Assassin’s Creed Shadows review

Bamboozled

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / Ubisoft

• Developer: Ubisoft
• Publisher: Ubisoft
• Release: March 20th, 2025
• On: Windows
• From: Steam , Epic , Ubisoft
• Price: £60/$70/€70
• Reviewed on: Intel Core-i7-11700F, 16GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060, Windows 10

Assassin’s Creed is for magpies. These stealth action adventures constantly dangle some glittering side hustle to distract you from the winding road of the main story. They are “while we’re here” games. In town to kill a guy who dishonored your family? OK, but there’s a viewpoint nearby, so let’s go while we’re here. Oh look, there’s a wild heron to sketch along the way, let’s do that, just while we’re here. Hm, squint past the bird and look, a bandit camp full of wood and gunpowder and other useful resources for building your own hideout. Better murder everyone and steal their rocks (while we’re here).

Assassin’s Creed Shadows is another marathon of distraction. A reliably Ubisoftian tourist trap that sequesters you in a hedge maze of history with a packed itinerary and a disregard for the time constraints of adult life. I found the storytelling dull and the combat as sticky-fingered as ever (at least to my grizzled, Sekiro -adoring hands). But it gets a pass from me on the strength of its atmosphere alone, not to mention the commitment to its setting of Sengoku-era Japan, and its impressive (if sometimes overwhelming) scope.

Its beauty lies in details. The wind blusters leaves around in autumn gales, the sun beams through misty bamboo groves, icy fields slow you down as you wade through snow, everywhere NPC extras pray at shrines or perform theatre or sell goods along the roadside. The robes of powerful daimyo flap as they cross their arms, the silk shining in moonlight. Zen monks recite the Heart Sutra on mats outside temples. It is a game of stunning vistas, castle-balanced-on-a-mountain-top compositions, a homage to Japan’s natural beauty offset by refugees of war scrabbling through fresh ruins, scorched hometowns littered with the arrows and ash and corpses of a wartorn nation. It is almost worth playing just to trot your horse through a newly discovered village while dawn breaks over the fields.

These sights and sounds are accompanied by a rote and often humourless revenge story. You play as Naoe , a ninja girl from the countryside whose father is killed by order of ambitious warlord Oda Nogunaga, making her the ninety billionth Assassin’s Creed protagonist to be orphaned by vile misdoers. This only comes after the opening scene, which promises a more interesting character in Yasuke , a slave taken from Portuguese priests and elevated to the rank of samurai by Nobunaga. You play the first few moments of the game as this hulking bruiser with a sorrowful heart. Then Ubisoft put him on the bench for the next ten hours as you play through Naoe’s significantly more predictable origin tale. It’s frustrating, but at least it keeps you playing just to see Yasuke again.

They are sometimes painful hours. Every scene seems to last twice as long as necessary. There are flashbacks to scenes that happened just minutes prior, the first signs of the game’s lack of trust in the player to understand basic subtext. Even as you break out of the belaboured opening, it remains replete with melodramatic dying groans and not-quite-profound last words from loosely sketched characters you have known for thirty minutes. Many vocal performances come across as wooden, sometimes because the flat dialogue gives the performers little to work with. In its worst moments scenes can feel more like stage directions or outline notes than people speaking to one another. Rather than being imbued with personality, the nobles, rogues, and samurai of Shadows often have their conversations bogged down in explanations of who is warring with who, or where the player needs to go next.

The cinematics will frame many shots with finesse, and you can frame your own in a photo mode. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / Ubisoft

This is not a problem unique to Assassin’s Creed - it is a perennial video game curse. But yes, if there is a major weak point of this epic, it’s that the scope of its story has thinned out many characters into quest delivery puppets. Even when you return to Yasuke’s side of the story (it then lets you swap between characters at will) you learn that he too is an ultimately bland nice guy.

It’s not all so dry. One early quest sees you joining a tea ceremony, and it had me laughing at my various faux pas. I made snide remarks to the catty guests. I wore an unfashionable kosode. I turned the tea bowl the wrong direction. It was a disaster, and more interesting for it. I also liked a brief drinking quest, which saw our two protagonists sitting down for campfire sake together, only for Naoe to wake up in the most on-brand place for a hangover assassin to do so: atop a roof. Neither of these quests will impress anyone seeking Butcher of Blaviken-level storytelling, but I learned to enjoy them as rare moments of lightness in an otherwise dry-mouthed tale of plot-plodding necessities.

But how does it feel in your grubby thumbs? Well, aside from the long-established parkour of the series doing its thing (sometimes sticky, sometimes fluid) there exist some movements that are supremely satisfying. Yasuke’s bull rush charge that turns certain doors to splinters is the best example of how he feels to manoeuvre, as a weighty counterpoint to Naoe’s nippy acrobatics, with her own movement exemplified by the 100% unnecessary but 100% cool-as-fuck twirls and somersaults she does while descending from one rooftop to another. These are endlessly gratifying to perform. Climbing upward in an AssCreed game has looked slick for nearly two decades. But this is the first time I’ve considered climbing down just as stylish.

A swing and a miss. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / Ubisoft

Combat is another matter, and it really depends how you like your action games. I found it hard to establish a suitable battle rapport with the enemies that often cluster around you. There are the usual unblockable hits, reflexy counterattacks, and a selection of your own special attacks to rely upon. But there is just something about the timing and tempo of Assassin’s Creed stand-offs that never feels quite right to me, in any of their incarnations. By the 25th hour, I stopped ignoring my gut instinct and busted the combat difficulty down to its easiest mode. In a junk food game that already threatens to take 50 hours of my life just to complete the main story, every little brawl does not need to be a battle of wits and parries. Sometimes, you just want to behead a dude in two swift hits.

It suffers more transparently when fights break out in tight interiors. One boss battle sees your foe making a last stand in a confined box of a room, where he magically summons waves of shinobi from smoke even as you dodge his blade. This is dramatic and fitting to his persona as a cunning daimyo, but an irksome battle. The lock-on feature can often feel unreliable in such conditions, and your camera can’t keep all fighters in frame. Classic warning indicators help out, but as always they’re a crutch for true spatial awareness. There’s a reason you will learn to approach castle infiltration missions as the backstabbing Naoe, who can often avoid fights entirely.

Some houses feature “nightingale floors” that will make your footsteps louder. Luckily you can do one thing no assassin ever thought to do before - crawl. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / Ubisoft

But even in this brawling dirt there is a shining seam of fun: the brutal yet stylishly animated special moves you can unlock. Both characters get a spread of weapons. Naoe’s stabby tanto and chain-twirling kusarigama are classic shinobi weapons next to Yasuke’s clubbing kanabo or blistering teppo rifle. Each weapon has their own skill tree with fierce attacks that, when used, turn everything momentarily black and white (with a smattering of red) as you impale and hack and slash with lethal abandon. They are a cheap and cheerful means of getting a kick. Quite literally - Yasuke is the proud inheritor of the powerful Assassin’s Creed megahoof. For all the flubbed counterattacking and annoyed dodging, it still feels delightful to bootheel a guy off a bridge.

As for Naoe, she can learn to assassinate people through paper doors, breathe through a straw while lying still in shallow water, and perform double assassinations (all complementing her more sneaky and adaptable moveset compared to Yasuke). You could play through most of the game as one character only, but I enjoyed switching back and forth as circumstances dictated. Loud fight coming up? Put the big lad in, coach. Job sounds sneaky? I know the girl for that.

While we’re here - the soundtrack is a banger. There are moments that sound like the spaghetti western repaying a debt to Kurosawa, with a noticeable hint of Kill Bill. And others in which Yasuke’s past erupts in musical form as he goes on a rampaging and satisfying beat down. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / Ubisoft

The sad side order next to these delicious mains is that many skill tree unlocks are the usual piecemeal percentage-scraping. The kind of incremental pseudoboost that I loathe to spend a hard-earned “mastery point” on, because the effect is imperceptible. Getting 2% extra damage to melee attacks might add up eventually, but it is a sort of nickel and diming that rarely excites me and just makes the game longer if you’re a compulsive skill tree pruner. On top of this, said trees are comprised of locked tiers, which means scrounging “knowledge points” from repetitive tasks dotted around the land - rhythm action combat minigames, or long flashback sequences which feel like cut material from a too-long tutorial.

You spend lots of time looking through a blurry black and white filter for red figures. It’s an old ninja trick, don’t ask questions. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / Ubisoft

It’s clear these activities are intended as quieter moments - restful and low-effort tasks to do between explosive missions or moreish castle infiltrating (where you have to kill a number of samurai to unlock a tasty reward chest). Repetitive as they are, I enjoyed the side jobs that had me entering Shinto temples to find the correct few shrines at which to pray, or Buddhist monasteries where you simply need to find a hidden scroll or two. These are slower exploratory moments that ask you to navigate and understand your immediate surroundings, emblematic of a greater Assassin’s Creed truth: I always find myself having a better time when I slow down to take everything in. Even so, I can see a lot of players getting annoyed that higher tier abilities are locked behind this deadbolt of classic Ubisoft icon tidying.

Of course, you might look at the huge map of Shadows and think “Holy shit, YES”. In which case, I’m delighted for you. And I agree that the game is at its best when you ignore the main story for as long as possible and treat it as a playground of towns, castles, and country roads to saunter around. This means ninja-dashing across pagoda rooftops, piloting boats down canals, and indulging in the slow-paced historical tourism these games have been encouraging with their extensive Codex entries since the times of Altair. The shrines and temples have been a particular highlight for me, often secreted away in beautiful gardens or deep in some secluded mountain wilderness, a corridor of torii guiding the way. I cannot stress enough how gorgeous this game can sometimes be.

This is a tiny fraction of the map. Please don’t make me screenshot it all. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / Ubisoft

As beautiful as it is, that won’t fool anyone who feels open worlds are cheapened by strict level gating. You may instantly die to a level 35 ronin if you travel slightly south before you’re meant to, which essentially pre-determines your general route through the land. Exploration becomes an odd beast - each province is expansive and detailed, but your path through it is still a curated journey. Yes, this is a game about seeing a distant temple and thinking “I can go there”. But it’s also about seeing a distant icon and thinking “I can get stuff there, I’m a big boy now”. If you play anything like me - a stubborn ignorer of any side quest that begins with a stranger immediately trusting a masked looper with a katana - then you will run up against the level gating. It is the developer’s way of gently coercing you into indulging side quests and doing a touch of Ubihooverin’. Can’t crack that level 30 nut with a level 24 toffee hammer.

Still, you’ll probably need to take that time to collect materials for your hideout. This is a small building and management sub-game that sees you plopping down buildings on a grid so you can recruit more scouts or upgrade weaponry. You can buy decorations for your hideout from shops, or find them in the many loot boxes hidden around. There are sumi-e paintings to unlock, cherry blossoms, fancy European parasols, nice looking rocks with moss. None of this sounds exciting but it will be. It will be.

I spent at least one ill-advised hour gathering the wood needed to build a Buddhist altar at this base, then added a gravel path with trees and lanterns. It was satisfying to walk through my work almost immediately. I can easily see this light but compulsive base builder becoming the de facto core of the game for houseproud players obsessed with decor, landscaping, and pets. For each type of dog or cat you pet in the open world, you will unlock the same animal in your base. If I didn’t feel obliged to almost entirely ignore my headquarters to hit a review deadline, I’d probably still be there, collecting calicos and shiba inu puppies.

I love her. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / Ubisoft

I can’t speak to the albatross of “historical accuracy” Shadows has been anchored with for stupid reasons (I know only a single Netflix documentary’s worth about the period). But I get the impression that history buffs will snap their fingers with mild glee at recognisable historical figures like tea master Sen no Rikyū or legendary samurai Hattori Hanzo. Others like me may be left puzzled when the heroes say some character’s name with deep awe, as if we’re supposed to know who they are. (Yes, I furiously wikipedia’d “Ukita Naoie” during one scene and immediately suffered a 500-year-old spoiler.) In keeping with the dual-protagonist nature of the game, there are probably two good ways to enter into your 60-hour relationship with Assassin’s Creed Shadows: either as a dweeb who knows everything about this specific historical era, or as a naive enthusiast keen to learn.

And that’s really it. The setting will largely dictate whether or not it speaks to you. I found it more appealing than the other big Creeds of recent times. I lasted mere hours in Odyssey’s ancient Greece, and the same for Valhalla’s 9th century England, but much longer in Mirage’s golden age Baghdad. That simply comes down to being more into Islamic architecture than Greek myths or Viking longboats. Assassin’s Creed, for all its faults and weaknesses, is as close as video games can get to time travel tourism. I’m glad I went on another trip.

This review is based on a review build provided by the publisher.

Find out how we conduct our reviews by reading our review policy .

Assassin’s Creed Shadows

PS5 , Xbox Series X/S , PC , Mac , Nintendo Switch 2

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All 75 Arc Raiders Blueprints and where to get them

These areas have the highest chance of giving you Blueprints

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Looking for more Arc Raiders Blueprints? It’s a special day when you find a Blueprint, as they’re among the most valuable items in Arc Raiders. If you find a Blueprint that you haven’t already found, then you must make sure you hold onto it at all costs, because Blueprints are the key to one of the most important and powerful systems of meta-progression in the game.

This guide aims to be the very best guide on Blueprints you can find, starting with a primer on what exactly they are and how they work in Arc Raiders, before delving into exactly where to get Blueprints and the very best farming spots for you to take in your search.

We’ll also go over how to get Blueprints from other unlikely activities, such as destroying Surveyors and completing specific quests. And you’ll also find the full list of all 75 Blueprints in Arc Raiders on this page (including the newest Blueprints added with the Cold Snap update , such as the Deadline Blueprint and Firework Box Blueprint), giving you all the information you need to expand your own crafting repertoire.

In this guide:

• What are Blueprints in Arc Raiders?
• Full Blueprint list: All crafting recipes
• Where to find Blueprints in Arc Raiders Blueprints obtained from quests Blueprints obtained from Trials Best Blueprint farming locations

What are Blueprints in Arc Raiders?

Blueprints in Arc Raiders are special items which, if you manage to extract with them, you can expend to permanently unlock a new crafting recipe in your Workshop. If you manage to extract from a raid with an Anvil Blueprint, for example, you can unlock the ability to craft your very own Anvil Pistol, as many times as you like (as long as you have the crafting materials).

To use a Blueprint, simply open your Inventory while in the lobby, then right-click on the Blueprint and click “Learn And Consume” . This will permanently unlock the recipe for that item in your Workshop. As of the Stella Montis update, there are allegedly 75 different Blueprints to unlock - although only 68 are confirmed to be in the game so far. You can see all the Blueprints you’ve found and unlocked by going to the Workshop menu, and hitting “R” to bring up the Blueprint screen.

It’s possible to find duplicates of past Blueprints you’ve already unlocked. If you find these, then you can either sell them, or - if you like to play with friends - you can take it into a match and gift it to your friend so they can unlock that recipe for themselves. Another option is to keep hold of them until the time comes to donate them to the Expedition.

Full Blueprint list: All crafting recipes

Below is the full list of all the Blueprints that are currently available to find in Arc Raiders, and the crafting recipe required for each item:

Note: The missing Blueprints in this list likely have not actually been added to the game at the time of writing, because none of the playerbase has managed to find any of them. As they are added to the game, I will update this page with the most relevant information so you know exactly how to get all 75 Arc Raiders Blueprints.

Where to find Blueprints in Arc Raiders

Below is a list of all containers, modifiers, and events which maximise your chances of finding Blueprints:

• Certain quests reward you with specific Blueprints .
• Completing Trials has a high chance of offering Blueprints as rewards.
• Surveyors have a decent chance of dropping Blueprints on death.
• High loot value areas tend to have a greater chance of spawning Blueprints.
• Night Raids and Storms may increase rare Blueprint spawn chances in containers.
• Containers with higher numbers of items may have a higher tendency to spawn Blueprints. As a result, Blue Gate (which has many “large” containers containing multiple items) may give you a higher chance of spawning Blueprints.
• Raider containers (Raider Caches, Weapon Boxes, Medical Bags, Grenade Tubes) have increased Blueprint drop rates. As a result, the Uncovered Caches event gives you a high chance of finding Blueprints.
• Security Lockers have a higher than average chance of containing Blueprints.
• Certain Blueprints only seem to spawn under specific circumstances: Tempest Blueprint only spawns during Night Raid events. Vulcano Blueprint only spawns during Hidden Bunker events. Jupiter and Equaliser Blueprints only spawn during Harvester events.

Raider Caches, Weapon Boxes, and other raider-oriented container types have a good chance of offering Blueprints. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Blueprints have a very low chance of spawning in any container in Arc Raiders, around 1-2% on average. However, there is a higher chance of finding Blueprints in particular container types. Specifically, you can find more Blueprints in Raider containers and security lockers.

Beyond this, if you’re looking for Blueprints you should focus on regions of the map which are marked as having particularly high-value loot. Areas such as the Control Tower in Dam Battlegrounds, the Arrival and Departure Buildings in Spaceport, and Pilgrim’s Peak in Blue Gate all have a better-than-average chance of spawning Blueprints somewhere amongst all their containers. Night Raids and Electromagnetic Storm events also increase the drop chances of certain Blueprints .

In addition to these containers, you can often loot Blueprints from destroyed Surveyors - the largest of the rolling ball ARC. Surveyors are more commonly found on the later maps - Spaceport and Blue Gate - and if one spawns in your match, you’ll likely see it by the blue laser beam that it casts into the sky while “surveying”.

Surveyors are quite well-armoured and will very speedily run away from you once it notices you, but if you can take one down then make sure you loot all its parts for a chance of obtaining certain unusual Blueprints.

Blueprints obtained from quests

One way in which you can get Blueprints is by completing certain quests for the vendors in Speranza. Some quests will reward you with a specific item Blueprint upon completion, so as long as you work through all the quests in Arc Raiders, you are guaranteed those Blueprints.

Here is the full list of all Blueprints you can get from quest rewards:

• Trigger Nade Blueprint: Rewarded after completing “Sparks Fly”.
• Lure Grenade Blueprint: Rewarded after completing “Greasing Her Palms”.
• Burletta Blueprint: Rewarded after completing “Industrial Espionage”.
• Hullcracker Blueprint (and Launcher Ammo Blueprint): Rewarded after completing “The Major’s Footlocker”.

Alas, that’s only 4 Blueprints out of a total of 75 to unlock, so for the vast majority you will need to find them yourself during a raid. If you’re intent on farming Blueprints, then it’s best to equip yourself with cheap gear in case you lose it, but don’t use a free loadout because then you won’t get a safe pocket to stash any new Blueprint you find. No pain in Arc Raiders is sharper than failing to extract with a new Blueprint you’ve been after for a dozen hours already.

One of the best ways to get Blueprints is by hitting three stars on all five Trials every week. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Blueprints obtained from Trials

One of the very best ways to get Blueprints is as rewards for completing Trials in Arc Raiders. Trials are unlocked from Level 15 onwards, and allow you to earn rewards by focusing on certain tasks over the course of several raids. For example, one Trial might task you with dealing damage to Hornets, while another might challenge you to loot Supply Drops.

Trials refresh on a weekly basis, with a new week bringing five new Trials. Each Trial can offer up to three rewards after passing certain score milestones, and it’s possible to receive very high level loot from these reward crates - including Blueprints. So if you want to unlock as many Blueprints as possible, you should make a point of completing as many Trials as possible each week.

Best Blueprint farming locations

The very best way to get Blueprints is to frequent specific areas of the maps which combine high-tier loot pools with the right types of containers to search. Here are my recommendations for where to find Blueprints on every map, so you can always keep the search going for new crafting recipes to unlock.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Dam Battlegrounds

The best places to farm Blueprints on Dam Battlegrounds are the Control Tower, Power Generation Complex, Ruby Residence, and Pale Apartments . The first two regions, despite only being marked on the map as mid-tier loot, contain a phenomenal number of containers to loot. The Control Tower can also contain a couple of high-tier Security Lockers - though of course, you’ll need to have unlocked the Security Breach skill at the end of the Survival tree.

There’s also a lot of reporting amongst the playerbase that the Residential areas in the top-left of the map - Pale Apartments and Ruby Residence - give you a comparatively strong chance of finding Blueprints. Considering their size, there’s a high density of containers to loot in both locations, and they also have the benefit of being fairly out of the way. So you’re more likely to have all the containers to yourself.

Buried City

The best Blueprint farming locations on Buried City are the Santa Maria Houses, Grandioso Apartments, Town Hall, and the various buildings of the New District . Grandioso Apartments has a lower number of containers than the rest, but a high chance of spawning weapon cases - which have good Blueprint drop rates. The others are high-tier loot areas, with plenty of lootable containers - including Security Lockers.

Spaceport

The best places to find Blueprints on Spaceport are the Arrival and Departure Buildings, as well as Control Tower A6 and the Launch Towers . All these areas are labelled as high-value loot regions, and many of them are also very handily connected to one another by the Spaceport wall, which you can use to quickly run from one area to the next. At the tops of most of these buildings you’ll find at least one Security Locker, so this is an excellent farming route for players looking to find Blueprints.

The downside to looting Blueprints on Spaceport is that all these areas are hotly contested, particularly in Duos and Squads. You’ll need to be very focused and fast in order to complete the full farming route.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Blue Gate

Blue Gate tends to have a good chance of dropping Blueprints, potentially because it generally has a high number of containers which can hold lots of items; so there’s a higher chance of a Blueprint spawning in each container. In my experience, the best Blueprint farming spots on Blue Gate are Pilgrim’s Peak, Raider’s Refuge, the Ancient Fort, and the Underground Complex beneath the Warehouse .

All of these areas contain a wealth of containers to loot. Raider’s Refuge has less to loot, but the majority of the containers in and around the Refuge are raider containers, which have a high chance of containing Blueprints - particularly during major events.

Stella Montis

On the whole, Stella Montis seems to have a very low drop rate for Blueprints (though a high chance of dropping other high-tier loot). If you do want to try farming Blueprints on this map, the best places to find Blueprints in Stella Montis are Medical Research, Assembly Workshop, and the Business Center . These areas have the highest density of containers to loot on the map.

In addition to this, the Western Tunnel has a few different Security Lockers to loot, so while there’s very little to loot elsewhere in this area of the map, it’s worth hitting those Security Lockers if you spawn there at the start of a match.

That wraps up this primer on how to get all the Blueprints in Arc Raiders as quickly as possible. With the Expedition system constantly resetting a large number of players’ Blueprints, it’s more important than ever to have the most up-to-date information on where to find all these Blueprints.

While you’re here, be sure to check out our Arc Raiders best guns tier list , as well as our primers on the best skills to unlock and all the different Field Depot locations on every map.

ARC Raiders

PS5 , Xbox Series X/S , PC

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