The Assassin's Creed Shadows Hideout can be expanded with new rooms to unlock lots of upgrades and buffs that will make Naoe and Yasuke's assassination activities easier. Things like extra scouts, ally training, and gear upgrades are all locked off in Assassin's Creed Shadows unless you construct the relevant building. That means understanding how the Hideout works is far from optional so this guide will take you through the basics of base management in AC Shadows, as well as the best buildings for your Hideout.
Assassin's Creed Shadows Hideout guide
The Hideout is gifted to Naoe by Tomiko and serves as the headquarters for the Kakushiba Ikki, Naoe's assassin league, and all the members you recruit. At first, it consists of only a Stables and Hiroma, but as you play the main quest and certain side quests in AC Shadows, you'll unlock new buildings that you can add in the space surrounding the Hiroma.
To start adding to the Hideout, either approach the model in the Hiroma or head into the field around the Hiroma and follow the 'Improve Hideout' prompt. From this aerial view of the Hideout, you can press Square/X to enter Build mode, letting you select a building to construct on the Hideout grid – white dots represent attachment points where you can link rooms together to create one big building. You obviously need to have sufficient Assassin's Creed Shadows hideout resources to construct the room too.
Once you've built a room, you can hover the cursor over it and open a menu with options to move, upgrade, customize, or destroy the building. As mentioned, rooms, such as the Forge, Study, and Dojo, all offer their own passive benefits and unique features, helping Naoe and Yasuke throughout the game, and upgrading the buildings by spending more Hideout resources enhances them even more.
Furthermore, every room you build and every upgrade you buy contributes to the Hideout's overall level, with each level unlocking a new upgrade:
- Level 1: No bonuses
- Level 2: Unspent Assassin's Creed Shadows Scouts gather Mon for the Hideout chest at season end
- Level 3: Shrine boons last 15 minutes longer
- Level 4: Unspent Scouts gather Hideout resources for the Hideout chest at season end
- Level 5: Gear engravings at the Forge are 20% cheaper
- Level 6: Unspent Scouts gather crafting materials for the Hideout chest at season end
- Level 7: Health and Adrenaline refills at Kakurega safehouses and the Hideout
- Level 8: Unspent Scouts gather gear for the Hideout chest at season end
- Level 9: Gear upgrades at the Forge are 20% cheaper
- Level 10: Hideout resource stockpiles also provide crafting materials
Finally, customizing your Hideout is completely optional but lets you alter things like the roofs, walls, stations, and shelves of every room. You can also place all sorts of cosmetics unlocked by looting chests, buying ornaments from merchants (particularly Ornament Vendors), and completing quests. You can also build paths, engawa corridors, and place statues, lights, rocks, trees, and even pets!
Assassin's Creed Shadows best Hideout buildings
With your Assassin's Creed Shadows Hideout up and running, you might have a few options for rooms to build or want to plan and prioritize certain buildings and upgrades to get their full benefits sooner rather than later. Here are the best Hideout buildings I recommend buying and upgrading as early as possible:
- Forge: Since the Forge is what unlocks Assassin's Creed Shadows gear upgrades, this should absolutely be the first room you build. Thankfully the side quest to help Heiji can be completed very early on and quickly. I also recommend upgrading the Forge to level 3 before you hit Level 20 so that you can play around with engravings for your gear and won't have to worry about hitting upgrade caps.
- Built during the Way of the Blacksmith side quest
- Kakurega: Unlocks Kakurega fast travel, contracts, and provides an extra scout, all of which are massively helpful in the early game. Contracts are also a fantastic way of getting more Hideout resources for even more building projects.
- Built during the From Spark to Flame quest
- Stables: The Stables are already built for you but you should upgrade it to level 2 as soon as possible to reduce the cost of smuggling a resource to only one Scout instead of two, letting you smuggle a lot more per season. Make sure you loot the Hideout salvage chest in the stables after every season change too.
- Part of the Hideout by default
- Study: The main benefit of the Study is the extra Scout it provides at each level, helping you smuggle more resources and search quest areas. Upgrade the Study to at least level 2 quickly.
- Unlocked by progressing the main quest
- Tera: A small building increases XP gains by 10%. It can't be upgraded but this is just a nice boost to have, helping you get Assassin's Creed Mastery Points a bit faster.
- Unlocked after completing Act 1
- Dojo: The Dojo isn't relevant until you've unlocked one of the six Assassin's Creed Shadows Allies to train. While it's useful to be able to upgrade your allies and use more of them, only upgrade this when you need to.
- Unlocked after recruiting any Ally
There are several other rooms you can unlock and build (Jinja, Nando, Zashiki, Tea Room, and Gallery), but their buffs are nowhere near as essential as the above, so not having them won't put you at a massive disadvantage. For example, the Gallery unlocks loadouts, though I mainly found this useful only while playing as Yasuke due to the variety of weapons he can wield. Similarly, the cheaper Scout refresh cost at a Kakurega that the Nando room provides is helpful, but only if you're burning through your Scouts every season – upgrade the Study instead!
As well as knowing about the best rooms for you’re the Hideout, you should also make sure you've got mastered the best Assassin's Creed Shadows skills and have the best Assassin's Creed Shadows weapons equipped for Naoe and Yasuke.
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