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Assassin's Creed Shadows (AC Shadows)

Difficulty Setting Differences and How to Change

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AC Shadows - Difficulty Setting Differences and How to Change

Assassin's Creed Shadows (AC Shadows) has multiple settings for combat and stealth difficulty that you can adjust. Read on to learn more about all the available difficulty settings, their differences, and how to change them.

List of Contents

All Difficulty Settings

Combat Difficulty Setting Differences

Assassin's Creed Shadows will have 4 combat difficulty settings to choose from: Story, Forgiving, Normal, and Expert.

Combat Difficulty Differences
Story Both Naoe and Yasuke are one-man armies. Enemy reactions are very slow, allowing you to deflect or parry with ease, and they don't attack simultaneously.
Forgiving Naoe takes on a stealthier playstyle, but she can still hold her own against small groups. Yasuke retains his one-man army status. Enemies are also less likely to gang up on you during combat.
Normal Naoe is less effective in open combat and will have to rely on stealth to pull of missions. Yasuke can still be a powerful force but only against enemies of a similar level.
Expert Enemies are stronger and they are all very aggressive. Requires you to keep your weapons upgraded to remain competitive in both stealth and combat encounters.

Guaranteed Assassinations Can Make Higher Difficulties Easier

Turn On Guaranteed Assassinations

Playing as Naoe on higher difficulties means you need to keep your gear upgraded and your Assassin Mastery tree topped up in order to keep guaranteeing 1-hit assassinations. If you don't want to deal with this mechanic, you can turn on Guaranteed Assassinations.

How to Turn On Guaranteed Assassinations

Stealth Difficulty Setting Differences

Stealth difficulty can also be tweaked, with the game offering you 3 stealth difficulty settings to choose from.

Stealth Difficulty Differences
Forgiving Stealth is easy and enemy reactions to sound, sight, and player activity are slow.
Normal Stealth hinges on breaking line of sight, staying hidden, and moving slowly to avoid making loud sounds. Enemies are much more reactive to player activity.
Expert Yellow cautious status are easier to trigger and even staying on roofs and in shadow doesn't guarantee safety. Requires a slow, methodical approach where you Eagle Vision tag all enemies before you start exploring.

Gameplay Quality-of-Life Settings

AC Shadows will also feature a few quality-of-life (QoL) settings that you can toggle in order to make gameplay easier.

Guided Exploration When turned on, objectives are automatically marked. You no longer need to investigate and scout the locations of your quest targets making quests easier to complete. However, some achievements will be impossible to get when this is turned on.
Aim Assist Makes certain activities like Horse Archery much easier. It also helps in general combat since bows, teppos, and tools are easier to use.
Area Loot If turned on, you get all loot within an area in a single button prompt. Eliminates the need to look at every nook and cranny of a location to get loot.

How to Change Difficulty

Go to Options then Change it via the Gameplay Tab

To change your difficulty settings while playing the game, navigate to Options via the System Menu, then go to Gameplay > Difficulty Tuning. From here, you can adjust Combat difficulty, Stealth difficulty, and Guaranteed Assassination settings.

1
Accessing the System Menu
Open your world map by pressing PS5 - Touchpad (PS5), XBOX - Options Button(Xbox), or Esc Button (PC). Then, hit PS5 - Touchpad / XBOX - Options Button again (or F1 on PC) to open the System Menu.
2
Options to Gameplay
From here, select Options then go to the Gameplay tab. Here, you can adjust a few difficulty settings like Guided Exploration, Aim Assist, and Area Loot.
3
Difficulty Settings
To adjust overall game difficulty, go to Difficulty Tuning then adjust the settings for Combat Difficulty, Stealth Difficulty, and Guaranteed Assassinations.

Assassin's Creed Shadows Related Guides

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Assassin's Creed Shadows Wiki

AC Shadows Recommended Guides

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