Legendary Engravings in Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey are primarily just perks for your character. Each legendary weapon automatically comes equipped with a specific Legendary Engraving. Once you’ve unlocked that weapon, you also unlock that perk to put on other weapons. Since each legendary weapon has an additional slot, you can actually have two Legendary Engravings on each weapon. This mechanic really lets players tailor their build to their liking.
Many of them are basic increases to specific skills, but then there are some that are truly unique. Some can turn you into a glass cannon, and others can turn you into a fiery warrior. Here are the best Legendary Engravings you need to find and equip!
Updated by Daniel Furn on October 27, 2022: Attention may be turning towards the stealth-focused Assassin's Creed: Mirage, but many will be playing Assassin's Creed: Odyssey for the first time - or replaying it - since the game was added to Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Plus Extra. Several years and countless updates later, the game's many legendary engravings have been truly tried and tested - here are the very best.
19 Regicide
The Regicide engraving is a great way to greatly enhance your Hero Strike ability, which is already an extremely powerful move that can K.O. your opponents when used correctly. To unlock this engraving, you'll need to defeat the sage of the Peloponnesian League.
After that, you'll be able to use this engraving to enhance your weapons and perform a dynamic Hero Strike move that will increase its damage by 20 percent. That's a lot, especially when combined with additional engravings on other weapons.
18 The Floor Is Lava
If you happen to go exploring on the island of Nisyros, which is home to several volcanoes, you'll unlock a cool engraving called The Floor Is Lava. When equipped, it will radically enhance the elemental damage you can inflict on your opponents -- meaning things like poison and fire will do even more damage than they normally would.
Not only that, but you can reduce the physical damage you take by up to 50 percent which can be of great help in the midst of a battle.
17 The Wolf
If you've played the game for an extended period of time then you have likely unlocked the Sparta Kick and used it multiple times since it is pretty awesome and recalls the iconic film 300.
However, did you know there is a way for you to enhance your Sparta Kick and make it even stronger? The Wolf engraving will unlock automatically after you complete The Wolf of Sparta in Megaris. Once you equip the engraving, your Sparta Kick ability will be able to do up to 20 percent more damage.
16 Deadly Toxins
The Deadly Toxins engraving is a great way to turn your weapons into position weapons. Once you unlock this engraving, your weapon's damage will become poison damage. To gain this engraving, you'll need to defeat the mercenary known as "The Weaver."
For those unfamiliar with poison damage, it essentially leads your victim to become filled with some kind of deadly toxin. It's especially helpful to have an engraving like this equipped when you're dealing with multiple enemies at one time. Then, you can poison one person and let the toxins kill them off while you're dealing with another opponent.
15 Fiery Anger
Fiery Anger is very similar to the Deadly Toxins engraving in that it allows you to turn your weapon's damage into fire damage. Again, this is a very great engraving to have equipped when battling a lot of people at once since you can burn one enemy and let it do your work for you.
It makes life easier when your weapons are tinged with special side effects. To unlock the Fiery Anger engraving, you will need to, fittingly, defeat a mercenary that goes by the name of "The Smolder."
14 Breathe Underwater
Don’t you just hate doing any sort of underwater diving in a game where you need to worry about your breathing? Yes, people can’t breathe underwater, but that doesn’t make this mechanic any less annoying. Once you find the legendary Poseidon’s Trident, you unlock the Breathe Underwater engraving.
Having this engraving equipped on any of your gear automatically lets you stay underwater as long as you want. No more rushing to the objective while constantly checking on that breath bar. This will also assist in the Child of Poseidon Trophy/Achievement, which requires you to do all underwater locations.
13 30 Percent Armor Penetration
This engraving is found on the Atlantean Blade dagger. As its name suggests, it gives you a 30 percent increase in armor penetration. Now some may look at this engraving and not think much of it. In reality, though, this actually gives you a 30 percent damage increase on armored enemies.
Elite enemies tend to have high armor, which makes this a very attractive engraving. Hunter builds can also benefit from this since your arrows can do more damage on an enemy's body, instead of having to always go for the head.
12 10 Percent Damage Per Enemy Engaged (Up To 50 Percent)
The only negative about this engraving is that it requires DLC to acquire. The Cursed Spear of Achilles is found in the Torment of Hades DLC, which contains this awesome engraving. Simply put, if you have at least five enemies engaging with you, you can automatically get a 50 percent damage increase.
If you’re in a conquest battle, then you should have no problem using it. It also makes you play the game a little differently. You can be in a fort and start to draw in every enemy around you to get that 50 percent increase.
11 25 Percent Damage On Elites And Bosses
In order to obtain this engraving, you will need to defeat the Cyclops boss. He will grant you the Polyphemos Cyclops Bludgeon. Luckily, this engraving is well worth the effort. The 25 percent damage increase to bosses and elites is always going to be helpful in any situation and build.
Elites can sometimes be a nuisance. This extra damage will bring down that frustration. Elites are also weaker than normal when you’re in a conquest battle. As a result, you can take them out quickly and make the battle much easier for your side.
10 Turns Basic Arrows Into Fire/Poison Arrows
Now this one is actually two engravings, but they are the exact same idea. These engravings will give all of your arrows an elemental effect. The fire engraving is from the Hades Bow, while the poison one is on the Fanged Bow. This makes things much more convenient. There are skills that allow you to turn your weapons elemental, but you constantly need to activate them and use your Adrenaline.
The other, less convenient option, is to craft them. Both of these options are not desirable, so just go ahead and make your bow automatically do fire or poison. The damage over time effects will surely assist you with crowd control.
9 40 Percent Damage When Attacking From Behind
This one is for the sneaky players out there. In any stealth game, the best course of action is to come up from behind to assassinate. This engraving will give you an extra amount of damage when you do attack from behind, or assassinate.
For players who prefer the Assassin playstyle, there’s no reason to not have this equipped on your gear. Even a sneaky arrow shot to the back of the head will benefit from this engraving. You can find this Legendary Engraving on the Dagger of Kronus.
8 -1 Adrenaline Cost For Overpower Abilities
By the end of the game, you should have eight Adrenaline bars. The Overpowered Abilities require three Adrenaline bars, which means you’ll only get two uses out of it before you have to fill them up again. With this engraving from the Minotaur's Labrys, it will only cost two Adrenaline bars this time. Yes, you can now double the number of Overpowered Abilities this time around. This works great in boss battles specifically. If you’re quick enough, getting four Overpowered strikes will do an insane amount of damage.
7 CRIT Chance Now Affects Elemental Buildup
For all you elemental fans out there, CRIT Chance Now Affects Elemental Buildup will have you unleashing your venomous or flaming weapons in no time. If you have 100 percent CRIT Chance, that's it - there's no buildup whatsoever, and you'll be able to live out your pyromaniac fantasies with a single hit.
Unfortunately, you'll need the Torment of Hades DLC and then actually defeat Hades in order to get your hands on this engraving, but it's well worth the effort for fire and poison builds.
6 -25 Percent Cooldown Time For All Abilities
Abilities like Second Wind, Slow Time, and Hero Strike are amazing in Odyssey, but they do have a long cooldown time. Obviously, this is there to make players not too OP. Luckily, this engraving will help put players at ease. Found on the Harpes of Perseus weapon, this engraving decreases the cooldown time by 25 percent.
The best use of this engraving is usually found in conquest battles. The most effective ability to use on Elite enemies is Hero Strike. Due to its long cooldown, however, you can only use so many times within one battle. This engraving really cuts down on that time.
5 +30 Percent Damage While At Full Health
This legendary engraving is fairly self-explanatory, offering you a sizable damage boost while at full health. This engraving is, of course, dependent on you remaining at full health, so you'll want to be confident that you can last a good while without taking a hit - though you can always use the Second Wind ability to restore health if need be, as well as some old-fashioned running away to recover.
+30 Percent Damage While At Full Health can be found on the Nemean Claws heavy blunt mace, which can be obtained through Oikos in-game or purchasing the Nemean Lion store set.
4 Rush Assassinate Ability Chains To One More Enemy
This is another engraving that can only be obtained from a DLC weapon. While doing the main quests in the first Legacy of the First Blade episode, you’ll eventually unlock the Pride of the Lion legendary sword. The engraving you get from it is absolutely awesome. Rush Assassination is one of the top skills to get in Odyssey. This ability can sometimes take out four enemies within seconds, depending on their Assassin damage. Why not take out an additional enemy as well? The more enemies you can take out immediately and silently, the easier it'll be when you get caught.
3 +10 Percent To All Adrenaline Gained
As the weapon awarded in the final episode after your last encounter with Deimos, there was always going to be a good engraving on the Sword of Damokles. The engraving awards an extra 10 percent to all adrenaline gained - and as adrenaline is needed for all abilities in Assassin's Creed Odyssey, from Spartan Kick to Second Wind, this is very useful indeed.
This engraving can be equipped to both melee and bow weapons, and will be beneficial no matter what build you are going for.
2 100 Percent Damage But Health Capped To 25 Percent
This is Odyssey’s version of the glass-cannon playstyle. You can find this engraving from the Falx of Olympos weapon. You will automatically do double damage, but your health is extremely low. You usually can only take one or two hits before you die. That being said, the benefits far outweigh the risks.
Unless you’ve perfecting dodging and parrying, this engraving isn’t recommended for Warrior type players. Instead, this engraving gets the most potential for Assassin and Hunter players. Being stealthy or ranged means that you’re not likely to get too confrontational. Therefore, you'll be mostly be all offense and rarely any defense.
1 +250 Percent All Damage But Cannot Use Abilities
If you thought +100 percent damage was OP, just wait until you see the legendary engraving that comes with the wonderfully named Blade of Yumminess: +250 Percent All Damage at the expense of your abilities. Obviously, this is quite the drawback as abilities are not only incredibly useful but also rather fun, but for anyone looking for slightly more realistic combat then this is quite possibly the best legendary engraving for damage in the game.
The Blade of Yumminess was named after an infamous auto-generated caption error at Assassin's Creed Odyssey's E3 2018 presentation, but is sadly rather difficult to get hold of - the weapon is only available from a blacksmith, so it's down to luck when the blade and therefore the engraving are on sale.