Should you play guided exploration mode in Assassin’s Creed Shadows?

Guided exploration mode is a setting in Assassin’s Creed Shadows that adds additional waypoints to your map, minimizing the need to explore your environment during missions. You’ll choose whether or not to activate it when starting a new game.

While the setting is a helpful tool for the lost and the frustrated, it also removes some friction from an already pretty frictionless game. However, unlike other startup settings, like canon mode — which removes dialogue options from the game — you can turn guided exploration mode on and off at will. So your choice isn’t permanent.

Below, we’ll cover what guided exploration mode is in Assassin’s Creed Shadows and share some thoughts on if you should play with it.

What is guided exploration mode in Assassin’s Creed Shadows?

In short, guided exploration mode will add waypoints to your map during missions that require exploration and investigation.

Many quests in Assassin’s Creed Shadows task you with finding a specific person or item. You’ll get a handful of parameters regarding your target’s general location, and then will have to use those directions to narrow down a search area.

For instance, during the “Way of the Blacksmith” quest, you’re tasked with finding a blacksmith named Heiji. You’re told that he’s in southwestern Settsu, specifically in the city of Sakai, somewhere east of the port. Turn on guided exploration mode, though, and the game will just show you his exact location. See the image below for an example of what the map looks like during that mission with guided exploration turned off compared to on, though note that the second screenshot does give away Heiji’s location:

Beyond objective markers for currently active quests, turning guided exploration mode on will also reveal the locations of some side-quests in your current province. Otherwise, you’d have to stumble across those naturally.

However, guided exploration mode won’t populate your map with any unseen synchronization points. And the question mark icons on your map that indicate “undiscovered locations” will remain question marks. You’ll still have to manually trek to those waypoints to see if it’s something interesting — like a Kofun or Hidden Trail — or if it’s yet another enemy outpost.

Should you play guided exploration mode in Assassin’s Creed Shadows?

While it’s ultimately up to you, we’d recommend not playing Assassin’s Creed Shadows with guided exploration mode.

If you’re an achievement or trophy hunter, you’ll especially want to make sure it stays off. When guided exploration mode is turned on, you’re unable to complete “some achievements,” according to the in-game menu (though it’s not immediately clear which achievements are disabled).

Plus, part of the fun of modern Assassin’s Creed games comes from identifying and tracking down your targets; it’s one of the few ways in which these games actually push back against the player.

Yes, mission objectives in Shadows can sometimes be cloyingly vague. But you have other exploration tools at your disposal beyond guided exploration mode. Deploying scouts can help further narrow down search areas, and in some cases will straight-up give you a waypoint. You can also use Eagle Vision and observe your immediate environment. Key objectives, like Heiji, will show up as blue dots (see above).

And if you’re still struggling after that? Well, in this very specific instance, that’s what our “Way of the Blacksmith” walkthrough is for!

For more Assassin’s Creed Shadows guides, see our running lists of Lost Pages, Kuji-kiri, and armor locations. Or see our full Assassin’s Creed Shadows walkthrough, and our guides on how to get all companions and romance options.