Naoe is the best class for solo players in Assassin’s Creed Shadows. Her stealth, grappling hook, hidden blade, smoke bombs, kunai, and superior mobility let you choose when fights begin, bypass strongholds, and recover when an assassination fails. Yasuke is stronger in a straight fight, but Naoe is the more flexible and forgiving main character for exploring feudal Japan alone.
That recommendation does not mean Yasuke is weak. His samurai weapon sets, heavy armor, parries, and ranged options make him excellent against groups and armored enemies. However, solo play rewards information, positioning, escape tools, and the ability to remove one target instantly. Naoe provides all four while also offering enough close-range damage to survive open combat.
This guide compares both playable characters, explains the best Naoe skills and weapons, and gives a practical solo rotation for camps, missions, and difficult target encounters. For broader build-focused advice, see our related Satisfactory solo class guide and No Rest for the Wicked build coverage.
Best Solo Class: Naoe
Naoe ranks first because she solves the problems that make solo missions dangerous. She can scout from rooftops, enter through windows, hide in vegetation, extinguish light sources, and separate targets before committing to a fight. Her smaller profile and movement tools also make disengaging much easier than it is for Yasuke.
Why Naoe is better alone
- Stealth control: Naoe can approach from above, use darkness, and eliminate isolated guards without alerting an entire camp.
- High assassination value: Her hidden blade and Assassin skill tree are built around deleting priority targets before combat starts.
- Exceptional traversal: The grappling hook reaches rooftops, beams, and elevated routes that Yasuke cannot use in the same way.
- Flexible tools: Kunai handle distant targets, shuriken interrupt enemies, and smoke bombs create an emergency escape window.
- Fast recovery: Her agility makes it easier to break line of sight and return to stealth after a mistake.
Naoe is especially effective during castle infiltrations and missions with several elite guards. Instead of trading blows with the whole compound, you can scout the objective, kill the lookout, disable nearby lights, and use a rooftop route to reach the target. This approach saves healing resources and avoids unnecessary durability loss on your weapons.
When to choose Yasuke instead
Choose Yasuke if you prefer direct combat, heavy armor, and clearing encounters without hiding. His long katana offers dependable reach, the naginata controls space around him, and the kanabo is valuable against armored opponents. His bow and teppo also let him begin fights at range. Yasuke is the better combat specialist, but Naoe remains the better solo generalist.
The same principle appears in other single-player build games: the strongest option is not always the one with the highest damage number. Our defensive setup guide for Solo Leveling: ARISE covers a similar balance between damage and survival.
Best Naoe Skills for Solo Play
Spend early Knowledge and ability investment on tools that improve approach, assassination consistency, and escape potential. Do not rush every weapon branch equally. A focused Naoe setup is more useful than having several partially upgraded attacks.
Priority skill order
- Assassin’s Focus: Take this early because it improves Naoe’s ability to chain planned eliminations while remaining undetected. Use the focus window on officers, scouts, or enemies guarding the objective.
- Chain Assassination: This is one of Naoe’s most valuable solo upgrades. It turns a carefully chosen first kill into a second elimination, reducing the number of enemies that can raise an alarm.
- Smoke Bomb upgrades: Improve the smoke bomb branch as soon as possible. The base tool is useful, but upgrades make it a much more dependable reset button after a detection.
- Kunai Mastery: Invest here for quiet ranged kills and finishing damage. Kunai are ideal for removing archers, lantern carriers, and wounded elites without crossing an open courtyard.
- Grappling Hook upgrades: Prioritize upgrades that improve access and traversal. The hook is both a movement skill and a combat-avoidance skill because it opens routes around gates and guard lines.
- Shuriken: Keep shuriken available for interruption and utility. They are particularly useful when an enemy begins a dangerous attack or when you need to create a brief opening before moving.
After these fundamentals, place points into the weapon branch you use most often. A player who favors silent entries should continue with Assassin and Shinobi upgrades. Someone who regularly fights after detection should add more combat and survivability investment rather than spending every point on assassination damage.
Check the official Assassin’s Creed Shadows page for updates, feature information, and official character details. Skill names and balance values can change in patches, so review the in-game description before committing rare upgrade resources.
Best Naoe Weapons and Gear Priorities
Use Naoe’s hidden blade as the foundation of the build, then carry a katana for controlled single-target combat and a kusarigama for groups. The hidden blade handles assassinations, the katana is safer in tight duels, and the kusarigama gives you reach when several enemies surround you.
Weapon recommendations
- Hidden blade: Increase assassination damage and assassination damage against full-health targets. These bonuses determine whether officers survive your opening attack.
- Katana: Look for attack damage, critical damage, and bonuses that reward perfect dodges or successful counters. Use it against isolated samurai and captains.
- Kusarigama: Prioritize ability damage, area damage, and status-related bonuses. Its wide swings are best when you need space rather than a fast kill.
- Kunai: Keep a strong kunai equipped for ranged finishing attacks. A wounded elite should not be allowed to call reinforcements while you reposition.
Stat priority
For a stealth-first solo build, prioritize assassination damage, critical assassination damage, ability damage, and health or damage reduction. Assassination bonuses are valuable only if they cross the target’s remaining health threshold, so do not ignore ordinary attack damage entirely. If your opening strike leaves officers alive, replace a defensive item with a higher-level weapon or a stronger assassination modifier.
Gear level matters more than chasing a perfect passive early in the campaign. Salvage outdated equipment, upgrade the weapons you use every mission, and compare bonuses rather than equipping an item solely because it is legendary. Naoe’s solo performance improves most when her first assassination, kunai finisher, and emergency smoke bomb all work reliably.
Solo Combat Rotation for Naoe
Use this rotation whenever you approach a guarded location or a mission target:
- Scout before entering: Climb to a roof or tower and mark the objective, archers, officers, alarm devices, and isolated guards. Never begin by walking through the front gate.
- Control visibility: Move at night when possible, extinguish braziers that expose your route, and use tall grass or rooftop shadows to connect safe positions.
- Remove the alarm threat: Kill the lookout or alarm carrier first. If a second guard can reach the alarm, use Chain Assassination or a kunai to remove that guard immediately.
- Spend Assassin’s Focus on priority targets: Do not waste the ability on ordinary soldiers if an officer, archer, or heavily armored guard is nearby.
- Open with an assassination: Start from above, behind cover, or a hanging position. If the target survives, throw a kunai and move instead of standing in front of the entire camp.
- Reset after detection: Throw a smoke bomb, break line of sight, grapple to a roof, and crouch until the search ends. Re-enter from a different angle rather than attacking the alerted group.
When combat is unavoidable, keep the katana equipped for one-on-one pressure. Dodge red attacks rather than attempting to absorb them, then punish the recovery animation. Against several enemies, switch to the kusarigama, create distance with its wide attacks, and use smoke to separate the group. Shuriken are most useful as interrupts, not as a replacement for your primary damage.
Bosses and named targets usually reward patience. Learn the difference between a normal strike and an unblockable attack, dodge the latter, and attack only during the recovery window. If the encounter allows stealth damage, begin from concealment and remove as much health as possible before the arena becomes active.
Naoe Versus Yasuke: Solo Ranking
1. Naoe — S-Tier
Naoe is S-Tier for solo players because she has the best control over engagement distance and enemy awareness. She can complete objectives without clearing every guard, preserve supplies through stealth, and escape when a plan goes wrong. Her main weakness is lower tolerance for repeated mistakes in open combat, which is why smoke bombs, mobility, and a reliable katana matter.
2. Yasuke — A-Tier
Yasuke is A-Tier and may be the personal best choice for players who dislike stealth. He handles frontal encounters better, deals effectively with armor, and has a broader conventional combat toolkit through the long katana, naginata, kanabo, bow, and teppo. His disadvantage is route access: when a compound is built around stealth entrances, Yasuke often has to fight through defenses that Naoe can bypass.
Best character-switch strategy
Use Naoe as your default exploration and infiltration character, then switch to Yasuke for missions or encounters that clearly favor prolonged combat. This is not a permanent class lock. The game’s character system allows you to choose the specialist that suits the objective, so solo players should treat Naoe as the main build and Yasuke as the heavy-combat option.
That flexible approach is more efficient than forcing one character into every situation. For another equipment-focused comparison, read our Rust weapons tier list and Raid: Shadow Legends early character guide.
Final Verdict
Naoe is the best class for solo players in Assassin’s Creed Shadows because stealth is the most complete survival tool in the game. Start with Assassin’s Focus, Chain Assassination, Smoke Bomb upgrades, Kunai Mastery, and grappling hook improvements. Pair the hidden blade with a katana and kusarigama, prioritize assassination and critical damage, and use smoke to reset every fight that stops going your way.
Choose Yasuke only if you specifically want a direct samurai playstyle built around parries, heavy weapons, armor, and extended combat. For everyone else, Naoe’s ability to scout, isolate, assassinate, and disappear makes her the safest and most rewarding solo choice. You can find the game on the official Steam page and review current system information before installing.