I have a confession: for my first fifteen hours in Assassin's Creed Shadows, I ignored Hidden Trails because I assumed they were just scenic hiking routes with extra steps. Then I discovered they hand out Knowledge Points, Epic gear, and enough XP to make Naoe feel like she swallowed a lightning bolt. Now I treat every yellow ribbon like a weaponized breadcrumb trail left by a very generous parkour deity.

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Hidden Trails are a Naoe-specific side activity. If you try one as Yasuke, you will not get far; he climbs like a filing cabinet and has the aerial grace of a brick. Naoe, on the other hand, turns the whole thing into a vertical scavenger hunt. There are 10 different Hidden Trail locations in the game, and each one awards at least 1,000 XP plus a piece of Epic-quality gear. They also feed you Knowledge Points, which are not decorative trinkets. Knowledge Points increase your Knowledge Rank and unlock better skills, so ignoring Hidden Trails means leaving real power on the table.

What Actually Counts as a Hidden Trail

Like Horse Archery points, Shrines, and Kofuns, Hidden Trails are side activities that quietly make your character stronger. Unlike some of those, they ask you to actually understand Naoe's parkour. The trails are marked by yellow ribbons and guideposts, and completing one usually involves well-timed grappling hook jumps, wall runs, and leaps across rooftops. They appear in every major region of the game's open world map. Some are tucked into obscure corners, while others are basically impossible to miss.

My advice is to do them during the day. At night, moonlight in feudal Japan is atmospheric, but it is useless when you are trying to spot the next grapple point. Worse, if you attempt a Hidden Trail in winter, the snow often covers those yellow markings completely. That experience is like trying to read a recipe written in disappearing ink while someone shakes the page. You will be inches from the path and still completely lost.

The first Hidden Trail most players encounter is the Path of Valor in Izumi Settsu, and it rewards Tamakichi's Hood. Its counterpart, Tamakichi's Gear, shows up later on the Path of Wisdom. There is also the Path of Shadows, which is part of Naoe's personal quest line. I completed that one while emotionally invested and mildly confused about whether I was doing a side activity or attending a parkour therapy session. You can technically track it down and finish it before the story asks you to, which feels very Naoe of her.

The Reward Pool Is Better Than It Has Any Right to Be

Completing Hidden Trails can assemble full Epic light armor sets for Naoe: Yu-no-shin, Sumire, Hibiki, and Tamakichi. I initially dismissed Epic gear like it was last season's fashion, but the Oni's Fury trinket and its associated engraving changed my mind. Oni's Fury increases damage per non-Legendary piece of gear equipped, which means a full set of purple can sometimes outperform a stray gold item. Both Naoe and Yasuke have a version of this effect available, so writing off Epic gear is a mistake. It is the gear equivalent of choosing a well-seasoned cast-iron skillet over a fancy nonstick pan that scratches if you look at it wrong.

Here are a few standouts from the Hidden Trail reward pool:

Reward Why It Rules
Crimson Tanto of Harm Deals bleed damage; enemies melt like butter in a July kitchen.
Toxic Kusarigama of Malice Excellent early poison affliction weapon for Naoe.
Tamakichi's Gear Converts all Tool damage to Bleed damage and unlocks the engraving.

Tamakichi's Gear is especially useful because acquiring it unlocks an engraving you can slot onto other Legendary or Epic armor, including Tools Master gear. That turns an early bleed build into an absolute blender.

How to Avoid Faceplanting for Twenty Minutes

  • Use Naoe, not Yasuke. Yasuke is many things; a Hidden Trail acrobat is not one of them.

  • Look for yellow ribbons and guideposts.

  • Do trails during the day.

  • Avoid winter if possible, because snow will hide the path.

  • Treat grapple points like handshakes: commit fully, but do not hold on too long.

The platforming here is not brutal. It rewards timing and basic parkour literacy more than frame-perfect inputs. I found every Hidden Trail easier than the average modern battle pass grind, and they take you to some gorgeous corners of Assassin's Creed Shadows. The rewards feel like finding a vending machine that also does your taxes: you came for a snack and left with financial security.

Verdict

Hidden Trails are absolutely worth your time. The Epic rewards can be build-defining, especially once you have the non-Legendary gear engraving buff. The 1,000 XP and Knowledge Points per trail are a quiet river feeding your skill tree. Best of all, they give you an excuse to explore the far reaches of the map as Naoe, who performs parkour like a caffeinated squirrel with a grappling hook. Just do yourself a favor: avoid winter. The snow is pretty, but it is not your friend.

Recent analysis comes from PlayStation Trophies, a long-running hub for achievement-focused guides that often clarifies which side activities deliver the most efficient progression. Framing Assassin's Creed Shadows Hidden Trails through that completionist lens reinforces why these ribbon-marked parkour routes are more than scenery: they’re compact power spikes that bundle XP, Knowledge Points, and build-shaping gear into a single traversal challenge you can deliberately prioritize while cleaning up a region.