Like other recent franchise entries, Assassin's Creed Shadows is a massive game, and that scale comes with plenty of room to make mistakes. From dealing with the basic settings to picking worthwhile upgrades, virtually every feature and mechanic can be approached in a way that doesn't do the game justice. Instead of taking hours to work through the kinks, the easiest thing to do is to get an overview of the biggest pitfalls as soon as possible.

In addition to everything that you might miss throughout the early hours, you should also make sure to spend adequate time in the initial settings, which offers options like Guided Exploration and the language-oriented Immersive Mode. While most of these can be changed later on (and difficulty settings have further tweaks in the full game settings), Canon Mode can't be adjusted, so everything else should only come after putting some thought into the set-up.

10 Letting Enemies Ring The Alarm Bell

Avoid The Wanted Status

It's never a good idea to let enemies ring the alarm, but it's especially important to keep the risk in mind when playing Assassin's Creed Shadows. Whenever you enter an enemy camp or a new area of a castle, your first priority should be to look up and identify any alarm bells. They're easy to take care of, as tossing a shuriken or firing an arrow at the rope securing a bell will take it out of commission, but failing to do so can be a big mistake.

If the alarm gets rung, Naoe or Yasuke will end up with a Wanted status in that region. Without options like posters to tear down, clearing that status will have to wait until the season changes, or until you get a hideout upgrade that provides other options. It also sets Guardians on the loose, which make life a lot harder for Naoe in particular. No matter the scenario, cutting down the alarm bell before attempting an approach is better than scrambling to stop a guard from ringing it later.

9 Spending Too Long As Naoe

Don't Assume Yasuke Will Appear Soon

After the prologue, the first main part of the game only features Naoe as the solo protagonist. If you prefer stealth gameplay, this can be perfectly satisfying, but anyone looking forward to playing Yasuke again needs to prioritize completing a few main story quests. Two targets from the Shinbakufu will become available, and although the order doesn't matter, you should focus on completing both targets.

After those are complete, following through with the subsequently unlocked main quest will ultimately make Yasuke available to play again. Feel free to take your time if you're not in a rush, but it's worth being aware that you could end up spending 10 hours or more as Naoe if you don't prioritize assassinating the main targets over getting lost in side content.

8 Ignoring Critical Skill Unlocks

Spend Mastery Points

Assassin's Creed Shadows throws plenty of Mastery Points at you, which can be used to advance skill trees for both Naoe and Yasuke. With six skill trees each, however, it can be easy to prioritize the wrong upgrades or end up overwhelmed and ignore the progression altogether.

When playing with Guaranteed Assassination off, you should prioritize upgrades that let Naoe take out more enemy health with assassinations. With Guaranteed Assassination on, she won't need these, and they'll be noted as irrelevant in the upgrade menu.

As Naoe, you'll want to invest in some Assassin tree upgrades early on, which have the biggest impact on letting her complete stealth runs without accidentally getting into brawls. For Yasuke, it's a good idea to get some Naginata upgrades, as the weapon's range and speed make it great for open combat. Getting a couple of unique skills for each weapon is useful to keep options available in battle, although you won't need more than two on hand for each.

7 Traveling Off-Road

Follow The Trail When You Can

Thanks to the bird's-eye-view that the map provides, it's often tempting to travel from point A to point B as the crow flies. As an open-world game without much in the way of hard obstacles, it's generally possible to follow a relatively straight line to the next objective. While this could often be the most efficient approach in games like Assassin's Creed Origins, following the curves and forks of the actual road is frequently the best way to save time in Shadows.

This mostly has to do with the terrain of Shadows, which is both mountainous and densely forested. Attempts to travel on horseback will run into constant obstacles off-road, and even running around on foot tends to result in frequent tussles with bushes, rocks, and slopes that are slightly too aggressive for Naoe or Yasuke to approach head-on. If the path looks clear or an object of interest is in the middle of nowhere, venturing off the beaten path can be fun, but sticking to roads (or at least rivers, in a pinch) is less trouble overall.

6 Wasting Scouts At The Start Of A Season

Don't Tag All Supplies You See

After unlocking the hideout in Assassin's Creed Shadows, every season comes with a small supply of scouts, which can be used to tag and recover supplies or search areas on the map to find objectives. At the start, there will be four scouts per season, and tagging a single pile of supplies takes two scouts. Visiting one warehouse and tagging two supply piles will consequently put every scout out of commission, which could quickly prove frustrating if you have trouble finding an objective a few minutes later.

The option to turn on guided exploration remove the need to scout locations, but I'd recommend at least trying the game with it off to see if you enjoy the process of more natural exploration.

Scouts can be refreshed by visiting Kakurega locations, but it's generally wise to keep a couple on-hand regardless. If you find a surplus of wood that Naoe can grab on the fly and end up debating whether to use all four scouts to tag even more of it, the best course of action is probably to leave some behind. I found myself short on minerals, however, so you might want to prioritize those when you run across them (or simply stock up from merchant wares).

5 Not Unlocking Kakurega Locations

Set Up Convenient Fast Travel Stops

Even if you're not using scouts often, unlocking Kakurega locations is still worthwhile. These show up with the icon of a hooded shinobi on the map, and they can be purchased through the same interface rather than an interaction within the world. Kakurega buildings become available after first building one in the hideout, which is part of the main story, and subsequently serve as a way to stock up on various resources, fast travel, and even earn an achievement for setting one up in each region.

Ultimately, Kakurega locations are good for any playstyle. If you like to bounce around the map, they provide some convenient spawn locations that viewpoints might not cover. If you prefer to travel on foot or horseback, on the other hand, they make it easier to avoid frequent trips back to the hideout. If there's any one reason to keep tabs on your map in Assassin's Creed Shadows, it might just be to make progress with Kakuregas.

4 Forgetting To Sell Valuables

Offload Your Useless Goods

You'll pick up plenty of valuables in Assassin's Creed Shadows, and you can even buy some from vendors, which might make it seem like there's a use in hoarding them. It's also easy to simply forget that you have any at all, as the game avoids any inventory limits or weight capacity restrictions. The real purpose of valuables is to offload them for profit, though, so it's worth ing to switch over to the Sell tab when talking to merchants and dump your extraneous goods on them.

You probably won't be short on money regardless in Assassin's Creed Shadows, but ensuring that the revenue from valuables is rolling in can take any financial weight off of the decisions to purchase equipment, decorative hideout items, and more. Anything you can spend money on (well, besides valuables themselves) is more useful than valuables, so there's no reason not to make the exchange.

3 Not Getting Knowledge Points

Explore The World For Skill Tree Progression

If you're playing Assassin's Creed Shadows for the action, you'll almost certainly pick up Mastery Points at a steady rate, which can be acquired through plenty of standard progression activities. Knowledge Points, however, require interaction with the world in a slightly more thoughtful way, and they're equally important to skill progression. While Mastery Points can be spent to unlock skills, Knowledge Points are needed to ively level up the skill trees and make later upgrades available to purchase.

Areas and activities that have red icons when discovered on the map provide Knowledge Points when completed, so it's worth doing at least a handful of these every now and then. These can range from praying at shrines to training as Yasuke, but they tend to be more focused on culture than conquest. Those who like to take it slow should get plenty without thinking about it, but if you're not naturally drawn to these activities, you should still make sure to engage with them on occasion.

2 Not Upgrading Gear

Don't Always Opt For New Gear

Another opportunity that's all too easy to ignore is the system for gear upgrades. While leveling gear alongside Naoe and Yasuke might seem obvious, the game drops new katanas, naginatas, and more around every corner, so neither protagonist is likely to ever come up short of an appropriately strong weapon with a cool perk.

Exploring underground kofuns, infiltrating castles, and completing significant quests can all be good ways to obtain legendary gear.

Only occasionally will you find gear or perks that are perfectly suited to your playstyle, though, and you'll be better off upgrading those items to keep them competitive than trading them away for every new option. Gear can be upgraded in the hideout after recruiting the blacksmith, and it's possible to add secondary perks alongside the basic upgrades. While a new hat can be fun, stacking assassination perks on a hood for Naoe to use when getting the drop on major targets will almost certainly be better.

1 Playing Naoe & Yasuke In The Wrong Way

Learn Their Strengths & Weaknesses

The difference in gameplay style between Naoe and Yasuke is fairly self-evident, and you'll quickly slip into the rhythm of using Yasuke for brawling and Naoe for stealth. Even so, there's more to playing them optimally than deciding whether it's safe to go in guns blazing. Yasuke is the character that will most likely trip series veterans up, especially when assuming he can pull certain tricks. Since he alerts enemies before brutally assassinating them, Yasuke can't pull targets down into wells or strike them from above, so setting up stealthy infiltrations with the character requires a more grounded approach.

With Naoe, it's most important to that her katana isn't her primary Assassin's Creed Shadows weapon in any particular way. While the katana in great for a duel, unlocking Double Assassination and keeping the tanto handy is the wisest approach to stealth infiltrations, while whipping out the kusarigami can give her better crowd control if a brawl breaks out — if you can master the timing, that is.