Assassin’s Creed Odyssey guide: How to use Ikaros

In earlier Assassin’s Creed games, your characters had something called “eagle vision” that would let them see through walls to track their targets. In Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Alexios and Kassandra don’t have that ability. But they do have an eagle named Ikaros that can share his sense of vision. In this guide, we’ll teach you how to use Ikaros.

What Ikaros does

Ubisoft via Polygon

Ikaros provides you with a lot of, effectively, metadata about the world around you. He’ll show you things like the level of enemies and, later, their patrol paths. He’ll also tag the locations of enemies, treasures, and quest objectives.

How to use Ikaros

There’s a pretty standard set of steps to using Ikaros effectively.

1. Summon. Press up on the D-pad to take control of Ikaros. Usually, you’ll want to wait until you’re close to your target before you do this, but it’s also just a good way to get a sense of your surroundings.
2. Navigate. Maybe you’re a little further out than you thought, or maybe you’re just looking for a better angle to see, but you’re going to have to move Ikaros through the world. The controls are basically what you’d expect — the left thumbstick controls his vertical and horizontal movement, while the right moves the camera around. You can also hold down R2 for speed boost.
3. Hover. When you’re over your target — some animals, a quest objective, or a fort — hold down L2. This will switch Ikaros over to hover mode, stop Ikaros’ movement, and let you look around.
4. Look around and tag everything. Moving the reticle over an enemy will tag them (and their silhouette will persist on you HUD after you switch back to your character) and display their level. You’ll also tag (and create persistent icons for) loot, treasure, and quest objectives. You don’t have to press any buttons here — just move the reticle around. You’ll even get a little help here — an arrow will appear to guide the reticle toward nearby points of interest.