The Assassin’s Creed series is built on a foundation of moving in silence, and while Assassin’s Creed Shadows gives you the option to take a loud, direct approach to many scenarios, stealth is still an effective method. Naoe is a talented Shinobi who has a plethora of tools and talents at her disposal to help keep out of enemy sight.
Related
Assassin’s Creed Shadows Will Now Come To Steam Deck At Launch
Ubisoft has reversed its decision about a Steam Deck version at launch.
Although it’s incredibly stress-inducing to avoid detection while guards pass by you only a meter away, mastering how to be good at stealth in Assassin’s Creed Shadows is exceptionally satisfying. If you want to role-play as a true assassin or would rather avoid full-scale wars in castles and forts, then we’ve got all the Assassin’s Creed Shadows stealth tips you’ll need.
What Are The Keys To Stealth?
Perfecting stealth in Assassin’s Creed Shadows is all about knowing what tools, abilities, and strategic advantages you can take to keep hidden from your enemies.
First, it’s important to know the three states of being detected:
- Guard is Attentive (white line)
- Guard is Suspicious (yellow line)
- You are Detected (yellow line fills, turns red)
You can make a guard briefly attentive to complete your stealth goals but don’t push your luck by getting too close.
Now that you know what to avoid, there are a few key factors that will help you maintain stealth in Assassin’s Creed Shadows:
- Your Abilities (Eagle Vision, Stances, etc.)
- Your Timing & Decision-Making
- Your Tools (Shinobi Bells, Grappling Hook, etc.)
- Surveying and Using the Environment
We’ll dive deeper into the latter three points soon, but one of the first things you’ll need to know is what abilities are at your disposal.
Your most important Stealth ability is Eagle Vision (Click and hold the right stick), as it allows you to see where every enemy within a certain radius of Noae is located.
Eagle Vision is the first thing you should use before you can calculate timing and use your environment and tools to evade or assassinate your targets.
Secondly, your Eavesdropping/Observing (hold LT/L2) ability can improve Eagle Vision’s effectiveness by allowing you to hear enemy conversation or mark people and points of interest.
Thirdly, is your Stance (hold X or Square to change), which governs whether Noae is standing, crouching, or prone on the ground. Changing your stance allows you to hide in the tall grass and have quieter movement to avoid detection.
With these three core abilities at your fingertips, let’s dive into more information about how to master stealth.
In addition to Noae’s natural abilities, she also has a variety of valuable tools she can use to help keep enemies from detecting her, among other uses.
To choose a tool, select it from the d-pad by holding LT/L2. To use a tool, hold LT/L2 to aim, then RT/R2 to throw.
- Kunai – Deals damage. Improved headshot damage.
- Smoke Bomb – Breaks all lines of sight.
- Shinobi Bell – Distracts/Lures nearby enemies.
- Shuriken – Deals damage. Can be used on the environment.
While the Kunai is only useful if you want to kill a weak enemy from a distance, the other three Shinobi tools are immensely helpful for keeping you in stealth.
Smoke Bombs are particularly useful when you’re in the middle of an engagement that you want to escape, but can be used offensively to reposition yourself during a fight.
Smoke bombs typically are used when you’ve already been detected, and ideally, you don’t want to be in a situation where they’re you’re only option for remaining hidden.
Shinobi Bells are incredibly useful tools that can either buy you some time by distracting a guard or help you eliminate a target by bringing them closer to your hiding spot. This is your most versatile stealth tool.
Shurikens are great for improvising, as you can throw them at the environment to trigger a distraction, which, like the Shinobi Bell, can be used to slip away or defeat a foe. You can also use this to stagger an enemy and knock them from a ledge if you’re clever.
How To Use Your Environment To Maintain Stealth
Two of the four key facets of stealth meet here, as surveying your environment is just as important as executing at the right moment.
Firstly, everything goes back to your initial Eagle Vision, as you should get to a high point using your grappling hook to study the layout of a given area, making note of each guard’s path and movement timing.
Knowing this information is essential in making the right decisions that will take you from point A to point B while avoiding detection.
One of your best advantages is to utilize shadows or low-light areas to move through areas without being noticed. Moving around at nighttime can be much easier due to this.
Keep in mind that certain opportunities might only arise during certain seasons. For example, you can only knock icicles onto enemy guards during the winter season.
There are three major environmental spots to take note of when surveying an area:
- Water
- Hay bales and other hiding spots
- Trapdoor
Water is the best hiding spot because you can also reposition yourself and sneak to more advantageous locations when shrouded under the cover of water.
Trapdoors are similar as they allow you to move around without being exposed. There are two kinds of trapdoors: those on roofs, and those on floors.
Roof trap doors will drop you into a building, which provides cover and many corners to evade or kill your enemies. Floor trap doors are great escape routes if you’re in a room and want to avoid alerted guards coming to check on a disturbance.
Lastly, hay bales, wells, etc. are the least mobile hiding spots, but they offer the opportunity to hide in plain sight near enemy guards, so you can quietly assassinate them and hide their bodies, or avoid detection until they pass.
Putting It All Together
With all that in mind, here’s the best approach to take if you want to maintain stealth and defeat your foes in silence:
- Get to a high point or somewhere to see as much of the environment as possible.
- Use Eagle Vision to locate all enemies and use your observational skills to mark them.
- Plan out a route to your target or from one location to another, with a safe spot, like a hay bale, as the destination.
- Observe enemy movement patterns, then react decisively when your opening arises.
- Keep your favored tool at the ready to improvise in case anything goes wrong.
However, you should also keep an eye out for certain armor pieces that provide additional stealth benefits, such as making it more difficult for enemies to hear the sounds you make.
With the right combination of gear, knowledge, preparation, tools, and execution, you’ll be silently assassinating all of your targets as Noae.
Next
Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ Canon Mode Was Added Because Fans Wanted A “Definitive” Narrative
Don’t worry, Assassin’s Creed Shadows has a set place in the series’ canon.