There are many legendary items to choose from for Naoe when putting together your build in Assassin’s Creed Shadows, and it might not be clear which one you should pick for your playstyle. These ten legendary weapons have some of the best inherent engraving effects and some of the best stats, and each one could be a build-defining weapon based on how strong and versatile it is.

All ten legendary weapons in Assassin’s Creed Shadows are found in the base game and do not need to be purchased with Helix credits, though there are some decent legendary options in the store if that’s something you’re interested in. Because the various afflictions in AC Shadows are so OP, many of these weapons lean into various afflictions and build-up, such as Bleed and Poison. No matter which item you choose from this list, you’ll want to consider the best legendary armor in AC Shadows to complement its abilities.

10Snakebite

A Legendary Katana Built For A Tool-Lover

If you’re a big fan of Tools and use them extremely often, the Snakebite Katana is the weapon for you. Snakebite instantly charges posture attacks after using a tool, meaning you can sling a shuriken mid-combat and land a powerful posture attack with your next attack. Similarly, you can effectively use Smoke Bombs to obscure the enemy’s vision and get around behind them for a high-damage posture.

The instantly charged posture attack does have a relatively small window, so the attack will only land as a posture within a short timeframe after launching your Tool. The Snakebite Katana’s unique bonus stat is Adrenaline Gain, and can be paired well with the engraving effect from the Steel Blossom Katana, which instantly charges posture attacks after a vault.

9Call Of The Void

A Legendary Tanto With Targeted Bonuses

The Call of the Void Tanto is an excellent single-target damage dealer that benefits from the tagging feature that Naoe can use when scoping out areas using observation and/or Eagle Vision. This is an easy additional damage increase if you simply plan things out a little bit beforehand, or can be incredibly useful as your primary weapon when using a stealth assassin strategy in case you don’t end up taking out a target, assuming you’re playing without Guaranteed Assassination enabled.

Call of the Void increases damage by +30% on tagged enemies, and is the only weapon with this type of effect in Assassin’s Creed Shadows, and its unique bonus stat is Vulnerable damage. Overall, this great Tanto option can be acquired by defeating one of the Godai Shinobi targets in Omi, the Godai of the Void.

Iga’s Flame

A Legendary Katana With Legendary Affliction Buildup

The Iga’s Flame legendary Katana is one of the best general affliction-based weapons in the game, giving Naoe an additional +2% affliction buildup per adrenaline chunk filled. Naoe can have up to four adrenaline chunks through the Vigor passives in her Shinobi tree, giving Iga’s Flame a potential extra +8% affliction buildup with fully filled adrenaline chunks.

Iga’s Flame has an inherent Daze buildup and is one of the best weapons for a Daze build for Naoe.

The Iga’s Flame Katana is found in a legendary chest at the top of Mount Nukai in Yamato, and is only worth using if you lean entirely into afflictions and completely dump all abilities, incorporating the Amaterasu’s Blessing legendary trinket into your build. This trinket gives you +10% damage per unused ability slot, meaning you can run around with full Adrenaline Chunks, stack affliction buffs with various engravings, and deal ridiculous damage with bleed, daze, and/or poison at the cost of not using any abilities.

7Yami No Kage

Deflect Damage Is Devastating For This Katana

The Yami no Kage Katana is available extremely early on and has a pretty straightforward and practical effect that deals +100% damage to the attacker when you successfully deflect an attack. Deflection timing is really easy in AC Shadows, and this is an all-around useful effect that deals general damage for something you would be doing whether you have the Katana equipped or not.

This is one of the best legendary options for the early game, as it’s found inside Haraiyama Fort, and you’ll have to go to this castle while completing the Shinbakufu target board. The Yami no Kage Katana has a unique bonus stat for Adrenaline Gain, making it one of the best all-purpose legendary Katana options in Assassin’s Creed Shadows. The fact that it is available early and has a simple, universally relevant effect sets it apart.

6Ocean’s Grip

The Ideal Kusarigama For Cyclone Blast

The Ocean’s Grip legendary Kusarigama is among my personal favorite weapons in the game, maximizing damage for the Kusarigama when using Cyclone Blast on groups of enemies. The Ocean’s Grip Kusarigama is acquired while eliminating one of the leaders on the Pirate Alliance target board, Lopo Cruz. It deals +60% damage to enemies over three meters away, meaning any enemies swarming you are toast.

The Demon Tooth Kusarigama is easily the best-in-slot Kusarigama Assassin weapon, but only if Guaranteed Assassination is toggled off.

The effect from this Kusarigama is that it is OP for the best Naoe build in AC Shadows and is probably the most useful damage-dealer in terms of tough combat situations when you’re up against multiple enemies. However, it’s equally devastating against large enemies due to its high critical hit damage stat.

5Stone Heart

Poison Makes The Kusarigama Grow Fonder

Stone Heart is the only legendary Kusarigama available with an inherent poison affliction effect, and is arguably the top choice of weapons for a Naoe poison build (learn more about the other top contenders below). Stone Heart spreads Poison affliction after completing a combo ender, and it deals inherent Poison buildup at the highest percentage of any Kusarigama in the game.

Stone Heart can be found in the Veiled Tumulus Kofun in Wakasa, and it has an inherent poison affliction effect that relies on Combo Enders. Completing a combo with alternating attack types will spread poison to all nearby enemies, and depending on your affliction buffs, this effect will absolutely melt groups of enemies.

4Scarlet Fate & Artist’s Tear

A Bloody Tanto With A Major Impact

Scarlet Fate is arguably the best Tanto in the game, with an inherent effect that increases impact with all enemies, making it extremely easy to interrupt and stagger enemies of all shapes and sizes. It also has an inherent bleed buildup unique stat at a very high percentage, triggering bleed on nearly any enemy you hit more than once. This Tanto is found in the Chasuriyama Kofun in Tamba, and you won’t find many better Tanto options when it comes to affliction effects.

Artist’s Tear has the highest DPS and Ability damage of any tanto in Assassin’s Creed Shadows.

Scarlet Fate is ideal for a bleed build in single-target situations, and is neck-and-neck with Artist’s Tear for best Tanto in Assassin’s Creed Shadows. I’ve combined these here as the best-case scenario is to use the Artist’s Tear with the engraving from Scarlet Fate, since Artist’s Tear has the highest DPS and Ability damage of any tanto in Assassin’s Creed Shadows.

Bloodshade

The Best Bloody Katana In AC Shadows

There is arguably no better Katana option for Naoe in Assassin’s Creed Shadows than Bloodshade. This Katana deals an incredibly high inherent bleed buildup percentage, but its effect is probably too powerful for its own good, given the effectiveness of bleed damage and affliction. When you trigger affliction buildup with the Bloodshade Katana, it doesn’t diminish over time, guaranteeing bleed effects on multiple landed hits.

Bloodshade is somewhat unique in its location, in that the legendary chest you have to grab it from is in a somewhat random spot. It can be acquired from one of the floating castles in Izumi Settsu, in the bay west of Osaka. You’ll have to go for a nice little boat ride or swim to get this one, but it’s absolutely worth the trouble, and is easily one of the top choices of legendary Katana in Assassin’s Creed Shadows.

2Violet Night

Finally, A Legendary Poison Katana

Violet Night is the best legendary Katana for a poison build for Naoe, as it is one of the only Katana available with an inherent poison buildup effect. You can pick this Katana up as part of completing the Yokai target board leader, Yuki Onna. She can be found in different locations depending on whether it’s day or night – the Kaza-ana Cave by day and roaming the fields north of Suzuka Foothills by night.

Violet Night deals inherent poison buildup, but also triggers poison on deflect. Pair this with Bloodshade’s engraving effect above, which causes afflictions not to diminish over time, and you’ll be poisoning any and every enemy that comes your way. You’ll be able to further boost your affliction and poison efficacy through various passive skills, particularly once you reach Knowledge Rank level 6 and access the additional global passive, Damage with Affliction.

Bloodletter

The Best & Bloodiest Kusarigama (& Overall Weapon) In AC Shadows

My vote for best weapon in AC Shadows for Naoe is the Bloodletter Kusarigama. This is the ultimate bleed weapon thanks to its inherent effect, which triggers bleed automatically on entanglement. You’ll be able to buff bleed and affliction effects enough that you can universally guarantee bleed damage on groups of enemies and single targets alike. The Kusarigama is already the most OP weapon in the game, but the Bloodletter has everything the other Kusarigama wish they had – it is the best of the best in terms of affliction, overall damage, and versatility.

Overall, there are so many different legendary weapons to choose from in Assassin’s Creed Shadows, but these ten have my vote for the most powerful. These are easily the best weapons to optimize your build around, and you should consider mixing and matching the various engraving effects to tweak your build the way you prefer to play.