Once you gain access to the open world in Assassin’s Creed Shadows, you’ll also unlock the Objectives Board, a place you can visit to see all of the leads you have. You’ll meet Yaya during the assassination of The Wounded and shortly after it wraps up, The Stray Dogs quest can be accepted, keep reading to learn how to complete it and have Yaya join as an ally.

Table of Contents¶

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Starting The Stray Dogs Quest¶

Once you’ve completed the prologue of Assassin’s Creed Shadows, you’ll find yourself in control of Naoe in the Izumi Settsu region. Your goal here is to take down the two current Onryo Assassination marks, that of The Golden Teepo and The Wounded. Once you complete The Wounded, you will have met with Yaya and, at the end of that quest, you will have got a choice. Make sure you choose “Killing them isn’t justice.” to gain Yaya approval.

Following this scene and the completion of the Heads Will Roll quest, you’ll find that Yaya now has her own place on the Objectives Board, under The League with The Stray Dogs side quest, select it to begin.

Find Yaya and Help Yaya¶

Your first task is to find Yaya herself, if you take a look at your map, you’ll spot that the objective marker is leading you to Osaka. The quickest way here is to either fast travel to the Kakurega in Sakai and go north or by heading southwest from the Osaka Castle Viewpoint.

Regardless of how you go about it, once you reach Osaka, head into one of the side streets near the Temple of Osaka to find Yaya in a scuffle with some Shrine Raiders. Rush in to help her and quickly dispatch your foes, with Yaya’s aid, it shouldn’t take too much effort and you’ll trigger a scene after.

“We forgive him” or “We punish him” Choice¶

At this point, you’ll get an important choice if you want to recruit Yaya as proper ally after this quest is finished. It’s important you stick to her beliefs here and choose to forgive the Shrine Raider, she’ll remember your choice when the final choice comes at the end of this quest. If, however, you’re not interested in recruiting Yaya, feel free to choose the other option. Follow Yaya a short distance after this scene and you’ll learn where you need to go to retrieve the Kanzashi.

Retrieve the Kanzashi¶

The information you’re given here is that it can be found in northern Izumi Settsu in the Church of Takatsuki, held by Tetsuo. That second piece of information should be your main clue here, as if you take a look at the map, you’ll find the sub-region of Takatsuki to the north, near the entrance to the Yamashiro region. If you look at the square path here where a Viewpoint is, you’ll find the Church of Takatsuki within it (use a Scout to mark it on your map if you have any available).

Head to the Church of Takatsuki and look over to the east side to spot a large white building, head inside the front door here and you’ll find Tetsuo attempting to loot the place. Speak with him and he’ll take off, so give chase and once he leaves the area, he’ll run directly into the path of Yaya, triggering a scene.

Tetsuo Choice¶

Out of all of the choices involving Yaya, this is the most important, as she’ll ask what she should do with Tetsto. If you want the chance to have Yaya join you as an ally, you must choose to “You need to forgive each other.”, at which point you’ll get a choice to ask her to join and she will, provided you chose the other forgiveness options. For more details on this choice, check out our Yaya Choice Guide for more information.

Regardless of whether you get her to join or not, The Stray Dogs will come to a close at this point and you’ll get 1,000 XP and possibly a new Ally (your first at that, most likely). If you did recruit Yaya, pay a visit to The Hideout and build The Dojo so you can train her.