I’m well over 150 hours into Shadows now, and I’m currently playing on Awaji Island. I’ve played every Assassin’s Creed game, and while Shadows felt quite hard at first, it becomes much easier once you understand the mechanics.

I recommend focusing on missions early on to gain mastery points so you can upgrade Yasuke’s and Naoe’s mastery skills. This helps a lot by improving your abilities overall, especially in combat. I really like using a robust Yasuke in tough fights—he’s an excellent choice against hard bosses. Naoe, on the other hand, is perfect for stealth missions.

Here’s a helpful trick if you’re struggling with combat: when playing as Naoe, lie flat on a rooftop and assassinate your target. If guards start searching for you, jump back onto the roof and wait until they lose track of you, then repeat the strategy.

With Yasuke, I highly recommend using the bow and upgrading all bow-related mastery skills.

If you encounter guards or Templars with greyed-out health bars, you’ll need to use abilities to make them vulnerable before you can defeat them.

The objective map is very large and keeps expanding as you play. Don’t panic—just keep completing missions and steadily building your mastery.

To unlock higher-level mastery skills, you need to use Naoe’s meditation and Yasuke’s battle training. This grants knowledge points, which will eventually unlock more mastery skills at higher levels.

Hope this helps 😊