5 Best Naginata Skill Tree Upgrades for Yasuke in Assassin's Creed Shadows

Choose the best abilities in Yasuke’s Naginata Skill Tree in Assassin’s Creed Shadows to decimate large groups of enemies.

As one of the two playable characters in Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Yasuke is a master of honorable battle as a samurai. He forgoes much of the stealth capabilities of traditional Assassin’s Creed protagonists in favor of brutal combat prowess. His choice of weapons reflects a similar dynamic, with the Naginata standing out for its graceful lethality.

The Naginata is a long-range polearm weapon in Yasuke’s arsenal that has devastating crowd-controlling capabilities when leveled up correctly through the Naginata Skill Tree.

Best Naginata Skill Tree Upgrades in Assassin’s Creed Shadows

Naginata is the best weapon for crowd control (Image via Deltias Gaming/Ubisoft)

The Naginata Skill Tree contains upgrades that can drastically increase the weapon’s AoE damage, keep enemies at bay, and even unlock moves to eviscerate a single enemy.

1) Crescent Strike

The Naginata has low defensive capabilities (Image via Ubisoft)

Crescent Strike is the signature ability of the Naginata unlocked at Knowledge Rank 1. Yasuke jumps to an enemy, gathers momentum, and swings the polearm in a wide arc, dealing 35% ability damage and pushing hostiles back.

At Knowledge Rank 3, the ability can be upgraded with Deep Cut, which inflicts 35% Bleed buildup and deals 40% more damage. With the final upgrade, Disabling Strike (Rank 5), Crescent Strike knocks down all enemies in its range.

2) One Man Army

Unlocked at Knowledge Rank 1, the One Man Army passive increases the damage done by attacks when hitting multiple enemies by 15%. Considering that your Naginata build should be geared toward hitting multiple enemies, the passive buff provides a substantial damage boost to the weapon very early on in the game.

3) Whirlwind

One of the lengthier moves in the game, Whirlwind (Rank 3) involves continuous attack inputs to do 5% more damage with each consecutive strike. Whirlwind takes a little practice to execute during a pitched battle. However, it is well worth the investment and feels incredibly satisfying to master.

Its value can be increased considerably with Rising Storm. The upgrade allows it to generate 10% of an adrenaline chunk on hits. Its final upgrade, Persistent Storm (Rank 6), is a quality-of-life improvement, making its button combo requirements much easier to input.

However, you will likely have developed muscle memory to execute the Whirlwind at this stage of the game and may not need the upgrade. A much better upgrade for the Whirlwind is Piercing Momentum (Rank 5), a three-stage, standalone passive upgrade that increases Armor Piercing with consecutive hits by 4%.

4) Far Reach

The passive ability (Rank 1) has only one stage and adds to the damage dealt by the Naginata’s bladed tip by 15%. This means that enemies standing at just the right range from Yasuke will take 15% more damage from all attacks.

The enemies’ AI generally keeps them at roughly this distance as they circle Yasuke, looking for an opportunity to strike. The passive can be made borderline overpowered with Lethal Reach (Rank 3). The upgrade increases its Critical Chance by 15%. Fatal Reach (Rank 5) allows it to generate 10% of an Adrenaline Chunk on hit.

5) Onslaught

Available to unlock at Knowledge Rank 4, Onslaught adds versatility to the Naginata with an active, single-target burst-damage skill. When used, Onslaught unleashes a flurry of 8 strikes against a single enemy, dealing 15% ability damage on each hit.

It is half as effective on large enemies, but that disadvantage can be nullified with a Broader Onslaught (Rank 5). Its late-game upgrade, Ultimate Onslaught (Rank 6), removes all counter options for enemies as they can no longer block or parry its strikes.

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5 Best Naginata Skill Tree Upgrades for Yasuke in Assassin’s Creed Shadows