles To Track Progress

When exploring Kofun tombs, light candles as you move through tunnels.

This helps you see better and makes it easier to remember which paths you already checked.

Kofuns can get dark and confusing fast, so candles are basically your breadcrumb trail.

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Sell Early Loot, Dismantle Later

Early on, Mon is more useful than low-level crafting materials, so selling extra gear can help.

Later, once rare and epic gear becomes more common, dismantling becomes better because upgrade materials start mattering more.

Early game:

• Sell extra loot if you need money

Mid to late game:

• Dismantle extra gear for crafting materials

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Use The Codex

Do not ignore the Codex menu.

It includes detailed historical entries and adds a lot of context to the world, characters, locations, and culture.

It is easy to miss because it sits quietly in the menu, but it adds a lot to the game’s setting.