Assassin's Creed Odyssey Abilities and Combat Guide

Everything you need to know about the Assassin’s Creed Abilities and Combat – which skills to pick first as a beginner, combos, combat mechanics and more!

If you are coming to Assassin’s Creed Odyssey from having played last year’s Origins, you will have a head-start and some of the tips and suggestions here will not be new for you. If you are brand new player, however, I recommend you take a closer look at this whole guide and the video materials in it.

The Combat system in Odyssey has been simplified in some ways, but made more complex and harder in others. The shield is gone and you can only parry and dodge now. This opens up a whole new list of opportunities and mechanics, so you wont miss your shield for long.

The Abilities, as usual, are split into three skill trees (more like tiers, not trees, but more on that later). As you level up, you can pick new passive or active abilities using skill points. Each one of them also has up to three tiers, so a total of 3 skill points can be spent on unlocking an ability and then upgrading it twice for better performance and effects. Every time you hit an enemy, you heal yourself a tiny little bit.

Let’s begin with an overview of each ability and its upgrades! Brace yourlself, a ton of stats coming your way! If you are looking for tips on best starter abilities and combos, skip to the next section below.

ASSASSIN’S CREED ODYSSEY SKILL TREE OVERVIEW

The Assassin's Creed Odyssey Skill Trees Hunter, Warrior and Assassin

There are three main skill trees in Assasin’s Creed Odyssey. They are more like three groups of tiered abilities, actually. The passive abilities are marked with smooth round border. The active skills are decorated with a custom round border.

Below is a list of all abilities and their descriptions. The first row (the bottom one on the image) is available for unlocking right at the very beginning. The second row requires level 5, third row requires level 10, fourth – level 16 and the top skills can be unlocked at level 23. If two skills are connected with a white line, this means you need to unlock the skill on the lower row first before you unlock the on above it.

HUNTER SKILL TREE

The Hunter Skills are primarely for ranged tactics and shooting at targets from distance. The deeper you go into this tree, the better Hunter you will become.

Predator Shot (Row 1, Active Ability) – Zoom to shoot an arrow that deals 380% Hunter damage and travels 35% farther. You can control the arrow’s movement direction. Level 2: 450% Hunter damage and 88% farther. Level 3: 550% Hunter damage, 150% farther.
Spread Shot (Row 1, Active) – Shoot 3 arrows at the same time for 100% Hunter damage. Level 2: 5 arrows, Level 3: 7 arrows, can break enemy shields.
Sixth Sense (Row 1, Passive) – Slows time for up to 5 seconds when you are spotted by enemies. Deals 150% Hunter damage. Level 2: 6 seconds slow, 175% Hunter damage. Level 3: 8 seconds slow, 200% Hunter damage

Devastating Shot (Row 2, Active) – Charge a powerful shot that deals u290% Hunter damage and 2x when fully charged/ Increases Fire and Poison buildup by 150%. Special arrows can be used. Level 2: 350% Hunter damage, 175% Fire and Poison increase. Level 3: 400% Hunter damage, 200% Fire and Poison increase.
Multi-Shot (Row 2, Active) – Target up to 4 enemies and the same time and deal 150% Hunter damage to each. Level 2: 6 enemies, 200% damage, special arrows can be used. Level 3: 8 enemies, 250% damage, special arrows can be used.
Arrow Master (Row 2, Passive) – Knock out targets instead of killing them. Craft arrows in the inventory Menu. Level 2: Craft Fire and Poison arrows. Level 3: Craft explosive arrows.

Archery Master (Row 3, Passive) – Increase Hunter damage by 20%. No longer consume Standard Arrows when using Hunter Abilities. Level 2: 30% damage, if Adrenaline slot is partially empty, it will fill back up when out of combat. Level 3: 40% damage, if Adrenaline slot is partially empty, it will fill back up when out of combat, slow down time whilke aiming with a bot in midair.
Rain of Destruction (Row 3, Active) – Shoot a volley of arrows in a 3 meter area, dealing 300% Hunter damage. Level 2: 350% damage, Special arrows can be used. Level 3: 450% Special arrows can be used.
Overpower Bow Strike (Row 4, Passive) – Shoot a charged arrow for 1000% Hunter damage that explodes on impact. Uses 3 Adrenaline segments (slots). Level 2: 1200% damage. Level 3: 1500% damage. Requires Archery Master to unlock.
Ghost Arrows of Artemis (Row 5, Active) – Shoot an arrow that can slip through shields, enemies and walls. Deals 260% Hunter damage. Requires Overpower Bow Strike to unlock. Level 2: 290% Hunter damage, Special Arrows can be used. Level 3: 340% Hunter damage, Special Arrows can be used.

WARRIOR SKILL TREE

The true melee fighter is the Warrior. The middle skill tree in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey Combat system brings passive and active boosts for melee combat, allowing you not only to hit like a tank, but also improves your survivability.

Charged Heavy Attack (Row 1, Passive) – Unleash a powerful attack that varies depending on your current weapon type. Knocks enemies or breaks their shields. Level 2: 150% increased damage. Level 3: Charge duration reduced by 25%
Sparta Kick (Row 1, Active) – Knocks your target back and deals 160% Warrior damage. Non-lethal attack. Level 2: 200% Warrior damage. Level 3: 250% damage, can knock back multiple enemies stacked together.
Bull Rush (Row 1, Passive) – Rush through enemies, knock them down, deal 250% Warrior damage. Level 2: 300% damage. Level 3: 400% damage.

Shield Breaker (Row 2, Active) – Break small shields and deal 150% Warrior damage. Level 2: break All shields, stun the target, deal 160% Warrior damage. Level 3: break All shields, stun the target, deal 250% Warrior damage.
Weapons Master (Row 2, Passive) – Increase Warrior damage by 20%. Level 2: 30% damage increase, Crit chance with all weapons by 5%. Level 3: 40% damage increase, Crit chance by 10%, Combo finishers deal more damage when the combos contain both Light and Heavy attacks.
Second Wind (Row 2, Active) – Refills 25% of your Health. Level 2: 35% Health. Level 3: 50% Health, removes Fire and Poison DoTs.

Flaming Attacks (Row 3, Active) – Melee weapons and Standard Arrows inflict Fire damage for 15 seconds. When their Fire meter is full, enemies start burning (damage over time). Level 2: 20 seconds. Level 3: 25 seconds, there is no cooldown any more.
Gear Master (Row 3, Passive) – Increase Armor by 30%. Level 2: increase Armor by 60%, reduce ranged damage received by 10%. Level 3: increase Armor by 90%, reduce ranged damage received by 20%, 10% chance attacking enemy will stagger.
Ring of Chaos (Row 3. Active) – Stuns all enemies within 3 meters range, dealing 150% Warrior damage. Level 2: 5 meter range, 180% damage. Level 3: 7 meters range, 250% damage.

Fire Mastery (Row 4, Passive, Requires Flaming Arrows) – Fire buildup increased by 25%. Level 2: fire buildup increased by 40%, burning duration increased by 4 seconds. Level 3: fire buildup increased by 60%, burning duration increased by 6 seconds, burning damage increased by 40%.
Overpower Attacks (Row 4, Passive) – Massive powerful attacks that vary depending on weapon type. Requires 3 full Adrenaline segments. Level 2 and 3: significantly increased damage and efficiency.
Battlecry of Ares (Row 5, Active, Requires Overpower Attacks) – All attacks inflict 20% more damage for 10 seconds. All attacks during this stage are non-lethal. Spends no Adrenaline segments. Has ~30 seconds cooldown. Level 2: 35% more damage, 15 seconds duration. Level 3: 50% more damage, 20 seconds duration.

ASSASSIN SKILL TREE

The right tree is reserved for the silent killers. Building your character as an Assassin will significantly increase your first hit attacks and special Assassin-like moves at the expense of survivability.

Revelation (Row 1, Passive) – Reveals all objects, secret chests and hidden passages in a 15 meter radius. All nearby enemies are tagged. Level 2: radius increased to 20 meters. Level 3: radius increased to 30 meters.
Venomous Attacks (Row 1, Active) – Melee weapons and standard arrows inflict Poison damage for 15 seconds. When their Poison meter is full, enemies become intoxicated and take damage over time. Their armor is weakened. Requires no Adrenaline. Level 2: duration increased to 20 seconds. Level 3: duration increased to 25 seconds. Cooldown is removed.

Vanish (Row 2, Active) – Stun nearby enemies for 6 seconds. Attacking them will break the stun. Level 2: duration increased to 8 seconds. Level 3: duration increased to 10 seconds.
Poison Mastery – (Row 2, Active, Requires Venomous Attacks) – Poison buildup is increased by 25%. Level 2: Poison buildup increased to 40%, intoxication increased by 4 seconds. Level 3: Poison buildup increased by 60%, intoxication duration increased by 6 seconds, weakening effect increased by 25%.
Rush Assassination (Row 2, Active) – Launch the Spear of Leonidas at a distant enemy to deal 100% Assassin damage up close. Can be chained 1 time. Level 2: 130% Assassin damage, can be chained 2 times. Level 3: 150% Assassin damage, can be chained 3 times.

Call to Arms (Row 3, Active) – Summon a Lieutenant to distract enemies for 30 seconds or longer. Level 2: 40 seconds. Level 3: enraged LT for 50 seconds.
Hero Strike (Row 3, Active) – Single strike attack unleashing the full power of the Spear of Leonidas. Inflicts 60% Assassin damage. Level 2: 80% damage. Level 3: 100% damage.
Critical Assassination (Row 3, Passive) – Launch a deadly attack dealing 200% Assassin damage. Must be in range and out of combat to perform. Level 2: 250% damage. Level 3: 300% damage.

Slow Time (Row 4, Active) – Move faster as time slows for 5 seconds. Level 2: 7 seconds. Level 3: 10 seconds.
Stealth Master (Row 4, Passive) – Reduced noise from Assassination. Level 2: noise reduced further. Enemy detection reduced when crouching. Level 3: noise reduced further. Enemy detection reduced when crouching, out of combat Assassination damage increased.
Shadow of Nyx (Row 4, Active, Requires Stealth Master) – While out of combat, become invisible as a shadow. Moving will cause exposure. Adrenaline is consumed quickly over time. Level 2: Moving will not cause exposure. Adrenaline is consumed over time. Level 3: Moving or Aiming a bow will not cause exposure. Adrenaline is consumed slowly over time.

BASIC ABILITIES

At the bottom of the Abilities screen are the basic abilities that unlock and level up automatically as you play the game, gain levels and progress through the story.

Summon Phobos – call your loyal mount.
Meditation – the ability to switch between day and night-time. Very useful when planning to invade a big camp.
Eyes of Ikaros – Increases the accuracy of your bird, allows it to see walking paths of enemy soldiers, gives Ikaros the ability to harass a target (like in Origins) and more.
Assassination – the ability to approach an non-suspecting target and one-shot it from behind.
Leap of Faith – the ability to jump from high points into a pile of.. leafs. Upgrading it later on removes the falling damage taken.
Whistle – great for attracting the attention of your next target, while waiting in the grass to assassinate it.
Man at Arms – allows you to equip a second weapon from the inventory and swap between them (like in Origins).
Defensive Maneuvers – the ability to roll and dodge. Perfectly executed dodges briefly slow time. Your next hit after parrying an attack deals 50% increased damage.
Recruit – the ability to recruit defeated or knocked down NPCs and make them serve on your Ship as Lieutenants.

MASTER LEVEL SYSTEM

This system was introduced with Update 1.1.1 on November 29th. It becomes available at level 50 and allows you to spend your Ability Points to gain valuable passive perks for your favorite combat abilities or boost your combat efficiency and stats in general.

There are three categories in the Mastery level system that mirror the original skill trees – Hunter, Warrior and Assassin. Each one has 24 unique bonuses that you can level up to 20 times. Every new skill point you spend on a Mastery level perk has diminishing returns.

You can spend skill points on any perk from any tree, regardless if you have purchased the main ability that the perk might be boosting. Well, in this case you would be wasting your Skill Points, of course.

You can reset the Master Level points separately from your Skill Tree at the cost of a few thousand Drachmae (based on your current level).

The Mastery Level System stacks up with all and any bonuses you already have from your gear. You don’t need to worry about missing out.

HOW TO UPGRADE THE SPEAR OF LEONIDAS

This paragraph contains a couple of very minor story spoilers!

The Spear of Leonidas (or what’s left of it) is something your character has from the very beginning. You don’t need to worry about finding it. When the time comes, you will be able to start upgrading it. This happens at the Forge – a place you will visit during the “Memories Awaken” mission with Herodotos in Andros. There is no way you would miss this mission, so that’s another thing you don’t need to worry about. Just enjoy your game until the time comes.

The spear can be upgraded by bringing it back to the Forge in the cave along with Artifact Fragments. You can collect Artifact Fragments from defeated members of the Cult of Kosmos.

When the spear is at level 2, the level 2 abilities (the active ones) will be unlocked and I advise you to immediately reset your skills for a few hundreds drachmae to rebuild your character and take advantage of the more powerfull attacks. The Speak also upgrades your Adrenaline.

You can upgrade The Spear of Leonidas up to level 6. At level 5 the third level of abilities will be unlocked for you. I strongly suggest you spend some time with the Cult system and upgrade the spear early on at least to level 3.

ADRENALINE AND ABILITY SLOTS IN ASSASSIN’S CREED ODYSSEY

Adrenaline is what you will need to build before you are able to use the special abilities. Each ability spends one or more adrenaline bar. Adrenaline fills up as you attack and is spent when you use active abilities or get hit.

When you start-up the game, you will have four melee and four ranged skills. Each time you purchase a new ability, you can place it in one of the two rows, based on what type of damage it deals. Later in the game you will be able to assign abilities to additional bar (wheel for consoles). You can switch between then with a click of a button and have different skill builds (if I may say so).

Each one of the skill slots has a shortcut button that you can push to activate that ability instantly. Some high-end abilities will stop spending Adrenaline when upgraded to their highest level (3).

ABILITY COMBOS IN ASSASSIN’S CREED ODYSSEY

Some abilities can be combined for an increased effect. The combo system is very well-known among fans of the Mass Effect video games. To do a combo means to use two abilities that fit together and benefit each other. A great example are the Flaming Attacks and the Ring of Chaos. Build up a fire DoT on an enemy, then hit the AoE ability to spread the DoT to other nearby enemies.

There are abilities that do not stack up, though. A great example are the Flaming Attacks and the Venomous Attacks. The moment you apply one on top of the other, the first one gets canceled and only the newly placed DoT remains.

Producing Combos can help you end fights quicker and easier, but it also requires more experience with the game and practice. Knowing how the different types of enemies behave, will help you a lot when you are facing them.

BEST ABILITIES TO PICK EARLY IN ASSASSIN’S CREED ODYSSEY

One of the best things about this game is that it allows you to reset your abilities and try a new build. And this comes at a very low-cost too. Only a few hundred drachmae.

Some of the best abilities to pick early are:

Sparta Kick – this is an amazing ability that can be used on all kinds of enemies to knock them off cliffs. Extremely useful against powerful mercenaries, for example.
Second Wind – the ability to heal yourself is invaluable in any build. Even though it is on the second row in the Warrior tree, you will get great use of it as an Assassin or a Hunter as well. Invaluable against tough bosses and longer encounters.
Sixth Sense – gives you that little extra time to react if an enemy surprises you. If you are a more experienced player, but prefer to play on Normal or Easy difficulty, you may skip that ability for the most part.
Devastating Shot – great for dealing high amounts of damage and either one-shot an enemy soldier or enter the fight with a great advantage.
Flaming Attacks – my personal favorite. Very fun and useful at low levels as well as later on. Great for a combo with Ring of Chaos.
Critical Assassination – this passive allows you to one-shot even enemies one level higher than you with no problem.
Revelation – it isn’t a combat ability, but is arguably one of the best early purchases you can make. Upgrading it later to level 2 and 3 increases its radios and allows you to find goodies easier. Just… don’t steal… much!

Hint: Don’t forget to use your torch as a weapon. It’s surprisingly strong in so many cases… until Ubisoft gets it nerfed, eventually :)

There is no point talking about the top row abilities. These provide a great boost of power in their respective builds. I could list more, but there’s no point. The Sparta Kick for all builds and the Second Wind for higher difficulty tiers are among the best skills you should start with. After that, feel free to branch out.

The best part about the Abilities system in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is that you don’t need to unlock the first skills in each branch. Most are only locked behind a level requirement. Don’t forget to respec often and if needed. More on that in the next paragraph of the guide!

Getting as many Passive abilities in your favorite skill tree as fast as possible is also a good way to boost your character’s performance.

BEST ABILITIES FOR ASSASSIN’S CREED ODYSSEY ENDGAME

When you get to play the higher levels of the game, and especially if you have chosen a difficulty higher than “Normal”, you will find yourself stuck against a certain enemy or a boss for quite some time. Swapping builds will help you improve in whatever your opponents is weakest against. For example, if you are fighting a powerful Mercenary, who is weak against Assassin Damage, approaching him with a strong Hunter Build might be risky. Time consuming at least to take him down.

As you gain levels and continue to explore new regions, I advise you to reset your abilities and rebuild them a few times. Stacking more points on certain passive or active skills yields more benefits, but you don’t always get to spend the points on them. For some of the upgrades on certain skills you need to have progressed in the story and/or be high enough level. Until you meet those requirements, you should spend yours skill points on the “next best thing” that fits your play style. As soon as you unlock another upgrade, reset your skills and spend the extra points upgrading the one(s) you like the most.

Since I am a Warrior type of player, I tend to lean heavily towards this branch (skill tree, whatever you want to call it, really). Sparta Kick gives you great advantage early on, but is just as valuable for the higher level encounters. Flaming Attacks and Ring of Chaos are absolutely fantastic for when I find myself surrounded by a number of enemy soldiers (which happens more often than I should allow for it :P).

Assassin and Hunter are generally builds for the later game and tend to give more advantage to the experienced players. I would recommend you try the Warrior first if you are a beginner. Of course, nothing can and will stop you from going all out for the deadly Assassin or long-ranged hunter, but if you have no previous experience with the Assassin’s Creed series and most specifically Origins from last year, you might miss in some opportunities as a new player. Knowing your opponent’s attack types, behavior and capabilities gives you an edge in every battle. In Odyssey this is also true.