Seasons are more than just set dressing in Assassin’s Creed Shadows. When seasons change, you’ll refill your scouts and reset enemy encampments, among other notable gameplay changes.
Our Assassin’s Creed Shadows guide will tell you how to change seasons and why you’d want to.
How to change seasons in Assassin’s Creed Shadows
When the option is available (more on this in a second), changing seasons in Assassin’s Creed Shadows is as simply as holding right on the D-pad from the Map screen.
You can also just wait a bit since the seasons also change automatically. Usually, this happens after a handful of fast travels or a bit of progression in the main story.
Sometimes, though, you’ll be prevented from changing the seasons at all. You’ll be able to tell when this happens because the prompt on the Map screen will be dimmed. Generally — in our experience, at least — it seems to get locked out as you approach (or have just finished) main story beats. It (seems to) unlock as you get into more of the exploration phase of each region.
What happens when seasons change in Assassin’s Creed Shadows?
Several things happen with the season change and most of them have to do with Hideout resources and scouts.
* Your scouts return any pallets of resources (stockpiles) you flagged at a camp or castle.
* Your available scouts refill — any that you’ve spent on resources or scouting missions return
* Resources, chests, and enemies at camps and castles reset, respawn, and refill
* The contracts available at kakuregas reset
* Your wanted level resets
Basically, changing the seasons finishes everything your scouts had been doing and resets the world — including all of the Hideout resources. If you’re waiting on a load of resources or have run out of available resources, it’s time to change the season.
Otherwise, you’re probably better off waiting for it to happen naturally.
The other thing seasons effect is, well, the season and the environment. In summer, for example, foliage is fuller and you’ll have more options for hiding in bushes.
In winter, you might spot icicles hanging from eaves and deep snow will muffle your footsteps. One thing to note about winter, though, is that it doesn’t seem to effect each region equally — Yamashiro and Iga get more snow than Settsu, for example.
For more Assassin’s Creed Shadows explainers, here’s how to get more knowledge points and mastery points, how to get more rations, how to get more scouts, and how to get all companions and romance options. Plus, see our all weapons and all armor lists.
