Assassin's Creed Shadows: Complete Walkthrough & Boss Guide
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🗺️ Main Story Walkthrough
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Assassin's Creed Shadows opens in feudal Japan, 1579, introducing both protagonists in quick succession: Naoe, a young shinobi from Iga province, and Yasuke, the historical African samurai who served Oda Nobunaga. The prologue establishes their distinct control philosophies — Naoe is fast, silent, and built for vertical traversal, while Yasuke is deliberate, powerful, and excels in open combat. Before leaving the prologue area, collect the starter tool upgrades and ensure Naoe has both a smoke bomb and a grappling hook equipped, as these are essential immediately after the tutorial ends.
The first act tasks Naoe and Yasuke with identifying members of the Shinbakufu, a shadowy organization of twelve Onryo. Missions fan out across Iga, Omi, and early Yamashiro provinces. Use the Hideout system to assign agents called Scouts to regions, which reveals Onryo target locations over time — sending Scouts is essentially mandatory because several targets cannot be found without the intelligence they return. Prioritize unlocking Naoe's Phantom Blade (a wrist-mounted blowgun) and Yasuke's Cannon Matchlock for the most efficient target removal in each encounter.
Your initial target trio includes The Mourner, The Fox, and The Noble, each guarded in a distinct location type: a funeral procession, a merchant estate, and a castle dungeon respectively. Naoe is almost always the optimal character for the actual assassination given her shinobi skill set, while Yasuke handles the heavier combat encounters that gate access to target locations. After each assassination you receive a Memory Shard that collectively builds a picture of the Shinbakufu's true leadership structure. Check the Hideout map board between missions to pick up any newly revealed side intel.
Assassin's Creed Shadows features a dynamic seasonal system that physically changes the environment and affects enemy behavior — guards shelter indoors during heavy snow, and tall grass used for Naoe's stealth disappears in winter. Plan assassination missions for Spring or Autumn when foliage is at its densest for maximum concealment. Scattered across the provinces are Kofun shrines, Buddhist temples, and merchant caravans that yield upgrade materials for both characters; prioritize finding Blacksmiths early because weapon upgrades substantially increase Yasuke's damage output in Act 2's tougher castles.
The second act escalates into a full campaign against the remaining nine Shinbakufu members, including The Two-Faced, The Horseman, and the mysterious Obsidian targets whose identities are withheld until late. Missions become longer and castle infiltrations grow more complex, often featuring multi-layer walls with independent patrol schedules. Naoe's Grappling Hook and Wall Crawl ability are essential for bypassing outer walls silently; unlock both by spending Mastery Points in her Shinobi tree. Cooperative sequences between Naoe and Yasuke — where one character causes a distraction and the other strikes — become increasingly important in this act's hardest castles.
A pivotal story revelation in late Act 2 exposes the Shinbakufu's deepest secret and forces Naoe and Yasuke into a direct confrontation with Kyoto's power structure. This sequence features the game's most elaborate stealth infiltration, set inside an imperial residence during a staged ceremony. Use Naoe for this mission exclusively and equip the full Nightstalker armor set (found in a Kofun tomb in Yamashiro) which reduces detection speed significantly. If your notoriety in Kyoto is high before this mission, spend time burning wanted notices and bribing officials — entering the ceremony district at high notoriety severely limits your approach options.
After the Shinbakufu is dismantled, Act 3 closes out the personal arcs of both protagonists and Junjiro, a young man caught between both worlds. Yasuke's final mission confronts his complicated loyalty to Nobunaga's legacy in a direct combat sequence that functions as his character-defining fight. Naoe's conclusion centers on Iga province and the truth about her father's death. These missions are shorter but narratively dense; all optional side content including remaining Onryo informants and Tea House challenges can still be completed freely during Act 3 before triggering the epilogue.
The epilogue wraps both storylines and unlocks New Game Plus, which carries over all character levels, gear, and Mastery Points. Before finishing the final mission, ensure you have collected all Memory Shards from assassinated Onryo, completed the Junjiro questline, and visited the Hideout's secret room which opens only after all twelve Onryo are dead. New Game Plus introduces harder elite enemy variants in every province, making Yasuke's fully upgraded Kanabo nodachi and Naoe's maxed Phantom Blade valuable tools for re-engaging the world at a higher challenge level.
⚔️ Boss Guides
The Mourner (Onryo Target)
Attack Patterns
The Mourner is an early Onryo target who moves in a scripted procession surrounded by grieving attendants and six armed guards. If combat breaks out, the guards form a protective ring around him and he retreats to a screened palanquin which becomes impossible to reach without defeating all guards. He does not fight personally but the confined procession environment makes ranged kills difficult without civilian casualties.
Strategy
Blend into the procession crowd and walk alongside it using Naoe's social stealth ability until you are within blade range. Wait for the procession to pass a narrow alleyway where the guard spacing widens, then step out of the crowd and trigger the hidden blade sequence. Immediately throw a smoke bomb and sprint into the alleyway to break line of sight. If you are detected approaching, use a sleep dart from the Phantom Blade on the nearest guard to create enough confusion to complete the assassination before the alarm fully spreads.
The Horseman (Onryo Target)
Attack Patterns
The Horseman is a mounted Onryo commander who patrols a road between two fortifications. While on horseback he is essentially untouchable — mounted guards match his speed and the saddle provides damage reduction against ranged attacks. He dismounts only at the stable located midway on his route, spending a brief window feeding his horse before resuming the patrol.
Strategy
Station Yasuke with a Matchlock loaded on the barn roof overlooking the stable. Wait for The Horseman to fully dismount and take two steps toward the stable water trough, which is his farthest point from his mounted escort. A single charged Matchlock shot followed by Naoe throwing a kunai from the opposite rooftop is sufficient. Yasuke should then immediately enter the stable's upper loft to avoid the mounted escort's immediate sweep of the area.
Fujibayashi Clan Champion (Mid-Game Elite)
Attack Patterns
This elite samurai champion appears as a gatekeeper in several mid-game castle assault missions. He uses a two-handed katana with fast three-hit combos followed by a slow but devastating overhead slam that deals massive stamina damage. He counters immediately if Yasuke uses light attacks during his combo recovery, and he will parry Naoe's light blade strikes entirely, making her nearly useless in direct combat against him.
Strategy
Use Yasuke exclusively. Activate Impenetrable Defense before he begins his first combo — this counters up to five consecutive hits and follows up with an automatic parry. After his overhead slam animation begins, side-dodge and respond with Yasuke's full heavy attack chain, which deals more total damage than a light combo and builds the stagger meter faster. Keep the Regeneration passive active to recover health between exchanges. Two full stagger cycles will bring him down regardless of difficulty setting.
Shinbakufu Final Obsidian Leader
Attack Patterns
The final Onryo leader is protected in an imperial palace during a ceremony. Phase one requires Naoe to reach and assassinate a body double in the crowd without triggering the alarm — failing alerts the true target who flees. Phase two begins when the true leader reveals themselves: they fight with a naginata using wide sweeping attacks that hit Naoe in a two-hit kill, making Yasuke mandatory. Their naginata combos include a spinning 360-degree sweep that cannot be blocked by standard parry timing.
Strategy
For phase one, arrive with zero notoriety, equip the Nightstalker armor, and use the scout intel to pre-identify the body double's position on the ceremony floor. Blend through the crowd and complete the kill before the ceremony horn sounds. For phase two, immediately switch to Yasuke and activate Impenetrable Defense at the start of his first naginata combo. The 360-degree sweep has a brief wind-up stance — recognize it and dodge backward rather than sideways, then re-engage. Two stagger cycles end the fight.