If you're trying to figure out which settings are right for you in Assassin's Creed Shadows, you've likely come across the Guaranteed Assassination option. This feature is found under the System Gameplay menu in the Difficulty Tuning settings and can be toggled on and off anytime. This menu option was first introduced in Assassin's Creed Valhalla alongside an "advanced assassination" system. In contrast, Assassin's Creed Odyssey had no such feature, tying assassination success entirely to player and enemy level. Assassin's Creed Shadows splits the difference, giving you the best of both worlds.

Guaranteed Assassination is a convenient option that can be toggled on and off without consequence in AC Shadows, but using it nullifies certain abilities in Naoe and Yasuke's skill trees. Using Guaranteed Assassination has a lot of advantages and is the "purest" form of gameplay you'll get in of a classic Assassin's Creed experience. However, AC Shadows also incentivizes players to play without Guaranteed Assassination enabled - it's also the default setting, implying it's the "correct" way to play. Ultimately, you'll have to weigh the pros and cons for yourself.

10 Pro #1: Instant Kills Are An Assassin's Best Friend

Make Quick Work Of Your Enemies With Instant Kills

The assassination mechanics have evolved dramatically across all the games in the Assassin's Creed franchise in many ways, but instant kills are a staple. The ability to instantly eliminate a target because you've snuck up on them and done the hard work of getting up close is extremely rewarding. AC Shadows gives you the option to enable Guaranteed Assassination, allowing you to instantly kill enemies regardless of their level or armor.

For me, this is the defining feature, and my immediate instinct is to play with it enabled for a more traditional Assassin's Creed experience. Instant kills are still a thing if you have Guaranteed Assassination disabled, but you'll have to level up your Assassin trees to make sure they work. If you're under-leveled and don't have Guaranteed Assassination turned on, you can still take out a big chunk of an enemies health, assuming you weren't rejected outright.

9 Pro #2: Stealth Is Rewarded From The Very Beginning

Why Be An Assassin If Stealth Doesn't Pay Off?

Guaranteed Assassination makes stealth in Assassin's Creed Shadows feel more realistic and rewarding. It pays more to stay hidden and undetected, eliminating enemies instantly and moving on to your next target. Without Guaranteed Assassination enabled, you may be unable to take out an enemy you've so carefully crept up on, or even have your assassination attempt rejected, forcing a fight with them head-on and alerting all nearby enemies in the process - not very sneaky.

For a game and character such as Naoe where stealth is the central feature, it can be pretty frustrating to have your assassination attempts turned away, especially in the earlier levels where you mostly just want to get some better gear and upgrade Naoe's skills. Stealth can be used much more easily with Guaranteed Assassination active, and it allows you to use stealth from the very beginning of Naoe's journey. You won't have to worry about sounding an alarm and becoming wanted over something trivial like unlocking a castle chest.

8 Pro #3: Guaranteed Assassination Is The Most Immersive Experience

Naoe Has The Skills That Kill

One further benefit of playing with Guaranteed Assassination is that it makes stealth mechanics feel much more immersive. It doesn't make sense to jab an enemy in the throat with a knife and have them still be able to fight back and alert all nearby guards to your presence. Getting up close and personal with an unaware opponent should guarantee that you can take them out instantly, especially for Naoe who has clearly had plenty of experience with Assassin skills.

While an argument can be made that she is still honing her skills, I'm not entirely convinced that it would make a difference at this point in the character's arc. She and Yasuke are both highly trained and skilled in their respective arts, and if you're thinking about things strictly from an immersion perspective, no enemy would stand a chance against Naoe's hidden blade straight through their throat. It isn't conceivable that any human would survive such an attack, much less be able to fight with all their strength and possibly even defeat you afterward.

7 Pro #4: Makes Encounters Much Easier & Saves Time

Don't Make Things Harder Than They Have To Be

Guaranteed Assassination can also make encounters much easier, removing the risk of being discovered and swarmed by enemies. It gives you the choice to sneak up on higher-level targets and take them down stealthily without worrying about being leveled/skilled enough to take them out. Naoe will also be able to clear entire castles or forts with ease, as long as she stays hidden in the shadows. AC Shadows isn't an extremely tough game, but it can definitely be a challenge if you end up getting swarmed, especially playing as Naoe and not having a decent kusarigawa on hand.

With Guaranteed Assassination enabled, you'll be notified which skills in Naoe's Assassin tree and Yasuke's Samurai tree will be affected.

Being stealthy enough to sneak up on enemies can be challenging enough by itself without the additional need to level up your Assassin skills and abilities. You may just want to grab a nice piece of loot from a castle and not have to worry about failing an assassination attempt because you're under-leveled for that area. Enable Guaranteed Assassination, and you'll be in business.

6 Pro #5: Guaranteed Assassination Conserves Mastery Points

Extra Mastery Points Come In Useful In The Early Game

Playing with Guaranteed Assassination enabled also helps conserve Mastery Points, allowing you to allocate more points to weapon abilities or tool buffs. With Guaranteed Assassination enabled you'll be notified which skills in Naoe's Assassin and Yasuke's Samurai trees will be affected. For Naoe, this frees up almost an entire branch worth of Mastery Points - anything that removes additional health bars for an assassination is rendered useless, but it gives you more points to invest in different and more-desirable skills.

There is no penalty for enabling or disabling Guaranteed Assassination, and it doesn't lock you out of any trophies/achievements to switch it on/off.

Mastery Points are not in short supply in Assassin's Creed Shadows, and by the time you level up halfway to 60, you'll have more than you know what to do with. However, there are certain weapons and/or items that increase damage or other stats based on unspent Mastery Points, such as the Makasado's Vengeance legendary amulet found in the Ishibutai Kofun. It's much more useful in the early game, however, where Guaranteed Assassination can free up a decent number of Mastery Points and get you moving through the other trees.

5 Con #1: Lack Of Balance With Other Skills

What's The Point Of Combat When You Can One-Hit The Toughest Enemies

Guaranteed Assassination makes certain skills in the Assassin and Tools trees pointless to invest in, but missing out on these skills has some downsides. Playing without Guaranteed Assassination enabled opens up an extra layer of depth to character progression and advancement when it comes to Assassin skills. While it might be nice to save the Mastery Points for something else, with Guaranteed Assassination on, your best option is almost always going to be to use stealth and get the easy instant kill.

So yes, you can save a bunch of Mastery Points, but the weapon skills you invest those points in don't really end up mattering, as your better option is usually going to be stealth. Playing without Guaranteed Assassination balances the Assassin abilities and ives (and the Kunai Tool ives) with the abilities in the other trees, making stealth assassination less OP. Having to actually invest in the tree to advance your assassin abilities makes all the skills equally useful and doesn't confine you to using stealth in nearly every situation.

4 Con #2: Makes Things Too Easy

High-Level Enemies Are Trivial When Killed Instantly

Playing without Guaranteed Assassination enabled, enemy level and health bars will become much more important, adding a need for strategy if you plan to use stealth on larger opponents. It makes stealth more challenging against higher-level opponents, and forces you to buff Naoe up before attempting castles, forts, or other encounters that are far above your current level. With Guaranteed Assassination on, facing stronger opponents becomes trivial, and you will even be able to take down main bosses in a single hit.

While this is great if you want to move the story along, it becomes underwhelming to take on tough opponents who Naoe can drop in a single blow. You spend all this time hearing how dangerous and formidable the targets are, and then reduce them to nothing with the press of a single button. If you're interested in a challenge, feel free to turn Guaranteed Assasination off and start investing in Assassin skills and collecting gear that removes health bars. You'll also want to upgrade your Kunai so that you're able to fully take down unsuspecting enemies from a distance.

3 Con #3: Missing Out On Entire Branches Of A Skill Tree

The Hidden Blade Skill Tree Branch Is Nullified With Guaranteed Assassination On

Playing without Guaranteed Assassination means you have to actually invest in the Assassin skill tree's assassination ives to enhance Naoe's Hidden Blade and Kunai strength. This can be rewarding, and introduces a gradual advancement of assassin, making you incrementally more efficient at using stealth over time. Because Mastery Points are so ubiquitous, by the middle or end of the game, you will have the extra points to dump into this tree without sacrificing much from the other skill areas.

It is more of a challenge initially to invest in the Hidden Blade and Kunai ives and buff Naoe enough to start getting instant kills. At the same time, assassination attempts that don't fully kill enemies can still take out massive chunks of health and weaken them enough that you can slash them a couple more times before they end up alerting everyone. In other words, you don't necessarily need Guaranteed Assassination in order to make Naoe an effective assassin, but if you want instant kills, either turn it on or be prepared to work for it.

2 Con #4: Missing Out On Unique Weapons & Armor

Most Headgear Will Be Useless With Guaranteed Assassination

More weapons, armor, and engravings will be useful if you play without Guaranteed Assassination enabled, as anything that takes out additional health segments on assassination will become valuable in building a character fully capable of stealth assassinations on all targets. Headgear pieces and their engravings tend to remove additional health bars during assassination attempts, and most of these will be somewhat useless with Guaranteed Assassination on.

With Guaranteed Assassination on, you're going to end up with gear that simply doesn't benefit you in ways that other items might. This can become annoying when you find something with otherwise excellent stats and DPS, but the effect gives you an additional health bar removal for a given type of assassination attempt. The Yurei-Walker Hood, for example, would be an incredible hood for an assassin build, removing two additional health segments on shadow assassinations, but is kind of useless if you're guaranteed to kill every target regardless of their health bars.

1 Con #5: You Don't Experience Naoe's Growth As An Assassin

You Might Miss Out On Some Great Character Development

An argument against Guaranteed Assassination can also be made for roleplaying purposes. You can experience growth and advancement as an assassin alongside Naoe (and Yasuke to a lesser extent) by being required to level up to kill stronger targets. If we are to believe that Naoe is still honing her skills in the story, you can experience this alongside her by investing in the Assassin tree and becoming more formidable. The sense of character progression is more connected to the player if you have to work for it, making the end result more satisfying/rewarding.

Guaranteed Assassination in Assassin's Creed Shadows is ultimately a matter of personal preference and doesn't unfairly punish or overpower any particular style of gameplay.

You may not be able to instantly kill enemies at first, but by the time you reach the mid and late levels of the game, Naoe's assassin abilities will reflect the choices you make regarding Mastery Point investment. If you fail to hone her skills, you will feel the brunt of that oversight with Naoe. Conversely, creating a stealth assassin build using various unique gear that features health bar removal for various assassination styles makes Naoe feel more individualized to your specific choices and preferences as a player.

Whether you think Guaranteed Assassination is the better option or it's better to play without it, the freedom of choice in Assassin's Creed Shadows gives players from both camps the ability to play how they want. Personally, I have always preferred the classical approach to stealth gameplay, which guaranteed an assassination. Still, after playing without it enabled, I started to enjoy the additional challenge and strategy involved. If you're unsure about the best option, Assassin's Creed Shadows makes it simple to switch Guaranteed Assassination on and off and experiment with what you like best.