Assassin's Creed Shadows Knowledge points are a special resource that you can earn through specific side activities, and which grant the player the chance to master new skills - and I mean that literally. While Mastery Points are what players use to unlock new powers and skills in Assassin’s Creed Shadows, it's increasing your Knowledge Rank that actually unlocks those skills for you to buy in the first place. Otherwise those who are far into AC Shadows might have a ton of Mastery points in the bank and nothing to spend them on (as has happened to myself more than once).
With that in mind, we'll lay out all the ways to get Knowledge Points in Assassin's Creed Shadows below, as there are actually multiple methods, some of which are specific to Naoe and some to Yasuke.
How to earn Knowledge Points in Assassin's Creed Shadows
Knowledge Points and increases in Rank in AC Shadows can be increased through any of the following side activities, all of which are spread around Japan and are marked by different red hexagonal icons on the map:
- Either character
- Praying at Shrines: Shrines around the world have two to four individual locations within them where the characters can pray. Praying at them all completes the Shrine and earns you a knowledge point.
- Collecting pages in temples: Temples have several hidden pages which you need to collect, spread around them, such as the Assassin’s Creed Shadows Makinoodera Temple found early on. Finding all the pages completes the temples and earns you a knowledge point. Depending on the layout of the temple, you might need Naoe to reach them all due to the Assassin's Creed Shadows Naoe and Yasuke differences.
- Naoe
- Kuji-Kiri (Meditation): These hotspots are about repeating patterns of button inputs and keeping the patterns going even after the prompts become hidden. Once done for long enough, you'll play through a flashback of Naoe's life, then once you're done you'll get the knowledge points.
- Hidden Trails (Parkour/Climbing): These straightforward obstacle courses usually go through mountains and wilderness, but at the end you'll get a piece of equipment and a knowledge point.
- Yasuke
- Kata (Combat Training): A very simple series of quick time events in which Yasuke practices with a certain melee weapon to gain a Knowledge Point.
- Yabusame (Horseback Archery): Yasuke's horse rides on a set path while you must fire arrows at targets along the way to earn a knowledge point.
While all of the above activities are quite common, Temples and Shrines are usually the easiest to find as they’re in or adjacent to settlements, so if you're out of options and not sure where to look, head to any town or city you've yet to properly explore.
If you come across an activity you can't complete - a Kata exercise while playing as Naoe, for example - makee sure you know how to switch characters in Assassin's Creed Shadows so that you can complete it quickly.
Increasing your Knowledge Rank
Your Knowledge Rank in AC Shadows increases for every 10 Knowledge Points you earn through any of the methods laid out above for Ranks 2, 3 and 4, but you need several more to reach Ranks 5 and 6. Your Points and Rank are shared between Naoe and Yasuke too, so you don’t need to worry about one getting left behind.
When your Knowledge Rank increases, you’ll notice that all six skill trees for both characters unlock a new row of perks for you to spend your Assassin’s Creed Shadows Mastery Points on. However, some of these are better than others, so make sure you know which ones are the best Assassin’s Creed Shadows skills to get.
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