Assassin’s Creed Shadows Guide
How To Change Seasons In Assassin’s Creed Shadows
To change seasons in Assassin’s Creed Shadows, open the Map screen and hold right on the D-pad when the option becomes available.
Quick Answer
To change seasons in Assassin’s Creed Shadows, open the Map screen and hold right on the D-pad when the option becomes available.
Seasons also change automatically after enough fast travel, exploration, or story progression.
Changing seasons resets scouts, enemy camps, contracts, resources, and wanted levels while also altering the world visually with seasonal weather effects like snow, foliage, and environmental stealth changes.
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Full Guide
How Seasons Work In Assassin’s Creed Shadows
Seasons in Assassin’s Creed Shadows are not just visual changes.
The seasonal system directly affects:
- Scouts
- Resources
- Enemy camps
- Contracts
- Wanted levels
- Exploration
- Environmental stealth
Every season shift partially resets the world and refreshes many gameplay systems.
This makes season management one of the most important progression mechanics in the game.
How To Change Seasons
To manually change seasons:
- Open the Map
- Hold right on the D-pad
- Wait for the transition
The option only appears when season changing is currently available.
If the icon looks dimmed or unavailable, the game is temporarily preventing seasonal progression.
This usually happens during:
- Major story sequences
- Important missions
- Certain scripted progression moments
Once you return to open exploration, the option becomes available again.
Do Seasons Change Automatically?
Yes.
Seasons naturally change over time through:
- Fast travel
- Exploration
- Main story progression
- General gameplay
You do not need to manually trigger them unless you specifically want resets or scout returns immediately.
Most players will see automatic seasonal transitions after several activities or long exploration sessions.
What Happens When Seasons Change?
Changing seasons resets several important systems across the world.
Scouts Return Home
When seasons change:
- All deployed scouts return
- Smuggled stockpiles are delivered
- Scout usage refreshes completely
This is one of the main reasons players intentionally force seasonal changes.
If you tagged multiple stockpiles during castle raids, season changes immediately collect those rewards for your Hideout.
Camps And Castles Reset
Enemy locations refresh when the season changes.
This includes:
- Guards
- Loot chests
- Resources
- Castle enemies
- Camp supplies
This allows you to revisit strong farming areas repeatedly.
Very convenient for everyone except the guards who apparently keep getting hired into the exact same doomed fortress.
Contracts Refresh
Kakurega contracts reset with each seasonal transition.
This means:
- New XP opportunities
- More resource farming
- Additional money rewards
- More scout-related activities
If your contract board looks empty, a season change usually fixes it.
Wanted Levels Reset
Season changes also clear your regional wanted level.
If guards are aggressively hunting you across a province, forcing a seasonal transition is one of the easiest ways to reset things cleanly.
Basically the game politely pretends your recent crimes were a seasonal misunderstanding.
How Seasons Affect Gameplay
The world itself changes visually and mechanically depending on the current season.
Summer
During summer:
- Grass and foliage become thicker
- Bushes provide stronger stealth coverage
- Environments appear brighter and fuller
This can slightly improve stealth opportunities for Naoe.
Winter
Winter introduces:
- Snow-covered environments
- Icicles
- Deep snow
- Muffled footsteps
Snow can actually help stealth because movement sounds become softer in some areas.
Not every province changes equally though.
Regions like:
- Yamashiro
- Iga
receive much heavier snow than areas like Settsu.
Seasonal Atmosphere
Beyond mechanics, seasons dramatically change the mood of exploration.
Castles, villages, forests, and roads can feel completely different depending on weather and environmental changes.
The system quietly makes long-term exploration feel far more dynamic than simply revisiting identical locations repeatedly.
When Should You Change Seasons?
The best times to manually trigger a season are:
- After tagging multiple stockpiles
- When scouts are exhausted
- When contracts run out
- When farming resources
- When clearing wanted levels
- When farming enemy camps again
Otherwise, letting seasons change naturally is usually fine.
Best Strategy For Resource Farming
The strongest farming loop looks like this:
- Raid castles
- Tag stockpiles with scouts
- Exhaust contracts
- Spend scouts
- Trigger a season change
- Collect resources
- Repeat
This keeps your Hideout progression moving extremely quickly.
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Systems & Mechanics
Where To Find Every Shinobi Tool Upgrade In Assassin’s Creed Shadows
Shinobi Tool upgrades in Assassin’s Creed Shadows are unlocked through Naoe’s Tool Mastery Path using Mastery Points. This includes upgrades for Kunai, Smoke Bombs, Shuriken, and the Shinobi Bell.
The Grappling Hook is different because its main upgrade, Ascension Boost, is found in the Shinobi Tree at Knowledge Rank 2.
To improve tool capacity and overall gear strength, upgrade the Forge at your Hideout after completing Way of the Blacksmith.
Systems & Mechanics
How To Level Up Fast In Assassin’s Creed Shadows
The fastest way to level up in Assassin’s Creed Shadows is by building the Terra in your Hideout for a permanent 10% XP boost, then farming Contracts, clearing Castles, eliminating targets, and completing fast side activities like Sumi-e, Shrines, and Lost Pages.
Castle raids and target eliminations provide the largest XP payouts, while contracts and exploration activities are the best consistent farming methods early and mid-game.
Upgrading the Study and Stables also improves your overall progression speed by increasing scout efficiency and resource farming.
Systems & Mechanics
How To Get Pets For Your Hideout In Assassin’s Creed Shadows
To get pets in Assassin’s Creed Shadows, interact with animals throughout the world after unlocking the Hideout during the From Sparks to Flame quest.
Petting cats and dogs, completing Sumi-e animal activities, buying animals from traders, and finishing certain quests will add creatures to your Codex. Once added, you can place them inside your Hideout using the Build menu.
Yes, you can absolutely fill your shinobi base with dogs, cats, boars, and other animals. Ubisoft finally understood the assignment.
Locations & Collectibles
How To Open Every Kuji-Kiri Meditation Location In Assassin’s Creed Shadows
There are 22 Kuji-Kiri meditation locations in Assassin’s Creed Shadows, and they can only be completed while playing as Naoe. Each meditation spot appears as an orange meditation icon after discovering nearby white question marks on the map.
To complete a Kuji-Kiri, sit on the meditation mat and finish the rhythm-based QTE sequence. If the button prompts become too difficult to memorize, you can enable Auto Quick Time Events in the gameplay settings to automatically complete every meditation challenge.
Finishing all 22 Kuji-Kiri locations unlocks the Zen Master trophy and rewards knowledge points used for upgrading your skill tree.
Puzzles & Codes
All Hidden Vault Puzzle Solutions In Assassin’s Creed Shadows
Hidden vaults in Assassin’s Creed Shadows mainly appear as Kofun tomb dungeons and the massive Glyph Door mystery tied to the A Puzzlement quest.
Most vaults require either Yasuke’s strength to destroy debris and move objects or Naoe’s agility to crawl through tight passages. Several puzzles involve explosive jars, movable blocks, underwater paths, and hidden climbable ledges.
Completing these vaults rewards legendary gear, rare loot, and one of the game’s biggest secret discoveries.
Puzzles & Codes
How To Unlock Secret Castle Rooms In Assassin’s Creed Shadows
To unlock secret castle rooms in Assassin’s Creed Shadows, you need to use environmental tools like explosive jars, hidden crawlspaces, grappling points, keys, and mechanical puzzle systems.
Most hidden rooms are tied to either Naoe’s stealth traversal abilities or Yasuke’s brute strength. Look for suspicious wall layouts, ceiling hatches, drainage systems, and locked upper keeps inside major castles.
Many legendary treasure rooms also remain locked until every Samurai Daisho in the castle has been eliminated.