Assassin’s Creed Shadows is a far more restrained experience than Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, and it certainly isn’t the out-of-control gargantuan monster that Valhalla was- but even so, it’s far, far from a small game. Ubisoft’s feudal Japan epic touts a huge world that’s brimming with things to do, in typical Assassin’s Creed (and Ubisoft) fashion- to the unsurprising extent that you’re likely going to have still plenty left to do once you have seen through the main story. So, if you’re looking to keep exploring and getting immersed in Shadows’ rendition of feudal Japan even once credits have rolled, here, we are going to point you in the direction of all the activities and lingering content that will let you do just that.
FIND ALL LEGENDARY LOOT
There is loot to be found throughout the world of Assassin’s Creed Shadows, to no one’s surprise, and of course, some of it is more special than the rest. Legendary Chests found in specific castles are the only chests in the game that aren’t randomly generated, instead coming with prescribed, tailored loot, which almost always happens to be quite special. This legendary loot can range from the deadliest of weapons to the most useful armor, from nifty engravings to gear with perks that can change the tide in unique ways. It is, in a nutshell, always a good idea to go out looking for castles where you can kill all the daisho so you can then get your hands on the legendary chest. In case you haven’t cleared every single castle by the time you are done with the main story – which is pretty likely, given just how many of them there are scattered throughout the substantial map – we’d recommend getting started on that.
CHECK OUT THE SHIPS
Assassin’s Creed Shadows doesn’t shine a light on naval gameplay the way many of its predecessors have done, but it’s not like there are no ships to check out in its open world. Often you’ll find ships in bays and at harbours at different points in Shadows’ map, and though there are some that the game takes you to in certain quests (both main and side), the majority of just floating out there, waiting to be explored as completely optional content. Our advice? Track them all down. There’s valuable loot to be found on many a ship in Shadows’ map, if not as valuable as that found in the aforementioned castles, and it also shouldn’t take nearly as long as some of the other activities we’re discussing here will.
FULLY EXPLORE THE MAP
This is an obvious one, but worth bringing up nonetheless- this is an exploration-driven open world game, after all. Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ Japan is, as mentioned, nowhere near as sprawling as Odyssey’s Ancient Greece, or as bloated as Valhalla’s 9th century England, but it’s a big, chunky map in its own right, which means chances are high (to put it mildly) that you won’t have seen everything that it has to show by the time you roll the credits. Exploration and traversal are particularly fun in Shadows, so uncovering whatever is left of the map for you after the critical path has been wrapped up should be a great excuse to continue spending time with the game.
DO ALL HIDDEN TRAILS
If you’ve as taken with Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ traversal mechanics as we are, Hidden Trails may very well rank among the game’s most enjoyable side activities. Exclusive to Naoe, these challenges are all platforming focused, which means they’re an absolute blast, while they also always dole out useful rewards in the form of Epic gear. Of course, given that there are just ten of these trails to be found throughout the map, you may have burned through them all by credits, but if you haven’t, we’d suggest seeking out every single one.
HORSE ARCHERY
While Naoe gets exclusive parkour-focused hidden trails, Yasuke can engage in a little bit of horseback archery at certain spots. From finding the horse archery spots themselves to undertaking each one’s unique obstacles and challenges, horse archery activities generally tend to be quite fun. There’s ten available, similar to the hidden trails, so you can easily blow through these within the bounds of the main story itself, if you want to.
MAX OUT ALL MASTERY TREES
Building on the RPG foundations of its immediate predecessors, Assassin’s Creed Shadows touts a pretty expansive web of progression systems and mechanics, which of course means there’s plenty of finetuning and minmaxing that you can continue doing once the main story is finished. Maxing out all Mastery trees across both characters is an enjoyable (and the most obvious) way to do that, especially with a postgame Knowledge tree with its own passive rewards also available deeper into the game.
CONTRACTS
Contracts are pure open world junk food in the way that you expect to see in such games more often than not, but Shadows’ core gameplay strengths mean you’re likely to have fun even with contracts. Picked up at safehouses (or kukurega) scattered throughout the map, contracts give out valuable rewards in the form of loot, money, gear, or what have you, so if you’re looking for something to do, contracts are almost always within grasp.
RECRUIT AND TRAIN ALL COMPANIONS
Assassin’s Creed Shadows has a handful of companions that it allows you to recruit as allies that you can then summon to aid you during stealth or combat, but unless you’re going looking for them, you’re not going to recruit every single one by the time the story comes to a close. With the roster of allies being partially optional and, as such, missable, if you have missed any, we’d recommend nabbing them after the credits have rolled, and then making use of your Hideout’s dojo to train them all as much as they can be trained. Oh, and speaking of the Hideout…
CONTINUE CUSTOMIZING THE HIDEOUT
It can be easy to miss ignore, with all the other things Assassin’s Creed Shadows throws at the player, but there’s a whole customizable Hideout available as a hub in the game. In fact, a lot of the rewards you get over the course of the game is specifically for decorating said hideout. Surely, during the course of your playthrough, you may be far too focused on actually being assassins to bother with that, but once the story is done, there’s a whole cornucopia of content to sink teeth into. You can build buildings, upgrade them, decorate them, you can change the layout of the hideout- you can essentially turn it into a fully planned little customized community for you and your league of assassins. Animal Crossing in our Assassin’s Creed? Weird, but yes please.
KILL ALL REMAINING TARGETS
Like its predecessors, Shadows gives players a vast amount of optional targets to identify, seek out, and then eliminate even outside of its main story. While you will definitely be working through at least some of the assassination missions on your Objectives board as you work through the critical path, there is a big fraction of these targets that populate the map and have nothing to do with Naoe and Yasuke’s overarching quest at all. Once you are done with said quest, taking down these corrupt criminals who are causing so much misery for Japan and its people is definitely something that can keep you busy for hours. And if you are a fan of the combat or the stealth or the scoping and scouting mechanics this game has, then these targets are an excellent way to keep the game going for you long after you are ostensibly done with it.
