Assassin's Creed Shadows Trophy Guide & Roadmap

Unlock every trophy

Complete the Prologue

Complete Act 1 of the main story

Complete Act 2 of the main story

In some cases the trophy might not unlock correctly in-game, but it should eventually unlock at some point in the animus hub when rebooting the game. This is because of the progress being tracked on the online servers which can cause delays with trophy unlocks.

Complete Act 3 of the main story

If you finished all of Junjiro’s quests BEFORE completing all Naoe/Yasuke quests, then it will unlock after the credits (if it doesn’t, try rebooting game and it should unlock in animus hub). If you haven’t finished Juniro’s quests it won’t unlock after the credits and instead unlocks after completing all of Junjiro’s quests.

Here’s what the objective board looks like after Act 3:

Complete the Epilogue

Here’s what the objective board looks like after the epilogue:

Defeat all Shinbakufu

Two Shinbakufu are always spared no matter what choices you make: The Mourner (the one on the right of the circle) + The Horseman (the one at the bottom of the circle). These will then get a yellow icon on the objectives board. The other 10 are always killed regardless of your choices. So in total 10 of 12 will show a red “X” as defeated and 2 of 12 will show a yellow circle as spared. Since sparing them can’t be avoided it’s fine for the trophy, even though you technically only “defeat” 10 it still counts as having defeated all of them.

The trophy will unlock after main quest “The Man Behind the Mask”, after unmasking The Horseman. The objective board will look like this when the trophy pops:

Meet Gennojo

Meet Oni-yuri

Meet Yagoro

Meet Ibuki

Meet Yaya

Meet Katsuhime

Recruit your first ally

For example, finish quest “The Stray Dogs” (The League > Yaya). This quest is automatically unlocked at the start of Act 2. Then it can be tracked from the objectives. The trophy should unlock immediately after the quest, but some players report it only unlocked after the season changed.

Fully train an ally

Enter the dojo and interact with the board on the wall, select the ally to improve, buy their 2 upgrades. The first upgrade makes the ally an “Initiate”, the second upgrade is “Veteran”. This will cost around 4100 money, for example Yaya’s upgrades cost 1250 + 2850. You can get money quickly by selling materials to merchants.

Master the way of the shinobi

Additionally, 2 Shinobi skills require completing specific side quests to unlock them. They will say “Progress further in the story” in the skill menu, but they come from side quests.

• Sweep the Leg skill – finish optional quests “Fallen Soldiers” > “Genzaburo Soldiers”. The first quest “Fallen Soldiers” unlocks automatically from story progress, late into the story. It’s a level 41 quest. It will appear in the objectives menu under People of Harima > Koshiro, can be tracked from there. It leads to a waypoint in Harima, which gives a hint about the first Genzaburo Soldier. Killing the first one gives a hint for the second one. (this quest also unlocks “Defensive Breach” skill for Yasuke)

  

• Critical Insight skill – finish side quest “The Yokai”, started in Yamashiro province.

  

Master the way of the samurai

Additionally, 4 Samurai skills require completing specific side quests to unlock them. They will say “Progress further in the story” in the skill menu, but they come from side quests.

• Samurai Stand – from optional quest “Nobutsuna’s Students”, unlocked automatically during Act 2 while playing through Yasuke’s main quests. You can then track it under Objectives > People of Omi > Nobutsuna Sensei > Nobutsuna’s Students. The quest starts in Omi province (it will show the skill as a quest reward). The sensei will send you to defeat 7 of his students, after that the questline is done and you unlock the skill for purchase.

   

• Defensive Breach – finish optional quests “Fallen Soldiers” > “Genzaburo Soldiers”. The first quest “Fallen Soldiers” unlocks automatically from story progress, late into the story. It’s a level 41 quest. It will appear in the objectives menu under People of Harima > Koshiro, can be tracked from there. It leads to a waypoint in Harima, which gives a hint about the first Genzaburo Soldier. Killing the first one gives a hint for the second one. (this quest also unlocks “Sweep the Leg ” skill for Naoe)

  

• Assassination Damage II – ???
• Absolute Protection – finish side quest “Yamabushi Imposters”, started in Yamato province.

  

Engrave your first weapon

Equip legendary gear in all slots

You have to play as the character who has all legendary gear equipped. If you equip it to the other character you’ll have to switch characters afterward to pop the trophy. Not both characters need legendary gear.

You get enough legendary gear for Yasuke automatically from the main story. After the epilogue you will receive the last pieces as a story completion reward. Then simply equip them from the inventory. No need to search anything, lots of story quests give legendary gear so you’ll have more than you need.

Find a legendary piece of gear of each type

You will get a legendary of each type from quest rewards. Don’t even worry about this. While working on other trophies it will come automatically guaranteed from quest rewards, no need to search for any gear. You could get it “early” by looting legendary chests or buying legendaries from the animus online store in exchange for Keys currency. But even if you don’t open a single chest for the whole game you are guaranteed to get more than enough legendaries just from the story and doing the mandatory side quests for other trophies.

It’s best to keep all legendaries in your inventory, don’t sell them. It’s unknown if it still counts when the items were sold.

Naoe – Weapons:

• Legendary Katana
• Legendary Kusarigama
• Legendary Tanto

Naoe – Gear:

• Legendary Headwear
• Legendary Light Armor
• Legendary Trinket

Yasuke – Weapons:

• Legendary Long Katana
• Legendary Naginata
• Legendary Kanabo
• Legendary Bow
• Legendary Teppo

Yasuke – Gear:

• Legendary Helmet
• Legendary Armor
• Legendary Amulet

There’s no need to equip the items. As soon as you receive the last legendary the trophy will unlock immediately.

Fully upgrade your tools and ammunition

Bug Warning: for some users the trophy unlocks early before fully upgrading Yasuke’s Bow skill tree. For others it might not pop despite having all upgrades, in this case try resetting the skills by pressing in the skill tree menu and buying them all again. You can also try rebooting the game and it might unlock when loading into the animus hub, or reload your save after buying all skills and it can pop in the loading screen. There are also reports that it unlocked after buying skills from other unrelated skill trees, so if nothing else works try having all Tools/Teppo/Bow skills and then buying/resetting every skill from every other skill tree.

Fully upgrade your rations

Then both Naoe’s and Yasuke’s healing from rations will be increased to 80%. You can view this under Inventory > Tools & Consumables (below armor) > scroll over Consumables/Ration > on the right side it will say Healing %. It starts out at 40% and will be upgraded to a maximum of 80%, which you need for both characters to get the trophy.

First, go to the hideout and craft these buildings:

• Zashiki – unlocked from side quest “The Iron Hand Guild”, started in Izumi Settsu.

  

• Tea Room – unlocked from side quest “Tea Bowls of Rikyu“. It becomes available automatically during Act 1, appears in the objectives menu under “People of Yamashiro” > “Sen no Rikyu”. This requires you to get 7 tea cups. 6 are bought from merchants, marked on the map and scattered across the regions. The 7th one is obtained from defeating Shinbakufu member “The Wise”. This is a high-level quest during Act 2 of the story so you won’t be able to complete this until later in the game.

  

You must also complete this side quest:

• “Feast for Thought”, this quest gets added automatically to the objectives board from main story progress, later into the story. You can then track it from objectives > People of Wakasa > Hong (he makes you noodles during the story). Similar to gathering the 7 tea cups, you must this time gather 16 food quest items by visiting every food vendor throughout the game.

  

After this you will have 80% healing from rations and the trophy unlocks. If you already finished the Feast for Thought quest then it will pop the trophy after placing the two buildings in your hideout.

Perform a landing roll

Then simply jump off a building and press when you hit the ground to perform a roll. It doesn’t have to be a high jump, it even works from small house roofs.

Escape conflict by using a breathing reed to hide in shallow water

Now you must alert enemies, find shallow water and lie down in it by holding . Don’t move and Naoe will automatically pull out the breathing reed, when the enemies stop hunting you the trophy pops.

An easy spot is in the first region: Izumi Settsu > Tennoji Temple > on the north of the temple is some shallow water under a bridge. Alert enemies in the area, then run to the water, go prone and hold still until they stop hunting you. In winter the water will freeze so make sure you try when it’s not winter season. The breathing reed can’t be used in deep water where you can swim, it will only work in shallow ponds where all you can do is lie down in the water but can’t swim in it.

Distract the same enemy 3 times with shinobi bells

After this you can hold and use the D-Pad to select the Shinobi Bells. Find an enemy and throw a bell by holding + . Wait for the enemy to pick up the bell. Then throw the next one and repeat until he picked up 3 bells in a row. The shinobi bell must land close to the enemy, throw it directly in front of his feet. If you throw it too far away the enemy won’t hear it. Also make sure you throw one bell at a time, if you throw all 3 at once it might not work correctly.

Stay airborne by swinging from one grappling hook point to another

Perform a leap of faith from a grappling hook swing

An early opportunity is in the first region: Izumi Settsu > Amagasaki > Amagasaki Castle. Between “Amagasaki Castle” and “Muko Post Town” you can use the grappling hook on a tree to jump into a haystack. If the trophy doesn’t pop, retry a few times and make sure you climb down the rope a bit to extend the swing height.

Perform a leap of faith as Yasuke

Perform your first assassination

Assassinate an enemy through a shoji door

From the inventory equip any Katana. Matsu’s Katana is your starting weapon, you will have this automatically after the Prologue when you reach the open world.

Now you must find an enemy standing directly behind a “shoji door”. They are the sliding doors made of thin paper, often found in buildings around castles. Equip your Katana ( to switch weapons). When an enemy is behind a door you will get the prompt, do this to stab the enemy through the door for the trophy.

An easy spot is in the first region: Izumi Settsu > Katano > Katano Castle. In the northeast corner of the castle are buildings with sliding doors and enemies behind them. Make a manual save in case you are spotted, then you can reload. Additionally, there’s an enemy in the northwest corner of Katano Castle who patrols in front of a door near a little pond. You can also whistle to attract enemies while you’re hidden behind a shoji door.

Perform 5 assassinations in a row without being noticed or entering combat

You can also do it in the open world where there are enemies, such as temples. To make it easier you can select the easiest stealth difficulty “Forgiving”, then enemies are slower to notice you. Options > Gameplay > Difficulty Tuning > Stealth Difficulty = Forgiving.

Assassinate a powerful guardian in one go

They typically spawn when triggering an alarm in certain castles. Not all castles will have them, and they won’t spawn until the alarm is triggered. Then they spawn in immediately.

A place that works is in the first region: Izumi Settsu > Katano > Katano Castle. In the southeast section of Katano Castle you will find the alarm bell, it looks like a tall wooden structure with a bell on top.

Run around the enemies until they spot you and one of them gets a red bell icon. This enemy will climb up to ring the bell. Then a Guardian will spawn immediately. Climb over the outer castle wall to get out of sight. Wait for the Guardian to come your way, then do a stealth kill from above without him seeing you. Only after the enemies lose sight of you, the assassinate prompt will appear.

To make it easier you should go to System (open map and press Touchpad) > Options > Gameplay > Difficulty Tuning > Guaranteed Assassination = ON. Then you will instant kill this enemy regardless of your level. Turning this on doesn’t void any trophies so it’s useful to keep it enabled.

Perform your first Finisher as Yasuke

Parry an incoming projectile

You can find archers in many places. For example in Izumi Settsu > Amagasaki Castle.

Use Samurai Stand before performing a Finisher on an enemy

• Reach Knowledge Rank 4. Do the orange side activities to gain knowledge points to increase this rank.
• The skill will say “Progress further in the story” (which is misleading because it’s not actually from the story). You must do the optional side quest “Nobutsuna’s Students”, unlocked automatically during Act 2 while playing through Yasuke’s main quests. You can then track it under Objectives > People of Omi > Nobutsuna Sensei > Nobutsuna’s Students. The quest starts in Omi province > Azuchi (it will show the skill as a quest reward). The sensei will send you to defeat 7 of his students, after that the questline is done and you unlock the skill for purchase (costs 5 mastery points).

   

Once you have the ability unlocked, slot it to your ability buttons. Attack enemies to build up adrenaline, then you can activate the ability by holding and the corresponding button you assigned it to. Then simply kill the last remaining enemy in a combat encounter with a melee weapon while the ability is active, this will perform the “finisher” automatically. You have to do it while the ability is active, it only lasts 10 seconds. It works fine against single enemies, but if more enemies are alerted you’ll want to use it on the last remaining one.

Kick an enemy from a high place

Now you must find an enemy on a high place such as a cliff and kick them down using the “War Kick” skill so they die from the fall. A good location is in Kii province > “Mount Koya” viewpoint. Directly below the viewpoint are two enemies. Kick one of them down the cliff to unlock the trophy. You must slot the War Kick skill to the ability wheel, then it can be used by holding and the slotted button. Here’s the location:

It won’t work in other places where the enemies don’t fall far enough. For example, kicking them from alarm bell towers might not be sufficient height.

Perform a Finisher on an enemy that is both Poisoned and Dazed

You can tell if a weapon has poison/daze by looking at it in the inventory. When scrolling over the weapon it will say “Posion Buildup” / “Daze Building” in the top right corner, below the Ability Damage. Only some weapons will have elemental status effects, others have regular effects like “Adrenaline Gain” or “Critical Damage” or “Vulnerable Damage”. Poison/Daze will show instead of these.

An easy method is to check gear vendors each season for both characters. Their inventory changes each season (a season lasts 90 minutes). You will also get plenty of such weapons from quest rewards and gear chests/legendary chests. Just hang on to your items instead of selling them, while working towards platinum you’re pretty much guaranteed to find several poison/daze weapons.

Attack a strong enemy with the poison weapon until he gets a purple poison effect. Then switch to the daze weapon and keep attacking with it until the daze status has built up, indicated by the icon on the enemy. Then perform a FINISHER with a melee attack while both effects are active. It’s important that this is the last enemy standing and you land the final hit on him while both poison + daze are applied. If he is the last enemy standing it will do a “finisher” animation on the final hit.

If the enemy dies too quickly, try increasing the combat difficulty in the game options. Alternatively, try with a lower-level weapon that does less damage against high-level enemies in late-game regions like Kii or Tamba. You can find strong enemies in castles, or trigger an alarm to be hunted by powerful guardians.

Sheath your weapon immediately after an enemy dies from Bleed

You can tell if a weapon causes Bleed by looking at it in the inventory. When scrolling over the weapon it will say “Bleed Buildup” in the top right corner, below the Ability Damage. Only some weapons will have Bleed status effects, others have regular effects like “Adrenaline Gain” or “Critical Damage” or “Vulnerable Damage”. Bleed Buildup will show instead of these.

An easy method is to check gear vendors each season. Their inventory changes each season (a season lasts 90 minutes).

Attack a strong enemy with the bleed weapon until the status effect has filled up, indicated by the icon on the enemy. After landing enough hits, the enemy starts bleeding which causes damage over time. At the same time as the enemy bleeds out you must sheath your weapon by holding .

If the enemy dies before you can apply Bleed, try increasing the combat difficulty in the game options. Alternatively, try with a lower-level weapon that does less damage against high-level enemies in late-game regions like Kii or Tamba. You can find strong enemies in castles, or trigger an alarm to be hunted by powerful guardians.

Shoot an enemy in the knee with an arrow

Complete an Objective Board

The Objective Board becomes available in Act 1 after you unlock the hideout. You can then access it by pressing Touchpad > to open “Objectives” screen. There you see circles with objectives around them. You must clear all quests within a circle (aka “board”) to pop the trophy.

Defeat the final enemy in the tournament

Do this quest, as part of it you must defeat 5 opponents in a tournament. After this the trophy will unlock. It’s recommended to do this as Yasuke because he’s stronger in combat. An easy strategy is to hold to charge up an attack, land one hit, dodge back, repeat. This keeps you out of the danger zone while still dealing good damage with each hit. The level of the tournament enemies will scale to your own level. Go into it with good equipment that matches your level.

Complete your first kofun

Complete your first kata

Complete all Kuji-kiri

Complete all legendary sumi-e

Complete a collection

It becomes available automatically during Act 1, appears in the objectives menu under “People of Yamashiro” > “Sen no Rikyu”.

You must collect 7 tea bowls. 6 are bought from merchants which will be marked on the map after talking to the quest giver. They are scattered across different regions. The last tea bowl comes from defeating the story-related Shinbakufu member “The Wise” (mandatory story objective, can’t miss it). Because this is one of the highest-level Shinbakufu in the game you won’t be able to complete this until late into Act 2 of the story.

Unlock the Hideout

Add a sumi-e to the Hideout

Sumi-e are presented by the  icon at the top of the screen when they are nearby, but aren’t marked with map icons. They appear somewhat randomly and are dependent on the season and time of day but you will frequently come across them. When they appear you can sneak up to animals with Naoe to draw them, then can place the painting in the hideout with the above steps.

Fully upgrade a building in the Hideout

Adopt a pet

For example, you can pet golden akibas throughout towns to make them show up in the hideout menu, or you can sneak up to animals and draw a Sumi-e of them (as Naoe). Sumi-e are presented by the  icon at the top of the screen when they are nearby, but aren’t marked with map icons. They appear somewhat randomly and are dependent on the season and time of day but you will frequently come across them.

Suitable animals are dogs, tanukis, hares, macaques, foxes etc.

Reach the highest point on the map

Visit every province on the map

The provinces are:

1. Izumi Settsu
2. Yamashiro
3. Omi
4. Iga
5. Harima
6. Yamato
7. Wakasa
8. Kii
9. Tamba

Gather information using a scout

After unlocking the hideout in Act 1 – Main Quest: From Spark to Flame, you will unlock the objective board. Track any quest from the objective board in the hideout. This will open the map to send a scout to locate the quest objective. The game will list clues in the top left corner, use these to narrow down the quest area. The scout will instantly reveal the quest marker if you send him to the correct area. Then the blue quest marker appears and the trophy unlocks.

This feature is only available when Guided Exploration turned off, when it’s turned on objectives get marked automatically. You can change this at any time in the game settings: press Touchpad in map screen (System) > Options > Gameplay > Guided Exploration Mode On/Off.

Complete a contract in each province

Buy one in each of the 9 main provinces (Izumi Settsu, Yamashiro, Omi, Iga, Harima, Yamato, Wakasa, Kii, Tamba). See All Kakurega Locations – you only need ONE per province.

Inside each Kakurega you can interact with the small wooden box that says “Browse Contracts”. You can pick one of three contracts, they change each season. Complete at least one such contract per province. You’ll need enough money to buy 9 Kakurega. Money can be obtained quickly by selling materials to merchants.

Look for treasure behind the waterfall in the Hideout