Assassin's Creed Shadows tips and tricks for beginners (2025)

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In keeping with the Ubisoft open world tradition, Assassin’s Creed Shadows is a hulk of a game with a sprawling map stacked with things to do, kill, and see. There’s a lot to keep track of whether it’s your Hideout hub, scouts, combat, upgrades, fast travelling, or even exploration.

While you should expect to embark on a lengthy adventure if you plan on seeing the credits, we’ve picked up a few pointers worth sharing during our time with the game for review that should make it a little easier to navigate and enjoy. In this guide, we’ll walk you through 10 tips and tricks in Assassin’s Creed Shadows to help you hit the ground running as you take on Noae and Yasuke’s eventful journey across feudal Japan.

Tweak these gameplay settings ASAP

For reasons beyond me, Ubi has made some curious decisions in Shadows’ default gameplay settings. Not to worry though as these can easily be changed without digging too deep into the pause menu. Here are three quality-of-life tweaks to make before starting your expansive adventure across Japan:

• Turn on Area Loot – face to face to a chest, a resource stockpile, and two bunches of crops? With Area Loot on, you’ll hover up the loot in one button press in stead of having to interact with them individually.
• Make sure Guided Exploration is off – it spoils the immersion, simplifies many of the game’s exploration mechanics, and even prevents you from ticking off one of the trophies.
• Turn on Camera Follow – without this on, you’ll need to turn the camera manually every time you move Naoe or Yasuke. It might not seem like a big deal, but once you’ve played with it on, there’s no chance you’ll go back.

Kill roaming Ronin to get good weapons early on

As you explore feudal Japan, especially the countryside, you’ll come across armed NPCs sportinglarge amigasa, conical wickerwork hats. These are ronin, roaming samurais. Other than being era-appropriate additions to the game, they are also a great source of quality weapons. Don’t hesitate to take them out in the early game as they drop some of the best weapons you’ll see in a while. They are tougher than standard enemies, but nothing too taxing so getting good gear takes little effort or doesn’t involve storming and completing heavily-guarded castles and the like.

Use scouts to hone in on quest objective markers

In an effort to move away from the hands-on quest guidance of previous AC games, Shadows introduces scouts. These are a consumable resource that allows you to spend Intel to scope out quest objectives based on clues. Instead of a vague hint about where you’re supposed to go, you’ll get a more defined search area, which makes progress easier. If you run out, you can either wait until the season to change or replenish them for 200 Mon a pop at any Kakurega.

Upgrade the Forge to unlock engravings ASAP

While you can easily dismiss the Hideout as an optional bit of customization faff for those partial to that, it’s also needed to unlock various perks, upgrade allies, and, more importantly upgrade your weapons and forge engravings, bonus perks you can apply to weapons and armor. To keep up with AC Shadows scaling enemy levels, you’ll want to build and upgrade the Forge then upgrade it to level 2 as soon as possible to unlock engravings.

Unlock Kakurega for more fast travel points

In the early game, 800 Mon to unlock a Kakurega feels like a mighty sum, but it’s well worth it to secure a bonus fast travel point but also a hub where you can replenish scouts, stock up on supplies, and more. You’ll soon amass more Mon than you’ll know what to do with it, so whenever you come across a Kakurega, spend the money. Having them dotted across the map makes travelling significantly easier, especially as getting anywhere from viewpoint fast travel points is a hassle as they’re often perched high on mountains or in guarded areas.

Collect from the Salvage Chest regularly

Once you’ve set up your Hideout in the early game, head over to the Stables and you’ll find the Salvage Chest. At the turn of every season, your scouts will deposit Mon (then building and crafting materials as you upgrade your hideout) picked up during their intel-gathering runs. Get into the habit of checking the Salvage Chest whenever the season changes to score some easy cash and materials. The more scouts you unlock and the higher your Hideout level, the wider the variety of goods they’ll ferry back and deposit in the chest.

Shadows’ rendition of feudal Japan is mostly dense forests that are an absolute pain to navigate, especially when you’re dealing with dangerous inclines as well. To get to objectives and points of interests, you’ll largely want to stick to paths and roads. To make travelling even easier, you’ll want to use and abuse the Pathfinder tool. It lays down a guiding line that will take you to the objective you currently have marked, saving you tons of time battling in the undergrowth of seemingly endless forests.

Use Eagle Vision to reveal and mark enemies

Naoe’s Eagle Vision skill (R3 on PS5 and V on PC) is a veritable boon to scope out areas before diving in for a spot of assassination. When used it will highlight all nearby enemies, even those behind walls, in red, allowing you to tag them and plan how you’re going to tackle the area. As a bonus, it also highlights all hiding spots along with chests, resource stockpiles, and quest objectives. Use it once and you’ll lean on it for the rest of your playthrough.

Knowledge Points and Knowledge Ranks

Every time you complete pretty much any sort of activity in Assassin’s Creed Shadows, you’ll earn Knowledge Points. These contribute towards your Knowledge Rank, with each rank unlocking a new tier in both Naoe and Yasuke’s respective skill trees. Each tier is home to a selection of different skills and abilities. When you start, you’ll only have access to the first Knowledge Rank of skills. When you reach Knowledge Rank 2, you’ll unlock the second tier and so on. Make sure to rake in the Knowledge Points whenever you get the chance to keep unlocking tiers and, eventually, access the best skills.

Unlock these skills early

While Naoe’s early skills are pretty lethal, here are few abilities and passives you’ll want to unlock early to make life easier:

• Double Assassinate – when using a Tanto weapon, you can assassinate two targets close to one another at the same time.
• Larger Tool Bag I – increases the maximum number of tools you can carry at one time – Kunai, Shuriken, Smoke Bomb, and Shinobi Bell.
• Dodge Attack – Tap R1 or right-click after a dodge to immediately surge towards the enemy and counter-attack.
• Igan Roll – allows you to roll just before hitting the ground from a great height to reduce fall damage.
• Assassination Damage I – remove one additional health segment on assassinations, allowing you to take down tougher enemies.