Assassin's Creed Shadows' dual protagonists, Yasuke and Naoe, will "share progression" so "neither character is left behind."
As the Feudal Japan open world inches closer to its March 20 release date, Ubisoft has been spilling more and more information about the game. The publisher has now dived deep into AssCreed Shadow's updated progression system, which won't make you grind for both characters individually.
"Naoe and Yasuke share their progression, meaning that your level, XP, Mastery Points, and Knowledge will be gained by both equally, to ensure neither character is left behind," a new blog post explains. That means if Naoe levels up while you're stealthing around as the assassin, then Yasuke will also be the same level when you eventually switch to his perspective. That's welcome news as I can imagine I'd be less inclined to switch to my under-levelled Naoe if, let's say, I just blasted through five missions with Yasuke.
- Assassin's Creed Shadows director on splitting time between the two heroes: "The core of the game can be pick your character and the game adapts"
- Assassin's Creed Shadows reverses roles to show off Naoe's combat and Yasuke's stealth, and I'm suddenly sold on playing Yasuke like a clumsy Snake in Metal Gear Solid 3
Levels and XP are quite self-explanatory, but what about the other two forms of progression? Mastery Points are what you use to progress through each characters' various unique skill trees that are either tied to the weapons they carry or the archetypes they're attached to - Naoe has skill trees dedicated to the katana and the shinobi archetype, among others, for example, letting you unlock new ways to sneak around and assassinate foes. You gain Mastery Points by levelling up or defeating special enemies around the world.
"With the unique Mastery trees, we want to give players the freedom to dedicate themselves into a specific weapon, playstyle, or archetype, and ensure they can deepen their mastery of it," says the game's associate game director, referred to only as Julien in the blog. "The points you invest in a Mastery tree also unlock additional bonuses for that weapon or archetype, further reinforcing your progress."
On the other hand, you can think of Knowledge as a rank of sorts that you can upgrade via the non-violent activities scattered around Japan. Praying at shrines, finding collectibles, etc. The higher your rank, the more game-changing abilities you'll be able to unlock in the skill trees.
What's especially interesting is that Assassin's Creed Shadows locks "the most advanced abilities and skills" behind "certain unique actions." The blog post teases that you'll need to defeat a shadowy group of shinobi before you're able to get Naoe's very last Assassination upgrade, for example. It also teases that Naoe and Yasuke will unlock a "brand new Knowledge tree" near the endgame that'll "offer numerous new passive skills, allowing you to maximize specific stats to fully embrace your ideal playstyle," but that's all spoilery territory that Ubisoft didn't delve into too much.
