Assassin's Creed Shadows Scouts will help you find hidden objectives, gather resources, and more, but you'll want to know how to get them back and unlock more of them to help with your assassination operations. They're very useful but also very limited at the start of Assassin’s Creed Shadows, so you'll burn through them very quickly in each season, so it's important to understand the best ways to use Scouts and how to replenish them, as the game explains it dribs and drabs. Here's everything you need to know about Scouts in Assassin's Creed Shadows, including how to get more of them.
How to use Scouts in Assassin's Creed Shadows
Scouts in Assassin's Creed Shadows have multiple uses, some of which have to be unlocked later on. We've outlined them all here, as well as any prerequisites they have:
- Scouting locations for objectives.
- If an objective isn't marked on the Assassin's Creed Shadows map, hold Square/X to have a scout search in a circular area of your choosing - you can also increase the size of the search area by adding more Scouts. If the objective is in the search area, it'll be revealed on the map properly. You can still find hidden objectives without Scouts, but they eliminate the need to search on foot. If you don't find the objective, the Scout is still used up too.
- Smuggling tagged resources.
- In enemy castles, camps, and bases you can find large palettes of resources for your Hideout base, too big for either character to carry. You can spend 2 Scouts to have them retrieve the pallet for you and add it to your resources at the end of the season. Upgrading the Hideout's stables halves the cost to 1 Scout, which makes farming Assassin's Creed Shadows Hideout resources much easier.
- Removing Assassin's Creed Shadows Wanted status (requires Kakurega upgrade level 2).
- After building the Kakurega at the Hideout and upgrading it to level 2, you can use Scouts to remove either character's "Wanted" status from regions you've raised to high alert.
- Refilling the Hideout chest.
- In the stables is a chest that any unused Scouts can deposit items into at the end of the season, effectively providing a small reward by having not expended them. As you increase the overall level of your Hideout, your Scouts will be able to deposit a greater variety of items:
- Mon (Hideout level 2)
- Hideout resources (Hideout level 4)
- Crafting/item upgrade resources (Hideout level 6)
- Gear (Hideout level 8)
- In the stables is a chest that any unused Scouts can deposit items into at the end of the season, effectively providing a small reward by having not expended them. As you increase the overall level of your Hideout, your Scouts will be able to deposit a greater variety of items:
Of all of these uses, we'd definitely recommend you put them towards smuggling materials. It's the most cost-effective return on Scouts, and having them scout for objectives or lower wanted levels is usually more of a time saver than something that's actively beneficial to you.
How to get Scouts back in Assassin's Creed Shadows
To get your Scouts back in Assassin's Creed Shadows, you either have to wait until the end of the current season or buy them back at Kakurega outposts you've unlocked throughout the game, by interacting with the colourful pouches hanging on the wall. Refreshing Scouts costs 200 Mon each, but you can build a Nando - one of the Assassin's Creed Hideout rooms - to reduce the price to 140 Mon each.
However, these require upgrades and expenses, and changes in the Assassin's Creed Shadows seasons are what you'll be dependent on early on in the game, which means you can get a new batch of Scouts roughly every hour or so. Keep in mind that while unused Scouts can be put towards minor gains in the stables stash box, it's far better to use them for other purposes as a general rule.
How to get more Scouts in Assassin's Creed Shadows
To actually increase the maximum number of Scouts available to you per season in AC Shadows, build any of the following at the Hideout:
- Study: The Study grants you a new Scout when built, and another for both following upgrades for a total of three.
- Kakurega: The Kakurega, when first built, grants you a free scout, though the following upgrades do not.
- Stables: The stables come built for free, but upgrading them to level 2 halves the cost of smuggling tagged resources, from 2 Scouts to just 1. It doesn't increase the maximum, but it does make those you have far more cost-effective.
This will bring you up to a maximum of six Scouts, and when used intelligently, this should be comfortably more than enough to get you through AC Shadows, with the occasional buyback from a Kakurega as needs require.
Want more help with Yasuke and Naoe's adventures? Find out how to earn Assassin's Creed Shadows Knowledge Points here, or check out all the best best Assassin's Creed Shadows weapons here!
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