How to adopt a pet in Assassin’s Creed Shadows

While the assassin life can be brutal, it’s not all doom and gloom. You can unwind by snuggling up to cats and dogs, even bringing them back to your Hideout. Discover how to adopt pets in Assassin’s Creed: Shadows, adding a lot more cuteness to your home base.

How do you adopt pets in AC: Shadows?

Almost every town in the AC: Shadows map includes an animal, and you can pet a cat or dog to add them to your Codex. Look around places like Osaka and Sakai to trigger their appearance. However, it’s best not to look in enemy strongholds since they don’t seem to roam there. If you pre-ordered the game, you’ll get an exclusive animal in the Thrown to the Dogs quest. Once you’ve some good pets in, you’ll transport the animals to your Hideout.

While at your Hideout, select ‘Improve Hideout’ when exploring or via the table in the main house. You can now place down a pet in the Build section to adopt them. Select any cat or dog in an open area at the Hideout. After encountering a particular breed, you can set down multiple of them and build an animal empire. The Tsuki-maru from the Thrown to the Dogs quest is the only exception, as this unique companion doesn’t come in packs.

You’ll earn the AC: Shadows Everybody Benefits! trophy once you’ve adopted a pet. In return, you can find and interact with the dogs and cats at your home base. Although they don’t offer any rewards, the animals are just too adorable to resist giving a pet or two. If you aren’t sure where the Tsuki-maru is, you can use the ‘Locate’ button in the Build menu to narrow down their location (the others don’t have this feature.)

Continue to travel around the regions to find more pets to adopt. There are a lot of breeds to discover, including Black Akita, Calico Kitten, and Tabby Bobtail. You can go full Pokémon Trainer mode and catch ’em all—just like it’s your ultimate quest to collect every last one in Shadows.