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There are eight weapons in Assassins Creed Shadows not including the infamous hidden blade of the Assassins. Each weapon has its own style, and can only be used by one of the games two playable protagonists, Naoe or Yasuke.In this Assassins Creed Shadows guide, well go over the list of weapons available to Naoe and Yasuke, and provide some details on how you get new weapons, alongside information about how weapon afflictions work. Or if youre looking for a curated selection, heres our list of the best weapons in Assassins Creed Shadows.Update (March 28): Added information about weapon afflictions.How to get new weapons in Assassins Creed ShadowsNaoe starts with her straightforward katana weapon, and youll need to find her other weapon types as random loot drops from chests or as rewards for completing quests. The same goes for Yasuke once you unlock him as he only has his long katana when you first meet him.If you want to quickly test out each characters other weapons, head to a gear vendor in a major city. The one in Sakai, one of the games earliest port cities, can be found in the middle of town. These vendors will sell common versions of every type of weapon in the game near or at your level cap. By spending a little cash, you can fully reveal both characters skill trees, so you can look through them and determine where you want to invest your mastery points in the future. (Weapon skill trees remain hidden until you acquire their first corresponding weapon.)If youre looking for higher tier weapons, you can get legendary versions of each type of melee weapon by taking on the games main story i.e., killing the major targets in your Objectives menu. However, some of these targets are quite high level, so you might be better sticking with lower-rarity versions of each weapon until you level up.All weapon afflictions in Assassins Creed ShadowsAll weapons in the game, regardless of rarity, deal raw damage, meaning they simply remove health and armor when you successfully land a hit. However, some melee weapons typically those with higher rarity levels have afflictions associated with them, which deal additional types of damage, like poison, or have an effect associated with them, like daze.There are three different affliction types that your weapons can roll with:Bleed builds up a meter as you deal damage to a target, which causes a burst of damage once the meter is full.Poison deals damage over time after you strike a target. Once an enemy has enough poison buildup in them, theyll stop fighting and vomit.Daze builds up a meter as you deal damage to a target, which causes the target to become dazed once the meter is full. Enemies who are dazed wont be able to block your attacks and will miss most strikes against you.There are weapons in each category of melee weapon that have the chance to have an affliction perk. (While you can technically fire poison arrows as Yasuke, thats a skill youll have to unlock with mastery points, and equip as special ammo its not tied to any bows youll find.)In Assassins Creed Shadows, whether or not a weapon has an affliction associated with it is determined by more than just its name. For example, the Bloody Katana of Service and the Silent Katana of Wounding are both katanas that inflict bleed.The trick here is to ignore the name and instead focus on the stats. On weapons that cause an affliction on the target, youll see [affliction type] buildup as the fourth stat on the list. You can see this in action on the image above, where the legendary tanto Yukimitsus Revenge says poison buildup on its stat block, which is how you know it deals poison damage. Naoe weapons listNaoe can use three weapons in open combat, as shes primarily built to attack from the shadows. What she lacks in weapon power, she makes up for with her tools, like the shuriken and kunai.Here are the weapons Naoe can use:KatanaKusarigamaTantoWell break down how each weapon works below.KatanaThe katana is the most basic of Naoes weapons. And while she does typically hold it inverted meaning the blade runs along her forearm rather than extending past her hand it plays like a sword. You can parry enemies with proper timing, or slice them to ribbons by constantly pressing the attack button.The katanas skills position it as Naoes most defensive weapon, allowing you to capitalize on parries and dodges with powerful follow-up attacks.KusarigamaThe kusarigama is essentially a small sickle attached to a long chain that has a big, metal ball attached to the other side. Your light attacks use the sickle as a close-quarters blade, which you can use to slice single enemies. Your heavy attack, however, sees you swing the ball and chain around your head, hitting multiple enemies at once.The kusarigamas skills allow you to better control the battlefield, with some allowing you to yank enemies into each other with the weapons chain.TantoThe tanto is essentially just a dagger or a half-length katana. However, the game treats it as two daggers, since Naoe also extends and fights with her Assassins hidden blade while the tanto is out. This makes for very quick combos with both light and heavy attacks, which include dodging around the sides of enemies to more easily get at their backs.The tantos skills cement it as the true weapon of an Assassin, allowing you to both assassinate targets mid-combat and double assassinate unsuspecting enemies.Yasuke weapons listYasuke can use five weapons when he gets into scraps. Since he lacks Naoes tools, he can replace one (or both) of his melee weapons with a ranged weapon like the bow or teppo, which use ammo that can be purchased from vendors or collected from enemy camps.Here are the weapons Yasuke can use:Long katanaNaginataKanaboTeppoBowWell break down how each weapon works below.Long katanaThe long katana is a katana but long. That may sound sarcastic and it is a little bit, if were being honest but its also true. Yasuke is a big guy and he has a big katana to fit. He holds the katana upright unlike Naoe and uses it to duel enemies. The major difference from Naoes katana is that Yasukes is big enough for him to quickly cut through armor and skewer enemies so he can then lift them into the air.The long katanas skills help secure its spot as a dueling weapon, further incentivizing you to parry attacks.NaginataThe naginata is a katana blade on a long stick. This thing is part bo staff (think Donatello from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) and part spear. It has wide, sweeping attacks that make it great for crowd control. The naginata also has very long reach, which allows you to attack from a safer distance than most other melee weapons, making a it a great tool for dealing with high level enemies.The naginata skills help push it further into an area weapon, while also incentivizing you to position properly, giving you bonus damage when you hit enemies with its tip.KanaboThe kanabo is essentially just a big baseball bat. But instead of a smooth surface, it has little metal bumps implanted into the surface to help it deal additional damage. This weapon is very slow, but it bashes through enemy armor and staggers them very easily.Kanabo skills help you break enemies even faster by allowing you to speed up sequential hits and blend light and heavy attacks together into devastating combos.TeppoThe teppo is a musket-like rifle. It uses bullets (which are finite, but easily replaced in the world) to blast through enemy armor and make quick work of unarmored foes. Its agonizingly slow to reload, however, making it great for single shots that lead into close-quarters combat.The teppos skills help it become a more efficient sniper weapon, allowing it to deal bonus damage when you stand still for a short time and shred armor more efficiently.BowThe bow is a massive longbow that Yasuke can use to pick targets off from a distance without making much noise, making combat once discovered significantly easier. The quiver has a finite amount of arrows, but you can upgrade Yasukes ammo capacity to hold many arrows at once. Like bullets, you can find stations that replenish arrows around the world and in castles.The bows skills help you fire off arrows more quickly and give you access to additional arrow types, like silent arrows that give Yasuke a powerful stealth option to open a fight.For more Assassins Creed Shadows explainers, heres how to get more knowledge points and mastery points, how to get more rations, how to get more scouts, and how to get all companions and romance options. Plus, see our all armor list.
