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Assassin's Creed Shadows' Claws of Awaji expansion launches in September

Before then, two more major updates are planned that add new content and plenty of quality-of-life improvements.
Ben Lyons Senior Editor 25 July 2025

Ubisoft has finally lifted the curtain and revealed when the first expansion for Assassin's Creed Shadows will arrive. Known as Claws of Awaji, this expansion will add around 10 hours of additional content and it will take Yasuke and Naoe to a new region of Japan to explore, find and gather new weapons and abilities, earn new outfits and legendary gear, conquer a new enemy faction and bosses, and otherwise chip away at a new chapter of the overarching story too.

The release date for the expansion was confirmed in the summer update for the game, which reveals a September 16 arrival. Ahead of that date, on August 12, an AMA will be hosted with the development team for anyone wishing to ask Ubisoft any questions about it. Otherwise, you'll be able to experience Claws of Awaji without incurring any further cost, as the expansion was made free for all following the last delay of the game.

Before Claws of Awaji arrives, two more updates are planned for Shadows too, one of which is coming next week and the second in early September.

Next week's will actually be a rather big one as it adds New Game+ finally, as well as a level cap increase, Knowledge ranks 9 and 10, Forge level 4, new Achievements and Trophies, plus more Animus-themed rewards and store content.

The follow-up update will add a slate of quality-of-life improvements to the game, such as being able to unfog the map the simply visiting each of the Viewpoints, all while Hideouts are being enhanced, skip time-of-day is being included, uncapped frame rate is coming to PC in cutscenes, and Ubisoft also promises "additional goodies that may be familiar to long-time series fans."

For more on each of these upcoming improvements, check out the summer update for Assassin's Creed Shadows below.

Senior Editor Ben was a Senior Editor at Gamereactor UK. When he wasn’t writing, editing or filming for Gamereactor, he could usually be found playing an FPS or getting lost in a sprawling RPG.
Full profile Gamereactor author since October 2020 · 18,577 published articles
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