Assassin s Creed Shadows Weapons List Complete Guide and Types

Steel meets shadow in Assassin’s Creed Shadows, where every weapon tells a story of power, precision, and deadly artistry. Whether you favor Naoe’s swift katana or Yasuke’s crushing kanabo, the game offers eight distinct weapon types-each with legendary variants waiting to be claimed from chests, quest rewards, or elite foes. Ready to master the arsenal and carve your legend across feudal Japan?

In this Assassin’s Creed Shadows guide, we’ll go over the list of weapons available to Naoe and Yasuke, and provide some details on how you get new weapons, alongside information about how weapon afflictions work. Or if you’re looking for a curated selection, here’s our list of the best weapons in Assassin’s Creed Shadows.

Update (March 28): Added information about weapon afflictions.

How to get new weapons in Assassin’s Creed Shadows

To get new weapons in Assassin’s Creed Shadows, players have several options throughout their journey. Early in the game, you can find additional weapon types as random loot from treasure chests or receive them as quest rewards. Visiting gear vendors in major cities, such as Sakai, allows you to purchase standard versions of each weapon type within your current level range using in-game currency. As you progress, higher-tier and legendary weapons can be earned by completing main story quests or by opening Legendary Chests scattered across the world and inside Kofuns. Legendary weapons are also awarded for defeating key targets listed in your objectives menu. Each new weapon you acquire unlocks its skill tree, letting you further specialize your character’s combat abilities.

Naoe starts with her straightforward katana weapon, and you’ll need to find her other weapon types as random loot drops from chests or as rewards for completing quests. The same goes for Yasuke – once you unlock him – as he only has his long katana when you first meet him.

If you want to quickly test out each character’s other weapons, head to a gear vendor in a major city. The one in Sakai, one of the game’s earliest port cities, can be found in the middle of town.

These vendors will sell common versions of every type of weapon in the game near or at your level cap. By spending a little cash, you can fully reveal both characters’ skill trees, so you can look through them and determine where you want to invest your mastery points in the future. (Weapon skill trees remain hidden until you acquire their first corresponding weapon.)

If you’re looking for higher tier weapons, you can get legendary versions of each type of melee weapon by taking on the game’s main story – i.e., killing the major targets in your Objectives menu. However, some of these targets are quite high level, so you might be better sticking with lower-rarity versions of each weapon until you level up.

All weapon afflictions in Assassin’s Creed Shadows

In Assassin’s Creed Shadows, weapon afflictions are special status effects that can be applied to enemies through certain weapons, armor perks, and abilities, adding a strategic layer to combat. There are four main afflictions: Bleed, Poison, Daze, and Knock Out. Bleed builds up as you land hits and, once the meter is full, instantly deals a burst of damage-making it highly effective against tough foes with large health pools. Poison, on the other hand, starts dealing light damage over time as soon as it’s applied, often interrupting enemies and causing them to vomit, which leaves them vulnerable. Daze requires buildup and, when triggered, leaves enemies disoriented and unable to defend or attack effectively. Knock Out, mostly triggered by abilities or certain actions, causes enemies to collapse, taking them out of the fight temporarily. These afflictions require multiple hits or prolonged exposure to activate, and their buildup can be enhanced through specific gear and perks, making them especially valuable for tackling stronger adversaries or controlling groups in battle.

All weapons in the game, regardless of rarity, deal raw damage, meaning they simply remove health and armor when you successfully land a hit. However, some melee weapons – typically those with higher rarity levels – have afflictions associated with them, which deal additional types of damage, like poison, or have an effect associated with them, like daze.

There are three different affliction types that your weapons can roll with:

• Bleed builds up a meter as you deal damage to a target, which causes a burst of damage once the meter is full.
• Poison deals damage over time after you strike a target. Once an enemy has enough poison buildup in them, they’ll stop fighting and vomit.
• Daze builds up a meter as you deal damage to a target, which causes the target to become dazed once the meter is full. Enemies who are dazed won’t be able to block your attacks and will miss most strikes against you.

There are weapons in each category of melee weapon that have the chance to have an affliction perk. (While you can technically fire poison arrows as Yasuke, that’s a skill you’ll have to unlock with mastery points, and equip as special ammo – it’s not tied to any bows you’ll find.)

In Assassin’s Creed Shadows, whether or not a weapon has an affliction associated with it is determined by more than just its name. For example, the Bloody Katana of Service and the Silent Katana of Wounding are both katanas that inflict bleed.

The trick here is to ignore the name and instead focus on the stats. On weapons that cause an affliction on the target, you’ll see “[affliction type] buildup” as the fourth stat on the list. You can see this in action on the image above, where the legendary tanto Yukimitsu’s Revenge says “poison buildup” on its stat block, which is how you know it deals poison damage.

Naoe weapons list

Naoe’s arsenal in Assassin’s Creed Shadows is tailored for stealth and agility, featuring three primary weapon types: the katana, kusarigama, and tanto. The katana serves as her versatile mainstay, ideal for both offense and defense, enabling swift strikes, parries, and powerful counterattacks. The kusarigama, a sickle-and-chain weapon, allows Naoe to control the battlefield by attacking enemies at range or pulling foes together with its chain. The tanto, a short dagger, excels in rapid combos and is especially effective for quick assassinations and double takedowns. In addition to these weapons, Naoe can utilize specialized tools such as kunai, shuriken, smoke bombs, and the shinobi bell, further enhancing her stealth capabilities and tactical options in combat.

Naoe can use three weapons in open combat, as she’s primarily built to attack from the shadows. What she lacks in weapon power, she makes up for with her tools, like the shuriken and kunai.

Here are the weapons Naoe can use:

• Katana
• Kusarigama
• Tanto

We’ll break down how each weapon works below.

Katana

The katana is the most basic of Naoe’s weapons. And while she does typically hold it inverted – meaning the blade runs along her forearm rather than extending past her hand – it plays like a sword. You can parry enemies with proper timing, or slice them to ribbons by constantly pressing the attack button.

The katana’s skills position it as Naoe’s most defensive weapon, allowing you to capitalize on parries and dodges with powerful follow-up attacks.

Kusarigama

The kusarigama is essentially a small sickle attached to a long chain that has a big, metal ball attached to the other side. Your light attacks use the sickle as a close-quarters blade, which you can use to slice single enemies. Your heavy attack, however, sees you swing the ball and chain around your head, hitting multiple enemies at once.

The kusarigama’s skills allow you to better control the battlefield, with some allowing you to yank enemiesinto each other with the weapon’s chain.

Tanto

The tanto is essentially just a dagger or a half-length katana. However, the game treats it as two daggers, since Naoe also extends and fights with her Assassin’s hidden blade while the tanto is out. This makes for very quick combos with both light and heavy attacks, which include dodging around the sides of enemies to more easily get at their backs.

The tanto’s skills cement it as the true weapon of an Assassin, allowing you to both assassinate targets mid-combat and double assassinate unsuspecting enemies.

Yasuke weapons list

Yasuke, the formidable samurai protagonist in Assassin’s Creed Shadows, wields an impressive arsenal tailored for direct, powerful combat. His weapons list includes five primary types: the Long Katana, Naginata, Kanabo, Bow (Yumi), and Teppo (a musket-like firearm). The Long Katana serves as his signature blade, excelling in both offense and defense with heavy, swift strikes ideal for dueling and breaking enemy armor. The Naginata, a polearm with sweeping reach, is perfect for crowd control and keeping adversaries at bay. For raw destructive force, the Kanabo-a spiked club-smashes through armor and staggers foes. Yasuke also has access to two ranged options: the Yumi Bow, which allows for silent, long-distance eliminations, and the Teppo, a powerful firearm best used for single, devastating shots before closing in for melee combat. Unlike Naoe, Yasuke cannot use tools, but his diverse weapon set ensures he can adapt to any battle scenario, from stealthy ranged attacks to overwhelming brute force.

Yasuke can use five weapons when he gets into scraps. Since he lacks Naoe’s tools, he can replace one (or both) of his melee weapons with a ranged weapon like the bow or teppo, which use ammo that can be purchased from vendors or collected from enemy camps.

Here are the weapons Yasuke can use:

• Long katana
• Naginata
• Kanabo
• Teppo
• Bow

We’ll break down how each weapon works below.

Long katana

The long katana is a katana but long. That may sound sarcastic – and it is a little bit, if we’re being honest – but it’s also true. Yasuke is a big guy and he has a big katana to fit. He holds the katana upright – unlike Naoe – and uses it to duel enemies. The major difference from Naoe’s katana is that Yasuke’s is big enough for him to quickly cut through armor and skewer enemies so he can then lift them into the air.

The long katana’s skills help secure its spot as a dueling weapon, further incentivizing you to parry attacks.

Naginata

The naginata is a katana blade on a long stick. This thing is part bo staff (think Donatello from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) and part spear. It has wide, sweeping attacks that make it great for crowd control. The naginata also has very long reach, which allows you to attack from a safer distance than most other melee weapons, making a it a great tool for dealing with high level enemies.

The naginata skills help push it further into an area weapon, while also incentivizing you to position properly, giving you bonus damage when you hit enemies with its tip.

Kanabo

The kanabo is essentially just a big baseball bat. But instead of a smooth surface, it has little metal bumps implanted into the surface to help it deal additional damage. This weapon is very slow, but it bashes through enemy armor and staggers them very easily.

Kanabo skills help you break enemies even faster by allowing you to speed up sequential hits and blend light and heavy attacks together into devastating combos.

Teppo

The teppo is a musket-like rifle. It uses bullets (which are finite, but easily replaced in the world) to blast through enemy armor and make quick work of unarmored foes. It’s agonizingly slow to reload, however, making it great for single shots that lead into close-quarters combat.

The teppo’s skills help it become a more efficient sniper weapon, allowing it to deal bonus damage when you stand still for a short time and shred armor more efficiently.

Bow

The bow is a massive longbow that Yasuke can use to pick targets off from a distance without making much noise, making combat once discovered significantly easier. The quiver has a finite amount of arrows, but you can upgrade Yasuke’s ammo capacity to hold many arrows at once. Like bullets, you can find stations that replenish arrows around the world and in castles.

The bow’s skills help you fire off arrows more quickly and give you access to additional arrow types, like silent arrows that give Yasuke a powerful stealth option to open a fight.

Which weapons in Assassin’s Creed Shadows are most powerful for Yasuke and Naoe

Most Powerful Weapons for Yasuke and Naoe in Assassin’s Creed Shadows

Yasuke:

• Crimson’s Edge (Long Katana): This weapon stands out for its high DPS and unique engraving that instantly kills any enemy suffering from Bleed with less than two health segments. Its 18% Bleed Buildup makes it especially effective against tougher foes, making Yasuke a formidable force in melee combat.

• Rage of Red Mist (Kanabo): The best Kanabo for Yasuke, offering devastating power for crowd control and breaking enemy defenses.

• Vengeful Foe (Naginata): Ideal for sweeping attacks and controlling groups, this naginata is Yasuke’s top choice for handling multiple opponents.

• Dragon’s Wrath (Bow): The top bow for Yasuke, providing strong ranged capabilities and effective status effect application.

• Patient Harbinger (Teppo): The best teppo (rifle), notable for loading two bullets per reload, compensating for the weapon’s slow reload speed and making it far more viable in combat.

Naoe:

• Bloodshade (Katana): This katana is the most powerful for Naoe, with excellent DPS and an 18% Bleed Buildup. Its key advantage is that affliction buildup does not decrease over time, allowing Naoe to stack Bleed and Poison on even the toughest enemies.

• Ocean’s Grip (Kusarigama): The best kusarigama for Naoe, ideal for applying status effects and dealing with groups of enemies.

• Yukimitsu’s Revenge (Tanto): This tanto excels at double assassinations and has strong poison capabilities, making it essential for stealth-focused gameplay.

Summary Table

These weapons maximize each character’s strengths: Yasuke’s brute force and crowd control, and Naoe’s stealth and status-inflicting abilities.

Which weapon type best suits Yasuke’s brute force combat style

Best Weapon Type for Yasuke’s Brute Force Combat Style

The Long Katana is the weapon type that best suits Yasuke’s brute force combat style in Assassin’s Creed Shadows.

Yasuke is designed for up-close, direct melee combat, and the Long Katana offers the perfect balance of speed, power, and crowd control for this approach. Weapons like the Crimson’s Edge and Turquoise Zephyr Long Katanas are consistently ranked as top choices for Yasuke, providing high DPS, strong Bleed effects, and special perks that enhance his ability to quickly dispatch multiple enemies in direct confrontations. The Long Katana’s swift combos and ability to chain attacks make it ideal for Yasuke’s aggressive, powerhouse playstyle, allowing him to dominate the battlefield without relying on stealth or ranged tactics.

While other weapon types like the Kanabo and Naginata have their uses-such as for crowd control or defensive maneuvers-the Long Katana stands out as the most effective and versatile choice for maximizing Yasuke’s brute force potential.