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When you start playingAssassin’s Creed Shadows, you’ll quickly realize that the game features a dual protagonist gameplay since you get to play as both Yasuke and Naoe in the prologue itself. However, you’ll have to wait for quite a few hours before these two reunite and give you the ability to switch between them.
Other than these characters that you can control yourself, there are also plenty of allies that would love to join your cause against the oppressive Shinbakufu, and Yaya is one of them. If you want to recruit her though, you’ll have to select the right options at the right time.
How To Start Yaya Recruitment Process
Yaya will be the first ally you’ll recruit in the main story, andshe can be found as you follow the assassination quest of Wada Koretake. While doing this quest, you’ll help a few mercenaries in a temple by defeating some enemies, and during the dialogue here, Yaya will be introduced for the first time.
After this, you’ll see her againwhen you enter Wada Koretake’sstronghold to assassinate him. After defeating the target and playing a small cutscene, you’ll stop Mitsumune from slaying one of Koretake’s soldiers, where Yaya will mention that this is not the way they do things and look to you for support.
Here, you’ll get thefirst major choice for recruiting Yaya, and it’s important to get this one right.
You’ll get to choose between assassinating the target or showing mercy, andYaya will be happy if you choose the “Killing them isn’t justice.” option. Mitsumune will kill the soldier regardless, but you’ll get the quest to recruit Yaya here.
The Stray Dogs Quest Guide
Once you choose the correct option during the cutscene in Koretake’s stronghold, you’ll get anew ally quest in the objective menu asking you to head to western Osakaand help Yaya. The location will be marked on your map and you’ll have to defeat a few enemies attacking her when you get to the quest area.
After defeating the enemies, you’ll talk with Yaya where she’ll ask for yourhelp to sort out the monk issue before she thinks about joining you. With that, you’ll see an enemy that lived the fight and Yaya will ask you what to do with him, and the correct option here is “We forgive him.”
For the next part of the quest, you have to find Tetsuo to get Yaya’s kanzashi in the Church of Takatsuki. Youcan find this area to the northeast of Amagasaki castle, at the very northern edge of Izumi Settsu. The church is just below the Takatsuki Castle, and you can turn on observe mode when near it to pinpoint the required location.
After talking to Tetsuo, he’ll try to run away from you only to get intercepted by Yaya, who thinks of harming him. However, here you get your last choice where you can pick “You need to forgive each other.” option. You’ll then get the option to ask Yaya to work with you again, and she’ll say yes.
Once recruited, you canuse Yaya’s ability and get her to join battleswith you when it’s not on cooldown.
Yaya Ability Guide
Once you successfully recruit Yaya, you can press the button to bring up your tools menu and you’ll see her portrait on the bottom right side with a button near it. Youcan press this button to activate her ability while targeting an enemywhen it’s not on cooldown.
Once activated, Yaya will spawn nearby and join the battle with you, starting with a pushback attack on the enemies. This can get alittle glitchy and she might avoid this attack completely if it takes her too longto reach the enemy when you’re fighting in close spaces.
Yaya will thenfight alongside you until the threat is eliminatedand then run away with a smoke cloud.
You cancreate a Dojo buildingin your hideout and spend some Mon there to upgrade Yaya and give her new passives. The first upgrade lets her knockdown the first target, which lets you perform a ground attack. Thesecond one lets her send the primary target while using her ability flying with a kick.
You’ll have toupgrade the Dojo to get the second upgradeon an ally or to use multiple allies at the same time.
