Naoe is your more traditional assassin-type character in Assassin’s Creed Shadows, while Yasuke plays quite differently. As a samurai, he is not so good at stealth and subterfuge, but instead heads into battle headfirst with powerful attacks and strong armor. This makes his skill tree far different than Naoe’s, even after you’ve gotten all the Knowledge Points. Since both characters share XP, you have no excuse not to invest points into Yasuke’s tree, even if you don’t plan on making him your primary character. That said, he has some great skills here that might change your mind.
Regeneration
Yasuke doesn’t have the luxury of killing an entire base without taking a few hits. Well, unless you’re just that good. For the rest of us, Regeneration is a basic but powerful passive skill that restores a percentage of Yasuke’s total HP on each kill. Since rations are so limited, this can keep you perpetually healthy in drawn out battles.
Steady Hand
The Teppo tree is an interesting one since it represents Yasuke’s main ranged option. Guns have appeared in the series before but were never given as much focus as this. Because of Yasuke’s speed and trouble with parkour, having a gun at your side for distant enemies is worth investing in. Steady Hand starts out by granting a small zoom and damage buff, but can be upgraded to even slow time to line up a perfect shot.
Payback
The Long Katana is the most balanced weapon in Yasuke’s kit and is considered his default. The Payback skill is not only cool but will make short work of almost any foe in a one-on-one scenario. It unleashes three strikes that all do 35% ability damage, plus it restores 10% HP. Since you can scale up your ability damage, this ability only gets stronger and stronger.
Combat Expert
Naoe has a similar skill, but it is even more essential for Yasuke. Combat Expert is a simple percentage increase to melee weapon damage. Besides Yasuke’s teppo, essentially all his tools are focused on melee combat, so this skill applies to nearly everything you do with him. Nothing too complicated or exciting but necessary as you get further into the game and start to hit some difficulty spikes.
Brutal Assassination
Just because Yasuke doesn’t have a hidden blade doesn’t mean he can’t do his own version of a stealth kill. Brutal Assassination isn’t quiet or subtle, but it is a great way to open up a fight. It starts out way stronger than Naoe’s assassination and can be buffed, so you are very likely to kill your initial target if you can approach them unnoticed. You might find a few scenarios where you can use it on a solo enemy and keep stealth, but it is mainly just a way to start a fight by removing one target.
