There are plenty of castles that can be difficult to clear in Assassin’s Creed Shadows; many have unique problems when it comes to navigating them, and particularly difficult Samurai that you need to defeat in order to get the legendary loot in the locked chest.
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Hanazono Castle is not one of those difficult castles. That doesn’t mean that you can’t die here; if you make a mistake, you can lose a fight to these Samurai just like any other. But if you go in prepared and do it patiently, this should be one of the easiest castles to clear in the game.
How To Find Hanazono Castle
Hanazono Castle is located in the Yamashiro region, making it viable fairly early on in the game.
Specifically, Hanazono Castle is in the northern portion of Yamashiro, to the east of the Genbu Highlands and north of Kyoto. It’s a fairly empty area around the castle, making it unusual for most castles in the game.
How To Enter Hanazono Castle
You have quite a few options when it comes to entering Hanazono Castle. This castle is utterly dilapidated, a crumbling ruin that doesn’t provide much fortification for those inside.
- There is a climbable wall on the south side of the structure. This wall can get you more or less right into the heart of the castle without trouble, and this castle doesn’t have very many archers stationed on the walls.
- The east side of the castle has a small platform that you can grapple onto the castle wall from. This is one of the more vertical entries but is perfectly viable.
- The main entrance to the castle is guarded but not particularly well. There are not any formidable enemies standing at the entrance, and you can take down those that are there without too much trouble.
- The wall on the west side of the structure has crumbled entirely, leaving a hole that you can simply walk through. This entrance is also guarded, but again, not particularly well.
Where To Find Every Samurai
There are only two Samurai in this castle; both of them have enemies nearby, and because of their health chunks, are going to prove challenging enemies to kill with an assassination.
You’ll likely be taking this Samurai in a straight-up fight, so it’ll be worthwhile to take out the surrounding enemies first so that you don’t have as many enemies on you at the same time.
First Samurai
The first Samurai is on the ground, right near the main structure of the castle. This Samurai patrols a small area near a fire, with a few different enemies nearby. Three of these enemies can be stealth-assassinated very easily, as long as you time it when the Samurai is in a different section.
This will leave a fight with just the Samurai and one other enemy, in many cases. This Samurai has a weapon with quite a bit of reach, so keep that in mind when dodging their attacks.
Second Samurai
The second Samurai is in the main structure of this castle and has two other enemies in the room with him: one on the staircase, and one standing near the edge of the room. It’s fairly easy to assassinate the staircase enemy, leaving just the Samurai and one enemy left.
This second Samurai fights with a katana, and is a bit easier to deal with when it comes to his reach.
Where To Find The Legendary Chest
The Legendary chest for Hanazono Castle is actually in the same room as the second Samurai. This chest contains the Protector’s Helmet for Yasuke, which, when equipped, deals damage to enemies that Yasuke parries.
There are other chests and hideout loot scattered throughout the castle, but it’s not quite as lucrative of a castle as some of the others.
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