Assassin’s Creed Mirage goes back to the series’ stealth-focused roots, which is a welcome change from the recent titles in the franchise. But with this shift in playstyle comes a lot of changes in tools, tactics, and core mechanics. Some familiar features like the blowdart and throwing knife from the classic titles make a return. Various other features have also made their way in from the more recent titles, like oil jars and barred-door puzzles. And of course, there are some new ones unique to the game as well. This amalgamation of features could be a little confusing. So today, we bring to you our top 15 essential tips and tricks that will help you on your journey. Let’s take ‘leap of faith’ and dive right in, Hidden One!
Assassin’s Creed Mirage: Our top 15 tips and tricks!
Here are 15 nifty tips and tricks for anyone playing Assassin’s Creed Mirage.
1. Your Trusty Eagle Returns
Ever since Assassin’s Creed Origins introduced players to an avian companion back in 2017, it has become a series staple. We had Senu in Origins, Ikaros in Odyssey, Sýnin in Valhalla, and in Mirage, we have Enkidu. Many features of our drone-like buddy make a return as well, from tracking down objectives, to marking guards. The new upgrade system makes Enkindu even more useful, by letting him distract guards, mark chests and keys, and more. With Mirage’s focus on a stealthy approach, the ability to scout a stronghold from the air and mark all points of interest is invaluable. So, don’t forget to call on your eagle every time you need a different perspective!
2. Sell, Sell, Sell!
With Mirage’s much smaller open world, the crowd density around the city has increased. And with the ability to pickpocket (which we will talk about next), you can end up with a lot of trinkets. Now it doesn’t matter if you hoard eighty pocketfuls worth of valuables in your trousers as there is no inventory weight limit, but money isn’t easy to come by. So, whenever you find a vendor, make sure you go to the ‘Sell’ menu, and hold down the ‘Sell all trinkets’ option available at the bottom left. This will instantly convert all that extra stuff to dirhams, which you can then spend on things like upgrades and outfits. Don’t worry; your upgrade materials, tools, ammo, and other usable resources won’t go away. So keep selling things for those few extra bucks!
3. Make Pickpocketing Way Easier
Assassin’s Creed Mirage introduced a new pickpocket system, which nets you random things, from money to trinkets to even crafting materials. Now, whenever you approach an NPC and select the option to pickpocket, a minigame starts. Time the button press right, and only then the pickpocket is successful. This is fine… for the first twenty pickpockets or so. It gets old really fast, and honestly, you could have potentially pickpocketed two more people in the time you’re spending on just one minigame. The solution? Just head on over to the ‘Gameplay’ tab in ‘Options’ and enable the ‘Guaranteed Pickpocket’ option. Now, all you have to do is walk over to the poor sod you want to rob, press the button once, and you’re done. A true master of sleight of hand indeed!
4. The Notoriety System
Do you remember the wanted posters that used to pop up all around Venice and Rome back in the Ezio Trilogy? Well, the notoriety system makes a return in Mirage. As you perform illegal actions publicly, your notoriety increases. The higher the meter gets, the more the NPCs and guards react to your presence. A high wanted level makes it quite inconvenient to walk through the beautiful streets of Baghdad in peace, without starting a combat or chase sequence with the guards. Fear not, for there are some quick solutions to getting rid of your infamous reputation!
Just like in the older games, you can find these wanted posters and rip them right now, giving the townsfolk instant amnesia. You can also bribe speakers to clear your name, but why spend your hard-earned coin when you can just rip and tear away? It’s hilarious that one minute, the crowd around you is screaming for the guards, and the moment you rip out a poster, they go:
So, use this to your advantage and stay in the shadows, Assassin!
5. Live to Fight Another Day
Ubisoft has openly said that they wanted Mirage to be a stealth-focused game. So it’s only natural that they made the combat harder. The fighting system is still similar to that of Valhalla or Odyssey: parry normal attacks for a counter, or dodge red attacks safely. Sounds easy, right? Well, the biggest change is that now, the enemies don’t engage you one by one. If you’re used to slugging it out with just one guard at a time, while the rest hover around you, wondering what they’re even doing with their lives, then your first fight won’t last very long. In Mirage, all the enemies swing at you independently, regardless of whether their comrades are in the way.
So you see why timing perfect parries and dodges can be way more challenging. The game provides you with more than enough tools to sneak around, but when the spice hits the fan, just run. There’s no shame in it. You’re an assassin, not a Spartan. So just climb up to the nearest rooftop and try to lose your tail, circle around, and pick them off from the shadows.
6. Photo Mode for… Scouting?
Yes, yes I know what you’re going to say. But there is no honor, only the creed! Jokes aside, if you’re playing the game on the hardest difficulty, stealth can be quite a challenge. And if you’re spotted, you’ll get into another long round of hide-n-seek. So why not navigate around those tricky corners by using the photo mode? Given the free mobility of the camera, you just hop into photo mode, see around the corner, and then proceed. It has come in handy for us more than once!
7. Beware of the Elite Hunters
We spoke about the notoriety system before. Yes, the crowds get more fidgety, and the guards are agitated more quickly. But what happens when you cross into the final level of notoriety? Enter, the Elite Shakiriyya guard. These agile hunters are quite a challenge to fight head-on, as they have ripostes to your counters, and parry almost every single one of your standard attacks. So, if running is not an option, here’s how you deal with them. First, you wait for them to attack. More often than not, their first attack will be a normal attack, which you can parry. Now quickly land just ONE hit, and stop. This is important, as your second hit will be parried, leaving you vulnerable. Repeat the above process until you take them down. Watch out for those kicks though! That’s their only initial unblockable attack, so dodge away and wait for your chance. Patience is key!
8. One Spot, Many Bodies
The city of Baghdad is scattered with various hiding spots, like haystacks, covered booths, and more. It’s a well-known feature that you can dump the bodies of incapacitated enemies in all such hiding places. But did you know that you can store as many bodies as you want in the same spot?
Just hang around inside the hiding place and whistle. Even if there is a group of guards, only one will come to investigate at a time. And when he’s close enough, pop out to kill him, and drag him inside. Rinse and repeat to clear out entire groups without breaking a sweat. Realistic? No. Convenient? Very.
9. New Wooden Scaffolding
With all the emphasis on stealth, it was only fair for Ubisoft to add features that would help people like me, who fail almost every stealth encounter. You now have these wooden scaffoldings all around Baghdad. If an enemy is right on your tail during a chase, just hit the button promt to send it down crashing.
This will take out any enemies directly under it, and block off the path for the remaining ones. This feature gives you those few precious moments to find the nearest hidey-hole and disappear. And if nothing else, at least it looks super badass when done during a heated pursuit. So don’t forget to use them!
10. Quicksave
Now this might be a pretty obvious thing, but it doesn’t hurt to save your game before entering that next highly secure stronghold on your radar, especially if you’re looking to get a perfect stealth run. You can just pop into your inventory and quicksave from there. Now, you’re free to approach the location as you like!
11. Barred Doors Make a Return
Those pesky barred doors from Valhalla are making a return in Mirage. If you find that a door is locked, you might want to use your eagle vision. More often than not, you’ll see a red block barring the door from the inside. But you can’t damage that, not immediately anyway.
If you come across a door like this, just circle around until you find an opening that you can throw a knife through. Hit the block, and voila, the door is now open! Some of these mini environmental puzzles can be a little more complex than others, involving pulling down scaffolding blocking the required opening, using oil pots to blow open paths, etc. So if you do come across a locked door, be sure to look around for a solution. These places always hide something valuable inside.
12. Take Out Guards with Horns First
No, not those horns. Some guards carry a horn around their waist, which they use to call for reinforcements and also alert all their buddies in the vicinity. So, during the stealth phase, you should always prioritize these ‘callers’ to make sure the number of enemies, even when alerted, remains controllable. You can use eagle vision to spot the horns pretty easily, as they glow a bright red.
13. One for the Cat-Lovers
Now for the most important tip: You can pet the cats scurrying around the city. Neat little feature, eh? That’s all. Moving on!
14. Eagle-Vision
The oldest mechanic in the series, all the way from Assassin’s Creed 2007, is back again to make your Templar-killing life easier. Why’d this obvious feature make the list? Well, Ubisoft has changed the controls around a bit. Instead of the quick scan that you used to get with Valhalla or Odyssey, you now go into the eagle-vision mode until it is toggled off with the same button. One thing that took us a little getting used to is that on the PlayStation 5 and Series X, eagle-vision is activated with the left D-pad, and your character whistles to attract guards with the right D-pad. On multiple occasions, we pressed the wrong button and ended up calling a guard instead of doing a sneaky scan of the area. So yeah, it’s just something to watch out for!
15. Bug or Feature?
Okay so we don’t know if this is a bug or if it was intentional, but during the prologue, you don’t get any loot from opening chests. We opened a few, and none of them yielded any rewards. The moment we reached Baghdad and the game took off, this problem was gone. So yeah, maybe Ubisoft needs to patch the early-game chests out, as it can be quite confusing.
And that wraps up our list of the top 15 tips and tricks you know in Assassin’s Creed Mirage! How are you liking the game so far? Let us know in the comments, and for more from the world of gaming, stay tuned to Nerds Chalk!
