You'll quickly discover that levelling up in Assassin's Creed Shadows is a remarkably complicated and annoying process. Not only do you need a bunch of skill points, known here as mastery points, but you'll also need to increase your knowledge rank.
Your knowledge dictates the highest tier of skills you can spend your mastery on, and it's a significant bottleneck to your progression early on. You'll be earning mastery points left, right, and centre since all that takes is XP–which the game hands out like candy–while getting knowledge points is much more involved. Don't worry though, I've included all the knowledge point locations under their respective sections below so you can easily increase your knowledge rank.
How to get knowledge points to rank up in Assassin's Creed Shadows
To increase your knowledge rank, you'll need to earn knowledge points from the following seven side activities:
- Temples
- Shrines
- Kuji-kiri (Naoe)
- Kofun
- Hidden trails (Naoe)
- Kata (Yasuke)
- Horse archery (Yasuke)
These activities are all labelled with a distinctive orange hexagonal marker on your map once you're nearby. You won't need to use scouts to narrow down the locations of these activities either, just explore and complete them when they crop up.
Importantly, some knowledge activities can only be completed by either Naoe or Yasuke, though the knowledge points earned are shared. I recommend you have both characters unlocked and ready to go before seriously ticking all these activities off your map since you'll need to swap characters frequently.
You need to get 10 knowledge points to reach rank 2, 3, and 4, but this quickly increases to 15 knowledge points to reach rank 5, where you'll start unlocking all the strongest skills. The maximum knowledge rank is six, unlocking the final tier of mastery skills for both Naoe and Yasuke.
You can find out how many knowledge points you need to earn to increase your knowledge rank on the left side of the mastery skills screen.
If you're ever in doubt about where to find knowledge points, venture out to every question mark you see on your map (especially after using a viewpoint to reveal new locations) and chances are you'll find a new knowledge activity in no time.
You can even track discovered knowledge tasks in the legend on your map. I found that I'd often come across one of the activities when I was focusing on something else and would end up saving it for later. The legend is great in general as it keeps track of almost everything in the game, from castles to legendary chests and even any unclaimed food vendor locations you might have discovered.
Best knowledge point locations in the early game
There are 16 of these knowledge activities in the starting area of Izumi Settsu alone, which lets you reach knowledge rank 3 to unlock level three mastery skills. However, three of these require you to have unlocked Yasuke before you can access them.
Here's where you can find all the knowledge-granting activities in Izumi Settsu to get you started:
- Tennoji Temple - A short walk east of Osaka
- Makinoodera Temple - Between the Izumi Coast and Kawachi Heights (where the prologue ends)
- Gansenji Temple - Just south of Sakai
- Nishinomiya Shrine - Directly west of Amagasaki
- Sumiyoshi Shrine - Between Osaka and Sakai
- Kuji-kiri 1 - By the river at the hideout
- Kuji-kiri 2 - On the coast west of Amagaskai
- Kuji-kiri 3 - In the Kawachi Heights, northeast of the Lost Pagoda viewpoint
- Kuji-kiri 4 - West of the Eboshigata Hachiman Shrine in the Kawachi Heights
- Kuji-kiri 5 - At the Rolling Glen in the Katano Foothills
- Old Kofun - A short walk east of Sakai
- Makino Kurumazuka Kofun - Near the large river east of Tatatsuki in northern Yawata Plains
- Kata: Yamamoto Masakatsu I - On the small island west of the Fishermen's District in Osaka
- Kata: Shorrin II - East of the Makino Kurumazuka Kofun in the Yawata Plains
- Horse Archery: Settsu Arena - Up the small river heading north in the Senri Hills
Temples
The first time you're likely to discover the knowledge rank system is by completing a temple, as you're finally let off the leash at Makinoodera Temple (where Sorin and Junjiro look after you) after completing the prologue.
Temples require you to find a number of scrolls hidden around the area. In Makinoodera, there are three but each temple is different. These scrolls can be found using the "observe mode" by pressing left trigger on a controller or right click on PC. This will highlight and pin them to make it easy for you to stroll on over and pick them up.
Once you've picked up the required number of scrolls, you'll have completed the temple activity and be rewarded with a knowledge point.
While temples can be completed with both Naoe and Yasuke, I recommend the shinobi since the scrolls are often hidden in hard-to-reach areas. Naoe's enhanced climbing and speed, alongside her grappling hook, ensure you can grab them easily.
Shrines
This one requires you to pray at designated shrines. Much like the temples, all you need to do is use the new observe mode to track these locations and then interact with them to pray. Once you've prayed at all the locations in the shrine, it will automatically tick off the activity and treat you to a knowledge point.
Shrines can be completed by either character and there's generally no need to have Naoe's enhanced parkour.
Kuji-kiri
Kuji-kiri are short flashback sequences for Naoe, beginning with a rhythm minigame. All you need to do is press the four buttons in time with the beat, though it does get harder when the icons begin to fade into the background. You can make this minigame easier by enabling simplified or even auto quick time event controls in the gameplay tab of the settings menu.
Once you've completed the minigame, you'll begin the actual flashback sequence. Complete this and you'll be treated to a knowledge point.
The first Kuji-kiri you're likely to run into is the one at Eboshigata Hachiman Shrine, just north of Makinoodera Temple where you begin your journey. However, there's also one at the hideout shortly after.
Below you'll find all 22 kuji-kiri locations for Naoe. Since these activities are unnamed, I'll simply number them in the rough order you're likely to complete them based on the level of the region:
Kofun
Kofun tombs are my favourite of the brain-boosting activities. These see you delving into caves to reach a chest at the end, involving crawling through dusty ol' tunnels and swinging between gaps. It reminded me a lot of scouring tombs and pyramids in Assassin's Creed Origins.
Kofun are generally very linear, so it's as simple as getting from the beginning to the end to claim your prize.
Generally, Kofun are restricted to either character, requiring the skills of Naoe or Yasuke to complete (though it won't be as obvious as other activities). For example, you need Yasuke to carry an explosive pot to open Makino Kurumazuka Kofun in the first place.
These are the locations of all 11 kofun and the specific character you'll need to complete them:
Hidden Trails
Hidden trails are also up there with the best knowledge activities, solely because they give you a good excuse to parkour through the beautiful open world (if you need one). Would it be more fun if they were a time trial? Yes. Is it oddly relaxing to clamber up cliffs and swing across gorges surrounded by cherry blossoms? Also yes.
Like Kofun, these parkour courses are very linear. All you have to do is follow the path outlined by the yellow flags and other markers until you reach the chest at the end.
As you'd expect given their focus on parkour, Hidden trails are only available to Naoe. Her speed, enhanced climbing range, and grappling hook all come in handy. I can't imagine what it would be like to do a parkour course as the lumbering samurai.
Here are all ten hidden trail locations:
Kata
Kata is effectively a rhythm game to learn weapon combos, available only to Yasuke. You'll need to press the button prompts before they expire to perform the exercise. It's simple enough, though the break between the combos might catch you out on your first attempt. Flawlessly complete all three weapon exercises and you'll nab a knowledge point.
Like kuji-kiri, kata can be made easier by enabling simplified or auto quick time event controls in the gameplay tab of the settings menu.
Here's where you'll find all 18 kata locations for Yasuke. Like kuji-kiri, these activities aren't given specific names, so I've organised them in the order you're likely to find them based on the level of the region:
Horse Archery
Horse archery challenges are exactly what they sound like. Exclusive to Yasuke, you'll need to follow the track on your horse while shooting at the targets. While these are easy enough to beat, you don't even need to hit all the targets to complete them.
Keep in mind that you'll have limited arrows. The challenge typically comes in hitting multiple targets with a single arrow to be more efficient, rather than your ability to aim.
Here are the locations of all ten horse archery challenges:
