It’s been an absolutely crazy week with three major game releases out yesterday and Stranger Things 2 to binge watch on top of it all. But between Super Mario Odyssey, Wolfenstein 2 and Assassin’s Creed Origins, I have been pot-committed to AC as it was the only one I secured a review copy for.
I loved the game, and continue to love it as I work to clear the map of its ten million remaining icons after beating the main story, but at 50 hours in, I have some advice that I think newer players would want to know who are just starting out.
Assassin’s Creed Origins is one of the most sprawling games I’ve ever played, and that’s saying something when every other new release is some huge open world these days, but it manages to remain interesting thanks to its core gameplay and unique objectives.
Here are ten things I wish I knew when I started Assassin’s Creed Origins.
1. Your Eagle Detects Treasure
This one is pretty basic, but it still took me a few hours to figure out. Right away you’ll start using Senu, your eagle, to scout out enemy troops and narrow down locations for quest objectives. But he can do way more than that, and if you’re trying to clear areas of their treasure chests, he’s especially useful. While the bright yellow circle Senu uses to scout quest objectives is really obvious, there’s also a more subtle use of the circle where in normal grey/white mode it will get thicker the closer you get to a “findable” objective, as in an enemy captain, a secret entrance or most important, treasure chests. I was previously roaming around entire areas looking for sparkling boxes, but through Senu’s magic X-ray vision you can scout out these chests ahead of time from the air, even if they’re underground or underwater. This is immensely helpful.
2. Towers Extend Your Eagle’s Vision Range
One more early bird tip before we move on. While there are plenty of vision towers in Assassin’s Creed Origins, the “vision” they’re granting is to your bird, not you, this time around, in addition to them being fast travel points. There are something like 60 vision towers in the game, and what they do is extend the range of Senu’s scanning abilities with each one you find. That means everything will be easier to scout and locate, so while these may not seem like the most useful objectives anymore, they’re actually a lot more important than they look.
3. Horses Are Faster Than Camels
As excited as I was to play a game where you could ride around on a camel, I quickly found that they were not exactly my cup of tea. While I believe camels may give you some benefits in combat, ultimately horses are the faster mounts, from what I can tell, meaning that if you’re using them to get places quickly (which is the main point of mounts) you may want to stick with horses over camels. Also, since this is kind of confusing, sprint on a mount is not X, which is stick you to a road, but instead hold forward on the movement stick to build up speed.
4. Save All Legendary Weapons To Upgrade
While you may not realize this at first, Assassin’s Creed Origins has a Destiny-like “infusion” system that will allow you to make even your early Legendaries useful in the endgame. While you’re not literally combining weapons together, you can pay to “upgrade” your Legendary weapons, bows or shields to your current level at any time. This costs a lot of money, so only do it with your favorites and only do it when the level gap is large, but the point is that weapons you get even at level 5-10-15 can still be useful when you’re 35-40, so I would definitely not sell or scrap any legendaries, as many unique ones you cannot get again.
5. Where You Find Legendary Weapons
And where do you actually get those Legendary weapons? Assassin’s Creed Origins will not just drop them in your lap from random bad guys. Rather, the core places I found Legendary weapons were later in the game, starting at about level 20 or so when I killed my first Phlyake bounty hunter. Each of them will have a unique Legendary for the taking, so definitely hunt them down when you’re powerful enough. Past that, I also got Legendary weapons as quest rewards eventually, from fort commanders at times, and I think you can get a few from scroll quests which have you tracking down otherwise unfindable weapons in the wild. You can also get a few Legendaries from pre-ordering the game (those you can save to upgrade later, as they start at level 1, I think) and you can buy them as microtransactions, but I would not recommend that, as finding Legendaries is one of the most fun things to do in ACO, and buying them outright feels like a buzzkill.
6. Chain Kill Skills Are A Godsend
There are a lot of skills in ACO’s ability tree, but the ones I’d recommend going after first would be the two that let you chain kills together in both stealth mode and open combat. They cost 3 ability points each, but are worth it, as they can be an instant kill essentially for free. Given that most fights will only be against 2-4 people at a time, that’s a big deal. I also highly recommend shooting for the skill that lets you get your super move instantly as soon as you enter combat, as it will save you a lot of health, and combined with the chain kill skill, can get you two separate kills as soon as a fight starts.
7. There Are Two Whistles, Which Is Why Your Mount Isn’t Coming
I have had a few people ask me this now, and it’s a bit confusing. I had my friend play for a while and he kept trying to whistle for our horse and he never showed up. But then I realized the whistle system had confused him. Pressing down on the D-pad whistles in a way that attracts guards to come look your way so you can assassinate them. But holding down on the D-pad is what calls your mount, but if you’re not pressing hard or long enough, you will be doing the wrong whistle. This was a design choice that made more sense in theory than practice, but just make sure you have this right.
8. Underleveling Is No Joke
There are some games where you can kind of creep ahead and do missions above your level, but in Assassin’s Creed Origins, even on normal difficulty, this is a recipe to get absolutely wrecked. Why? Mainly because of one important fact, that if you’re fighting enemies even a few levels higher than you, not only will you get wrecked in open combat, but often times you won’t even be able to use your hidden blade to stealth kill guards in one hit, meaning every encounter turns into an alarm-raising affair. And if you think it’s going to be better if you’re fighting animals in the wilderness instead. Think again, just this morning I was torn apart instantly by a pack of level 40 hyenas when I was level 37 and stocked with Legendary gear. Seriously, underleveling is not to be trifled with.
9. Don't Let Your Gear Upgrades Fall Behind
While obviously you should be updating your weaponry to make sure it’s close to your level every few levels or so, you also need to take care that you’re not neglecting your base upgrades. I got halfway through the game before I realized I had fallen way behind on my health and damage upgrades for my bow and melee weapons, which you upgrade using materials from scrapped weaponry or animal skins. A few levels in these categories can make a big difference, so make sure you’re remembering to focus on these upgrades every so often.
10. Farming Animal Dens Is Great Way To Get Money And Materials
Gold and materials are important for keeping your gear updated, and the best way to farm both of them is to track down animal dens. These are areas that will have one “king” animal that you have to kill, but even after you do that, you can keep coming back to farm the base-level animals that always hang out there are respawn relatively quickly. This will often get you 10-20 leather/skins at a time, and you will take trinkets from the animals you can sell to vendors for a decent amount of cash. Lion/leopard trinkets are worth the most, so track down those specifically if you can. Vulture nests are worth almost nothing and give no valuable materials so avoid those. For soft leather, your best and only bet is Hyenas unless you like hunting skittish goats in the desert.
That’s all I’ve got for now, and hopefully it’s enough to get you started in Assassin’s Creed Origins.
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