Assassin's Creed Shadows: Beginner's Guide & Best Tips

My Honest Take on Shadows

Look, I've been playing Assassin's Creed since Altair was doing backflips off churches. When Shadows dropped, I was ready for another formulaic romp through a pretty historical sandbox. I was wrong. This game is not your dad's AC. It's got the bones of Origins and Odyssey, but it's been rebuilt with a focus on stealth that actually punishes you for playing it like a brawler. I love it, but I also screamed at my monitor for three hours straight because of one specific Yokai boss that I'll talk about later.

The setting is feudal Japan, which is gorgeous. The weather system actually matters—rain muffles your footsteps but makes grappling hooks slip. The dual protagonists (Naoe the shinobi and Yasuke the samurai) play completely different. Yasuke is a tank who can't climb for shit, while Naoe is a glass cannon who can parkour across a whole castle. I spent my first ten hours trying to play Naoe like a warrior and got destroyed by the second major encounter EVERY time. This guide is me buying you a beer and telling you what I wish I knew so you don't make the same dumb mistakes.

Why Players Struggle (And Why I Raged)

Let me be real—this game has a few genuinely frustrating design choices that the tutorial glosses over. You're not dumb if you're stuck. The game is being obtuse on purpose.

First: the stealth detection is brutal. Shadows uses a dynamic light-and-shadow system. If you're standing in a pool of moonlight on a clear night, an enemy with a torch 40 meters away can spot you. There's no "easy stealth" mode. The detection meter fills up fast, and once you're seen, the entire compound knows you're there unless you kill the witness in under 1.5 seconds. I failed the same infiltration mission eleven times because I forgot to extinguish a lantern. Eleven times, my friends.

Second: the gear scaling from enemies is real. You cannot brute force your way through a region that's 10 levels above you. The damage reduction is insane. I watched a level 15 ronin take zero damage from my level 6 katana. Zero. I spent twenty minutes chipping away at him before I Googled it and realized I was supposed to run. The game doesn't tell you that some enemy types (especially armored samurai with the glowing red aura) require specific weapon types or a higher gear score to even scratch them.

Third: the skill tree is a trap. It's big, it's shiny, and most of the early nodes are useless. I poured points into "Quiet Footsteps" thinking it'd make me invisible. It only reduces noise by 15%. That's nothing. Meanwhile, "Shadow Strike" (which lets you assassinate from a bush) is available at level 2 and completely changes how you play. The game hides its most powerful tools behind boring-sounding names.

These are the pain points that make people quit. Don't quit. You just need a roadmap.

What You Actually Need Day One

Forget the "main story" for the first two hours. Seriously. The game drops you into a big world and says "go save Japan." Ignore that. Here's your checklist for your first session:

• Pick Naoe first. I don't care if Yasuke looks cool. He can't climb, he can't hide, and his stealth is non-existent. You need Naoe to explore, loot, and understand the map. You can switch to Yasuke later when you have gear that makes his tankiness viable. Starting with him is a nightmare.
• Find the Forge in the first village. Your starting gear is garbage. The Iron Katana you get does 12 base damage. There's a blacksmith named Kazuya in the southeast corner of the starter zone. He sells a Steel Katana (base 24 damage) for 500 gold. Do two side quests, get the gold, buy it. This one purchase doubles your damage output for the first five hours.
• Unlock the "Shadow Strike" skill immediately. It's in the Infiltration tree, third node down. Costs 2 skill points. This lets you assassinate anyone within 8 meters of a bush or tall grass. This is your bread and butter. Without it, you're forced to get into melee range constantly, which triggers alerts.
• Learn to grab bodies. The default key is F (or Square on controller). After you kill someone, you have about 4 seconds before a patrol finds them. Grab the body and drag it into a shadow. Hiding bodies is more important than the kill itself. I lost a perfect stealth run because a guard walked past a corpse I left in a hallway.
• Ignore the "Main Quest" marker for the first three zones. The main quest giver is a guy with a weird hat. He'll send you into a level 15 area when you're level 4. Go do the Side Contracts from the notice boards instead. They give you gear, gold, and levels without the frustration of a brick wall boss.

One more thing about combat: The parry window is deceptive. You need to hit the button 0.3 seconds before the attack lands, not when the animation starts. I spent an hour getting my face kicked in by a basic ashigaru because I was parrying too early. Go to the training dummy in the first village and practice for five minutes. It's boring, but it saves you from rage-quitting later.

Expert Tips That Save Your Ass

Alright, you've got your gear, you've got your skill, you're ready to actually play the game. Now for the stuff the guidebook doesn't tell you. These are techniques I found by accident or through sheer stubbornness.

The "Double Vision" trick: You can equip two different Kusarigama (the chain-sickle thing) at once, one on each quick slot. The first one does slashing damage, the second does blunt damage. Why does this matter? Because enemy types have specific weaknesses. Armored samurai take 40% less damage from slashing but 30% more from blunt. Unarmored bandits are the opposite. By having both, you can switch mid-combo by pressing Q (or Left Bumper). I beat a boss in half the time by swapping weapons every three hits.

Horse whistling has a cooldown. It's 15 seconds. But here's the monkey brain trick: if you dismount and hit your horse, it runs away. Then you whistle again and it comes back immediately, ignoring the cooldown. This is stupid and feels like an exploit, but it's been in the game since launch and they haven't patched it. Use it to escape a fight fast.

Yokai bosses have a "tell" that's easy to miss. The first major boss, the Orochi, has a glowing tail. If the tail glows red, he's about to do a sweeping attack. If it glows blue, he's about to dive. I died to this boss eight times because I was staring at his face. Look at the tail. Once I did, I beat him on my next attempt with two health pots to spare.

The dye system is broken (in a good way). You can change the color of your armor. But if you dye a piece of gear with a rarity color (like purple or gold), the game treats it as a different item for set bonuses. I have a full "Shadow Set" that gives +25% stealth damage. I dyed two pieces of it gold, and suddenly the set bonus stopped working because the game considered them different items. Only dye your gear AFTER you've collected the full set and don't care about the bonus. This is a bug, but they haven't fixed it.

Bush assassination range increases with height. If you're in a bush on a hill, your "Shadow Strike" range increases to 12 meters (from 8). If you're in a bush in a valley, it stays at 8. Always scout for high ground before entering a compound. It's the difference between killing three guards and killing one.

Common Mistakes That Got Me Killed

Let me save you some pain. Here's every dumb thing I did so you don't have to.

• Not using the camera. You can hold V (or Up on D-pad) to look around corners. I went through the entire first region without using it. It's free intel. Use it before every door. The number of times I walked into a room with three guards playing cards and got instantly spotted is embarrassing.
• Selling your materials. Early on, you'll find Iron Ore and Silk. The game gives you gold for them, and you think "oh, I'm rich." Don't. You need 15 Iron Ore to upgrade your weapon to +1, and 30 Silk to upgrade your hood. Materials are scarce for the first ten hours. Only sell gear. Keep every ore and fabric. I had to grind for two hours because I sold all my ore to afford a cool hat.
• Fighting on rooftops. I know it looks cool. It's a death trap. Enemies with bows will shoot you from the ground, and you have no cover. If you fall, you take damage and alert the entire district. Rooftops are for escaping, not fighting. If you get caught, jump down into a crowd or a bush. Fight on the ground.
• Ignoring the "Wind" direction. This is specific to the stealth sections. If you're using a smoke bomb or a fire arrow, the wind affects its spread. Throwing a smoke bomb upwind makes a 5-meter cloud. Downwind? It's 2 meters, and you'll stand in your own smoke, blinding yourself. Check the grass or the flags before using utility items. It matters.
• Using the "Heal" skill first. The healing skill is in the Survival tree. It looks good. It's not. It heals you over 5 seconds and you can't move while using it. You'll just get hit again. Instead, put those 3 points into "Quick Recovery" (which lets you heal while running). The difference between standing still like a idiot and running behind a wall to heal is the difference between life and a loading screen.
• Not marking targets. You can tag enemies with E (or Right Stick click). They show up on your mini-map. You can only tag 8 at a time, but that's plenty. I forgot this for my first thirty hours and kept losing track of patrols. Mark every guard in a camp before you move in. It's like having wall-hacks.

FAQ: Stuff the Tutorial Won't Tell You

Q: Can I respec my skill points?
A: Yes, but it's hidden. Go to any Shrine (the little wooden statues with incense). Interact with it, and there's an option to "Meditate." This costs 500 gold and refunds all your skill points. You can do it as many times as you want. I respec'd three times in one afternoon because I kept picking wrong skills.

Q: Why do some enemies have a red border around their health bar?
A: That means they're Berserkers. They take 50% less damage from any source unless you hit them with a Stun attack first. Stun is from the Brute Force skill (in the Combat tree, second row). Without a stun, you're better off running. Trying to DPS a Berserker without stunning is like trying to chop down a tree with a butter knife. I spent twenty minutes on one before I realized.

Q: How do I switch between Naoe and Yasuke?
A: You can't do it on the fly. You need to visit a Safe House (marked with a blue roof on the map). Interact with the bed, and there's an option to "Change Character." It's free. But you can't change in the middle of a mission. Plan ahead. If you're doing a stealth mission, stick with Naoe. If you're about to fight a boss, switch to Yasuke.

Q: What's with the "Honor" bar?
A: It's not explained well. Honor increases by 1 point for every 3 assassinations from stealth. It decreases if you get caught and kill everyone in sight (brute force). High Honor (above 10) gives you a passive 15% damage buff while in shadows. Low Honor (below 0) gives you a 10% movement speed buff but makes guards more alert. I play high honor because the damage buff is better for bosses. But it's personal preference.

Q: Is the parry window the same for all weapons?
A: No. Katana has a 0.4 second window (easiest). Yari (spear) has a 0.2 second window (hardest). Kusarigama is in the middle at 0.3 seconds. If you're struggling with parries, use a Katana. Don't let the spear's reach tempt you. I lost a duel because I thought the spear's long reach would make up for my bad timing. It did not.

Q: Can I fast travel freely?
A: Yes, but only between Safe Houses you've discovered. There are no "synchronization points" like in older AC games. You have to physically walk to a Safe House to activate it. They're marked by a blue icon on the map. There's about 12 in the early area. Find them all. It saves you so much running. This mechanic is similar to the Bonfire system from Dark Souls — check out our Dark Souls guide for more tips on how to use rest points efficiently, because some of the logic transfers here.

Q: What's the best early game build?
A: Focus on Shadow Strike (Infiltration tree) and Quick Recovery (Survival tree). Grab the Steel Katana from the blacksmith. That's it. Everything else is optional. I beat the first three bosses with just those two skills and that sword. Don't overthink it. The game rewards simplicity. If you try to do a "poison build" or a "fire build" early, you'll spread your points too thin and get wrecked.

Q: Why does my grappling hook sometimes not stick?
A: It only sticks to wooden surfaces. Stone walls don't work. Also, it has a 10-meter range. If you're aiming at a wooden beam that's 11 meters away, it'll fail. The game gives you a visual indicator—the hook icon turns green if you're in range. Wait for green. I've died more times to a failed grapple than to any boss.

Q: Is there a New Game Plus?
A: No, and it's a sore spot for the community. The devs haven't added it yet. Once you beat the final boss, you can free roam and finish side quests, but there's no restart with your gear. If you want to replay with all your skills, you're out of luck. I'm hoping they patch it in, but for now, don't plan on a second playthrough anytime soon.

That's everything. Go play Shadows with these tips and you'll avoid the misery I went through. The game is gorgeous and the combat is fantastic once you understand the weird quirks. Don't let the cryptic systems ruin it. You got this.