How To Get Pets For Your Assassin's Creed Shadows Hideout

Wondering about how to get pets in Assassin's Creed Shadows? The countryside of Japan is filled with all sorts of creatures great and small. Some of these critters can even go and frolic in your personal hideout. Our guide has all the tips that you need to befriend various animals in the game.

How to get pets in Assassin's Creed Shadows

There are three ways to acquire animal companions for your hideout:

Complete certain quests and choose the right decisions.
Pet animals that you encounter.
Buy them from the microtransactions store.

Animal companions from quests

You can get pets in Assassin's Creed Shadows by completing certain quests. A good example early in the campaign is a preorder-exclusive side quest called Thrown to the Dogs, which takes place near the city of Osaka. If you head to the location, you'll see a stray dog waiting at the grave of their owner Ichiro. From there, you can follow them to learn about what truly happened to its master. After reading the letter, you can have the dog, Tsuki-maru, head to your hideout.

Animal companions in the wild

The most common method of acquiring critters in the game requires you to pet them once you get close enough. Here are some important tidbits:
You can find domesticated animals in towns, though there are a few in the wilderness. If you love cats--because we all know that cats are awesome!--you could visit the Cat Island in Lake Biwa to find various felines.
Some animals are skittish and would run away if you startled them. As such, it's better to approach them stealthily and then press the "Pet" button prompt once it appears.
The first time you pet a particular breed of animal, they will be registered to your hideout as a pet option.
You won't be able to get duplicates--i.e. you can't get multiple calico cats even if you pet a dozen of them in towns.

Animal companions from Sumi-e paintings

Some animals in the wild can become pets if you manage to complete the Sumi-e Painting activity. The objective is to look for paintbrush icons on the world map/minimap. These denote the locations of creatures that are scampering in an area. You should then sneak up on these critters while holding down the aim button.
Once the process is done, your character will paint the animal. In some cases, you might just get a codex entry, though there are instances when you'd receive that creature as a pet as well.

Animal companions from the store

You can also get Assassin's Creed Shadows pets by buying them from the store. However, these are microtransactions that cost Helix Credits (the game's currency bought with real-life currency), so we don't recommend going this route.
Still, if you're really interested in these adorable creatures, you can find them in the store's Hideout Packs tab:
Eikyo: Adds the Eikyo Akita
Sakura: Adds the Sakura Fox
Four Seasons: Adds the Summer Deer, Autumn Boar, Winter Akita, and Spring Bobtail.
Note that there's an "Access Standalone" button when you select an animal on your screen. This allows you to purchase a single pet for a lower price instead of the entire bundle.

How to add animals to your hideout

Once you've obtained a single animal companion in the game, simply head over to your hideout:
Hold the "Improve Hideout" button prompt.
Press the "Build" button.
Go to the "Animals" tab (the last one on the right).
Select a pet and place it anywhere in a valid area.
This is how you get pets for your hideout in Assassin's Creed Shadows. Since we're already discussing animal companions, why not talk about human companions as well? You can learn more about Yasuke and Naoe's buddies in our recruitable allies guide and romance options guide.
Do you need more help as you continue your adventure throughout Sengoku Jidai era Japan? We've got you covered, so just take a look at our Assassin's Creed Shadows guides hub.

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