Assassin's Creed Shadows: Free Updates and DLC Details Revealed

Ubisoft has unveiled its comprehensive post-launch content roadmap for Assassin’s Creed Shadows, outlining a full year of planned updates and additions designed to enhance the player experience. Among the highlights are promises of new game+ functionality, expanded difficulty settings, immersive gameplay options, additional story expansions, and more—all set to roll out throughout 2025.

The company shared its vision in a concise yet informative four-and-a-half-minute roadmap update video released today. While brief, the video offers valuable insight into Ubisoft’s strategy for keeping players engaged through regular, meaningful free updates. Specific plans for May and June were also revealed, signaling an active development cycle aimed at continually refining and expanding the game world.

The first major content drop kicks off with *The Works of Luis Frois*, a free story add-on scheduled for release in early May. This will be accompanied by a Codex update and several quality-of-life improvements. Notably, players can expect significant enhancements to parkour mechanics as well as an updated photo mode coming next month. These updates are part of Ubisoft’s ongoing commitment to listening to community feedback and integrating player suggestions into future Assassin’s Creed Shadows patches.

“Your input remains central to our development process,” explained community developer Daniel St. Germain in the video. “We’re committed to delivering regular title updates packed with impactful features, adjustments, and bug fixes tailored to your feedback—ensuring a refined experience across all platforms.”

In June, players can look forward to the second free story expansion, along with the introduction of more challenging difficulty levels, enhanced immersion settings, a new open-world alarm system, and the option to toggle headgear visibility during cutscenes. These changes reflect some of the most requested features from the community, and even more content—including new game+, additional story drops, exclusive collaborations, and surprise elements—are slated to arrive before the end of the year.

Claws of Awaji – The First Major DLC Expansion

The crown jewel of the post-launch plan is the arrival of *Claws of Awaji*, the first full-scale DLC expansion for *Assassin’s Creed Shadows*. Slated for release later this year, this expansion will introduce a brand-new region for protagonists Naoe and Yasuke to explore, alongside the addition of the Bo staff as a playable weapon. Spread across approximately 10 hours of gameplay, *Claws of Awaji* aims to deepen the narrative and expand the world of Feudal Japan.

Further details regarding pricing have not yet been disclosed, though it will be available at no extra cost to those who pre-ordered the game prior to its official launch last month.

*Assassin’s Creed Shadows* launched on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S on March 20, marking a bold new chapter for the iconic stealth franchise as it ventures into Feudal Japan. With its compelling narrative and refined mechanics, the game has already earned a spot on our list of the best games of 2025 so far and was also recognized as the best-selling title of the month following its release.