Assassin's Creed Shadows Allows for Transmogging, Keeping a Weapon's Looks While Changing Its Stats

Assassin’s Creed Shadows: Deep Dive into Progression and Customization

Transmogging and Weapon Customization

Assassin’s Creed Shadows (AC Shadows) offers players extensive customization options, including a powerful transmogging feature. In a March 1, 2025, website post, Associate Game Director Julien detailed the game's progression system and its emphasis on player choice. The transmog system lets players change the appearance of their weapons while retaining their original stats. This feature unlocks after building a Forge in the Hideout, accessible directly from the inventory menu.

Julien explained the Forge's broader role: "Overall, the Forge plays a key part in managing your inventory. There you can upgrade or dismantle weapons & gear, but we will share more in an upcoming article on the Hideout." Furthermore, players can mix and match weapon components for truly unique looks. As the post states, "The final result could be the blade of one weapon, with the guard of another, and the handle of your newly acquired one."

A New Progression Loop

Building on Creative Director Charles Benoit's IGN Fan Fest 2025 presentation of combat mechanics, Ubisoft's recent post delves deeper into AC Shadows' progression system. Julien addressed the challenge of designing progression for two protagonists: "Having two separate characters with unique archetypes in our feudal Japan world pushed us to rethink how we wanted to approach player progression. Our goal was to stay as close as possible to the philosophy of mastery and martial art."

Mastery, Abilities, and Knowledge Ranks

AC Shadows features unique mastery trees for Naoe (shinobi/assassin) and Yasuke (samurai). These trees allow players to specialize in specific weapons, playstyles, or archetypes. Julien highlighted this design choice: "With the unique Mastery trees, we want to give players the freedom to dedicate themselves into a specific weapon, playstyle, or archetype, and ensure they can deepen their mastery of it. The points you invest in a Mastery tree also unlock additional bonuses for that weapon or archetype, further reinforcing your progress."

Mastery trees also unlock abilities, adding new tactical options and increased damage potential. However, access to certain abilities and mastery points is gated behind Knowledge Rank, increased through non-combat activities like finding Lost Pages, praying at Shrines, Kuji-kiri Meditation (Naoe), or learning new Kata (Yasuke).

Customizing Your Playstyle

AC Shadows provides extensive playstyle customization. Perks allow players to "modify, enhance, or specialize a piece of equipment," offering stat boosts, affliction influences, and unique gameplay conditions. Despite their initial archetypes, Naoe and Yasuke offer surprising flexibility. The post showcases example builds, highlighting Naoe's potential for aggressive, high-damage ground combat and Yasuke's adaptability to stealth and ranged playstyles.

The recent previews of AC Shadows have generated considerable excitement. The game launches March 20, 2025, on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. For the latest updates, check out our related articles!