Some might not be big fans of how the RPG aspects work in recent Assassin’s Creed games, but Shadows brings a more approachable system and a pretty fun one at that. With so many activities to do and targets to take down, you’ll be swimming in experience points in no time. However, if you want to optimize the process, you might want to stick to a few things. Here, we have a quick guide to show you how to level up fast in Assassin’s Creed Shadows.
Fastest Way to Level Up in Assassin’s Creed Shadows
So far, we’ve seen three ways to level up in Assassin’s Creed Shadows. One might be a bit too obvious, and the other one might not be that obvious. In any case, you’ll have to combine both if you want to “speed-level” in the game.
Following the Main Story

To no one’s surprise, following the main story will be the fastest way to level up, but only during the first areas in the game. There will come a time when you’ll hit a wall by following only the main story. Certain targets require you to be at a certain level if you don’t want to go down with one hit. Yet, for the first couple of hours, sticking to the main quest is a good choice. However, we recommend switching to the option we’ll mention below when you unlock Yasuke.
Side Targets

After a bit of experimenting and exploring, we noticed that side targets give a lot of experience and mastery points while being a bit faster to tackle than main story targets. Let’s take the Kabukimono, for example. Most of them give you two mastery points when you kill them. On top of that, they give you a huge chunk of experience, which usually is a whole level. Furthermore, completing the whole list of targets will give you even more experience, so you can easily gain a few levels by killing these enemies. The only downside is that you need to travel far and wide to find them and usually kill a couple before getting clues about the others. Still, this is the easiest way to level up in Assassin’s Creed Shadows, and a fun one as well.
Seasonal Contracts

Another great way to level up that won’t take a lot of time is through seasonal contracts. After each season’s passing (including the mid-season cutscene), you’ll get new contracts. You can grab up to three and complete them until a new season or mid-season begins. They give you between 1,000 to 2,000 experience points, and they are so fast to do that you can gain almost two levels from the three contracts. If you combine them with the above things, you’ll gain many levels in a few hours.
Regardless, there isn’t a point in leveling up that fast unless you want to unlock every part of the map. Low-level areas will scale up to your level, so enemies will always provide a challenge. The same applies to gear. Whenever you find a weapon or armor, you’ll get them at your current level or one or two levels above, depending on the area you’re at. If you ask us, we’d say it is better to take your time, explore the map, and just do the activities you want to do. Plus, even if you level up quickly, you still need to increase your Knowledge, and that’s a whole other system to master.