In Assassin’s Creed Origins, players are given an unprecedented amount of freedom in building up the power of its protagonist, Bayek. As a skilled warrior — a Medjay, part of an ancient retinue of bodyguards that protected the pharaohs and priests of Egypt — Bayek can use a range of weapons, from a bow and arrows to staffs, swords, and maces.
But there’s more to it than that. By hunting for materials, crafting, and looting cash, you can upgrade your arsenal to make Bayek’s set of skills your own, tailoring them to how you want to play. In the case of Assassin’s Creed Origins, the tools really do make the man. And by giving you the freedom to upgrade and customize Bayek’s loadout however you want, you can build a character perfectly suited to the way you want to play — a first for the Assassin’s Creed franchise.
Weapons, Weapons Everywhere
At any given time, Bayek can equip a bow and arrow and a melee weapon. However, one additional slot of each can be unlocked by using Ability Points on Bayek’s skill tree. Some weapons can only be used if Bayek is at a certain skill level, so as Bayek levels up, so does his arsenal.
In terms of bows, once that second slot is unlocked, Bayek can carry two weapons with attributes that best complement the way you want to hunt. Each bow carries different skill boosts, such as an increased rate of fire, higher precision accuracy, extra damage and damage dealt while in stealth, or increase likelihood of making enemies bleed out.
The same is true of melee weapons. Bayek can equip longswords, short swords, maces, sceptres, daggers and staffs that also play into the attributes you want to lean on. Depending what you equip, you can up your critical hit rate, fill Bayek’s Adrenaline meter faster to deal more high-power attacks, or add extra points to Bayek’s combo multiplier.
All of these weapons can be upgraded for gold at blacksmith stalls. So if there’s a specific weapon you love using, you can power it up alongside Bayek.
But Wait, There’s More
Bayek can also equip different shields. These shields also offer bonuses, such as extra protection against melee or ranged attacks or increased fire resistance. You can also equip special shields that will fill your Adrenaline gauge for every successful parry of an enemy attack, or poison an enemy when you successfully block them.
The additional tools Bayek can equip include firebombs and smoke darts, to name a couple. These are useful in taking down large crowds or putting guards asleep to sneak by them. Bayek’s outfit, too, can be changed, though they don’t offer any stat boosts or benefits. But if you want to make Bayek walk around in a towel, that’s cool. Same for mounts: Bayek can tame various animals and work with them.
Craft Whenever Possible
In the Gear screen, players can further boost Bayek’s other pieces of gear. Doing so will increase the number of items he can carry and bolster his defense. These pieces, such as his breastplate and tool pouch, can be made stronger through crafting.
Here are the additional pieces you can customize and what you can get:
- The Assassin hidden blade: Increase the damage the blade does by collecting minerals.
- Arrow capacity: Increase Bayek’s max arrow capacity by collecting wood.
- Stabilizer glove: Increase ranged damage dealt by collecting animal hides.
- Bracer: Increase Bayek’s melee damage by collecting wood.
- Breastplate: Increase Bayek’s maximum health by collecting crocodile hides and animal skins.
- Tool pouch: Increase max tool capacity by collecting animal hides.
Crafting materials are obtained through hunting and exploring. Mineral materials can sometimes be found in the darkest depths of tombs, wood can be found in forests, and leather and fur can be obtained by hunting down animals in the wild like crocodiles, tigers, and hippopotami.
If there’s one specific item you want to focus on crafting for, you can “pin” the materials and prioritize them for search; now, when looking at your map or when deploying Senu, you will see locations for these materials on your map.
Happy hunting, assassins!
