Best Naoe Build Guide For Assassin’s Creed Shadows

This guide explores the best Naoe build that you can use in Assassin’s Creed Shadows to come out victorious in every fight.

Naoe is our nimble Shinobi-Assassin, who prefers the silent and stealthy playstyle approach in Assassin’s Creed Shadows. Creating her best build guide would need a considerable amount of expertise and strategy, especially on the stealth side. Her weapons do not deal big damages, but she is lightfooted and can use unique skills to outplay an enemy.

The best build for Naoe would mean focusing in aspects that increase her “assassination” damage while maintaining stealth. The latter is easily manageable with her Shinobi skills, but her damage must be increased, especially for her assassin skills. In this guide, we will look at the best build for Naoe that you can use in Assassin’s Creed Shadows.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows Naoe Build Overview

Naoe is nimble, stealthy, and embodies the true “assassin” gameplay. She wields a wide variety of weapons, but her kit truly shines because of her Shinobi and Assassin skill trees. Her playstyle is meant to be the typical “backstab” moves, and her attacks deal less damage as compared to that of Yasuke.

On the downside, Naoe is not the best character for the more intense boss fights or against mobs. Since Naoe’s attacks does less damage, you will end up taking a lot of time to kill bosses. When multiple enemies surrounds Naoe, she can easily get overpowered. By default, Naoe gets less health boosts in total than Yasuke, which adds to her staggered style.

Here are the basic pros and cons of Naoe in Assassin’s Creed Shadows:

Pros	Cons
Stealthy and nimble Very agile Embodies the “Assassin” gameplay Better for subterfuge missions Is nearly invisible in dark areas, especially during the night Access to throwable tools like Smoke Bombs, Shurikens, Kunais, and more	Attacks are not as heavy-hitting as Yasuke Takes more time to fight bosses Does not perform as well against mobs

To get the most out of Naoe, you need to find the perfect balance between her Assassin, Shinobi, and weapon builds. Since she has throwable (and silent) options, they make up a viable part of her overall gameplay.

Best Naoe Build in Assassin’s Creed Shadows

Here are the full details of the best Naoe Build in Assassin’s Creed Shadows:

• Weapons:
  • Primary: Masked Death (Katana)
    • Rarity: Legendary Katana
    • Default Engrave: Posture Attacks remains charged after Dodge.
    • Secondary Engrave: +50% Adrenaline Gain with Posture Attacks.
  • Secondary: Bloody Tanto of Stealth (Tanto)
    • Rarity: Epic Tanto
    • Default Engrave: +1% Affliction Buildup per Adrenaline Chunk filled.
    • Secondary Engrave: Afflicted enemies are Vulnerable
• Headgear: Hidden Servant Hat
  • Rarity: Legendary Headgear
  • Default Engraving: Double Adrenaline Gain on Assassinations
  • Secondary Engraving: +60% Adrenaline Gain when hitting vulnerable enemies
• Armor: Legendary Onna-musha Kosode
  • Rarity: Legendary Light Armor
  • Default Engraving: Knock Down enemies by sliding into them
  • Secondary Engraving: Restore 4% health when hitting vulnerable enemies
• Trinket: Soaring Tatsu
  • Rarity: Legendary Trinket
  • Default Engraving: +1% Armor Piercing per Mastery Point in Tanto
  • Secondary Engraving: +10% to stats equipped on Tanto

Best Naoe Build Skill Trees in Assassin’s Creed Shadows

Here are the skill trees that you must use for this best Naoe build:

Katana

Knowledge Rank 1	Knowledge Rank 2	Knowledge Rank 3	Knowledge Rank 4	Knowledge Rank 5	Knowledge Rank 6
Melee Expert	Affliction Effectiveness	Second Wave	Momentum Builder	No Quarter	Unstoppable
Dodge Attack	Generator	–	No Mercy	–	Third Wave
Tidal Wave	Counter Attack	–	Guard Breaker	–	Hardened
–	–	–	Swift Step	–	–

Tanto

Knowledge Rank 1	Knowledge Rank 2	Knowledge Rank 3	Knowledge Rank 4	Knowledge Rank 5	Knowledge Rank 6
Gap Seeker	Back Stabber	Blood Rush	Shadow Reach	Critical Thinker	Healthy Sting
Leap Strike	Escape Strike	Invigorating Kill	Endless Barrage	Contemplation	–
Shadow Piercer	Shadow Barrage	Back Breaker	–	–	–
–	Backstab	–	–	–	–

Shinobi

Knowledge Rank 1	Knowledge Rank 2	Knowledge Rank 3	Knowledge Rank 4	Knowledge Rank 5	Knowledge Rank 6
Prodigy	Ascension Boost	Evasive	Immobilized	Efficient	Sweep The Leg
Grappling Hook	Vault	Lightning Kicks	Ninja Fall	High Vault	–
Shallow Water Breathing	Igan Roll	Destabilizing Vault	–	–	–

Assassin

Knowledge Rank 1	Knowledge Rank 2	Knowledge Rank 3	Knowledge Rank 4	Knowledge Rank 5	Knowledge Rank 6
Executor	Night Crawler	Vigor 1	Frontrunner	Hand of The Creed	Vigor 3
Ground Assassinate	Improved Ground Assassinate	Reinforced Blade	Vigor 2	–	Assassination Damage 3
Shoji Door Assassination	Double Assassinate	Improved Sense	Assassination Damage 2	–	–
Hidden Blade	Assassination Damage 1	–	–	–	–
Eagle Vision	–	–	–	–	–

Tools

For tools, you will need to unlock the entire Tool tree. Each skill is important for a specific purpose, and you will more than often end up needing a particular one in specific circumstances.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows Best Naoe Build Explained

Our best Naoe build in Assassin’s Creed Shadows focuses on these aspects:

• Making enemies Vulnerable and dealing damage.
• Building Bleed Affliction and dealing massive damage.
• Gaining maximum Adrenaline back to deal Special Moves.

Here is a detailed explanation of each of these pointers:

1) Making Enemies Vulnerable

Since Naoe is weaker on the damage aspect, Vulnerable state is going to be her best friend. While in this state, enemies take more damage, they cannot defend against your attacks, or attack themselves. Now, the most interesting aspect of this build is, Naoe does not necessarily need to perfect dodge to make enemies vulnerable. The Tanto in this build is a “bleed specialist,” that will keep afflicting enemies with the bleed status. The secondary engrave on the Tanto will then make all afflicted enemies vulnerable as well.

2) Building Bleed Affliction

Blending with the previous point about Vulnerable, the Tanto is your star achiever of this best Naoe build in Assassin’s Creed Shadows. Our choice weapon Bloody Tanto of Death builds bleed by default. Paired with the several affliction boosting engravings of this build, it will make blood spill here and there. This has two advantages: it will both assist in dealing massive damage, and make enemies vulnerable.

3) Maximizing Adrenaline Gain

Adrenaline chunks are used to perform the special moves, which have a variety of effects. However, these give you an edge at all times during battles. This Naoe build focuses on ensuring you gain Adrenaline from multiple sources, almost maintaining a constant uptime. With this, you will also be able to seamlessly cycle all your special moves to make Naoe a silent assassin on the fields, ones that the enemies will never see coming.

How to Use This Best Naoe Build in Assassin’s Creed Shadows

Here a guide for the gameplay loop that you should try to achieve while playing this best Naoe build in Assassin’s Creed Shadows:

• Try to start with Assassinations. This will instantly give you Adrenaline chunks.
• Stay undetected for as long as possible. Use Smoke Bombs to cut lines of sight, and use the rope tool to get to the rooftops.
• In an open fight, start with the Tanto, and immediately activate your Shadow Barrage skill. This will let you auto-dodge all incoming attacks, and easily counter-attack. This will build bleed, which in turn will make them vulnerable. Note that swapping weapons while Shadow Barrage is active will force you out of the skill.
• Once the enemy is vulnerable, use your Katana to keep slashing and dealing damage. When the vulnerable state is gone, use Tidal Wave or Guard Breaker to force an enemy to take a lot of multi-hit damages.
• After you are done with the Katana’s special moves, swap back to the Tanto and start with Lightning Kicks ability. The Tanto does more damage with this ability than the Katana. Once you have executed this, engage in normal fight with either Katana or Tanto till you have maximum adrenaline again. This should not take more than a few hits.
• When your adrenaline is at max again, repeat the loop from Shadow Barrage.

Basic Strategy

Admittedly, getting used to this Bleed-Vulnerable build for Naoe will take some getting used to, since you will have to keep swapping weapons. The Tanto will always inflict the bleed, and then you will have to switch to the Katana which will deal more damage to vulnerable enemies. Finding the right synergy of when to swap these weapons will take some time, but once you figure it out, prepare to be a master Assassin that Ezio himself would approve of.

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