How does the Hideout work in Assassin's Creed Shadows? Every undercover faction needs a super slick base of operations, and Ubisoft's providing the shinobi league with what looks to be a robust base-building experience in its epic.
Stashed deep within the Izumi Settsu province, the RPG when you're not out on missions. With Shadows now in the light, we've pulled together everything we currently know about the system into one easy guide, which you can dig into below.
Assassin's Creed Shadows Hideout explained
The AC Shadows Hideout is a customizable complex that houses multiple buildings with unique uses. Moreover, you can interact with the Hideout's denizens, bringing some social flavor to the proceedings.
The 12 building types can either be dotted around the Hideout separately or snapped onto each other, creating one larger structure. You can customize various aspects of each building, including the roof and wall materials. In addition to this, you can create pathways between buildings, place lanterns, and truly deck out the Hideout in almost any way you see fit.
More decorations can be unlocked either by purchasing them from vendors stationed across Japan, or found within chests and other lootable objects.
Your Hideout isn't just limited to humans either as you're able to place pets, including cats, deer, fawns, bunnies, hares, red foxes, red fox cubs, macaque, tanuki, and tanuki cubs. And yes, you can pet them. Dogs and cats can be acquired as pets by petting them around Japan, while wild animals are obtained via the Sumi-e painting activity.
The Hideout also serves as a social hub, giving you a chance to converse with Naoe and Yasuke, and yap away to your league allies if they're not out on a mission. Some allies in the hideout will only have something to say to one protagonist or the other.
Many aspects of the Hideout are tied to seasons, so make sure you check in when each season ticks over to make sure you're min-maxing your upgrades.
How to unlock the Hideout in Assassin's Creed Shadows
The Hideout is unlocked after you return to Tomiko during the AC Shadows quest 'From Spark to Flame,' which takes place at the tail end of the game's prologue. With the Hideout now open for business, you can fast travel to its Izumi Settsu location as you please.
Assassin's Creed Shadows Hideout buildings
As previously noted, there are 12 AC Shadows Hideout building types. Each building serves a different function, so we recommend building new structures whenever possible. Some like the Dojo, Study, and Forge (which you'll be tasked to build first) are far more important to construct early than others.
Some buildings have pre-requisites that must be completed before you can invest in them. For example, the Nando requires a certain number of AC Shadows allies and scouts be recruited.
Here are the AC Shadows building types and descriptions:
- Hiroma (Main hall) – The main Hideout building from which you can improve your base.
- Dojo – Trains allies and improves their rank.
- Study – Upgrading adds another scout to the league.
- Forge – Upgrade and dismantle weapons and armor here.
- Stables – Allows you to tag stockpiles in the open world, providing resources at season's end at the cost of scouts.
- Kakurega (Safehouse) – Used to unlock and manage other safehouses across Japan and refill scouts. Also offers seasonal provincial rumors indicating locations of collectibles, treasure, etc. Unlockable safehouses can be fast-traveled to, and you can refill your supplies from them.
- Gallery – Allows you to create and switch between equipment loadouts. Gear can be displayed here.
- Jinja (Shrine) – Praying here grants a temporary boon and increases the effects of shrine boons.
- Nando (Storage Room) – Reduces cost to replenish scouts.
- Tera (Altar) – Increases experience gained.
- Tea Room – Increases ration efficiency.
- Zashiki (Parlor) – Increases ration efficiency.
Assassin's Creed Shadows Hideout levels
As you grow and upgrade your Hideout, you'll naturally accrue EXP towards your Hideout level. Each level brings a new ive boon, so make sure you're checking in and investing in your base with each new season to level up quickly.
Here are the AC Shadows Hideout level bonuses:
- Level 2 – Available scouts can bring hideout resources at the season's end.
- Level 3 – Increase shrine boon duration by 15 minutes.
- Level 4 – Available scouts can bring crafting materials at the season's end.
- Level 5 – Reduced engraving costs at the Forge by 20%.
- Level 6 – Scouts smuggle 20% more resources in stockpiles.
- Level 7 – Refill Health & Adrenaline in Kakurega safehouses and the Hideout.
- Level 8 – Available scouts can bring gear at the season's end.
- Level 9 – Reduce gear upgrade costs at the Forge by 20%.
- Level 10 – Stockpiles also reward crafting materials.
And that's everything you need to know about the Assassin's Creed Shadows Hideout. For more must-read Shadows content, peep our comprehensive AC Shadows guides hub.