Locations of all Horse Archery challenges for Yasuke in Assassin’s Creed Shadows. The guide includes walkthroughs and tips how to earn Legend status on every arena!
Table of contents
How Horse Archery works
In Assassin’s Creed Shadows, you can explore various locations to earn Knowledge Points. Horse Archery is one of seven available activities marked with read icon on your map after you discover it.
 | Temples |
 | Shrines |
 | Kuji-kiri (for Naoe only) |
 | Kata (for Yasuke only) |
 | Horse Archery (for Yasuke only) |
 | Kofun |
 | Hidden Trail (for Naoe only) |
Knowledge Points are used to progress through the Mastery Tiers and be able to unlock new abilities and passive perks. For more details, read our guides on Mastery and Abilities and how Gear works. Earning Knowledge Points is the core of your progression.
To complete a Horse Archery, you have to talk to the NPC and start the challenge. This is specifically an activity for Yasuke. Completing the Horse Archery will reward you with a Knowledge Point.
Your goal is to hit all targets, barrels or whatever the master archer puts on your path. To grab the rewards from each activity, you need to achieve Legends status, this means hit everything. You have limited arrows and are not allowed to use abilities during these challenges.
Just aim and shoot. The horse is moving automatically, you don’t need to take care of that.
Some of the arenas are more challenging than others. You can run them as many times as you wish to achieve Legend status.
The rewards for achieving Legend in every arena are always a Knowledge Point, 500 XP, and a Mount skin.
My advice is to keep the key for aiming pressed at all times to avoid delays and FPS glitches where the game appears to “skip a frame” sometimes. Not sure if this is a bug that will be fixed, but something to keep in mind.
You only need to hit the marked targets. Sometimes there will be obstacles that attempt to block your way like fake barrels, structures, and even other NPCs passing by. Some of the courses take place on open paths where you will encounter other NPCs.
The challenges happen in the open world, so you may have to deal with things like snowstorms in winter, heavy rains, nighttime – all kinds of things that affect your clear vision to your targets. You always have the choice to go do something else and wait for the weather to change to something more friendly.
Each region has a single Horse Archery challenge (Omi has two), and they tend to get more challenging as you progress through the regions. Aim Assist and Game Difficulty do not alter this experience.
The order in which you complete the Yabusame arenas, does not matter. They are all individual challenges and are not dependent or related to each other.
Video Walkthrough
In the video walkthrough you will see a Legend-qualifying completion of each arena and at the end there are all horse skins you can earn from these challenges.
Walkthrough and tips for every Arena
Settsu Arena
The Izumi Settsu arena is located in the Muggy Lands, in Izumi Settsu. This is northeast of Toneyama Post Town and northwest of Eguchi Crossing. The NPC is right on the shore.
Your goal here is to shoot at clay jars marked with a target. They are located on both sides of the road.
| Target | Helper |
|---|---|
| 1 | On the right side, on a stone, shortly after you start the run. |
| 2 | On the left side, on top of wooden scaffolding. |
| 3 | On the right side, on top of the wooden bridge. |
| 4 | On the left side, after the wooden bridge. Shoot between the columns as you are making the right turn coming up to the bridge. |
| 5 | On the right side, on the ground. |
| 6 | On the left side, on top of a large stone. |
Yamashiro Arena
The arena in Yamashiro is located just outside of Kyoto, northwest of the city and south from Kinkakuji Temple.
This is arguably the easiest. You have three targets to hit, all located on the left side of the track. There are no obstacles. All three targets are facing the track, so they are sideways to you, but they are large targets, and all are on the same height from the ground.
Omi Arena #1
The first Omi arena is located south of Azuchi in Omi. Just below the Bushi Gardens on the map.
There are five paper lanterns you have to hit while on the horse and some of them are hidden or obscured by obstacles. All are on the left side of the linear track.
| Target | Helper |
|---|---|
| 1 | Left side, middle height, not obscured. |
| 2 | Left side, lower height, half-hidden behind a stone. |
| 3 | Left side, high up on the right side of a tree. |
| 4 | Left side, high up on the left side of a tree. |
| 5 | Left side, low next to the ground, obscured by stone and bush. Aim where the light is or wait to come closer to see it more clearly. |
Omi Arena #2
The second Omi Arena is located southwest of Shiotsu and southeast of Mount Peak Viewpoint in Omi’s Takashima Shores region. You will find the master archer on the side of the road.
There are eight vases (jars, jugs) you have to hit. A couple of them are hidden behind other unmarked vases. You have enough arrows during this challenge to hit all vases that block your view, but you don’t need to. If you are patient and careful, you can hit only the marked vases without using any spare arrows.
| Target | Helper |
|---|---|
| 1 | Right side, clearly visible, on the edge of the stones past the river. |
| 2 | Left side, on a large stone, hidden behind an unmarked vase. |
| 3 | Left side, clearly visible, on a stone. |
| 4 | Right side, there is an unmarked vase across from the path on the left. The marked one is clearly visible. |
| 5 | Left side, in the shade of a small tree. |
| 6 | Right side, behind an unmarked vase. You can hit it when you are close or right after you pass it. |
| 7 | Left side, clearly visible from afar. You can see and hit it before you pass vase #6. |
| 8 | Right side, clearly visible. |
Iga Arena
The arena in Iga is located in Hijiyama. Right on the east side of Kashiwara Village and north of Kashiwara Manor.
For this challenge, you are hitting straw dummies. They will be located on either side of the road. There might be NPCs obstructing your vision, so be careful.
| Target | Helper |
|---|---|
| 1 | Left side, before the bridge. |
| 2 | Right side, after the bridge, under the shed. |
| 3 | Right side, behind some wooden clothes drying racks. |
| 4 | Left side, obstructed by a stone vase. Aim for the dummy’s head. |
| 5 | Right side, in front of the cart with piles of straw bales. |
| 6 | Left side, past behind some burned wooden structure. |
| 7 | Right side, up on the hill, under the shed, behind some wicker jars. |
Harima Arena
The Himeji Arena is located north of Himeji, in Harima. It’s just across the river from Mai’s Mansion.
The challenge in this one is to hit small wooden targets. All are on the left side of the track, but some will be facing you and some will be sideways, facing the arena track.
| Target | Helper |
|---|---|
| 1 | Left side, eye-height, clearly visible, facing you. |
| 2 | Left side, low height, clearly visible, facing you. |
| 3 | Left side, low height, clearly visible, facing the track. |
| 4 | Left side, low height, between the tree branches, facing you. |
| 5 | Left side, very high up, clearly visible, facing you. |
Yamato Arena
The arena in Yamato is located north of Uda Matsuyama Castle. It’s just on the north side of the Uda Rice Storage facilities.
The challenge in this one is to hit small wooden targets. All are on the left side of the track, but some will be obscured by wooden plates or bush.
| Target | Helper |
|---|---|
| 1 | Left side, eye-height, clearly visible, facing you. |
| 2 | Left side, close to the ground, clearly visible, facing you. |
| 3 | Left side, mid height, clearly visible, facing the track. |
| 4 | Left side, close to the ground, facing the track, obstructed by wooden plates. Shoot when you are close. |
| 5 | Left side, mid height, obscured by both a bush and a wooden plate, facing the track. |
Wakasa Arena
The arena is located in the northern part of Wakasa, in the Lake Suigetsu sub-region.
In this challenge, you have to hit 7 wooden barrels marked with a target symbol. They will be located on both sides of the road.
| Target | Helper |
|---|---|
| 1 | Right side, on the ground, behind the fence. |
| 2 | Right side, on the small ridge, on the left side of the tree. |
| 3 | Left side, on the ground. |
| 4 | Right side, on a stone. There is a barrel across on the left, don’t hit it. |
| 5 | Right side, low on the ground, in front of a small tree. |
| 6 | Left side, semi-obscured by stone, at the base of a large tree, on the ground. |
| 7 | Right side, in the front yard of the old house, semi-obstructed vision by wooden carts parked in front of the barrel. |
Tamba Arena
The arena is located in The Silver Lands, in Tamba. It’s just across the Tonomine Kogen Wetlands, on the western bank of the river.
This might be the most challenging arena because with low visibility you may skip on a couple of the hidden barrels you are supposed to shoot.
| Target | Helper |
|---|---|
| 1 | Right side, on the wooden platform protruding above the water, just past the lake. |
| 2 | Left side, on a large stone. |
| 3 | Right side, below the wooden scaffolding with the two unmarked barrels sitting on top of it. Half of the barrel is under water. May be tricky to spot depending on weather conditions. |
| 4 | Right side, on top of a large stone block. |
| 5 | Left side, high up, on top of a wooden platform protruding from the destroyed house’s second floor. |
| 6 | Right side, on the ground. |
| 7 | Left side, only the top of the barrel is visible. There are three unmarked barrels in front of it. You can shoot the middle one to clear your access or aim directly for the top of the marked barrel behind., |
| 8 | Left side, up on a small ridge, eye-height. |
| 9 | Right side, on the ground, on the right side of the tree, before the bridge. |
Kii Arena
The arena is located on the southernmost edge of the map, in Kii. It’s in the Nakachechi Route, where the Hashigui-iwa rocks are.
You have to hit 7 wooden targets placed on both sides of the road. They will all be relatively clearly visible with some obstacles, but you might also be distracted by the natural beauty of the digital interpretation of Hashigui-iwa.
| Target | Helper |
|---|---|
| 1 | Left side, shortly after the start, be ready. |
| 2 | Left side, semi-obstructed by rocks, wait for clear vision as you approach it. |
| 3 | Right side, low height above the water, obstructed by 3 wooden plates. |
| 4 | Left side, low on the ground, very close to the previous one. |
| 5 | Right side, on the rocks, low near the ground, very close to the previous one. |
| 6 | Right side, past the birds, between the rocks |
| 7 | Left side, obstructed by many wooden plates. |
Mount Rewards
Below you can see a preview of every mount from every archery arena. Click or tap on an image to expand it on full screen.
