Ubisoft shared plans for free and paid updates coming to Assassin’s Creed Shadows in the first year after the game’s release: new quests, parkour and animus updates and NG+ coming soon.
I loved the post-launch support Assassin’s Creed Valhalla received and I hoped to see the same for Massive’s Star Wars Outlaws. I didn’t, sadly. But it looks like we’re getting this long-term regular support for Shadows. Ubisoft called the announcement “Year 1 Roadmap update”.
One the best and my personal favorite free updates to Valhalla, were the seasonal events. We have no information or official confirmation yet if something like that will happen in Shadows. Here is what we do know for sure for now.
Early May Content Update: New Story
In the coming days we will receive a free update to the game that will add the first post-launch content, a new quest/story.
Titled “The Works of Lius Frois“, the new story is inspired by this historical figure. Luis Frois was a Portuguese missionary catholic priest who preached in Japan during the second half of the 16th century.
Based on the information we have so far, we can expect the mentioned Codex update in this month’s patch to be related to Luis Frois as well.
This update will allow us to unlock new abilities and activities as well as new backstory that will “permanently impact the game”.
Late May Update: Parkour improvements
The main focus in the next update, expected by the end of May 2025 (So soon! A good sign), would be improvements to the parkour gameplay, mostly for Naoe, but Yasuke’s climbing skills will receive a small boost too.
The devs announced the addition of a new height-gaining back-eject, fully re-animated height-gaining side-eject and a vertical ledge-jump (for when there is no wall-run available. The last one is valid for Yasuke as well. It looks like his struggles to jump and grab a low ledge, or protruding roof will soon be over.
The next big thing for this update, is an expansion to Photo Mode. This will include new character poses and facial expressions.
June Update: Community Feedback
The devs want to emphasize so much that they listen to the community and implement improvements and changes based on feedback. This statement is repeated in the roadmap update as well.
The first major patch arrived in the beginning of April. Update 1.0.2 delivered a good number of changes. Some of my favorite quality-of-life improvements were the horse auto-follow (after I have fully explored the map, I now welcome this time-saving change) and multi-selling opportunities at merchants (which was a bit broken, sadly).
The June update promises to deliver more interesting improvements such as the ability to toggle individual visual effects. I’d love to be able to switch off the contour lines that appear during stealth. And soon I will.
Other visual affects you will be able to turn off include glints on weapons during combat, assassination filters, and ability filters.
The Alarm system that was exclusive to Castles, will be implemented into the open world. This, the devs say, will increase the challenges. I am a bit skeptical about it, but if it’s done right, it will make things even more realistic.
As a result of the many complaints about the game being too easy (especially the non-stealth part), a new difficulty tier for both open combat and stealth is coming.
The June story will unlock a new Ally for the League. The Allies system has been a little side-lined and neglected or maybe that’s just us. Here at VULKK none of us really invested into that system (apart from Siow, who had the task of writing the guide, so he had to thoroughly research it)
You could blame bugs or the fact that those NPCs were never really that very helpful. It is definitely an interesting idea, though it can be expensive and time-consuming to fully upgrade and complete.
Further Updates
Later this year we will get more quality-of-life improvements such as the ability to toggle your head gear during cutscene. NG+ mode is coming too. Yes!
There will be more Animus content this summer. This probably means that the locked third Project will be unlocked soon.
There will be more story updates on regular basis, but we were not given any specifics about dates or topics.
As usual, the store will have its regular updates, but if you don’t feel like paying real-life money for fancy-looking (and sometimes unfairly powerful gear!), you can track the weekly updates to the Exchange to grab them for in-game currency. This formula is not new and we remember if from Valhalla, but here it works a bit better, I think.
Claws of Awaji Expansion
The expansion is set to release later in 2025 with no specific date announced at the moment. It will unlock a brand-new region for you to explore.
It will continue the story development for both Naoe and Yasuke. The expansion’s story takes place after the base game’s story.
Claws of Awaji will add new abilities and levels for both characters and a new weapon for Naoe – the Bo staff.
The expansion is free for players, who pre-ordered the game before its release. It will be also sold separately on all platforms where you can play the game.
The fact that the devs called the new island where the story takes place a “region” gives us some clues about the size of the new map we get to explore. Of course this isn’t much to speculate about. And we know that it’s not important to have a giant map that is half-empty. It’s important what you fill the map with.
