Assassin’s Creed Shadows is an open-world RPG through and through, complete with stats to level up and progressively more powerful gear to find. As you might expect, it employs a level scaling system, where the enemies and quests you encounter get stronger as you do. That is to say, if you’re level five, the enemies around you will be level five. When you reach level six, the enemies will turn into level six enemies. Easy, right?
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That said, Assassin’s Creed Shadows level scales up, but it does not scale down. At the outset of your journey, you’ll see areas around the map that are upwards of 30 levels higher than you are. Venture into these zones and you’ll have a bad time. Enemies that are way above your level will be marked with a skull, and if you encounter one, you’ll see a tutorial window pop up that basically says you’re in over your head. In other words, if you die to an enemy that’s too tough, it’s your own fault.
Assassin’s Creed: Shadows won’t let you equip gear that is higher level than you are, either. In other words, you can’t immediately rush into a high level area and grab a Katana that will trivialize the first 20 hours of the game. You’ll need to keep your wandering to the game’s starting zones at first, and only venture elsewhere once you’re well and ready for it.
Quest rewards level scale too
You’ll quickly notice that the quests in the “Objectives” tab of the menu scale as well, but it’s not a hard science. For example, some quests will stay a few levels below you, or they won’t go up in perfect sync with your current level. Either way, you’ll have freedom over the order you tackle your objectives in. Don’t feel pressured to tackle all your low level quests first.
Scaling applies to rewards too, which is a pretty big deal. For example, when you’re just starting out, you might notice that completing The Wounded questline will award you with a Legendary Kusarigama. This will likely appear as a level six weapon at first, but it will actually be much higher in level by the time you earn it thanks to the EXP you’ll gain along the way.
You can use this information to game the system so you get the biggest jumps in power from your gear. For example, if you’re happy with the Katana you’re currently using, and you see a Castle that awards a Legendary weapon, you could choose to hold off clearing it until you’ve gained a few more levels. That way, you can ensure you get a shiny new weapon that matches your current level as soon as your old weapon starts falling behind in strength. Of course, if you’d prefer to just tackle these kinds of challenges the moment you see them, Assassin’s Creed Shadows has you covered too.
Use the Forge to keep your favorite gear relevant, regardless of level scaling
If you do find that one perfect piece of gear that you never want to let go of, don’t worry if you happened to get it at a low level. By visiting the Forge in your hideout, you can spend resources to upgrade your equipment up to your current level. If you’re still looking for your Blacksmith, you can check out our guide here. Don’t be like me and miss this for four hours because you weren’t paying attention during the cutscenes with Tomiko.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows is available now on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Windows PCs.
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