How to master Assassin’s Creed Mirage’s drastic changes and choose early-game skills
Have you heard the one about how Assassin’s Creed Mirage is a return to the series’ simpler roots? That’s true—but it’s not nearly the whole truth. Ubisoft’s latest installment fundamentally reimagines how to tell a story within a franchise that’s a dozen mainline installments old. It’s creative, but it also takes some getting used to.
In this Assassin’s Creed Mirage guide, we’ll walk you through this great reimagining, from how the story unfolds to the way quests work. We’ll also spend time on Assassin’s Creed Mirage’s Skill trees, explaining how they’re designed and recommending the best early-game skills.
Story first (and skills second)
Assassin’s Creed Mirage transports players to Baghdad in 861 CE. You play as Basim Ibn Is’haq, starting at the very beginning of his journey from street rat to proto-Assassin. The emphasis is on that story—on story as much as (stealth) combat, in fact. Assassin's Creed Mirage is a heavily narrative-driven adventure through the twisting, bustling streets of ninth century Baghdad, complete with mosques, marketplaces and colorful characters like caliphate guards and bandits. It’s against this backdrop that the Middle Ages’ best detective straps on his utility belt and sets out to solve mysteries in a city that reacts to his every move.
If you’ve played an Assassin’s Creed game recently—or a role-playing game in pretty much any franchise, for that matter—you’d expect to see things that simply aren’t around in Assassin’s Creed Mirage. In place of experience points and levels, there is story. And it’s not much more complicated than that. As the story unfolds, so does Basim’s power.
The loop goes like this: You’re the world’s greatest detective. You hear about problems. You investigate. Every clue you uncover unravels a bit more of the mystery until you piece it all together. At that point, you have your target, and it’s time to end the investigation by doing the thing, which is often killing the bad guy. And only then do you reap the rewards like skill points.
This isn’t problematic, but it is unexpected. Put differently, you aren’t racking up numbers (experience points) for each kill or by doing side quests. You’re playing your way through a story, and the skills that you earn reflect and parallel Basim's narrative growth. It’s simple and linear.
Investigations, not quests
The world’s greatest detective dresses in a costume and wears a utility belt full of techy gadgets. This is Baghdad and not Gotham City, but it’s still full of mysteries for this ninth century detective.
Unlike many of its predecessors, Assassin’s Creed Mirage doesn’t have a quest log. You’re not doing big and little things to gain experience. You’re solving mysteries—and the Investigation Board is where you manage your investigations. It is, in effect, Assassin’s Creed Mirage’s quest board.
It felt like it had to be more complicated, but it isn’t. The sooner you embrace that, the clearer your path forward will be.
Stealth, not combat
Nobody’s going to knock down your door and arrest you for fighting in Assassin’s Creed Mirage, but it’s clearly designed as a stealth-first game.
Combat is actually super simple. You’re really just meant to parry or dodge away from attacks. None of Basim’s Skills will make him an incredible fighter. Most of them will make him a sneakier attacker.
There’s a practical reason to go the stealthy route, too: You’re just making it harder on yourself when you walk around killing everyone in plain sight. The good people of Baghdad will give you infinite side-eye. Someone will make it their mission to print wanted posters in your likeness and hang them on walls around the city. The stealthy who do their dirty but necessary work in the shadows don’t earn a reputation for being killers (even if they are).
Assassin’s Creed Mirage Skills
Basim’s three skill trees—Phantom, Trickster and Predator—are simple and straightforward, and they tell you a lot about how the developers want you to play Assassin's Creed Mirage. Take the implication to heart. As mentioned, they’re not about becoming an ever more potent warrior. They’re typically about being more nimble and stealthy.
Another good thing to know: You can reset most Skills for no cost. (A notable exception is the Extra Tool Capacity Skill in the Trickster tree.) Feel free to experiment early in the game. If you don’t like what you unlocked, just hop into the Skills menu and press a button to reset them all and rebuild.
Phantom
The Phantom tree helps Basim carry out stealthier kills. With the exceptions of Kick Back and Counter Roll, which really are about face-to-face fighting, everything else lets you kill and traverse more efficiently.
- Kick Back (1 Skill Point): After a successful Parry, press a button to strike the parried enemy, and use direction to strike in another direction.
- Assassin’s Focus Capacity 1 (2 Skill Points): Adds an additional chunk to the Focus Bar.
- Breakfall (2 Skill Points): Basim automatically performs a roll when landing from a dangerous height, reducing the amount of damage taken.
- Chain Assassination (3 Skill Points): After performing an assassination, assassinate a second nearby enemy or throw a knife at a distant one if Throwing Knives are available.
- Air Strike (3 Skill Points): Slows down time while aiming with Throwing Knives in mid-air.
- Assassin’s Focus Capacity 2 (3 Skill Points): Adds an additional chunk to the Focus Bar.
- Counter Roll (4 Skill Points): Dodge towards an enemy’s Unblockable Attack just before it lands to vault directly behind them. A strong strategy against armored opponents.
- Focus Boost (4 Skill Points): Focus Bar will refill faster after each stealth kill.
Trickster
The Trickster tree helps Basim kill more creatively. We started to think of our character as a ninth-century Batman pretty quickly, and this Skill tree is typically about upgrading the gadgets on his utility belt. It’s an entire Skill tree to make technically optional gadgets better, which is a great incentive to use them.
- Auto-Collect (1 Skill Point): Loot an enemy automatically after a Stealth kill or assassination.
- Extra Tool Capacity 1 - 3 (2 Skill Points Each): You can unlock a new slot for a Tool by visiting Banu Musa at a Hidden Ones’ Bureau. However, once acquired, this skill cannot be reset.
- Elixr Pocket (2 Skill Points): Increase the maximum number of Elixirs you can carry at the same time by 1.
- Knife Recovery (3 Skill Points): All the Throwing Knives that hit an enemy can be retrieved from their corpse.
- Pickpocket Master (4 Skill Points): Basim’s skills as a Pickpocket increase, helping him retrieve his target’s valuables more efficiently.
- Engineer (4 Skill Points): You can select a second Tier 1 Tool Upgrade for each available Tool. Warning: Resetting will remove all Tier 1 Perks from the Tool. Visit the Banu Musa to reapply them.
Predator
The Predator Skill tree helps Basam scout more effectively, particularly with his avian companion Enkidu. We purchased the first three below as soon as possible. So many early-game missions required infiltrating areas full of guards and treasure that taking a minute or two to tag the location of every bad guy and chest made sneaking much more efficient.
- Pathfinder (1 Skill Point): Enkidu’s View reveals Keys and highlights opportunities like Chests with a glow. Secret Entrances are also easier to discover.
- Enkidu Acuity 1 - 2 (2 Skill Points Each): Enkidu’s perception is increased, making tagging enemies easier.
- Eagle Sense (3 Skill Points): Enkidu’s Eye reveals the Patrol Path of marked enemies.
- Emergency Aim (3 Skill Points): Holding a button or key will snap your aim to an enemy as they detect you, giving you an opportunity to kill them and remain undetected.
- Vision Boost (3 Skill Points): Increase Eagle Vision radius.
- Stealth Recon (5 Skill Points): Automatically highlights enemies when crouched and undetected.
Best early-game skills in Assassin’s Creed Mirage
What Skills should you buy first? We have opinions.
The best early-game Predator skills
As mentioned, we unlocked these skills first because tagging the enemies you’ll be sneaking by is always beneficial, and faster tagging means less waiting.
- Pathfinder (1 Skill Point): Enkidu’s View reveals Keys and highlights opportunities like Chests with a glow. Secret Entrances are also easier to discover.
- Enkidu Acuity 1 (2 Skill Points): Enkidu’s perception is increased, making tagging enemies easier.
- Enkidu Acuity 2 (2 Skill Points): Enkidu’s perception is increased, making tagging enemies easier.
The best early-game Phantom Skills
- Kick Back (1 Skill Point): After a successful Parry, press a button to strike the parried enemy, and use direction to strike in another direction.
- Assassin’s Focus Capacity 1 (2 Skill Points): Adds an additional chunk to the Focus Bar.
- Breakfall (2 Skill Points): Basim automatically performs a roll when landing from a dangerous height, reducing the amount of damage taken.
- Chain Assassination (3 Skill Points): After performing an assassination, assassinate a second nearby enemy or throw a knife at a distant one if Throwing Knives are available.
The best early-game Trickster Skills
Early on in Assassin’s Creed Mirage, we focused on the tool that we were given, rather than choosing to unlock several and overwhelm ourselves. That said, Auto-Collect is a pure quality of life purchase. We’re into stealth, which means that we save ourselves a needless button press every time we automatically loot someone.
Finally, if you find yourself dying a lot, you may want to increase the number of Elixirs that you can carry, but that was really never a problem for us.
- Auto-Collect (1 Skill Point): Loot an enemy automatically after a Stealth kill or assassination.
- Elixr Pocket (2 Skill Points): Increase the maximum number of Elixirs you can carry at the same time by 1.
If assassinating your way up the corporate ladder while kitting out your utility belt sounds like a good time, check out Assassin’s Creed Mirage in the Epic Games Store.