Assassin's Creed Shadows: How to change seasons
How to switch betwen the four seasons in Assassin's Creed Shadows
How do you change seasons in Assassin's Creed Shadows?Assassin's Creed Shadows has all four seasons, and uses them to mark the passage of time. This not only has a visual impact on the environments but also on gameplay functions - for instance, you'll have difficulty sprinting through snow during winter, but it can also hide the sound of your footsteps. Meanwhile, summer offers more tall grass you can hide in while sneaking around. Seasons are divided into two steps, and you need to wait for each step to occur in order for scouts to smuggle resource stockpiles or for your Wanted status to reset.
This guide will explain how you can change seasons as you progress in your playthrough of Assassin's Creed Shadows.
Assassin's Creed Shadows: How to change seasons
As seasons are meant to mark the passage of time in Assassin's Creed Shadows, the best way to make the seasons shift is to simply complete quests - either story missions or side quests.
The time that has passed is denoted by the compass displayed on the top right of the world map screen, which also has a symbol showing the current season: a flower for spring, the sun for summer, fallen leaves for autumn and a snowflake for winter. When you have completed a quest, you should notice the gauge on the outer ring of the compass filling white clockwise.
Beneath the compass is a prompt to 'Change Season', which will be greyed out. When the gauge has either filled up to halfway (South) or fully (North), this prompt will turn white, which means you can hold right on the d-pad to change the season (or the next step of the season when halfway), which will be confirmed with a transition cutscene. If you have assigned scouts to smuggle any resources, this will also appear beneath the compass.
If you don't manually change the season in the menu, the season can also change by itself after the next time you use fast travel. The season may also change after you have progressed a significant mission in the story, such as killing one of the Shinbakufu.
Is is possible to change seasons by remaining idle?
While the seasons won't automatically shift if you just stand around and do nothing, if you keep the game running for 70 minutes, the Change Season option will become available in the menu. If you use this method to change the seasons and don't go on to do any quests, you'll need to wait another 70 minutes before the Change Season option appears again.
Obviously, this is not the ideal way to play, as the shifting seasons are meant to feel like they are naturally integrated into Assassin's Creed Shadows' gameplay. But if you happen to leave your autumnal game on while eating dinner and want to see what things look like in winter, go ahead and give it a go.
And that's all for this guide on changing seasons in Assassin's Creed Shadows. If you're interested in what to discover in Japan, we also have guides on where to find Cat Island, the best buildings for your Hideout, and how to take snapshots of all of the splendour on the trail by using photo mode.