Assassin’s Creed Shadows has been released to the world and allows players to live out their dreams of running around as a shinobi or samurai in Sengoku era Japan. While the game is easy to pick up and play, gamers who are new to the franchise or haven’t played anAssassin’s Creedgame in years may miss some vital elements of the game.
Review: Assassin’s Creed Shadows
Is Assassin’s Creed Shadows the hail mary Assassin’s Creed and Ubisoft needed, or should this game have stayed in the shadows?
In order to make your Assassin’s Creed Shadows experience as smooth as possible, keep in mind the following tips and tricks. They will either help you greatly in your journey or at least explain certain mechanics and how they work.
10Do Kuji-Kuri for Naoe’s side story
Across the world of Assassin’s Creed Shadows, the player will find various locations where Naoe can sit down and perform Kuji-Kuri. Doing this will activate a short minigame where the player must press the buttons on their controller in sequence to dings. While most games would immediately give the player EXP or a reward for completing this, doing these missions in Assassin’s Creed: Shadows will instead unlock backstory missions for the player to experience.
Doing these missions is heavily recommended as they not only grant further insight into Naoe as a character but also help introduce other members of the cast and their motivations, like Hanzo Hattori. If you want the full Assassin’s Creed Shadows story experience, then make sure you participate in them.
9Naoe can climb anything
Assassin’s Creed as a franchise has always been defined by its movement and parkour system. While any objects the player will be required to climb during story missions will be highlighted with yellow paint or similar patterns, Naoe is capable of climbing nearly every object in the world. Whether it be the sides of mountains or the walls of Osaka castle.
While parkour is much less of a focus in Assassin’s Creed Shadows than it was in previous Assassin’s Creed games, it’s still a lot of fun to scale this world and remember why Ubisoft’s methodology toopen-world explorationwas popular enough to define the genre.
In contrast, Yasuke can’t climb anything. Ropes will snap under his weight and instead of performing a Leap of Faith he’ll tumble to the ground.
8Naoe Is More of a Focus than Yasuke
While many fans of the Assassin’s Creed franchise were excited to play as Yasuke in Shadows due to his status as the first playable historical figure in the franchise, those expecting to play as him often may be disappointed. Similar to how Jacob and Evie Frye inAssassin’s Creed: Syndicatewere both protagonists, but most of the game requires the player to be Jacob, the story in Assassin’s Creed Shadows is primarily focused around Naoe and her character journey.
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While Naoe is a great character and one of the best protagonists in the modern era of the franchise, it’s a shame that Yasuke had to take the backseat. Thankfully, any mission where the player does play as Yasuke is a blast as he is a complete powerhouse who can charge right through enemies and clear out entire castles within minutes.
7Use Scouts to Reset your Wanted Level
After completing major story missions or side quests, Naoe and Yasuke may find themselves wanted in certain regions of the world. When this happens, city guards and traveling ronin will attack them on sight. This makes starting side quests or story missions in areas next to impossible and unlike previous games, you cannot reset your wanted level by simply tearing down wanted posters.
It can be very hard to live out yoursamurai game dreamswith enemies always hunting you. Fear not though, because your wanted level can be removed by sending scouts out to remove it. You won’t unlock this ability until you upgrade your home base several ranks, but once you do it’s a complete time and lifesaver, so focus on your base as you progress the game.
6But Be Careful About Using Scouts
Following up on the previous tip about scouts, one should also be careful about overusing them. You only has a limited number of scouts at their disposal per season. Because scouts have a variety of uses which range from resource gathering to searching for quest objectives, you may find yourself running through your scout supply fast.
Once you have run out of scouts to use, you’ll need to wait until the end of the current season for them to refresh. A season can last several in-game hours and you may be waiting a long time, so make sure you’re absolutely certain about what you wish to use your scouts on.
5Seasons Affect Gameplay
The weather and season system doesn’t exist solely to show how beautiful Japan is during any season (though that is an added bonus). It also has drastic effects on the gameplay during missions. For example, during the winter Naoe will have difficulty running through thick snow and enemies will be able to follow your footprints during missions, making some assassinations more difficult.
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While this is only a minor gameplay change and there aren’t any missions which are impossible to complete during certain seasons, it would still be wise of you to keep track of what season you’re in before starting any particular mission in the game.
4Do Side Content to Increase Knowledge
Abilities on Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ skill tree require two different resources to obtain: Mastery Points and Knowledge Lvl. Mastery Points are obtained simply by leveling up and progressing your adventure; any player will be swimming in these before long. Knowledge Lvl however is a bit more difficult to increase as it requires the player to participate in the game’s side content.
Several areas on the world map will be marked with an orange marker that indicates doing the optional task there will reward the player with Knowledge points. These tasks range from finding hidden pages scattered throughout the area topraying at a shrine. It takes doing ten side activities to increase your knowledge level and most of your skills are locked behind high knowledge, so make sure you always do these activities as you come across them.
3Save Up for Double Assassination
One of the most useful skills in the Assassin’s Creed franchise is theDouble Assassination skill, which allows the player to kill two enemies at once. While this used to be a default part of the average AC moveset, ever since Assassin’s Creed Unity in 2014 it has been locked behind skill trees, and Assassin’s Creed: Shadows is no exception. Any player wanting the true Assassin’s Creed experience should prioritize unlocking this skill.
Double Assassination requires the player to have level 2 Knowledge and costs 3 mastery points to unlock. So, while you won’t have access to it immediately, a player actively trying to obtain knowledge points will be able to unlock the skill by the end of the story’s first Act.
2Unlock the Blacksmith
Like the previous games in the RPG era of Assassin’s Creed, players will be able to upgrade their equipment and make it stronger in Assassin’s Creed Shadows. However, unlike inValhalla, the player will not be given a full tutorial for this mechanic and it isn’t unlocked at the start. In order to get access to this mechanic, the player must first build a blacksmith at their base.
to construct this building, the player must first complete the side quest ‘Way of the Blacksmith’, which unlocks right at the start of the game. Once this quest has been completed, simply build the building and the weapon upgrade mechanic will be available to you.
1Refresh Yourself on the Plot
While each Assassin’s Creed game takes place in a completely different time period from the others, the franchise still has a long-running overarching plot that spans many games and comic books. While Assassin’s Creed: Shadows eases new players in by focusing on the Ancient Japan story first, there are still bits and bytes of the franchise’s modern plot that will begin to drip into the story.
Any player who doesn’t want to be totally confused when these sections happen may want to take the time to learn or refresh themselves on the plot of Assassin’s Creed and exactly what the ancient Brotherhood and Templars stand and fight for.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows
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