How to complete The Stray Dogs and recruit Yaya in Assassin’s Creed Shadows

In Assassin’s Creed Shadows, you’ll need to expand your small group. The people who want to join you, like Yaya, are given the choice to do so, but there is also the chance that they might reject you based on your previous options.

During The Stray Dogs quest, there’s an opportunity to extend an offer of allyship to Yaya, a formidable warrior who fought with you in previous exchanges. However, the choices you make when attempting to recruit her do matter, and if you don’t make the correct ones, there’s a good chance she might reject the offer. Here’s what you need to know about how to complete The Stray Dogs, and how to recruit Yaya to your group in Assassin’s Creed Shadows.

How to recruit Yaya in Assassin’s Creed Shadows

The best way to recruit Yaya in Assassin’s Creed Shadows is to go against Mitsumune when he attempts to kill the prisoners at Amagasaki Castle and to grant forgiveness to the monks in the first part of The Stray Dogs. After that, you just need to finish The Stray Dogs questline, and Yaya will join your cause.

These two choices have the most significant impact on Yaya. If you chose to side with Mitsumune to kill the prisoners, and you believed the monks deserved to be punished, she will not join you. If you don’t recruit Yaya, you can still complete The Stray Dogs quest, but you won’t unlock the ability to summon Yaya to tackle enemies for you during combat.

Full The Stray Dogs quest walkthrough in Assassin’s Creed Shadows

The Stray Dogs quest becomes available immediately after you wrap up things at Amagasaki, and you eliminate Waka Koretake, the man who killed Naoe’s father. The exact location of where you can find Yaya and her small group is shown on the map, and it’s to the southeast of Amagasaki castle. There are a handful of viewpoints you can use to fast travel to this location in Assassin’s Creed Shadows.

As you approach, the waypoint disappears. However, you’ll be able to track her down by following the sounds of fighting, where she and a small group are dealing with several adversaries. You’ll need to eliminate each of the enemies before you can speak with Yaya. She’ll be happy to see you and pleased to receive your help, but reluctant to join you. She will think about it, though, so long as you help deal with the thieves who stole from her temple.

The conversation you have with a thief in the following cutscene is vital as it presents you with an opportunity to show your true colors to Yaya. She’ll ask how you should deal with the prisoner, and what you should do with them, and the best answer is we forgive them. This option shows to Yaya you’re not simply trying to get bloodthirsty revenge against every person, and you can see the world as more than “kill or be killed.”

Yaya will remember this at the end of the quest, and after this brief conversation, she’ll have you track down a precious item a thief stole from her: a hairpin, known as a kanzashi. It was one of the last things Yaya’s late husband held before he passed away, and it’s an item she uses to remember him.

How to find the kanzashi in Assassin’s Creed Shadows

You’ll need to track down the thief, Tetsuo, if you want to find the kanzashi. There are a handful of clues you receive from Yaya on how to locate him.

• It is in northern Izumi Settsu
• It is in the Church of Takatsuki
• It is held by Tetsuo

Although the details about Tetsuo holding the item are not immediately helpful to you, knowing you need to go to northern Izumi Settsu and it’s at the church of Takatsuki are good information. Knowing Tetsuo made his way to the church of Takatsuki, there’s a region on the map in northern Izumi Settsu where you can see the name Takatsuki. If you have any available scouts, you can use them to survey the area, narrowing down the location of where you need to go.

Upon arriving in the city, the next step is to locate Tetsuo and his group of thieves. Naoe remarks how they made their way to the Christian church. Look for the building with the large cross on top and sneak into the building, where you’ll find Tetsuo attempting to steal from them.

When you confront Tetsuo, he’ll attempt to run away from you. You’ll need to chase him through the city, but you won’t be able to stop him. The only way to prevent him from getting away is to reach the exit gate, where Yaya will be waiting for the two of you. She’ll throw him into the dirt, kicking off a cutscene.

This is another crucial cutscene where you can share your insight on how Yaya should handle a matter. However, this choice doesn’t matter as much compared to the previous choices.

Both of these choices build upon what you and Yaya have been discussing, specifically regarding forgiveness and responsibility. You can make either decision here, but your other options at the beginning of The Stray Dogs quest and whether you sided with Mitsumune or not will matter much more.

After this cutscene, the quest ends and Yaya will have joined you or rejected your offer based on your previous decisions.