I loved Assassin’s Creed Shadows but I wish I had known how huge it was before I started.
I loved exploring the Japanese version of Assassin’s Creed Shadows. It’s highly detailed and feels alive, with bustling towns and villages and dynamic weather that I found incredibly atmospheric and immersive. But it’s also absolutely packed with stuff. In some areas, it’s difficult for Naoe and Yasuke to travel a hundred meters without coming across a quest NPC, settlement, or other open-world activity.
The sheer variety of things to do and see in Assassin’s Creed Shadows is both a blessing and a curse. I like how little activities and side quests there are that share little bits of Japan’s feudal culture, but mix it all in with the usual dialogue systems, quest choices, skill points, upgradeable gear, and even basic management, and it’s a lot to take in. If you’re new to Assassin’s Creed Shadows, do as I tell you, not as I do, by letting me introduce you to some of our excellent guides that will help you master the ways of Kakushiba Ikki.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows Basics
As soon as you start a new game, you’re presented with options like Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ Canon Mode and Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ Immersive Mode, allowing you to decide early on on some essential elements of the game’s presentation – the former effectively removing any semblance of choice from the game for a more linear experience and the latter requiring most NPCs to speak in their native language (good for fans of submarines and not dubbings).
Luckily, the game itself starts with a relatively simple, if somewhat lengthy, tutorial, but if you’ve chosen to turn off Canon Mode, it’s a good idea to learn about the various dialogue symbols in Assassin’s Creed Shadows as early as possible. Starting with Yasuke, you’ll learn about the key players in the story, as well as the central conflict when you play as Naoe. Find out how to collect the box in Assassin’s Creed Shadows – your first stealth assassination mission – and then you’ll encounter the devious Shinbakufu gang.
After a few more tutorials and prologues, you’ll eventually be released into the rest of the world as Naoe, and that’s when you realize how massive the map in Assassin’s Creed Shadows is and that it only lasts about an hour in the game (if you’re wondering how long it takes to beat Assassin’s Creed Shadows, we’ve got you covered). At this point, it’s a good idea to start by finding all the nearby Makinoodera Temple Lost Pages for an easy knowledge point and pay attention to our Assassin’s Creed Shadows tips, as they will help you a lot from this point on.
Also make sure you know how the previously mentioned Assassin’s Creed Shadows Knowledge Points and Assassin’s Creed Shadows Mastery Points work, as you should have earned at least one of each by now. Winning both is crucial to improving Naoe and Yasuke’s combat prowess across their many skill trees, and if you want some guidance on where to spend your points, be sure to check out our guide to the best Assassin’s Creed Shadows skills for Naoe and Yasuke.
At this point, you might also be wondering when you’ll be able to play as Yasuke, but changing characters in Assassin’s Creed Shadows won’t happen until much later. You first have to complete a fairly long quest chain as Naoe, but it’s good to know the differences between Naoe and Yasuke when you eventually play as the super samurai. Yasuke’s style is very different from Naoe’s and I wasn’t prepared for his not very stealthy nature.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows Hideout Explained
Speaking of Naoe’s quest, there are still a few personal admin tasks for him to complete before you can properly begin his quest, namely establishing a base of operations with Tomiko – Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ hideout. This is where the game introduces some lightweight core management mechanics, which look complicated but are actually quite simple.
The most important part of the hideout is that you can construct and upgrade various functional buildings to grant passive benefits and sometimes special features. I would have liked to complete the first Blacksmith’s Path quest in Sakai much earlier as it unlocks the Forge building, which is used to upgrade weapons and armor in Assassin’s Creed Shadows – but keep in mind that you’ll need special crafting resources and Assassin’s Creed Shadows money, or Mon, to pay for these upgrades. Constructing Hideout buildings also requires specific resources, so you’ll need to farm Assassin’s Creed Shadows Hideout resources as you play, with Assassin’s Creed Shadows scouts being by far the best method for this.
What to do after the hideout in Assassin’s Creed Shadows
Once the hideout is established, you can finally venture into the entire Izumi Settsu region, including the towns of Sakai, Osaka, and Amagasaki. Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ seasons should also come into play from there, unexpectedly changing the environment and weather as you complete various quests – it’s a mechanic I honestly found a little confusing at first, mainly in regards to When seasons change because they depend on both your actions and an in-game timer.
While exploring these towns, you can follow the quests for two of Naoe’s targets: the Golden Teppo and the Wounded. As part of these quest chains, you’ll visit all kinds of locations throughout the towns and surrounding areas, so be sure to spend your Mon on Kakurega fast travel points whenever possible and prepare to deal with the following sticking points:
This final quest can also affect how you recruit Yaya in Assassin’s Creed Shadows, allowing her to join the hideout as one of Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ many allies. These potential companion characters can be found through quests and recruited in the Hideout, and some of them can even be Assassin’s Creed Shadows romance options for Naoe or Yasuke.
What to do in Izumi Settsu
More things to do in Izumi Settsu
NPC Puzzles
As you wander around Japan, you may encounter NPCs who ask you curious questions. You might want to prepare Assassin’s Creed Shadows riddle answers.
With at least one of Naoe’s first two targets defeated, you should be directed to the Yamashiro and Kyoto area with a new quest, but I recommend doing many other things first in Izumi Settsu. If you’ve taken out the Wounded but not the Golden Teppo, I recommend doing so as this target grants Naoe a great tanto weapon – arguably one of the best weapons in Assassin’s Creed Shadows, in fact. Also hit Katano Castle and Takatsuki Castle and loot their main chests so Naoe can also don some of the best armor in Assassin’s Creed Shadows.
Hopefully you used Naoe’s stealth skills to acquire most of this gear without too much trouble, but it’s possible that you received Wanted status – this isn’t always a big deal, depending on where you are, but not being Wanted is obviously preferable, so make sure you know how to remove Wanted status in Assassin’s Creed Shadows. There are also plenty of side quests and activities to undertake in the region, helping you level up and increase your Knowledge Rank to prepare you for the more difficult regions of the map:
If you’re looking for even more extracurricular assassin activities, there are also Assassin’s Creed Shadows of the Animus projects, but you won’t be missing much by avoiding them.
Did you find a butterfly?
THE AC Shadows Butterfly Collector The mission is a lucrative way to get easy mastery points. As long as you manage to find all the insects in question.
With that, you should now be ready to head to the Yamashiro region and Kyoto for the next targets on Naoe’s blacklist. As part of this, you will need to undertake the Assassin’s Creed Shadows Belly of the Beast quest, which will ultimately lead you to finally take control of Yasuke. At this point, you may also have upgraded your Forge enough and acquired some decent legendary gear that you can upgrade and improve further with Assassin’s Creed Shadows engravings.
As mentioned, Assassin’s Creed Shadows is a huge game, and unlocking Yasuke kind of feels like the point where the game properly begins, although there’s only so much that it can get to. But if you’ve been following along, you should now be well prepared to take on the rest of this shinobi and samurai story. And if you love it enough, you can do it all again with Assassin’s Creed Shadows NG+!
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