Now that there are double the protagonists in Assassin’s Creed Shadows, there are twice as many skills to learn. Earning XP, as well as the new Knowledge Points, will let you access six skill trees for both characters, with around a dozen or more skills in each to unlock. The game is long enough that you could unlock them all, but that would require a lot of time or grinding. Plus, not all the skills are as useful as the others. Building up both characters is important, but we will be focusing on the most powerful skills you should be getting with the shinobi Naoe.
Double Assasinate
First introduced in Assassin’s Creed 2, the ability to stealth assassinate two targets is a mechanic you won’t feel complete without. You need to have a Tantop equipped to make it work, but it is worth taking up a slot even if you dislike its moveset. After all, this skill is all about avoiding open combat. Guards move and stand in pairs more often than not, and there is no good way to peel one away without alerting the other. This skill streamlines your stealth approach by letting you take down a pair with ease and not risk raising an alarm.
Melee Expert
This is one of the least exciting skills, even for a passive, but a powerful one. Melee Expert adds a damage increase to all your melee weapons by a set percentage. You should be trying to avoid open combat as Naoe as much as possible, but things don’t always go according to plan in Assassin’s Creed Shadows. Since it is a percentage buff, this skill will scale with you all the way through the game.
Larger Tool Bag
As a shinobi, Naoe has a ton of fun tools to play with. The limiting factor for them all is how many you can hold, but you can buff that a few times through the Larger Tool Bag skill. Each level lets you hold one more of each item, and you will need them all when trying to infiltrate the larger castles and bases.
Heighten Senses
One of Naoe’s most powerful and fun abilities is hidden in her Shinobi tree. Heighten Senses lets you temporarily slow time to a crawl, only breaking early if you touch an enemy. This can let you rush by a group of guards before they have time to full detect you, or close a gap to pull off an assassination. Later upgrades buff its power and let you reset its cooldown.
Assassination Damage
Sadly, Assassin’s Creed Shadows is still an RPG that won’t let you instantly kill an enemy too high a level or with too much health. You will always be able to tell if your assassination won’t finish the job, but grabbing as many levels as Assassination Damage will make that icon appear less often. The later levels are story locked, but if you are trying to play the assassin, grab them as fast as you can to keep your hidden blade sharp.
