Ubisoft has explained the finer details of Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ progression system on their blog.
The main thing you need to know would be that Yasuke and Naoe share progression. While there are things unique to each character, when one character earns a specific ability or amount of experience unique to them, the other character also gets it.
The second thing that makes this system really cool is that you can reroll where you have spread out your points anytime. So Ubisoft has put up a very flexible system, but that should give players pause. Does that make Assassin’s Creed Shadows a cakewalk or will it be way too easy to go through this game? Ubisoft may have also revealed that to us too.
The main skill tree system is referred to as Mastery trees. The basis of these skill trees are abilities. There are dedicated abilities for Yasuke as a samurai and Naoe as an assassin, and two ability slots for each individual weapon.
You earn points for Mastery trees by taking out your targets, defeating particular higher level enemies, or other activities like competing quests. You can then use those points to open up the trees, but also to level up each ability to their maximum.
You have to choose to use only one of Yasuke’s or Naoe’s dedicated samurai/assassin abilities, but you can slot two of the other abilities to individual weapons. Like the RPG that this franchise has become, Ubisoft wants players to experiment between weapons and skills to find the best combination they can use at one time.
So, the way this system is set up so far, Yasuke and Naoe will progress at the same level no matter what, and you can switch around points and ability slots to get the best loadout you can get at any one time. So does this game just make you OP from the start? The answer is no.
There is a Knowledge Rank system that blocks your progress. Knowledge is an abstraction that represents your mental readiness, so you have to attain a certain level of Knowledge so you can remove that block and upgrade further.
This system will require you finish non-violent quests. These can be as simple as praying in a shrine and learning a new kata, to fetch questing lost pages in a temple. There are 6 Ranks of Knowledge overall, but if you get past that, you will be rewarded with a new Knowledge tree. So you have reason to keep playing even after upgrading every available ability to their maximum.
There are even more systems that go into gameplay itself, but it’s fascinating how Ubisoft has iterated Assassin’s Creed further into the realm of action RPG. On the surface, this also looks like it’s intended to make playing Naoe more rewarding, but we’ll see how it all plays out when Assassin’s Creed Shadows comes out this month on March 20, 2025, on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam, Epic Game Store, and Ubisoft Connect.
