Role-playing games very regularly have some sort of progression resources that can be spent to improve your character, and Assassin’s Creed Shadows is no different. In this case, you’ll earn Mastery Points and Knowledge, which will determine how effective Naoe and Yasuke are with various gameplay aspects and weapons. This page will discuss how Mastery Points and Knowledge work in Assassin’s Creed Shadows!

Page Breakdown¶

Mastery Points¶

If Mastery Points are the least bit mysterious, it’s because Ubisoft decided to eschew the traditional name for them - Skill Points. Naoe and Yasuke both have six different masteries (skill trees) with various passive and active abilities that can be unlocked by spending Mastery Points. Some masteries require the expenditure of multiple Mastery Points to unlock while others have multiple ranks that can be purchased. The masteries in each tree are fairly simple, but some do have prerequisites - usually buying the rank immediately below.

Mastery Points are earned by leveling up - each level up will give you one Mastery Point. In addition, completing some quests (usually by assassinating targets) will give you bonus Mastery Points. Clearing castle will also reward you with Mastery Points - the more Samurai Daisho you need to kill to secure the castle, the more Mastery Points you will earn. Simply put, kill targets, capture castles and level up to earn Mastery Points - pretty straightforward.

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(1 of 4) In addition to leveling, you will gain Mastery Point when you defeat targets,

Spending Mastery Points unlocks all sorts of boons, including damage boosts for various weapons, tools and attacks (including hidden blade damage), more ammo and tool carrying capacity, active skills and more. Naoe particularly benefits from these gains, as she’s a rather poor assassin without them, but over the course of the game she’ll start performing more or less how you’d expect an Assassin’s Creed protagonist to - no more enemies thwarting your assassination attempts or even surviving them, once you’ve upgraded enough. Spending masteries in a tree also grants passive benefits - the more Mastery Points spent, the better the rewards, including weapon damage, automatic tool replenishment, health increases, etc. These are noted on the right side of the screen.

Knowledge Ranks¶

As you go about purchasing masteries with Mastery Points, you’ll invariably find your progress up the skill tree blocked by your lack of knowledge. The major prerequisite for masteries is unlocking masteries lower on the tree, but in addition you’ll also need to increase your Knowledge to unlock higher tiers of masteries, and each mastery tree has six such tiers.

Unfortunately you can’t murder your way to enlightenment, as much as some have tried. In order to increase your knowledge you must seek out open world events like Kuji-kiri, Kofun (Tombs), Shrines, Lost Pages (Temples), Horse Archery, Paths and Kata. Most of these events are exclusive to either Naoe or Yasuke, but gaining Knowledge with one character grants Knowledge for both. These events are easy to spot on the map due to having orange-colored icons, and each one will grant you +1 Knowledge. Gain enough Knowledge and your Knowledge Rank will increase, allowing you to purchase higher-tier masteries.

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(1 of 5) Higher tier masteries can only be unlocked with sufficient Knowledge.

Level up, assassinate targets and liberate castles to earn Mastery Points and seek out orange-colored icons on your map and complete Knowledge-boosting events to increase your Knowledge Rank to make Naoe and Yasuke more deadly!