10 Assassin's Creed Shadows tips we wish we'd known before we started playing

Our Assassin's Creed Shadows tips and tricks feature all the advice and secret advantages that the game doesn't tell you. AC Shadows has a lot of nuances, especially with the new dual-protagonist thing, and there are a lot of strange quirks that even those who are familiar with the series might not realise until some way into the story of Assassin's Creed Shadows.

With that in mind, we've put together a list of the top 10 AC Shadows tips and tricks, carefully curated by the GamesRadar guides team after days spent exploring the world of Feudal Japan. Whether you want help on stealth, combat, exploration or more, this will help you go from a young trainee to a master assassin.

1. Unlocking Naoe's smoke bombs is an early priority

Naoe has numerous tools she can unlock from the Mastery Skill Tree of the same name, but the most important of all of them is the Smoke Bomb, which you can unlock very early on. It blinds enemies and allows you to escape - or just assassinate them within the cloud itself! Add the quick throw skill to that, and Naoe has the ultimate safety net for dangerous situations.

2. There's a lot to be found in random encounters

Random encounters in AC Shadows range from saving citizens from bandits to riddle contests, and they tend to be surprisingly beneficial for very little effort. We heavily recommend not ignoring them if you can avoid it - one of the most common rewards by our experience is the chance to either mark a quest on the map, or to scout an area for free, neither of which are to be sniffed at.

3. (The best) ranged ammo can be retrieved from enemies

The game doesn't highlight this, but Naoe’s Kunai arrows stick in the bodies of those you hit them with, even if you don't manage an instant kill. It means that after doing so, you're well advised to run over the corpse and loot the lost ammunition back - and don’t forget to run over Naoe’s Shinobi bells to pick those up too! However, there's some variation on this idea - certain ammo (like Teppo shots) can't be retrieved at all, while Yasuke's arrows sometimes can be retrieved, but it's not a guarantee.

4. Check your assassinations will actually assassinate before you commit to the attack!

Because of AC Shadows' levelling system, high-level or powerful enemies may not die to your assassination attempts, no matter which of the two characters you're playing as. There's actually color-coding for this: if the assassination prompt is yellow, you'll only wound them. If the prompt is red, you won't hurt them at all. And of course, it goes without saying that both of these attempts will reveal your presence and launch you right into open combat, so be prepared!

5. The Tanto is the game's best weapon, so grab it ASAP

Yasuke might be the character who's supposed to master direct combat, but to be honest we've yet to find a weapon that rivals the Tanto knife that only Naoe can use, with broad agreement around the team on how powerful it is. Not only that, but its associated auto-dodge Shadow Barrage and thrown Shadow Piercer abilities pair extremely well with the Tanto you get from the target Wakasa - Shadow Barrage means you can't be hit by any melee attack besides grabs for a limited time, and the special Tanto allows you to do two Posture attacks on vulnerable enemies instead of one. If you perfectly deflect an attack, you can perform two Posture attacks in a row, use Shadow Piercer, and then perform two more Posture attacks for a huge damage combo on a single enemy. There's a reason why these are some of the best Assassin's Creed Shadows skills.

6. Raid castles for the best rewards

There are lots of activities you can do in the main game, but the most straightforward one in terms of rewards is clearing castles and forts, which have huge amounts of loot and chances to earn XP among them. However, the main goal is to kill the special Samurai Daisho found throughout (the amount will vary from castle to castle), which then unlocks a reward chest, typically in the main tenshu tower in the area. Inside that is a unique legendary weapon or armor piece, often providing a massive advantage going forward.

7. Once you're out and exploring, save Heiji and pick up the Out to Pasture quest

Early priorities once you reach the open world will vary, but we recommend you start the Out to Pasture quest as soon as possible. This quest doesn't actually require you to do anything beyond killing bandits in the starting region - something you'll obviously be doing anyway in the natural course of gameplay.

Once that's done, follow the quest chain to save the Blacksmith Heiji. This quest unlocks the Forge back at your hideout, which will allow you to start upgrading your gear to match your level - an incredibly important feature that you'll struggle without before long. For more detail on this process, find out how to upgrade weapons and armor in Assassin's Creed Shadows.

8. Choices matter… except not really, so Canon Mode is pretty viable

One of the options that AC Shadows gives you is Canon Mode, which locks down your choices in dialogue to specific options that are meant to be the canonical choices for Naoe and Yasuke. However, while this sounds restrictive, it's actually not that big a deal.

Choices in Shadows don't tend to change very much about the story and certainly not the broader outcomes from our experiences, and are usually more about which route you want to take to reach a determined objective. You can't change the destination, but sometimes you can pick which of two roads you want to take to get there. There's a little more leniency afforded in side quests, but not much - ultimately this isn't a game that's going to spiral into different shapes depending on your actions, Baldur's Gate 3-style. Still, some choices matter a little bit, often marked with the special Assassin's Creed Shadows dialogue symbols.

9. Once you're in an objective area, sweep it with the Left Trigger to find the Blue Dot

AC Shadows' usual way of operating is to either mark a general area that you need to narrow down with context clues (west of town, look for burned buildings, etc), or to highlight a general space for you to search. Either way, once you reach the key area, you can find the objective by holding down LT/L2. What you're looking for is a blue dot: that'll mark whatever objective you're looking for. If it's not there, you're not in the right area, so try a different location for a better chance.

10. Scouts can be used to smuggle resources - and it's by far the better option

The primary purpose of the special Assassin's Creed Shadows scouts is to immediately scan the objective areas discussed above and mark the objective location for you, but it's kind of a waste. Later on you'll upgrade your base and unlock two new functions for scouts: clearing your Wanted status and smuggling large palettes of the Assassin's Creed Shadows resources you find in enemy terrain.

It's the last of these that's the best use of them. It's just not ever very hard to find what you're looking for in objective zones, so using scouts - a finite resource that recharges with the changing of the seasons - on such a minor benefit feels downright wasteful. However, having them bring in huge quantities of resources for improving your Assassin's Creed Shadows hideout is something that can catapult you into the mid-game far faster than if you weren't. Not only that, but you can buy back more scouts without having to wait for Season's End by paying 200 Mon for each scout at any unlocked Kakurega hideouts.

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