Assassin's Creed Shadows: Which regions visit first?

What is the best order to explore regions in AC Shadows? Our guide explains this issue. You will learn the recommended areas to explore at the beginning of the game, as well as which regions are considered to be difficult for the game's protagonists. We have also prepared several tips on what to pay attention to in newly discovered regions.

• Which regions to explore first?
• Areas for high-level characters

Which regions to explore first?

1. After playing through the long prologue, you will unlock the open world and the first region of Izumi Settsu. Izumi Settsu is filled with smaller, unique locations. Primarily, visit the main cities and villages, including Osaka and Sakai. This will allow you to unlock useful fast travel points (also by buying small kakurega hideouts) and have access to the most important quest-related places.
2. As the second in line, we recommend visiting Yamashiro, where Kyoto, the biggest city of the game, is its focal point. Thanks to the preliminary exploration of both mentioned provinces, you should already have quick access to the first main assassination targets from Act 1 (the Shinbakufu).
3. While exploring the starting regions, pay attention to temples, shrines and kuji-kiri - these locations will allow you to gain knowledge points faster. They allow you to unlock new skills from the development trees.
4. We also recommend visiting locations with legendary chests, such as castles or kofuns. Thanks to them, you can acquire weapons and armor of legendary quality, which often have useful additional features (e.g. poisoning a struck enemy).
5. We do not recommend going for full completion of exploration at the beginning of the game. In uninhabited areas, you will most often find nothing, or there will be single locations with weak treasures. Paved paths lead to all the most important locations.

Areas for high-level characters

After you advance in the main campaign, it will be necessary to visit the next provinces, especially since many of them are associated with eliminating targets. Next, we recommend visiting Omi, Iga, and Harima. In the case of Omi, don't waste time exploring empty areas on the outskirts of the region or the entire lake. We recommend visiting a few small islands and infiltrating ships moored near the shore.

Leave the four provinces with high level requirements for later stages of the game. These are:

1. Yamato and Wakasa - head there only after achieving at least level 29.
2. Tamba and Kii - go there after developing the characters to at least level 35.

We do not recommend exploring these regions if Naoe and Yasuke have a lower level. You may have trouble killing even regular enemies, and opponents will be able to defeat the main characters much more easily. Fortunately, you should meet the level requirements of 29 or 35 even if you focus more on the main storyline and do not complete all the optional activities.

Assassin's Creed: Shadows

March 20, 2025

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