Assassin’s Creed Shadows Hints at Hardcore Mode for the Boldest Players

Assassin’s Creed Shadows can already be a formidable test for many players, but Ubisoft is looking into raising the stakes even higher. In response to community feedback and ongoing patch updates, the studio says it’s “actively exploring” the idea of adding a tougher difficulty level for those who want to push their skills to the absolute limit.

Speaking to GamesRadar, creative director Jonathon Dumont explained that the team is considering a more challenging setting for experienced players while keeping a close eye on what the community has to say. “Obviously, we can’t do everything,” Dumont said. “But there are certain things we plan to act on. For the next updates, we’re implementing quite a few bug fixes and small feature enhancements. I can’t list them all, but the team is continually working to improve the game, and we hope people will notice the difference in the coming months.”

At present, Assassin’s Creed Shadows features the usual range of difficulty levels—easy, medium, and hard—plus a collection of gameplay modifiers that let players tweak the experience to be either more forgiving or more punishing.

Interestingly, Shadows has often been compared to Sucker Punch’s Ghost of Tsushima, which introduced its own spin on extreme difficulty not long after launch in 2020. Known as Lethal Mode, it made the game riskier overall by allowing both players and enemies to deal devastating damage with just one strike.

That mode also introduced tighter parry windows and ramped up enemy aggression, making the combat feel more realistic rather than simply turning opponents into health sponges. Ubisoft could potentially adopt a similar approach for Shadows if it goes ahead with plans to add a new difficulty mode.

So far, Assassin’s Creed Shadows has enjoyed a solid release—though not quite on the same level as Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, and for a variety of reasons. Recently, Ubisoft also announced a major shift in its corporate structure, unveiling a new subsidiary dedicated to franchises like Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six. Tencent has taken a minority stake in this new arm of the company, investing approximately USD $1.25 billion to support its future endeavors.