How to unlock and play as Yasuke in Assassin’s Creed Shadows

One of the big highlights of Assassin’s Creed Shadows is its dual protagonists that split the series’ roots into two halves. Naoe is a shinobi who prefers the shadows over brute force, while Yasuke is a samurai, favouring close-quarters combat. Both characters have their own skills that make deciding how to approach quests and combat much more interesting. But you need to unlock Yasuke before you can play as him.

Yasuke is the first of the two protagonists you play as during the prologue, but after that you won’t see him for several hours. You’ll be running around as Naoe with no word on what Yasuke’s up to, let alone how to go about playing as him. Well, if you prefer swordfights over stealth, here’s how to play as Yasuke.

How to unlock and play as Yasuke in Assassin’s Creed Shadows

You need to complete the Temple of the Horseman main story quest before you unlock the ability to play as Yasuke. You need to kill the first two assassination targets (Golden Teppo and Wada Koretake) and team up with Akechi Mitsuhide to raid Oda Nobunaga’s hideout at Honnoji Temple first.

I won’t spoil the mission, but completing this quest leads directly into several cutscenes and, eventually, one where you’ll finally play as Yasuke again to reach Naoe. After this section and yet another cutscene, you’ll be plonked back at your hideout and given the decision to play as Yasuke or Naoe. It seems like a big choice, but it’s basically just asking which character you’d like to play as after the cutscene—not the whole rest of the game.

With how much setup you need to wade through first, it’ll take you a good 10 hours before you can play as Yasuke, or even longer if you’re fully exploring Izumi Settsu. Given it makes sense for the story, I’m not too bothered that you’re restricted to Naoe for the opening hours—though it helps that the stealth is much-improved in Shadows.

How to swap characters in Assassin’s Creed Shadows

There are two ways to swap characters once you’ve unlocked Yasuke: the inventory screen or through fast-traveling. Either way, you’ll have to go through a short loading screen.

Most of the time you’ll use the inventory screen to switch between Naoe and Yasuke. All you’ve got to do is open up the menu and head to the inventory page, where you’ll now see a switch character prompt at the bottom of the screen. This is handy as you can swap characters and go right into customising their gear or upgrading their skills.

The other option is to change characters when fast-traveling. Now that you’ve unlocked both characters, you’ll have two fast-travel options. The first is to simply teleport to the location as your current character, while the second one teleports you and swaps your character. This is particularly useful if you’re heading to an activity that requires a specific character. For example, certain knowledge rank tasks are only available to either Naoe or Yasuke, so you’ll have to swap often.

The good news is that progression is shared across Naoe and Yasuke. This means that any experience and Knowledge points you earn as one character also carry over to the other, so you don’t have to worry about one lagging behind. You’ll still need to remember to spend those points and upgrade gear on both characters.