All Assassin's Creed Shadows allies and how to unlock them
By Dr. Eleanor Vance | Published on December 04, 2025
One of the surprise additions in Assassin's Creed Shadows is the allies system, giving you six companions who can come to your aid. Each one has up to three abilities and passives once you've fully upgraded them, and the best news is that they're not all designed specifically for combat as you'd expect. In fact, the stealth-focused ones are actually the most useful.
It takes quite a while to unlock all AC Shadows allies, and it's even possible to miss some of them as you need to make the right choices during certain quests. Don't worry though, I'll go over exactly what you need to do to unlock all six below. I'll also cover each [[link]] of their abilities so you can decide which allies you'd like to upgrade since you can't preview all the boosts ahead of time.
How to unlock all Assassin's Creed Shadows allies
To recruit an ally, you need to make choices during conversations with them to gain their trust. A notification will pop up to say that a decision impacts the character, but while they're hard to miss, it's not always easy to make the right choice. Gain enough trust, and you'll be able to recruit them. Some allies will die before you can recruit them if you fail to support them, and other's quests will simply end.
Here's how to unlock the six allies:
Ally | Unlock Requirements |
|---|---|
Yaya | After you defeat Wada Koretaka during Heads Will Roll, side with Yaya to spare the soldiers. At the start of The Stray Dogs, choose to forgive the thief. At the end of The Stray Dogs, urge Yaya to forgive Tetsuo and then ask her to join you. |
Gennojo | Reply with "I'm all in" after delivering the scroll to Gennojo during Honor Among Thieves. Then, choose to soothe Gennojo at the end of The Godless Harvest and say "We make a good team" to recruit Gennojo. |
Katsuhime | Rescue Katsuhime when she is shot during The Diary of Lady Rokkaku and ask her to join you at the end of the quest. |
Yagoro | Beat Yagoro in a duel during A Blade in the Dark (you will have two opportunities). After you defeat the samurai at Juyjin Courtyard, invite Yagoro to the League. You need to kill all members of the Shinbakufu to unlock this quest. |
Ibuki | Select "I have changed" during your first conversation with Ibuki in Ambush Interrupted and keep at least five civilians [[link]] alive after the ambush. During Homecoming, select "Fight with us, Kyobei" and have Kyobei survive the fight against Nakatomi. Select "You don't have to be alone" at the end of Homecoming to recruit Ibuki. |
Oni-yuri | During Oni-yuri's second quest, Sweet Revenge, choose "I will show you" after dealing with the pirate. |
Best Assassin's Creed Shadows allies
Each ally has three tiers, unlocked by training them at your hideout's dojo. Allies start at novice rank with only an active ability. Upgrade your dojo to rank two to promote allies to initiates to acquire their first passive, and then upgrade your dojo to the maximum level to train allies to veteran rank, unlocking their final passive.
Allies can also be trained and managed at kakurega buildings once you've built a dojo at your hideout.
While each ally fills a slightly different role, in my experience the best allies are Gennojo and Yagoro for stealth and Ibuki or Katsuhime for combat. Given you can eventually equip two allies at the same time, I'd recommend bringing one stealth-focused and one close-quarters companion so you're ready for anything.
Allies | Ability (Novice) | First Passive (Initiate) | Second Passive (Veteran) |
|---|---|---|---|
Yaya | Yaya joins the fight and performs pushback attacks that knockout enemies | When joining the fight, Yaya will knock down an enemy | Yaya uses a powerful kick to send enemies flying |
Gennojo | Gennojo throws a projectile that startles the enemy, leaving them vulnerable to assassinations | Gennojo draws the attention of an enemy about to detect you | Servants no longer inform enemies of crimes they see |
Katsuhime | Katsuhime joins the fight and deals daze attacks | When joining the fight, Katsuhime throws a dazing bomb | Bullets hitting a dazed target ricochet to another target |
Yagoro | Yagoro assassinates an enemy with up to three health segments | Yagoro kills [[link]] an extra enemy to perform a chain assassination | Yagoro can target enemies with up to five health segments |
Ibuki | Ibuki joins the fight and deals impact attacks | When joining the fight, Ibuki shatters the armour of nearby enemies | Ibuki can use Strike of the Ronin while fighting |
Oni-yuri | Oni-yuri puts someone to sleep with a sleep dart | Releases a toxin cloud that poisons people | Reinforcements are delayed in the event of an alert |
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