You'll quickly discover that levelling up in Assassin's Creed Shadows is a remarkably complicated and annoying process. Not only do you need a bunch of skill points, known here as mastery points, but you'll also need to increase your knowledge rank.
Your knowledge dictates the highest tier of skills you can spend your mastery on, and it's a significant bottleneck to your progression early on. You'll be earning mastery points left, right, and centre since all that takes is XP–which the game hands out like candy–while earning knowledge is much more involved.
Assassin's Creed Shadows knowledge rank: How to increase it
To increase your knowledge rank, you'll need to earn knowledge points from the following seven side activities:
- Temples
- Shrines
- Kuji-kiri
- Kofun
- Hidden trails
- Kata
- Horse archery
These activities aren't particularly commonplace, at least compared to how often you'll run into various castles, camps, and sidequests. Thankfully, they're all labelled with a distinctive orange marker on your map once you're nearby. You won't need to use scouts to narrow down the locations of these activities either, just explore and complete them when they crop up.
There are 16 of these activities in the starting area of Izumi Settsu alone, which lets you reach knowledge rank 3 to unlock level three mastery skills. However, three of these require you to have unlocked Yasuke before you can access them.
Here's where you can find all the knowledge-granting activities in Izumi Settsu to get you started:
- Tennoji Temple - A short walk east of Osaka
- Makinoodera Temple - Between the Izumi Coast and Kawachi Heights (where the prologue ends)
- Gansenji Temple - Just south of Sakai
- Nishinomiya Shrine - Directly west of Amagasaki
- Sumiyoshi Shrine - Between Osaka and Sakai
- Kuji-kiri 1 - By the river at the hideout
- Kuji-kiri 2 - On the coast west of Amagaskai
- Kuji-kiri 3 - In the Kawachi Heights, northeast of the Lost Pagoda viewpoint
- Kuji-kiri 4 - West of the Eboshigata Hachiman Shrine in the Kawachi Heights
- Kuji-kiri 5 - At the Rolling Glen in the Katano Foothills
- Old Kofun - A short walk east of Sakai
- Makino Kurumazuka Kofun - Near the large river east of Tatatsuki in northern Yawata Plains
- Kata: Yamamoto Masakatsu I - On the small island west of the Fishermen's District in Osaka
- Kata: Shorrin II - East of the Makino Kurumazuka Kofun in the Yawata Plains
- Horse Archery: Settsu Arena - Up the small river heading north in the Senri Hills
Temples
The first time you're likely to discover the knowledge rank system is by completing a temple, as you're finally let off the leash at Makinoodera Temple (where Sorin and Junjiro look after you) after completing the prologue.
Temples require you to find a number of scrolls hidden around the area. In Makinoodera, there are three but each temple is different. These scrolls can be found using the "observe mode" by pressing left trigger on a controller or right click on PC. This will highlight and pin them to make it easy for you to stroll on over and pick them up.
Once you've picked up the required number of scrolls, you'll have completed the temple activity and be rewarded with a knowledge point.
Shrines
This one requires you to pray at designated shrines. Much like the temples, all you need to do is use the new observe mode to track these locations and then interact with them to pray. Once you've prayed at all the locations in the shrine, it will automatically tick off the activity and treat you to a knowledge point.
Kuji-kiri
Kuji-kiri are short flashback sequences for Naoe, beginning with a rhythm minigame. All you need to do is press the four buttons in time with the beat, though it does get harder when the icons begin to fade into the background.
Once you've completed the minigame, you'll begin the actual flashback sequence. Complete this and you'll be treated to a knowledge point.
The first Kuji-kiri you're likely to run into is the one at Eboshigata Hachiman Shrine, just north of Makinoodera Temple where you begin your journey. However, there's also one at the hideout shortly after.
Kofun
Kofun tombs are my favourite of the brain-boosting activities. These see you delving into caves to reach a chest at the end, involving crawling through dusty ol' tunnels and swinging between gaps. It reminded me a lot of scouring tombs and pyramids in Assassin's Creed Origins.
Kofun are generally very linear, so it's as simple as getting from the beginning to the end to claim your prize.
Hidden Trails
Hidden trails are also up there with the best knowledge activities, solely because they give you a good excuse to parkour through the beautiful open world (if you need one). Would it be more fun if they were a time trial? Yes. Is it oddly relaxing to clamber up cliffs and swing across gorges surrounded by cherry blossoms? Also yes.
Like Kofun, these parkour courses are very linear. All you have to do is follow the path outlined by the yellow flags and other markers until you reach the chest at the end.
Kata
Kata is effectively a rhythm game to learn weapon combos, available only to Yasuke. You'll need to press the button prompts before they expire to perform the exercise. It's simple enough, though the break between the combos might catch you out on your first attempt. Flawlessly complete all three weapon exercises and you'll nab a knowledge point.
Horse Archery
Horse archery challenges are exactly what they sound like. Exclusive to Yasuke, you'll need to follow the track on your horse while shooting at the targets. While these are easy enough to beat, you don't even need to hit all the targets to complete them.
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