The Assassin's Creed franchise is probably one of the most "built-upon" series of games we can think of. The first one came out in 2007 and ever since, a new addition has been coming out just about every single year. Assassin's Creed: Odyssey is the latest in the line of the franchise's open world sandbox games and it's by far the biggest. That said, because of how gigantic and packed with features these games have become, there are a lot of details/mechanics the development team just expect players to figure out. So, allow us to help.
10 The Spartan Kick Is God-Like
Before anything else, we've got to talk about that Spartan Kick. This ability is something players can nab early, and it's by far the most versatile skill ever. Kassandra can use it to knock over opponents for free kits, temporarily disable blocking opponents, and kick opponents off high places (our favorite). Seriously, fall damage is absurd in AC: Odyssey. Kick any enemy off a high enough place and they'll get knocked out, no matter what level. This is especially useful for taking care of absurdly strong bounty hunters, even if it does feel a little cheap.
9 Prevent Kassandra From Becoming Shark Bait
Anyone who has put time into AC: Odyssey will know that a large portion of the game takes place on your sea-vessel, sailing from place to place. And more often than not, players will see sharks swimming around, ready to maul. But this isn't a death sentence because there are multiple ways to fight the sharks. Nothing works better than marking them with the eagle and lobbing a few arrows off the ship. This quick method is perfect for playing it safe, not having to deal with water combat, as well as nabbing a bit of free XP.
8 "Cheat" Through Difficult Naval Battles
Whenever Kassandra isn't punching sharks, she's engaged in naval combat. And here's our neat tip: get some lieutenants with the skill that restores HP upon destroying/boarding a ship. Stack multiple of them if possible, because it allows you to completely break naval combat. Up against five ships at once? Easy. Just get one ship low, sail close to it, and choose to board it. Once onboard, the other ships can't attack and Kassandra can safely Spartan Kick everyone into the water, which instantly kills. Then, once she's back on her ship, she'll get a big chunk of life back in order to rinse and repeat this process. Obviously not intended, but massively fun? Absolutely.
7 Explore Tombs For Extra Skill Points
Tombs are back in AC: Odyssey and they're just as poorly explained as ever. Explore the whole place, raid some chests, avoid some traps, and Kassandra nabs herself a free bonus skill point. Luckily, a lot of the tombs share the same traps so avoiding them becomes laughably easy. The only issue is the snakes since higher-level ones can take Kassandra out lightning fast. But shooting them from afar with the bow is a simple solution. That said, find as many tombs as early as possible, because extra skill points in the early game can really give the player an absurd advantage.
6 Rely On Fire For Just About Anything
Here's our absolute best tip for Odyssey...always use fire damage. Whenever possible. Burn it all down. But, to phrase it in a more specific (and less sociopathic) way, fire damage is absurdly strong. Fire arrows are technically available near any campfire or torch, they can spread like..well..fire, and burn damage is a great damage-over-time debuff. But something that not many people know is the torch is really useful. It's an easy way to apply burn or light things ablaze before getting a fire ability; Kassandra carries an infinite amount of them, and it doesn't need to be "equipped" in the menu.
5 Customize Armor And Weapons At Any Time
Visual customization wasn't actually a part of AC: Odyssey at launch; it was added in one of the later patches. So unless someone was keeping up with the patch notes, they'd have no idea it existed. Basically, the game now encourages Kassandra to pick up and equip every piece of armor and weaponry at least once. That way, they'll be added to the catalog, and she'll have the option pick any of them as a sort of "skin" for the weapon/armor she currently has equipped. And with the insane amount of different armors, weapons, and cosmetics in the game, being able to freely play with appearances adds a lot to the value of Odyssey as a whole.
4 Recruiting Is Better Than Murder
Now to be fair, the game does tell the player all about the lieutenant/recruit system. But, it doesn't emphasize just how absurdly useful it is. Basically, if Kassandra knocks an opponent out, she can then pick them back up and recruit them under her. And this applies to all human enemies in the game: bounty hunters, soldiers, anyone. Plus, Kassandra gets all the XP and equipment she would've gotten looting their corpse. Now one might think that there's no reason to recruit weak enemies, and normally they'd be right. But dismissing lieutenants is quick and easy, and in most cases is faster than looting bodies after clearing out an area.
3 The Blacksmith Is Crucial
And finally, don't ignore the blacksmith. It'd be easy to think that the blacksmith was simply just for buying and selling weapons. But that isn't even close to the real case. It's here that players can upgrade, dismantle, and apply boons to weapons. And just to sell how powerful upgrading is, there have been multiple times that we had a blue weapon with better stats than a purple, purely because it was upgraded. Our advice is to loot any and everything around, gather as much wood and iron as possible, and always dismantle gear rather than selling it.
2 All Weapons Have Some Exploitable Tricks
Moreso than any other Assassin's Creed title, the amount of weapons the player can use in this game is staggering. The tutorial/tips do a decent job explaining the benefits of light and heavy weapons, but what it doesn't explain, is how useful light and heavy weapons can be for cheesing fights. Light weapons are absurdly good at applying burn and poison, which melt enemies regardless of level. Heavy weapons can knock shields away with a single hit, and have tons of moves the cause enemies to fly back, which is insanely strong while fighting on rooftops. Our personal favorite technique is to aggro 5+ enemies, have them chase us to the top of a small but high building, then with a single swing of a Warhammer, they're all dead on the ground.
1 Adrenaline Buffed Abilities Are Insane
The Adrenaline bar is basically Kassandra's version of MP. It's a recharging resource that allows her to perform all the combat-focused abilities such as Bull Rush, Healing, and Spartan Kick. But, what is really absurd about Adrenaline is actually the skills that use additional amounts of it to increase damage. Skills like Overpower for example, where the base damage is already 800%, can be buffed even further with more Adrenaline. Normally killing an enemy wouldn't require this much, but for especially strong captains or bounty hunters, this can be crucial.