Assassin's Creed Shadows: How to use scouts
Here's how to use scouts to gather resources and help you in AC Shadows
How do you use scouts in Assassin's Creed Shadows? Given the dual protagonists of Assassin's Creed Shadows, it's clear that you're not just on your own when you dive into this expansive adventure throughout 1579 Japan. Other than Yasuke and Naoe, however, the new league you're building in Japan has many allies, including scouts. While they're almost anonymous, they serve very important functions that will help from the moment you first unlock the Hideout.
This guide will explain the different ways you can use scouts in Assassin's Creed Shadows, as well as how to add more and refill your scouts.
Assassin's Creed Shadows: How to use scouts
Scouts have three main functions in AC Shadows:
- They can help locate targets on the world map.
- They can help smuggle resources to your hideout.
- They can help clear your Wanted status.
How to use scouts to locate targets
Missions in Assassin's Creed Shadows tend to require some detective work rather than just following waypoints. So when you're trying to locate a target or lead to progress a mission, you will receive a few clues that will help you narrow down where you need to go.
Even though you may have a good idea of where to go based on the clues you have, using a scout will mark the specific area you need to go to speed things up. When you think you have the right area, press Square/X and an option will come up to dispatch scouts to the surrounding area you have picked. If you've guessed right, then your target should appear as a blue icon on the map, although this will still be as a blue radius, so you still need to do the last part of tracking down your target within that area.
You won't need to use scouts however if you opt to play the game with the Guided Exploration feature turned on, which makes markers of where you need to go next appear easily.
How to use scouts to smuggle resources
When you come across stockpiles in the world, you can tag them for scouts to smuggle for you. This will deliver plentiful resources to your Hideout at the change of a season. Just approach a stockpile, ensuring any enemies haven't spotted you or you're not already in combat, and tag it when prompted to 'smuggle resources.
While scouts can smuggle more than one stockpile at a time, it requires two scouts to smuggle one to begin with, so be aware that you can easily deplete your supply of scouts if you use them for smuggling right at the start of a season.
How to use scouts to clear your Wanted status
If an enemy has rung a bell when you've been caught infiltrating a castle, giving your character a Wanted status, two scouts can be dispatched to clear this status. You can do this by going to the world map to the region where your character has a Wanted status, and you'll have a prompt to hold X/A to clear the Wanted status.
Be aware that this function requires upgrading the hideout's Kakurega to Rank 2 before it can be used. Scouts can also only clear a Wanted status from a single province at a time, so you'll have to use more scouts if you've been getting yourself caught in more than one region.
How to refill and get more scouts
You can gain more scouts by building and then upgrading the Study, which is one of the many vital buildings in your Hideout. Each time you do this, you'll get an additional scout, effectively doubling the number you begin with when you first unlock the Hideout. It is also worth upgrading the Stables, because while you do not gain an additional scout from doing so, at Rank 2 stockpiles will only require a single scout to smuggle, which will really save you on scout efficiency.
If you find yourself short on scouts, you can either wait for the season to change, which instantly refills them, or you can spend money at a safehouse. You'll see some colourful bags hanging up in a safehouse, so approach these and you'll have the option to spend 200 mon to refill one scout. Occasionally, if you save an NPC from being harassed by enemies, you can ask for a favour in return, effectively refilling your scout stock by one.
That's all you need to know about using scouts in Assassin's Creed Shadows. But there's also plenty of other guides if you want to know how to adopt pets for your hideout, how to upgrade weapons and armor, or how to find Naoe's awesome Apprentice Assassin endgame armor set.