• Guide

How to use Scouts - Assassin's Creed Shadows

Scouts are crucial in Assassin's Creed Shadows, especially if you want to track down your targets.

Aidan O'Brien

March 26, 2025 3:30 AM

Shacknews

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Scouts in Assassin's Creed Shadows can help you find targets, steal important resources, pinpoint quest markers, and generally make your life much easier. Let's take a look at how to use them, as I will admit that it can be a little bit confusing at first. 

How to use Scouts in Assassin's Creed Shadows

The primary function of scouts will be to find where you need to go next as you play through the game. Throughout the campaign, you will have enemies you need to track down, assassination targets to deal with, or just new locations to go to for quests. For all of these, you will get some reasonably vague directions, narrowing down the area on the map, but not getting specific about where you need to be.

You can then use your scouts as long as you have a target or mission selected from the Objectives screen. Hover the cursor over where you want to check, then hit the X button on your controller. Select how many scouts you wish to use, keeping in mind that with each "charge" of intel that you use, the search diameter will increase. If you are not quite sure if you have the right spot, it's a good idea to not just use lots of scouts. You should be able to get each way point using just one intel charge. If you have the right place, a blue waypoint will appear, and that is where you need to go.

How to smuggle resources

Different places on the map will have all manner of resources, normally stacked up in big piles, that you can smuggle. These are too large to get on your own, and you need your scouts to do it for you. You can interact with them to tag them, and your scouts will gather them up at the end of each season, adding them to your stash and giving you more resources to spend on your hideout. 

Each stack will have a number of scouts that you need to be able to take it, usually, two, so you always want to make sure you have some charges before you go out exploring in castles, enemy camps, or occupied territories like some of the temples.

How to clear your wanted status

If you are in certain enemy areas, such as camps or castles, and you are spotted, your foes might ring an alarm bell. If this happens, you will attain a Wanted status in that region. This means any enemy from that faction who sees you will instantly come after you. You can use your scouts to clear your wanted level as long as you have built a Kakurega at your hideout and upgraded it. From level two onwards, you can go to your map, go to the region with the Wanted status, and then hit the prompted button to clear the status. To prevent them from being able to do this, take out the bells by knocking them down with a shuriken.

If you need more scouts, you can visit any Kakurega on the map and pay 200 Mon to get one intel charge, or you can select intel as a reward for helping random people you meet on the road during your adventures. You will also get all charges refreshed at the end of the season. 

To be able to get more charges, you will need to keep upgrading the Kakurega that you build at your hideout. You can also find allies while you are exploring the world, who will then join up with you as scouts.

For more Assassin's Creed guides and news, be sure to check out our Assassin's Creed Shadows page.

Aidan O'Brien

Contributing Guides Editor

Hailing from Ireland, Aidan has been conditioned by local weather conditions to survive hours at his PC grinding through whatever game is offering the lowest possible drop rates for loot. He thinks the easiest way to figure out what fans of games want to read is to just be a fan of games. You can normally find him logged into Warframe, Destiny, or a gacha game. You can reach out to him on X @scannerbarkly.