Assassin's Creed: Mirage beginner's tips and tricks

Being part of the Hidden Ones Brotherhood is no easy feat in Assassin’s Creed: Mirage. As our protagonist, Basim, grows from clumsy but keen street-thief into a fully-fledged assassin, you’ll find yourself on a learning curve alongside him as you get to grips with life as an assassin in Baghdad.

Once you get used to it and know about all that Baghdad has to offer in Assassin’s Creed Mirage, though, you’ll be plain-sailing. With hands full of Favor Tokens and powerful weapons, taking on any assassination - or liberation - will be a breeze. Without further ado, here are some beginner’s tips and tricks for Assassin’s Creed: Mirage.

Assassin's Creed: Mirage beginner's tips and tricks

Use Enkidu to create a plan of action

Enkidu is a beautiful bird, and just so happens to be a very useful one, too. They’re great for scouting out an area for quest objectives, chests, and more.

When going on an assassination, Enkidu is particularly useful for spotting enemies and different ways you can approach the quest at hand. If there’s mercenaries, merchants, or scholars we can persuade to help us, Enkidu will flag them for you.

Enkidu’s abilities can also be upgraded from Basim’s skill tree, and they’re something you should consider looking into. With a few skill upgrades, Enkidu can spot keys for chests, tag enemies and their walking routes, and have an increased range of vision.

They’re vital for completing assassinations without much of a hitch, and great for Contracts with difficult Contractor Requests. Use them as much as you can!

Complete Contracts when you can

Speaking of Contracts, these are a form of small side quest that you can complete whenever you want in Assassin’s Creed: Mirage. These tasks will give you resources and Khidmah Tokens, which can be used with merchants, scholars, mercenaries and more across Mirage to help you on your quests.

Contracts can be picked up from the contract board at any Hidden Ones Bureau, and will task you with all sorts, from stealing boats to escorting civilians. Each Contract also comes with a ‘Contractor Request’, which will give you additional rewards if completed; these are quite tricky, often asking you to complete the contract without being seen or without taking damage, but those extra Favor Tokens are worth the effort.

The Khidmah Tokens that you earn from Contracts can then be used on assassinations and other tasks to help you with distraction and/or combat, gaining entry to new places, and more. You can have musicians distract guards with a tune so you can enter restricted areas, blend in with and enter areas with merchants, or have mercenaries take the heat from guards for you, and so forth.

Your Eagle sight is more useful than you think

That special Eagle sight that Basim is able to use is more useful than you first think. At first, it’s a great way of spotting enemies from afar and plotting a route to avoid their line of sight. It’s also great for spotting chests and other lootable items that you might otherwise miss.

What I found it most useful for, however, was when investigating. When looking for a way into a restricted area, or a way to get closer to a target, the Eagle sight will often point out helpful NPCs, breakable barriers.

These can be NPCs who require Favor Tokens to help, or may merely help us with our bidding for free, and the breakable barriers could be your way inside that restricted area, finally. Pay attention to everything in your surroundings that glows; it could be a danger to avoid, loot, or something useful to help us with our quest.

The Eagle sight is also great for investigating smaller areas when you’re not too sure what it is you’re looking for; it’ll color quest items such as notes or diagrams in an orange glow, making them much easier to spot and interact with.

Spend time opening chests and looking for Schematics

There’s nothing worse than going to a Blacksmith with the intention of upgrading your favourite weapon, only to find that you’re missing an item required for your upgrade.

To upgrade weapons in Assassin’s Creed, you don’t just simply required Leather and Iron Ingots. You’ll need the relevant Schematics for that weapon, too. These can often be found in the guarded, golden chests around Baghdad. Although, some of them will need keys or Favor Tokens to open.

You can also find Schematics by helping people around Baghdad, and by climbing the Hidden Ones ranks.

Before rushing to a Blacksmith to have your gear upgraded, open up your inventory and double-check your weapon is eligible for upgrade first. If it isn’t, you’ll be able to see whether you’re missing resources or Schematics, and can then hunt down what you need.

Make sure to spend a little time exploring Baghdad and cracking those chests open so that your gear can be as powerful as can be.

You don’t have to approach every assassination the same

This piece of advice is perhaps a bit more obvious, but don’t be afraid to attempt new approaches in Assassin’s Creed: Mirage. You need not stealth around every castle or prison if you don’t want to, and there’s typically more than one way to do things.

For example, in one quest you must access a hidden basement. You can steal a key from a gardener and make your way down there, or you can save yourself some time with a Khidmah Token. Alternatively, if you fancy going about things the long way, you can explore until you find a secret passphrase, which will also gain you access to the hidden basement.

When Assassin’s Creed: Mirage tells you to look for different options, do it! Don’t necessarily go for the first route you find and don’t be afraid to experiment; there are often many ways to do things, and some routes are much more fun than others!

Spend some time pickpocketing citizens

At the very beginning of Assassin’s Creed: Mirage, you’ll be taught how to pickpocket unsuspecting citizens. It’s pretty easy to forget about pickpocketing afterwards when you’ll be stumbling into plenty of good loot, but be sure to spend some time pickpocketing here and there.

Why? It’s an easy way of getting yourself money and Khidmah Tokens. Most people you pickpocket will possess trinkets that can be sold at traders for money, or Khidmah Tokens that can be used to have merchants, mercenaries, and more help you with assassinations. Merchant Tokens, specifically, can be used to reduce prices at shops or to open Merchant chests.