Assassin’s Creed Shadows is one of the franchise’s biggest games in the franchise to date, with a deep progression system to match its scale. Here’s what the max levels are in Assassin’s Creed Shadows and how the level cap works.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows has revamped how progression works in the franchise. While unlocking skills revolves heavily around the new Knowledge Ranks (more on that later) there is traditional XP-based progression. Progressing your XP in Assassin’s Creed Shadows unlocks access to higher-tier weapons, armor, and gear, as well as improving Naoe and Yasuke’s base stats.
While players are really only required to hit Level 35 to explore all of the available Japanese provinces in the game’s map, the XP grind can continue for far longer than that. While the Level Cap was believed to be 40 based on what Ubisoft has shared in their progression deep dive before launch, players can actually grind all the way up to 60. It’s also likely that this level cap will increase even higher post-launch with the Claws of Awaji expansion for Assassin’s Creed Shadows.
In Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Knowledge Rank is a major update to the franchise’s progression. This system is separate from the title’s XP leveling. Knowledge Ranks are progressed by earning Knowledge Points through various open-world activities within the game, centered around mindfulness and training. As a player progresses through the knowledge ranks, new skills will be available to Naoe and Yasuke. However, players will still need to unlock and spend Mastery Points on these skills to actually unlock them.
In order to have every skill available to unlock, players will need to reach Knowledge Rank 6. However, this is not the conclusion of the Knowledge Rank progression. Rather, Naoe and Yasuke will unlock another new Knowledge tree after reaching this rank, with several passive skills available to refine a build around the player’s preferred play style.
Related: Assassin’s Creed Shadows Trophy List (All 55 Trophies)
The third major aspect of progression in Assassin’s Creed Shadows is Mastery. Mastery is essentially the game’s equivalent to skill points and must be spent to unlock new skills within the various Mastery trees. However, some skills require more Mastery to be spent to unlock than others.
There are a vast amount of skills to unlock in Assassin’s Creed Shadows, with six Mastery trees for each playable protagonist. Thankfully, Mastery Points can be earned through an abundance and variety of activities, so players will have plenty of chances to earn enough to get the skills they seek. While players could theoretically hit a limit of Mastery Points, this will require extensive activity completion, and the Claws of Awaji expansion will almost certainly add new ways to earn Mastery when it launches later in 2025.
In Assassin’s Creed Shadows, each province of Japan has a level associated with it. The highest level requirement you’ll see at the start of your game is for Kii, which has a requirement of Level 35. As you progress through the game and improve your level with XP, the level of some of these regions will rise to meet you.
However, there is a late-game floor to how high the levels for enemies and overall province difficulty will scale from Level 40 and beyond. From Level 42 and beyond, the recommended for each province seems to stay at two levels below your current XP level. This is a great way to ensure the game still affords some challenge and combat retains a proper pace in the endgame, while still rewarding players who invest dozens of hours into the game.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows is available now on PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.
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