Assassin’s Creed Shadows – The Best Mastery Skills for Yasuke

Assassin’s Creed Shadows has just released, and it has been getting some great reviews as of late. It features quite a lot of improvements on the typical Ubisoft open world RPG style that they have adopted for the franchise in recent years, and part of that is the skill tree system for the game’s two main protagonists. In this guide, we have a few suggestions on what mastery skills to get for Yasuke.

The Best Mastery Skills for Yasuke

Before we get started, the only real thing to consider here is that “the best” is purely subjective. There are a bunch of different weapon types that you can mess around with, and not everybody will play the game the same way as others.

If you are playing a more aggressive and loud style, then you are going to be picking very different skills from somebody who prefers to be more defensive or even use a more stealthy approach.

With all of that in mind, we have a few suggestions that should be general enough and cover various weapons so you can benefit from it no matter what your play style is, or at least we hope so. Here is a list of masteries that you can pick:

• Battle Cry (Samurai Tree) – The Battle Cry ability is a powerful tool that lets you stagger nearby enemies. This can be incredibly useful in a pinch if you get surrounded by too many foes or are losing a duel and need a brief moment to catch your breath and heal up.
• Samurai Stand (Samurai Tree) – This ability puts Yasuke in a temporary frenzy that make any strike a posture attack, which means that you can continuously stagger enemies easily and break their guard for several seconds straight. Perfect for aggressive players.
• Impenetrable Defense (Samurai Tree) – With this ability, you are essentially getting free counters for its entire duration (up to five hits). This makes you almost invincible for a decent amount of time, though it is not necessary if you are really good at defense.
• Armor Buster (Teppo Tree) – For people who like using the teppo, this ability will let you break a target’s armor quickly and also deal a ton of damage at the same time.
• Close Quarters (Teppo Tree) – Funnily enough, this is a melee ability for the teppo in which you will deal a bit of damage. The important part is that you will also be knocking down the target and following it up with a shot once they are on the ground.
• Teppo Tempo (Teppo Tree) – With this passive ability, you can hold the heavy attack button after dodging to immediately shoot a target. This is great in general if you like to use the teppo regularly.
• Steel, Concussion, and Shrapnel Bullets (Teppo Tree) – These passive abilities unlock different bullet types that are used to inflict varying status effects. Consider getting one or all of these if you prefer using afflictions to defeat your foes.

• Kyudo Master (Bow Tree) – This passive ability gives you a small window to trigger a faster reload time for a few seconds. It requires some good timing, but you will eventually get used to it the more you take advantage of it.
• Staggering Blast (Bow Tree) – This ability will let Yasuke fire a particularly strong projectile that will knock enemies back on impact. It is a very straightforward ability that can be really good for players who love using the bow at close range fights.
• Retreating Shot (Bow Tree) – Upon activation, this ability will let you fire a barrage of arrows at the nearest target while also dodging beforehand. It can be really good at duels as you are essentially turning your enemies into a pin cushion.
• Headshot Damage (Bow Tree) – Needless to say, this one is just useful in general if you use projectiles a lot as this will grant you a significant boost in headshot damage.
• Power Dash (Long Katana Tree) – With this ability, a long katana user can very easily render an enemy vulnerable. When upgraded, it becomes even more potent as it allows you to chain it to other enemies nearby.
• Riposte (Long Katana Tree) – Once you get used to the timing of it, this lets you deliver very swift counter attacks while blocking strikes. This is not a must-have for everyone, but if you find yourself blocking a lot rather than parrying or dodging, you may as well try to use this.
• Sheathed Attack (Long Katana Tree) – When you unlock this passive, Yasuke gains the ability to sheathe his katana and deliver a more powerful strike that can break an enemy’s guard. When upgraded, it essentially becomes a beefed up posture attack.
• Combat Expert (Long Katana Tree) – It significantly boosts your damage with any melee weapon, so it is a must-have regardless of your preferred weapon.
• Crescent Strike (Naginata Tree) – This lets you knock back groups of enemies while also dealing a bit of damage to each of them. It is great for crowd control, and you can even upgrade it to make it knock enemies down and also leave them bleeding.
• Impale (Naginata Tree) – With this ability, you can push an enemy back a fair distance away and also render them vulnerable at the end of the push.
• Crushing Shockwave (Kanabo Tree) – With this ability, you can stagger and deal a lot of damage to enemies in a small area around you with a single attack. Great for crowd control, but also useful in duels due to its utility.

And those are just some of our recommendations on which masteries to unlock for Yasuke. It really is not that complicated as each skill tree only has a handful of abilities and upgrades in them. To make your choices easier, just pick a weapon that you like and start unlocking stuff in that tree.

This same logic applies to Naoe too, so just keep that in mind when picking skills for her as well. While you are here, make sure to check out our guide on the best weapons for Yasuke in Assassin’s Creed Shadows. Again, these are mainly just suggestions, but the weapons in that list are pretty good for almost any type of player.