Assassin's Creed Shadows' Most OP Engraving Makes Saving Mastery Points Worth It

Published Mar 21, 2025

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Keeping up with the pace of upgrades in easy to make the mistake of getting a little lazy about it. When points can be racked up in the hundreds, putting off the skill tree decision-making for even a while results in a significant surplus.

This obviously isn't the optimal approach, but there's one way to turn unspent points into a significant upgrade. Assassin's Creed Shadows features trinkets, which can be equipped for bonuses, and engravings, which can be applied to various gear items as unique perks. While trinkets and engravings that offer interesting features might be more appealing to players neglecting skill trees than ones that offer percentage-based bonuses, anyone in this situation should be careful not to ignore, the Masakado's Vengeance trinket/amulet and the associated Damage for Unspent Mastery Points engraving are exceptions.

Unspent Mastery Points Can Scale For Big Damage

Mastery Points Build Up Quickly

Masakado's Vengeance and Damage for Unspent Mastery Points directly convert unspent Mastery Points into damage, asg a 1% damage boost to every spent skill point. If you've spent more time exploring and taking down enemies than you've spent thinking about your build, it's entirely possible to invest in some primary upgrades and still rack up a hundred spare Mastery Points or more by the latter parts of the game. While you could gain a lot from properly investing them, equipping Masakado's Vengeance or applying the Damage for Unspent Mastery Points perk to another trinket can double damage with ease.

Damage for Unspent Mastery Points isn't the only perk to scale a percent impact based on other factors, and it's also possible to equip trinkets and amulets that reward spending Mastery Points in specific areas. The alternatives simply can't scale as high as Damage for Unspent Mastery Points, however. The idea of trading abilities and stat boosts for increased damage effect is somewhat comparable to items in other games like Black Myth: Wukong's Spell Binder, which provide good indications of how much fun this could be for the right playstyle.

Damage For Unspent Mastery Points Feels OP In AC Shadows

Naoe Won't Seem So Weak Anymore

I had enough unspent Mastery Points lying around in my playthrough to see a significant boost in damage with Masakado's Vengeance, but I ultimately unequipped it for that very reason, as it can quickly throw off the balance of Naoe's weakness in open combat compared to her strength in stealth. With Yasuke, it would trivialize battle even more, especially when it comes to the boss fights that he can already plow through in seconds. In pursuit of that power fantasy, though, it could be great, and equipping it with only a handful of unspent Mastery Points could also accessorize nicely.

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Regardless, you aren't likely to get Masakado's Vengeance and Damage for Unspent Mastery Points for a while. Both can be found in Ishibutai Kofun, a location that doesn't naturally intersect with the path of major objectives until deep in the story. They wouldn't be so interesting if you hadn't had the opportunity to hoard Mastery Points, though, so it might be for the best that they appear as a late-game discovery in Assassin's Creed Shadows.