One of my early complaints in Assassin’s Creed Shadows was the age-old conundrum with gear in RPGs: do I prioritize looking awesome, or do I prioritize the best stats and perks?
I assumed a way to upgrade my best gear would be coming down the line as I progressed through the story, but it seemed at first that there was no way to transmogrify my gear — that is, change the appearance of my weapons and armor.
It turns out the answer to unlocking both upgrades and customization options for your gear comes down to finishing a specific quest… And it’s a quest that you can easily miss if you decide to focus on the mainline story rather than side missions.
So, don’t throw out that rare katana with a deadly ability or unique armor because it became under-leveled or you picked up something that looks better. You don’t have to make the same mistake I did and can prioritize unlocking and building the Forge as soon as possible.
If you’d rather read more about the game itself, you can check out my in-depth review of Assassin’s Creed Shadows.
How do I unlock the Forge to customize or upgrade my gear?
In order to upgrade or enhance your gear, customize it, or scrap the old equipment you no longer need, you’ll first need to unlock the Forge.
This is one of the buildings for your Hideout, the customizable base that acts as the center of operations for Naoe, Yasuke, and their allies. The Hideout offers a ton of perks and there are endless options for customizing it, but you’ll definitely want to prioritize securing the Forge.
To be candid, I unfortunately lack any screenshots or specific details from the actual quest. I was early on in Assassin’s Creed Shadows and didn’t know at the time what mission I was embarking on.
It’s a simple quest, though, so you shouldn’t need much to get through it. Just knowing it exists and why it’s important is half the battle.
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First, you’ll need to play all the way through the prologue and continue playing through Act 1 in the Izumi Settsu region until you reach the point in the main story that Tomiko, one of the first allies you meet in Assassin’s Creed Shadows, agrees to let Naoe use her home and land as a base for her mission.
This will officially unlock the Hideout, a core part of AC Shadows’ gameplay that allows you to design and customize your own center of operations, where different buildings provide different perks and abilities.
Once you have access to the Hideout customization abilities, you’ll be able to speak to Tomiko to add a new quest to your objectives.
In search of new allies to aid your cause, Tomiko suggests searching for a blacksmith from her past who may be looking for a new direction in life. You know he’s somewhere in the city of Sakai, in the Izumi Settsu region, so head there to begin your search.
You can hold down the left trigger to scan your surroundings as you walk around Sakai. Look for a glowing blue circle to indicate an important quest-related point of interest.
Once you find the blacksmith, you’ll find him being exploited by a handful of thugs, seemingly without opposition. Once you dispose of the bandits, you’ll be able to speak to the blacksmith.
He’s world-weary and distraught after the loss of his parents, but you can talk him into adopting your purpose as his own. He’ll agree and head back to the Hideout.
Follow the blacksmith back to the Hideout, and you’ll discover that you’ve unlocked a new building. Open the Hideout customization interface and head to the build menu, where you’ll find the Forge listed under “Main Rooms.”
You shouldn’t need many resources to build the Forge, but you can collect what you need from completing local region missions, ransacking camps and castles, and keeping an eye out for opportunities to smuggle resources.
Once you’ve constructed the Forge, you’ll immediately unlock full equipment customization! You’ll have to go to the Hideout and talk to the blacksmith directly in order to upgrade or demolish your gear, though.
What can I do with the Forge in Assassin’s Creed Shadows?
One of three features found at the Forge is the Upgrade function, which allows you to level up any of your weapons, armor, or trinkets in exchange for money and resources.
It’s straightforward: the weapon gets a general stat boost for each level it gains, and you can upgrade your gear up to whatever level you are. When you first build the Forge, you’ll be able to upgrade your gear until you’re level 20, after which you’ll want to upgrade the Forge.
Weapons, armor, and trinkets each require a different resource in addition to a fee, but you can earn ample amounts of these resources by opening chests you find throughout the world and dismantling any unused gear you don’t want anymore.
The second function of the Forge is the ability to Engrave. This means adding new perks to your weapons, armor, and trinkets, providing unique bonuses or advantages in combat.
In order to access engraving, though, you’ll need to upgrade the Forge to level 2 (which also allows you to upgrade gear up to level 40).
To engrave your equipment, simply select the perk slot you wish to fill or swap out and choose from the list of engravings you’ve unlocked. You unlock new engravings by collecting gear (any new engraving a piece of gear has you keep forever) or purchasing new engravings from Gear Vendors scattered throughout the world.
Rare, Epic, and Legendary rarity gear all boast an unused perk slot you can take advantage of, while Uncommon gear has a single engraving (and Common gear has none). Legendary gear boasts exclusive, extremely powerful engravings you won’t see or find anywhere else.
There’s a fee for engraving equipment that depends on the perk you’ve chosen, but it’s not a steep cost at all. Engravings can dramatically improve your loadout by providing stat boosts, situational advantages, new abilities, and more.
You have to upgrade the Forge to level 3 (which lets you upgrade gear to level 60) to use Legendary engravings, though — until then, these super powerful perks are exclusive to their weapons. Afterward, you can even equip two Legendary engravings on the same gear.
How do I customize all of my gear?
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Building the Forge instantly enables full gear customization, and there’s no need to speak to the blacksmith at the Hideout to access it. Simply open your inventory, and you’ll be able to personalize all of your weapons, armor, and trinkets.
Customization is very straightforward. Every time you collect a new piece of equipment, its unique cosmetic options are permanently added to your inventory (even if you dismantle or sell it later). Yes, that means Legendary gear, including any premium cosmetics you purchase.
To customize your gear, go to the specific equipment in your inventory and hit the “Customize” button (it’s “Y” on an Xbox controller). Helmets, armor, and trinkets only provide one option, letting you fully swap out the appearance for an alternative you’ve unlocked.
Depending on the weapons, though, you’ll have separate categories you can individually customize if you’d like to mix and match. The katana, for example, allows you to customize the blade, hilt, guard, and sheath.
Once you’ve selected your customization options, you’re done! There’s zero cost involved, and you can access customization at any point.
Any equipment you’ve altered will be marked with a star so you know its appearance is different from its thumbnail (which doesn’t change). You can hold down the “Customize” button inside the customization menu to reset any gear to default.
As a side note, you are also able to customize your horse. Not only are there different mounts you can unlock or purchase throughout Assassin’s Creed Shadows, but there are also various saddles you can acquire.
Can I get rid of gear I don’t want anymore?
The third and final purpose of the Forge is to clear out the unwanted junk cluttering your inventory. Yes, you can sell any equipment you don’t want anymore, but you usually won’t get a ton of money for your trouble.
Dismantling gear at the Forge provides you with specific resources for that equipment type, which you can then use to upgrade the gear you actually want to keep.
It’s simple to do; just highlight the item you wish to tear down and hold the “Dismantle” button. I wish there was a way to mark multiple items and mass dismantle them, but unfortunately, that isn’t possible.
Helpfully, you’re not able to dismantle any unique gear; they don’t even appear in the dismantle menus at all, so there’s zero risk.
“Unique” includes all Legendary gear and any equipment of different rarities that boasts a one-of-a-kind name, usually earned as an award for specific quests or activities. This equipment is best left in your Hideout storage if you don’t want to see it in your inventory.
Something I wish I had known from the very beginning
You can access equipment upgrades and customization fairly early on in Assassin’s Creed Shadows, but it’s all too easy to miss if you’re the kind of player to veer off the beaten path or focus on finishing the main story at first.
It feels obvious that AC Shadows would include some way to upgrade your gear, but the cosmetic customization is a feature you want to see in games… though it isn’t guaranteed.
I don’t really see any reason for Ubisoft to have hidden this feature behind a quest instead of letting players customize their gear as they wish from the very beginning, but it’s possibly to try and avoid overwhelming new players.
Either way, now you know better — don’t spend dozens of hours in AC Shadows before learning about the Forge. Unlocking it means completing a short, easy quest and plopping a building down in your Hideout, so it’s best to get it out of the way as soon as possible.
