Assassin’s Creed Shadows Walkthrough: All Missions, Leads, and Shared Quests
IGN’s Assassin’s Creed Shadows walkthrough takes you through the entire campaign from beginning to end, covering every mission in order. It focuses on the game’s two playable leads—Naoe and Yasuke—and breaks down how each quest plays depending on which character you’re using. Some missions are tied to a specific protagonist, while others can be shared. The page also gathers early hints, practical tips, strategy notes, and more, alongside links to every mission.
Checklists
Task Search
If you want to learn more about the writers and editors who worked on this guide, you can read about them on IGN’s Assassin’s Creed Shadows Guide Writers page.
- Assassin’s Creed Shadows Walkthrough and Mission List
- Ending Explained
- Postgame Content
- Which Character Should You Choose?
- Assassin’s Creed Shadows Difficulty Options
- How to Customize the Difficulty After Starting the Game
- How to Activate Guided Exploration
- Canon and Immersive Mode Explained
- How to Customize the Difficulty After Starting the Game
- How to Activate Guided Exploration
- Canon and Immersive Mode Explained
Celebrating Assassin’s Creed: IGN Map and Checklist Free Month
Assassin’s Creed Shadows Walkthrough and Mission List
Assassin’s Creed Shadows kicks off in Japan in 1581. The story follows Fujibayashi Naoe, a young Igan shinobi, alongside Yasuke, an African man who rises to become a formidable samurai under Oda Nobunaga. The two start as uneasy partners and end up aligned by a shared drive for revenge, hunting a group of 12 masked individuals who changed the trajectory of their lives permanently.
Because you can play as both Naoe and Yasuke, the walkthrough content is organized to cover both characters. If you get stuck, or you’re simply trying to understand what differs between missions, this structure is meant to help you compare the experiences side by side.
The campaign is arranged into a prologue, three acts, and an epilogue. In total, Assassin’s Creed Shadows contains 78 story missions, distributed between Naoe and Yasuke. Some of the story quests also involve Junjiro, the young boy who becomes Naoe’s first ally.
- Tap to Reveal
- Tap to Reveal
- Tap to Reveal
- Tap to Reveal
- Tap to Reveal
- Tap to Reveal
- Tap to Reveal
- Tap to Reveal
- Tap to Reveal
- Tap to Reveal
- Tap to Reveal
- Tap to Reveal
Which Assassin’s Creed Shadows protagonist will you play as more?
Ending Explained
As you move through the main story, your central goal is to locate and take care of the Shinbakufu members. After speaking with The Horseman and retrieving the box during the quest The Man Behind the Mask, you’ll still have a couple of epilogue missions left before you can see the game’s only ending.
- The Pilgrimage
- Leaving a Mark
- Out of the Shadows
Once you finish those missions, you’ll watch Naoe, Junjiro, and Yasuke standing together as the sun sets—an ending moment that makes it clear their story hasn’t fully wrapped up.
- For more, click here to learn more about Assassin’s Creed Shadows ending and where the story picks up from here.
Postgame Content
After you confront the final Shinbakufu member during the quest The Man Behind Mask, the adventure doesn’t completely stop. To reach the game’s true ending, you’ll need to complete additional quests focused on Naoe, Yasuke, and Junjiro.
When you’ve finished their character arcs, the game returns you to the open world so you can finish anything you left behind during your first run—this includes side quests, collectibles, and other activities.
- Click here to check out everything you can do in Assassin’s Creed Shadows after the credits roll.
Which Character Should You Choose?
You can swap between the two protagonists, Naoe and Yasuke, after completing a specific mission in the story campaign. Some missions require you to use both characters, but most of the time you’ll be able to decide which one you want to play as.
Your choice can come down to how you like to fight. Naoe is fast and nimble, letting you slip into the shadows and strike without being detected. She leans on shinobi techniques and tools such as kunai and a grappling hook, though she’s physically weaker than her counterpart. Yasuke is large and in charge, capable of swinging heavy weapons and dealing heavy damage. He’s not built for stealth, and tends to suit players who want direct action rather than sneaking around.
- For more, check out our in-depth guide: Naoe vs Yasuke – Which Character Should You Choose.
The Complete Assassin’s Creed Timeline
Assassin’s Creed Shadows Difficulty Options
Assassin’s Creed Shadows includes four difficulty modes you can select before you start the adventure. Pick the option that matches what you want from the experience.
These choices are presented after you select New Game, and you can still modify your setup later from the in-game menu.
Gear and equipment are leveled, and how strict the leveling requirements are depends on which difficulty you choose. On Story and Forgiving, you can generally use most gear you find without constantly worrying about whether it matches your level or the regions you’re visiting. However, Normal and Expert players should make sure their gear is properly aligned with their current level—especially on the more punishing Expert setting.
The lower your gear’s level, the tougher the game becomes.
How to Customize the Difficulty After Starting the Game
You can tweak the game’s challenge at almost any time, as long as saving is allowed. To do this, open the menu, go to the Gameplay tab, and select the Difficulty Tuning option.
The Difficulty Tuning menu lets you adjust Combat and Stealth separately, so you can shape the difficulty to your liking. Use the arrows to choose the desired difficulty for either combat or stealth. You can also enable Guaranteed Assassination, which will automatically eliminate a target regardless of their health.
How to Activate Guided Exploration
Assassin’s Creed Shadows helps you track targets by having you follow clues. If you solve those clues, they’ll point you toward where you need to go. You can also use Scouts to check a specific area for the target you’re looking for. But if you’d rather skip some of the investigation process, turning on Guided Exploration adds icons for targets and quests to the World Map.
You can turn on Guided Exploration from the New Game Setup menu before you begin. Keep in mind that enabling Guided Exploration changes how you experience the game and prevents you from earning certain achievements and trophies.
What’s The Best Assassin’s Creed Game?
Canon and Immersive Mode Explained
Assassin’s Creed Shadows includes two modes that significantly affect how you experience the world: Canon Mode and Immersive Mode.
Activating Canon Mode disables all dialogue choices during cutscenes. This streamlines things, making it easier to focus purely on the narrative.
Immersive Mode is designed for players who want to hear the characters speak in their own language. Turning on Immersive Mode sets the language to Japanese and includes Japanese and Portuguese dialects where applicable.
Up Next: The Lord’s Favor (Yasuke Walkthrough)
Top Guide Sections
- Things to Do First in Assassin’s Creed Shadows
- Everything Added to Assassin’s Creed Shadows Since Launch
- Walkthrough
- Main Story Choices and Consequences
