Summary
- Fine-tune game settings for smoother flow and gameplay experience in Assassin’s Creed Shadows.
- Discover hidden destructibility options like slashing through fences for sneakier gameplay.
- Save precious Gold by avoiding early gear upgrades to match loot drops in Assassin’s Creed Shadows.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows can easily take players eighty hours or more to complete. That’s not the story alone as that can be accomplished by ignoring a lot of what the open-world has to offer. Regardless if players ignore side quests or not, players are going to mess up while playing the game.

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With such a huge world, and many mechanics to master, players may not be able to min-max their experience easily in Assassin’s Creed Shadows. That’s why these tips can help players make the most of their time, to avoid spending as long on the game. For some, that’s the goal but for others, every second is precious.
6
Not Going Into The Finer Options
More Open Up After Naoe’s Training
When players boot up Assassin’s Creed Shadows, they can choose between four difficulty levels including Story, Forgiving, Normal, and Expert. There are a few options to tinker with at hand and after initial setups, players may not think twice about going into the options again. This is a mistake though because players can fine-tune their settings to a wider degree to make things flow better. For example, it never made sense when the series went full RPG with Assassin’s Creed Origins for one reason: no more instant kills.
If players weren’t at a high enough level, they couldn’t automatically kill an opponent when striking above. A neck kill is a neck kill and levels shouldn’t matter. For players that feel this one, they can use the Guaranteed Assassination option in the menu. It’s also worth tweaking the Quick Time Events option to make Kuji-kiri easier in Assassin’s Creed Shadows as this is 2025 and QTEs are old hat at this point. Overall, players should know there are more options after players open up the world with Naoe an hour or two into the game.
5
You Can Cut Through More Than Doors
Behold The Destructibility Of A Ninja
Anyone who has played a ninja game or a samurai game before probably knows they can tear through Japanese paper doors easily. There is an ability in Assassin’s Creed Shadows’s skill tree for Naoe allowing her to assassinate enemies through these doors which always looks cool. What players may not realize is that there is more destructibility to be had which isn’t outright advertised.

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At bandit camps, they typically surround themselves with bamboo fences. At Oda outposts, there are yellow flags stationed around to border out players. Both of these fence types can be slashed through with the flag version in particular being quite the revelation for players who stumble upon it themselves. This means players have more ways to sneak into camps if they make use of these secrets.
4
A Secret Way To Mark Locations
Photo Mode Is More Than A Cool Diversion
Ubisoft has always been pretty good about adding Photo Modes into their games and making it appear in Assassin’s Creed Shadows is relatively easy and fast. On PS5 controllers, they can press in the two analog sticks to start the functionality. This is all pretty intuitive for anyone who has messed around with a Photo Mode before but what players may not be aware of is the functions’s second role.
When players take a photo, that picture appears on the map and Ubisoft can keep track of them if players are online. Some things, like shrines, won’t appear on the map as an icon, so players could use photos to make their own little waypoint system. Players should be aware that they can delete photos from the world map too. No reason to keep action shots from assassinations on the map to clutter it up.
3
Use Explosions To Kill And Distract
Ancient Japan Has Red Barrels Too
This may not be a shooter, but there are shooter-like mechanics in Assassin’s Creed Shadows. Players are going to come across red pots marked with a white circle. Unless they go on a particular quest, players may not even realize these red pots can be exploded with just a simple Kunai.
That’s all it takes to light these puppies up and send enemies flying. If done correctly, this won’t give a player’s whereabouts away via the alert system, so explosions can be used to create a nice diversion. Using Photo Mode upon impact will have a cool effect, making enemies look like their doubled soul is escaping their body. That’s a bonus fact for players who love taking photos in games.
2
You Can Drive Boats
Not Quite Edward Kenway
Even though Japan is an island nation, players are going to explore a distinct region on land. There are plenty of rivers to cross and players can also behold the vastness of the sea at various harbors or from above at certain Viewpoints. What players may not realize is that the ships out in harbors can be explored and there are even some big treasure boats about there like the unnamed floating castle around Sakai.

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Players could swim there or they could take a small boat. That’s right, lonely boats can be hijacked to ship players across the waves. The mechanics aren’t as worthwhile as entries like Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag but little boats are still useful. That aforementioned castle boat should be checked out to get some good early armor and weapons for Naoe in Assassin’s Creed Shadows.
1
Upgrading Too Soon
Gold Is Precious
Players can start upgrading their gear relatively fast in Assassin’s Creed Shadows as long as they take on the side quest Way of the Blacksmith. Players just need to head to Sakai and talk to a blacksmith, Heiji, to recruit him to the hideout. This will unlock transmogrification for armor sets, but more importantly, players can upgrade gear. That sounds good on paper but Assassin’s Creed Shadows is a loot-based game. Enemies and locations will have loot drops matched to the player’s level or slightly above it.
Shops will match the level for loot as well. There are a lot of options to stay contemporary with level requirements in the game, so much so that upgrading armor and weapons so early on can be a waste. It’s more of the fact that it costs Gold, a resource and not a monetary value, and it’s expensive to buy and rare to find. Players will kick themselves if they upgrade some piece of gear too early and waste Gold, only to get a better loot drop minutes later.
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