All Assassin's Creed Shadows Allies and how to recruit them

Assassin's Creed Shadows Allies provide useful passive buffs and can be summoned in combat to mess up your enemies. However, you've got to recruit them to the League first ensuring you keep them on your side so that they're likely to join up. It also doesn't help that the six of them are spread far and wide in Assassin's Creed Shadows, with several being tied to main quests too. To help you make friends, I've explained who how to recruit all the Allies in Assassin's Creed Shadows, what their abilities are, and which ones are best.

This guide contains spoilers for some of the main targets in Assassin's Creed Shadows – you've been warned!

How to recruit Assassin's Creed Shadows Allies

There are six Allies in Assassin's Creed Shadows that you can recruit to the Kakushiba Ikki by completing their questlines – more details on each specific questline are below. Some you'll find through pursuing leads to take down the main Shinbakufu targets while others you'll have to find through side quests.

At the end of their quest, and assuming the Ally is still alive (your choices can result in some of these characters dying!), you'll have a clear choice to recruit them (the Assassin's Creed Shadows dialogue symbol of a head with a "+" next to it) or let them be. Some of these Allies are romance options in Assassin's Creed Shadows too, and an extra romance quest can unlock after recruiting them.

Depending on earlier choices in the questline, the Ally may reject your invitation anyway. If this happens, or you don't invite them to join the League, you will never see them again and they cannot be recruited later. Unless you're committing to strict roleplay, there is no reason not to try and recruit every Ally in AC Shadows as their abilities can be a big help.

Here's what you specifically need to do to recruit all AC Shadows Allies and what their abilities do:

Yaya

• The first companion you'll come across, Yaya is recruited by completing The Stray Dogs quest in Izumi Settsu, which unlocks after killing The Wounded/Wada Koretake. We've got a full guide on the choices you need to make when recruiting Yaya in Assassin's Creed Shadows to help you out.
• Rikishi – Active: Yaya is summoned and performs pushback attacks on enemies.
• Oshitaoshi – Passive: Yaya knocks an enemy over when entering combat.
• Inner Strength – Passive: Yaya kicks enemies and send them flying.

Gennojo

• Recruited by completing his questline starting with the Sake and Swords quest in Yamashiro, which unlocks after killing The Fool/Ise Sadaoki. Must play as Naoe and Gennojo can be romanced. Make sure you soothe Gennojo at the end of his quest and then you should be able to recruit him.
• Mischievous Sabotage – Active: Gennojo throws a stunning bomb that temporarily startles enemies.
• Over Here! – Passive: Gennojo throws a stunning bomb at an enemy just before they detect you and start attacking, giving you a chance to escape or assassinate them.
• Charming Presence – Passive: Enemy servants don't inform enemy soldiers of crimes they see.

Katsuhime

• Recruited by completing her questline, starting with the Letter from Katsuhime quest in Omi, which unlocks after killing The Naginata/Akechi Kagemitsu. Must play as Naoe and can be romanced. After she is captured, you must disrupt the executioner, otherwise she can be killed and will be permanently locked out of being an Ally and romance option.
• Teppodo – Active: Katsuhime is summoned and performs daze attacks on enemies.
• Explosive Entrance – Passive: Katsuhime throws a dazing bomb when entering combat.
• Bullet Ricochet – Passive: Bullets that hit a dazed enemy will bounce and hit another enemy.

Ibuki

• Recruited by completing their questline, which begins with the Ambush Interrupted side quest outside Kashiwara Village in Iga. Must play as Yasuke and can be romanced. Make sure you pick the "Fight with us, Kyobei" dialogue option when confronting Nakatomi.
• Petals in the Wind – Active: Ibuki is summoned and performs impact attacks.
• Strike of the Ronin – Passive: Ibuki destroys the armor of nearby enemies when entering combat.
• Blade of Fujin – Passive: Ibuki can use Strike of the Ronin often in combat.

Oni-yuri

• Recruited by completing her questline, which begins in Tsuruga in Wakasa with the Sweet Lies quest. You can play as either Naoe or Yasuke. You can still recruit her as Naoe even if you antagonize her at every opportunity as Yasuke.
• Sleep Dart – Active: Oni-yuri puts an enemy to sleep.
• Increased Dosage – Passive: Releases a poisonous cloud which applies the poison buildup to nearby enemies.
• Poison the Rations – Passive: Reinforcements are delayed when called in by enemies.

Yagoro

• Recruited by completing the A Blade in the Dark quest in Harima, which becomes available only after you've assassinated all 12 Shinbakufu targets. That means Yagoro is an endgame ally who you won't unlock for many hours.
• Assassinate – Active: Yagoro instantly kills an enemy with three or fewer health chunks.
• Chain Assassination – Passive: Yagoro can assassinate an extra enemy.
• One with Death – Passive: Yagoro can now assassinate enemies with up to five health chunks.

Best Assassin's Creed Shadows Allies

The usefulness of all six AC Shadows Allies depends on who you're playing as and what sort of playstyle you're going for. With that said, Gennojo is arguably the most useful in all situations, capable of supporting both Naoe and Yasuke with convenient anti-detection abilities that help you maintain stealth.

Furthermore, if you've upgraded your Dojo, which is one of the best Assassin's Creed Shadows Hideout rooms, you can have up to two Allies in your little team. You can also pay Mon to train them to Initiate then Veteran rank (if you've upgraded your Dojo to Level 3 by farming Assassin's Creed Shadows Hideout resources), with each rank unlocking a new passive ability.

Combining the right Allies to get the most out of their abilities can help you a lot, so here are the best Ally combinations to use in AC Shadows:

• Gennojo + Yagoro: This duo works very well for both Naoe and Yasuke, helping both characters stay hidden and thin the ranks of enemy patrols with assassinations. However, since Yagoro is unlocked quite late in the game, Oni-yuri makes for a good substitute with her Sleep Dart ability.
• Ibuki/Katsuhime + Yaya: If you're playing Naoe and Yasuke more aggressively, this is another potent combination. Ibuki's armor-shattering skills or Katsuhime's dazing attacks, coupled with Yaya's ability to boot enemies away and bowl them over, sets either character up nicely for lethal strikes.

Recruiting all six of them isn't essential, but it's nice to have options when building your team. Once you've recruited an Ally, they will live in the Hideout, and you can occasionally have a chat with them or even complete a romance quest in some cases.

There are plenty of secretive organizations waiting to brought down with help from your Allies, such as the Assassin's Creed Shadows Kabukimono ronin and the Assassin's Creed Shadows Butterfly Collector.

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