Assassin's Creed Shadows Guide | How To Upgrade Weapons and Gear

To avoid being overloaded with repetitive and useless weapons and gears, Assassin's Creed: Shadows has introduced a simplified mechanism where each gear piece will have its special benefits.

Gear & Weapons Traits Overview

Instead of collecting matching gear pieces to unlock the whole set bonuses, the game offers a headpiece and an armor type that can be swapped, each having its own unique traits.

Weapons and Gears Tier and Levels

The hierarchy of the rarity of items is as follows. The higher the tier of a gear is, the better the stats.

Each piece of gear will have its own level and rarity. An item that is picked up at a very low level won't be as strong as an item picked up at a higher level. Items that have a lower level can always be upgraded to higher levels in the forge. The performance of gears will depend on their level and rarity.

Weapons and Gear Stats and Traits

Furthermore, the performance of different builds relies on the stats of the gear. The weapon stats include weapon damage, ability damage, crit damage, and headshot damage on Yasuke's ranged weapons. The armor's stats include health, adrenaline gain, and crit on Naoe's pieces. These stats are completely random, and the same type of item might have different stats.

Weapons and gears also have specific, unique traits for different playstyles. This is not limited only to legendary gears but also to lower-tier gears. However, the traits of lower-tier gears are not as strong as the legendary ones.

Engravings on Weapons and Gears

The engraving is like an add-on that can be applied to gears and weapons to boost their stats. These can be obtained through world activities, quest rewards, or simply by adding new buildings and features to the Shinobi hideout.

Finding & Changing the Appearance

Weapons and gears can be obtained from enemies, respawnable chests, and completing certain objectives. The rarity and the type of items looted from these sources are completely random. Items can also be dismantled for upgrading gears. You can find several legendary gears by looting chests from specific locations or by completing many different side quests.

The Transmog system in the game allows you to change the appearance of the gear by swapping gear pieces while keeping all its unique traits.

Upgrading Weapons and Gears

Gears and weapons can be upgraded in your hideout or the mini hideouts called Kukureiga to increase their level and stats, but not their rarity and unique traits. This upgrade is important for maintaining consistent damage and health throughout the game.

Building a forge in the hideout unlocks the ability to upgrade, as does the Transmog system, which is used for upgrading gears.

The level 1 forge allows gears to be upgraded to level 20 and transmog gear. The level 2 increases it to 40 and allows you to equip non-legendary attachments. Level 3 unlocks the max upgrade level, which is 60, and allows you to equip legendary enhancements for your gear.

Once you have found your desired weapons and gears, they need to be upgraded consistently to maintain its performance.

Also, check our Assassin's Creed Shadows review.