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You can upgrade any piece of armor or weapon you earn, loot, or otherwise pry from the hands of your slaughtered foes in Assassin’s Creed Shadows to improve its stats. It’s a nifty little system that could conceivably see you use the same weapon all the way through to the credits. We wouldn’t recommend doing that as there are dozens of options, including the best weapons, with unique passives that are well worth at least trialing, but the option is there.
Similar to the camp in Valhalla, Shadows introduce a new hub called the Hideout where you construct buildings to unlock advantages and bonuses, but also perform your traditional video game-y tasks like improving your gear. This is where upgrading happens. In this guide, we’ll walk you through how to upgrade weapons and armor in Assassin’s Creed Shadows.
How to use the Forge to upgrade gear in Assassin’s Creed Shadows
To upgrade weapons and gear, you’ll first need to progress through the prologue and early game until you set up the Hideout in Izumi Settsu. Once that’s done, build a Forge as instructed in your Hideout grounds. After that, head over to the Forge building and talk to Heiji. Select See Shop from the options.
Select the item you want to upgrade. Captured by VideoGamer
Tap the Upgrade button prompt. Captured by VideoGamer
This will open the Forge upgrade menu. On the left, you’ll see boxes representing weapon and gear types: katana, tanto, headgear, trinket, armor, and so on. Select the type you want to upgrade, then on the next screen choose the item you want to upgrade and hold the Upgrade button prompt (X on PS5, Space bar on PC). You can also select what level you want to upgrade the item to, allowing you to skip several upgrade levels instantaneously.
Every upgrade costs resources, which vary depending on the gear type as follows:
- Weapons – Ironsand and Mon
- Armor – Hemp Cloth and Mon
- Trinkets – Silk and Mon
There are also limits on how much you can upgrade a weapon, namely you can only upgrade a weapon up to your current character level. For example, if you’re level 10, you can only upgrade a weapon or piece of armor up to level 10. Once you hit level 11, you can upgrade it to level 11, and so on. By default, the Forge can only upgrade gear up to level 20. To extend this, you’ll need to invest in Forge upgrade in the Improve Hideout menu. Here’s what each upgrade unlocks:
- Level 1: weapon and armor upgrades to level 20
- Level 2: weapon and armor upgrades to level 40 and non-legendary engravings.
- Level 3: weapon and armor upgrades to level 60 and legendary engravings.
Select the Engrave tab along the top. Captured by VideoGamer
Select the item you want to engrave. Captured by VideoGamer
Choose the engraving. Captured by VideoGamer
How to engrave weapons and armor in Assassin’s Creed Shadows
Once you’ve upgraded the Forge to level 2, you’ll unlock the ability to engrave rare, epic, and legendary equipment, granting a range of perks and buffs. To engrave a weapon or piece of armor, speak to Heiji at the Forge, then select See Shop. Cycle to the Engrave tab by tapping R1 on PS5 or E on PC. Select the weapon you want to engrave and tap the Engravings button prompt (X on PS5 or Space bar on PC).
You’ll then see a list of all available Engravings, categorised by type – damage, armor, constitution, and consumables – along with the upgrade cost in Mon. Choose the one you want and tap Engrave to add the bonus to your weapon or piece of armor.
You can get more Engravings from the following sources, as noted by the rumors that appear when you hover over an Engraving you don’t yet have in the same menu:
- Assassinate specific targets
- Complete challenges and activities, for example, assassinate a set number of enemies
- Buy them from Gear Vendors across Japan
- Loot Gear Chests in heavily-guarded areas like castles
- Legendary Engravings are obtained when you find Legendary weapons and armor
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