In 2019, Ubisoft took the Assassin's Creed franchise to ancient Greece in Assassin's Creed Odyssey, where players will roam the lands as either mercenary Alexios or Kassandra, pitted in the middle of a war between Athens and Sparta. While the main story offers a deep look into the historical conquest of the period, the scale and scope of Odyssey's map are a testament to the length of the narrative and the number of side activities offered to the player.
Looking at Assassin's Creed: Odyssey's open-world map, there's a clear indication of how strong Alexios or Kassandra should be before they venture into newer and tougher regions. Leveling up to increase general stats is vital to progress further along in the story. However, with a deeper RPG system than its predecessors, Assassin's Creed Odyssey (including Assassin's Creed Origins) have come with much more detailed skill trees, allowing players to tailor their gameplay strengths to their character. While the entirety of the skill tree isn't accessible yet for players, there are a few abilities everyone should consider picking up early to help build the foundation of progressing through the game's main story.
Updated September 25th, 2022, by Michael Llewellyn: Thanks to several updates from the Ubisoft event, fans finally have an idea where the Assassin's Creed series is going after Assassin's Creed: Valhalla's final chapter. The series' next entry is Assassin's Creed: Mirage, before it heads into Fuedal Japan with Assassin's Creed Project Red. Assassin's Creed continues to grow, but one of its most vast and beautiful entries remains Assassin's Creed: Odyssey. With many players still working through the Origins/Mythology trilogy - Assassin's Creed: Origins, Odyssey, and Valhalla - there is a lot of history to work through. Odyssey has a large world and a lot of RPG-like mechanics and skills. This guide is updated to include more skills for Alexios and Kassandra to use in the early chapters.
Weapons Master
The Weapons Master ability doesn't have a flashy move or assassination on the battlefield, but it's a skill that scales with Kassandra and Alexios' Warrior tree. Once unlocked, this ability will increase Warrior Damage by 20%.
Weapons Master's 20% increase in damage output is significant for the early stages. Especially many enemies will have a higher level than Kassandra and Alexios. It will make every damaging skill in the Warrior tree cause more damage.
Devastating Shot
A bow is an invaluable tool for Kassandra and Alexios as it allows them to hit targets from range without being detected. It's an excellent way for players to remain stealthy and take enemies out quickly.
The Devastating Shot ability will make Alexios and Kassandra even deadlier with a bow. The Devastating Shot can hit enemies with 290% Hunter damage. With a fully charged arrow, the damage is doubled. Furthermore, Fire and Poison arrow build-up is increased by 150%
Rush Assassination
After making progress in Assassin's Creed: Odyssey, Alexios and Kassandra will soon have access to the Rush Assassination ability. It's an early ability that players should strive to upgrade, thanks to its Chain Assassination ability.
Before upgrading, the Rush Assassination ability can deal 100% Assassin damage and be chained once to kill another enemy. It's visually impressive to pull it off, and upgrading will mean that Alexios and Kassandra can chain attack and kill multiple enemies in one round of assassinations.
Sixth Sense
Trying to sneak around enemy camps is a strategy and skill that can take some getting used to. Without Eagle Vision - from past titles - players are forced to use their eagle companion Ikaros to scout encampments to pinpoint enemy locations. With it, an enemy can be missed, causing them to alert other guards to make missions difficult.
With the Sixth Sense ability, players have a generous five-second window where time slows down, so they can attack an alerted guard. What's even more user-friendly about this skill is that drawing a bow and arrow will auto-lock onto the enemy immediately and cause more damage than it normally would. It also allows Kassandra and Alexios to eliminate enemies without being spotted or alerting other guards to their presence.
Predator Shot
Using the Predator Shot is useful when trying to overtake one of the larger camps located around Greece. These camps are under the control of large groups of enemies and are surrounded by large stone walls with patrols, making it difficult to breach the area without being detected.
The Predator Shot allows players to control a long-range arrow shot if an enemy is out of the natural range of taking damage while also doing almost four times as much damage as a normal arrow. Be sure to use this ability when trying to create an opening in a patrol on constant guard of enemy territories; it makes trying to sneak into hostile territories much easier.
Second Wind
While the previous two skills emphasize stealth and avoiding conflict, Kassandra and Alexios are sure to get themselves into unfortunate predicaments of being outnumbered in hand-to-hand combat. Combat is pretty unforgiving in Assassin's Creed Odyssey, and if multiple enemies happen to strike at once, be ready to see that health meter disappear quickly. With the Second Wind ability, players can, at the very least, regenerate a quarter of their max health, giving them the chance to either continue to fight or give themselves a window to try and escape the fight.
It's easy to either get caught fighting several enemies at once, run into an enemy who's a much higher level than the player, or both. So being able to heal up when needed is a worthy ability to pick up.
Spartan Kick
Of course, Assassin's Creed: Odyssey should include a combat move as iconic as the Spartan Kick. There is an enjoyment in seeing an enemy getting vaulted back ten meters, like in the 300 movies. Moreover, players will notice many outposts located along mountain ranges and cliffsides, which sets the Spartan Kick up perfectly for seeing an enemy plummet to their demise with no extra effort.
The move also works well in stealth because not only will enemies be eliminated without the protagonist being seen there's nobody left lying around to alert any other guards of danger lurking nearby. It's natural to think the Spartan Kick move is the go-to for hand-to-hand combat scenarios, but it's an effective maneuver in stealth.
Shadow Assassin
For long-time fans of Assassin's Creed, eliminating enemies using the assassination skill is vital. With both Assassin's Creed: Origins and now Odyssey, the deeper RPG mechanics have made assassinating high-level enemies impossible. Now it only allows players to take out a chunk of their health meter when attacking from behind.
With the Shadow Assassin ability, players receive an increase in damage dealt from both assassination and knockdown attacks. This move is perfect for trying to sneak up on a tougher enemy to try and lower their health to a more manageable level, or even while taking out patrols in encampments more quickly without having additional guards being alerted.
Venomous Attacks
With a deeper RPG system for Assassin's Creed Odyssey, finding any extra advantages in combat is important to the player. For those times being surrounded by a large number of enemies, being able to inflict extra damage without having to hit enemies is a good start with the Venomous Attacks ability.
At its base skill level, Venomous Attacks will continue to inflict damage on infected enemies for 15 seconds, which means players can focus on a single enemy while still dealing damage to any other nearby hostiles in range. This removes the hassle of trying to cycle through every enemy to make sure they're taking damage and allows the poisonous skill to do the work for the player.
Revelation
Again, here we have another ability geared to the traditional fans of the series. Revelation works as the game's version of eagle vision (referred to as 'Athena's sight' in Odyssey) and reveals the location of enemies and crafting resources lying around within a given radius. The Revelation ability is imperative to get a lay of the land and plan attacks. However, the greater focus on using resources to craft the player's gear, weapons, and ship is a huge part of becoming stronger in the game.
Assassin's Creed Odyssey offers a gameplay loop in both acquiring loots and allowing players to see a constant, immediate return on investment when either farming for resources or taking out enemies, and the Revelation ability is there to aid both objectives greatly.
Vanish
There are a bunch of skills available to aid in combat and stealth, but Vanish is a smart ability to pick up early when the odds are not in the player's favor. Executing the Vanish ability will stun surrounding enemies for a few seconds, allowing for the opportunity to either continue to pick them apart or turn and run from battle while they're still incapacitated. Last year's Assassin's Creed Origins and now Assassin's Creed Odyssey have shown how quickly the player can succumb to enemies, so having a quick way out is what some will need to regroup without having to reload their last save.
Assassin's Creed Odyssey can be a bit overwhelming at first. With the size of the world - which is massive - and the options for customizing characters with both their gear and abilities, the agency provided allows for every player's experience to feel different. In the end, it's probably best for players to unlock as many new skills and abilities as possible. For taking on the best the Athenians and Spartans have to offer, unlock the above skills before venturing farther into Assassin's Creed Odyssey's massive open world.
Assassin's Creed Odyssey is available now for Luna, PC, PlayStation 4, Stadia, Switch, and Xbox One. PS5 and Xbox Series X/S are updated to run the game at 60FPS.