# **Assassin’s Creed Shadows: Tailoring Your Gameplay for an Optimal Experience**
Assassin’s Creed Shadows provides a wide array of customization options that enable players to shape their experience according to their tastes. Whether you’re seeking a leisurely, narrative-focused journey or a demanding stealth challenge, Shadows grants you the ability to modify difficulty settings to suit your style of play.
Our suggestion? Don’t hesitate to play around with the settings—upping the difficulty can lead to a more engaging and rewarding adventure. And if you find it’s not your style, resetting it is always an option!
## **Understanding Difficulty Levels in Assassin’s Creed Shadows**
Shadows offers various methods to modify the gameplay experience. You can turn off Quicktime events, activate guaranteed assassinations, and select between specific quest markers or general clues for mission objectives. Regarding difficulty, the game presents two primary categories:
### **1. Combat Difficulty**
Combat difficulty can be adjusted across four tiers:
– **Story Mode:** Enemies are less powerful, making it easier to enjoy the storyline.
– **Easy:** A balanced adventure with manageable combat situations.
– **Hard:** Enemies pack more of a punch, necessitating the mastery of parrying and dodging.
– **Expert:** The most demanding setting—Naoe and Yasuke can only sustain a few hits before falling, making precise timing and strategy essential.
### **2. Stealth Difficulty**
Stealth difficulty features three tiers:
– **Easy:** Guards are slower to notice you, simplifying sneaking around.
– **Normal:** An even stealth experience.
– **Expert:** Guards are extremely vigilant—even spotting you while on rooftops, which typically remains a blind spot in Assassin’s Creed titles.
Initially, the combat difficulty may appear as a regression from Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, which had up to ten varying difficulty levels. However, Shadows prioritizes making enemies more lethal rather than merely boosting their health, resulting in a more engaging and dynamic challenge.
## **How Hard or Expert Levels Can Enrich Your Experience**
Unlike Valhalla and Odyssey, which largely depended on increasing enemy health to elevate difficulty, Shadows enhances danger without rendering enemies excessively resilient. Even in Expert mode, Yasuke can swiftly eliminate foes—but the twist is that they can equally take him down.
This ensures that combat demands more tactical thinking. You’ll need to:
– Master the art of blocking and parrying.
– Optimize your gear and skills.
– Utilize stealth more efficiently, particularly when controlling Naoe.
For fans of stealth, ramping up the difficulty elevates Shadows into a genuine stealth experience. In Expert mode, hiding on rooftops and waiting for adversaries to lose interest won’t suffice. Instead, you’ll have to:
– Extinguish lights to remain concealed.
– Draw guards into traps.
– Strategically plan your movements to evade detection.
This heightened challenge renders stealth gameplay far more gratifying, compelling you to employ all tools at your disposal.
## **A More Fulfilling Progression Curve**
One of the standout features of engaging with higher difficulties is the enhanced progression system. While foes level up alongside you, they don’t scale in a straightforward manner. If you invest wisely in skills, armor, and weapon modifications, Yasuke will slowly outmatch his enemies. By the late game, you’ll feel like a genuine samurai warrior, capable of taking apart entire enemy camps—a fulfilling reward for mastering the game’s mechanics.
## **Concluding Thoughts: Explore and Discover Your Ideal Balance**
The allure of Assassin’s Creed Shadows lies in your ability to adjust the difficulty whenever you wish. If Expert mode proves to be too challenging, you can always lower it. However, if you relish stealth games or seek a more immersive trial, attempting the highest difficulty settings can enhance the experience substantially.
So go ahead—test the settings and discover the perfect balance for your playstyle. Whether you favor a leisurely journey or a challenging adventure, Shadows has an option for everyone.