Tools have a variety of uses when it comes to stealth gameplay in Assassin's Creed Shadows (AC Shadows). Read on for a list of best tools to upgrade first during your playthrough.

Best Tool Upgrades

Tool	Rating Explained
Kunai (★★★★)	When fully upgraded, this tool becomes your best assassination tool simply because it can one-shot enemies from afar.
Shuriken (★★★)	Places high since it has a ton of utility during stealth segments even without getting upgrades. Use these to deal with Alarm Bells, castle servants, and light sources while sneaking.
Smoke Bomb (★★)	Has situational uses since it does place you within spitting distance of the enemy. Only used to either bypass large groups of enemies or to clear out closely clustered enemies.
Shinobi Bell (★)	Highly situational tool to use since it only has a 50% chance of working most of the time (other times, enemies will just ignore it even if you throw one right next to them).

Prioritize Assassination Damage for Kunai

For Kunai, your priority will be to max out Kunai Assassination Damage first before going for Armor Piercing and Everlast. On higher difficulties, being able to one-shot enemies from range will be more important than the benefits you gain from the latter passives.

Shuriken Only Needs 1 Mastery Point

For the Shuriken, simply unlocking it should be enough. Due to its rather low damage on higher difficulties, these are best used to get rid of stealth hazards like Alarm Bells, Castle Servants, and light sources, rather than as combat tools.

Fully Upgrade Smoke Bombs to Make them Effective

To get the most mileage out of your Smoke Bombs, fully upgrade them to increase their duration (via Enduring Haze) and their radius (via Widespread).

However, do note that Smoke Bombs only work if used from stealth. Their only use case in the game is to allow you to approach multiple targets without alerting them. But, since Kunai ranged assassinations are already highly effective, smokes are mainly a last resort; for cleaning up remaining enemies mostly.

Unlock Shinobi Bell but Delay its Upgrades

The Shinobi Bell is the most finicky to use out of the 4 available tools. Sometimes, throwing it right next to an enemy indoors won't prompt them to investigate, making throwing these bells a game of 50/50 even on a good day.

For upgrades, you can safely delay maxing this out since the other 3 options are more than enough to complete your stealth tool arsenal.

Assassin's Creed Shadows Related Guides

Assassin's Creed Shadows Wiki

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Best Naoe Build	Best Yasuke Build
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