Assassin’s Creed Shadows is a big open world RPG, and as with all games of this type, you can find yourself in places and on missions where you feel a bit underpowered. The very first time I tried to conquer a castle, I actually had to leave and come back after levelling up, spending Mastery points and gathering more gear.
With dozens of hours of playtime in Assassin’s Creed Shadows, we’ve picked up a few tips and tricks for how to quickly get the best skills for Naoe and Yasuke. Here’s the quickest way to do this.
In this guide
- Levelling up in AC Shadows – Knowledge, Mastery & Skills
- The quickest way to earn Mastery points
- Can you reset Masteries?
- How to gain Knowledge levels
- What skills are best for Naoe and Yasuke?
Levelling up in AC Shadows – Knowledge, Mastery & Skills
Levelling up in Assassin’s Creed Shadows is mostly self explanatory: you gain experience for everything from discovering new areas, through killing enemies, to finishing quests. As you gain experience you level up, increasing your base character stats and giving you Mastery points to spend on unlocking abilities. However, there’s a few things you’ll need to bear in mind.
The quickest ways to earn Mastery points
There’s multiple ways to earn Mastery points in Assassin’s Creed Shadows, with the most obvious being that you earn one point every time you level up. However, with skills costing up to five Mastery points each, you might want to get them more quickly, with the fastest way to earn Mastery points being to take down shadowy organisations and Samurai Daisho – each kill earns you one point.
Samurai Daisho can be found patrolling in castles and present a tougher challenge than regular enemies, meanwhile, members of a secret organisation are found in the open world. You can stumble upon these members while you’re exploring, and spot them as being marked with a little crown icon above their level and health bar. Once defeated, they’ll be added to your objectives menu in their own little circle for their organisation.
Look for the little crown above the enemy level number (a skull in this case, as I’m in a high level area!)
If you don’t happen to stumble up on them by chance, you can do side quests until you find one that reveals the organisation to you, allowing you to begin hunting them down. Taking down these organisations are hugely rewarding and the quickest way to gain Mastery points…. so much so that you might not actually be able to spend them all!
Can you reset Masteries?
Yes you can! You can reset your unlocked Masteries from the skill trees, giving you back all the Mastery points you’ve spent within a particular Mastery Path to redistribute as you see fit. Great for if you want to pivot your playstyle with some different skills.
Know how to get Knowledge
As well as levelling up and having enough Mastery points, for all but the first tier of abilities in Naoe and Yasuke’s skill trees, you need to have a higher Knowledge level.
Increasing your Knowledge level needs you to earn Knowledge points from completing certain activities in the open world. These include activities like finding lost pages in temples, completing Kuji-kiris, praying at all the required locations in a Shrine, and completing Katas. Once you’ve got enough Knowledge points your Knowledge level will increase and you’ll gain access to the next tier of abilities. If you don’t bother doing this you may find yourself with mastery points and no skills left to spend them on until you go back and complete a few temples.
What Masteries are best for Naoe and Yasuke?
Naoe and Yasuke are two very different characters in Assassin’s Creed Shadows, and so (unless you’re trying to play only as one or the other) you’ll want to be careful with the skills you acquire for them. Anything that increases the damage dealt with assassinations or unlocks equipment will help Naoe massively and should be prioritised, whilst skills you unlock for Yasuke should focus on damage and survivability in combat.
There are also more than two types of weapons available to each character, but only two slots to equip them, so you may want to invest points on two specific weapons so that your Mastery points aren’t wasted on equipment you’re not currently using.
Levelling up in Assassin’s Creed Shadows is straight forward, but taking down certain enemies in the open world rewards you with either Mastery points or Knowledge to unlock new skills for Naoe and Yasuke. Make sure to check out our gear and looting guide for how to find the best Legendary weapons and keep it upgraded.
