All Difficulty Settings in Assassin’s Creed Shadows Explained

Mastering Assassin's Creed Shadows can be a thrilling challenge, but don't worry—the game offers customizable difficulty settings to match your skill level. This guide breaks down everything you need to know about adjusting the difficulty in Assassin's Creed Shadows.

Assassin's Creed Shadows Difficulty Levels Explained

Assassin's Creed Shadows provides four difficulty levels:

Story: Perfect for players prioritizing narrative over intense combat. Enemies react slowly, attacks are less coordinated, making it easy to overcome challenges.
Forgiving: A slight increase in challenge from Story mode. Enemies still avoid ganging up, but combat encounters require more strategic thinking, particularly for Naoe in open combat.
Normal: The default setting, striking a balance between challenge and accessibility. Stealth and strategic combat are crucial for both Naoe and Yasuke.
Expert: The most demanding setting. Enemies deal significantly more damage and are far more aggressive. Mastering stealth and consistently upgrading your gear are essential for survival.

Difficulty Tuning

While the four preset difficulty levels offer a good range, you can further fine-tune your experience. Access the Gameplay tab within the settings menu, select "Difficulty Tuning," and independently adjust the difficulty for both combat and stealth. This allows you to customize your challenge—perhaps you prefer a harder combat experience but find stealth too difficult.

Additionally, you can activate "Guaranteed Assassination," enabling Naoe to instantly eliminate enemies with a single hit, bypassing the need for Assassin Mastery tree upgrades.

How to Change Difficulty

Adjusting the difficulty is straightforward. Pause the game, open the menu, navigate to Settings, then select the Gameplay tab. Make your adjustments and return to the game. You can change the difficulty at any point during your playthrough.

That's your complete guide to difficulty settings in Assassin's Creed Shadows. For more in-depth guides, including discussions on the game's portrayal of relationships and how to redeem pre-order bonuses, be sure to check out The Escapist.