In Assassin’s Creed: Shadows, castles represent a key component of the game’s side content, serving as challenging enemy fortifications for players to conquer. You can approach these strongholds using either Yasuke or Naoe, each offering distinct playstyles that cater to different strategies.
Engaging with castles is one of the most efficient methods to earn Mastery Points in the game. Additionally, they provide a prime opportunity to acquire rare gear items, ranging from epic to legendary quality.
While the prospect of facing these castles may seem daunting at first, I encourage you not to hesitate. This guide will cover the essential features of castles in Assassin’s Creed: Shadows, along with helpful tips and strategies to make your experience more efficient.
Preparation for Castle Engagements
Unlike many side activities in previous Assassin’s Creed games, adequate preparation before assaulting castles in Shadows can significantly enhance your success and enjoyment.
Selecting Naoe as your character of choice for these missions is highly recommended. Her unique toolkit and stealth-based gameplay allow for swift eliminations, with the Kunai providing exceptional efficiency for instant kills on unsuspecting foes.
While Yasuke boasts impressive resilience and powerful area-of-effect abilities, his playstyle can feel cumbersome. After testing both characters, it became apparent that Naoe offers a more enjoyable and effective experience overall.
It’s crucial to have your scouts prepared by utilizing a Kakurega, as this will enable them to mark and retrieve valuable resources stored in locked rooms throughout the castles—resources essential for upgrading your Hideout.
Clearing Castles: Your Objectives
Once you are prepared, follow these basic guidelines for successfully clearing a castle, accompanied by valuable tips to streamline your effort:
- Defeating the Samurai Daishos: Your primary goal here is to eliminate these elite enemies within the castle. A helpful tip is to use the observation feature (L2\LT) to locate and tag them from a distance. If you have mid-tier skills like Assassination Damage 1 with Naoe, you can dispatch them with a single blow, circumventing the need for head-on combat.
- Looting Building Resource Shipments: As previously indicated, these resources are hidden in locked storage rooms. Identify the enemy holding the key with your observation, loot any available rooms, and mark the shipments for your scouts to collect.
- Retrieving the Legendary Chest: Once all samurai are dispatched, navigate to the main castle building to access a chest containing a gear item as your reward. This chest is typically located on one of the upper floors, so remain vigilant of patrolling ronin guards as they can quickly overwhelm you.
- Synchronizing Viewpoints: Every main castle has a synchronization point at its peak. Generally, it’s a good strategy to do this after retrieving the legendary gear chest, allowing you to synchronize and exit the castle efficiently.
Tips and Tricks for Castle Conquests
When playing as Naoe, it’s beneficial to leverage the environment for air assassinations, as enemies will struggle to reach you when situated on rooftops.
Patience is key when navigating the castle’s courtyards.As a strategy, eliminate threats positioned at the periphery first, such as archers or gunmen, as illustrated in the image above.
From this point, methodically take down samurai and lesser enemies to gather minor experience points. In addition to locked storage rooms, there are many scattered loot boxes throughout, which can provide valuable upgrading materials.
Attempting castle incursions at night can enhance your experience due to altered enemy AI behavior, enabling you to take advantage of shadows for stealth and activating certain bonuses that only function during nighttime.
If you find yourself in a tight situation while using Naoe, quickly deploying a smoke bomb can serve as an effective escape mechanism, allowing you to disengage from a hostile encounter.
Finally, be sure to unlock the double assassination ability for Naoe. This skill is particularly helpful for orchestrating takedowns when multiple enemies are positioned together. With the advantage of Kunai Assassination Damage, you’ll even be capable of taking down Samurai Daishos in a single strike.
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