Assassin’s Creed Shadows continues one of the greatest traditions of the open world videogame: a horse that can appear instantly at any point on the map. Whether you’re playing as the ninja Naoe or the samurai Yasuke, your magic steed is always just a whistle away, ready to carry you anywhere your heart desires. (Except boats. They will not get on boats.)
Just as you can summon your horse anywhere, you can also abandon them at any point without worry. Want to climb a shrine you’ve discovered while rambling through the countryside? Just ditch that nag and start scampering up those walls. I’ve traveled all over 16th century Japan on the back of my teleporting stallion, and have never thought twice about leaving him wherever I happen to be. Here’s a guide to everywhere I left my goodtime buddy behind while seeking revenge in the name of peace in 1580s Japan.
A Bamboo Grove
I first left my horse behind after getting stuck inside a bamboo grove while riding him. Although you can take him pretty much anywhere, he can still get blocked by the environment—especially bamboo, which can basically form a wall when clustered together. On foot you can cut through the bamboo and clear the way, but you can’t use your melee weapons on horseback. And that’s when I first realized you and your horse can split anywhere, at any time: when I hopped off to slice through some bamboo and just kept on trucking.
A River or Stream or Creek or Something
Horses are most useful when you stick to the marked-off paths and walkways throughout the game. Those don’t always take you where you need to go, though. A network of small rivers and streams basically serves as an unofficial secondary road system, and are particularly useful at getting to the camps, ruins and cliffside eagle’s nests nestled within the game’s forests. I’ll . occasionally trot through these streams on horseback, and just as occasionally I’ll leave the horse standing alone in the hoof-deep water. Hopefully he at least got a refreshing drink out of it.
Kyoto is the largest city in Shadows, a sprawling jumble of low-slung buildings in the shadow of multiple castles. It’s a veritable metropolis amid the small towns and villages that dot the game’s map. It’s also an ideal location to abandon a perfectly good horse when you want to talk to some merchants or creep through Nijo Palace. Hopefully somebody there took care of the dude while I sought out those seven teapots for Sengoku-era Japan’s preeminent etiquette coach.
In the Middle of a Temple
Temples are literally everywhere in Assassins Creed Shadows, and represent a quick way to score some experience points. Every temple will have a basic, easy-to-accomplish goal—say, find three scrolls, or maybe pray at four shrines—and it’s almost always worth the few minutes it’ll take to accomplish it. You can’t ever do it on horseback, though, so if you’ve ridden into the temple you’ll have to get down to finish it up. And since you’ll almost always finish the temple mission several feet away from wherever the horse is, it’s always easier to just whistle for him whenever you need him again. It’s fine, though; you shouldn’t just take care of a horse physically, but spiritually, too, and shrine time can only help with that.
Somewhere on the Side of a Hill
Overall this is probably the most frequent place I’ve left my friend behind. Shadows is one hilly game, and unless you stick to the roads, which are never the quickest way to a destination, you’ll be traversing those hills often. As long as the incline isn’t too steep, it’s easy to walk up a hill, either on foot or by horse. If it gets too steep, though, you’ll slide down the side, and your horse will stop in its tracks and refuse to go any further. At that point you’ll have to circle until you find an approach you can actually handle—or, if there are ledges or rocks to hold on to, you can try climbing over the hill. Either way, you’ll have to get off your horse to make it happen, leaving him alone once again somewhere on a hill in the middle of the woods. It’s also likely you’ll run into some hillside trees or bamboo that block your horse but not you. Pretty much every time I’ve started up a hill on my horse I’d have to dump him sooner or later—and more times than I can remember.
At the Dead Center of the Largest Freshwater Lake in Japan
At over 250 square miles, Lake Biwa is bigger than any other freshwater lake in the country. That makes it a major part of the Shadows map—and something you’ll have to cross regularly throughout the game. No matter how deep a body of water gets, your horse can still navigate it just fine. It’s not the fastest way to get across the lake, of course, but it’s possible. And it’s just as possible to jump off in the absolute dead center of Lake Biwa and swim the rest of the way, leaving your four-legged pal in the middle of the drink. Does he swim to safety? Float aimlessly until he reaches the show? Or just hang out there, patiently paddling in pace, until you whistle for him again? Assassins Creed Shadows loves its mysteries.
Really, Just Anywhere I Please, For Any Reason Whatsoever
Again: there’s no punishment whatsoever for splitting on your horse at any point in time. Looking to aimlessly roam around instead of rushing to the next blue icon on your map? Tell that dude to stay put while you hit the bricks. Forget where you left him after methodically wiping out the garrison of a castle? It doesn’t matter in the slightest. No matter where you go or what you do, your horse will always be patiently waiting for you, keeping an ear out for a whistle that it can somehow hear from every corner of the map. There are no judgments, no recriminations, no hurt feelings: just two tight friends who are cool coming and going as they please, free and easy at all times. As touching as Naoe and Yasuke’s friendship is, it can’t touch the deep but casual love between horse and human.
Senior editor Garrett Martin writes about videogames, TV, travel, theme parks, wrestling, music, and more. You can also find him on Blue Sky.
