To claim progress towards the season track in the Animus menu of Assassin’s Creed Shadows, you need to purify the arena.
However, the Tournament is a relatively late-game quest to the point where you could happily play upwards of 40 hours before stumbling across it.
Here’s where to find the Tournament quest, complete it, and unlock the arena in Assassin’s Creed Shadows.
How to start The Tournament in Assassin’s Creed Shadows
When 8 of the Shinbakufu are defeated, leaving just Mitsuhide, the leader and two others, a man named Gyoji will appear next to the entrance to your hideout.
He will be denoted by a quest marker, clueing you in to the start of the illusive Tournament quest.
After a brief backstory, he hands you a tournament invitation, beckoning you to a secret fighting arena in Yamato.
You’re given the following clues to track it down:
- It is in Southeastern Yoshino
- It is east of Mitarai Valley
- It is in a ruined temple
Yoshino is in the middle of Yamato, but you find the arena in Ominesanji Temple, next to the Ominesanji Overlook viewpoint.
In the temple grounds, speak to Gyoji again and he’ll run you through the task at hand once again: defeat the fighters, reclaim control of the tournament and win glory for yourself.
First, you must defeat the four challengers, Lady Masago, Lord Suguru, Lord Hokuto and Lady O-Sen. Then you will be allowed to face the reigning champion, Lord Unkai.
Winning the Tournament in Assassin’s Creed Shadows
Lady Masago
Ring the bell to take on your first opponent, Lady Masago. She’s a Naginata-wielding shinobi-style enemy.
While fighting her isn’t much out of the ordinary, what she does teach you is that all of the enemies in the Tournament hit very hard and have a lot of health to chew through.
Because of the long reach of the naginata, you need to watch carefully for the final hit of her combos before moving in for your own attacks. Otherwise, she can power through your regular attacks without flinching and quickly rush you down. Keep your discipline and prioritize using your abilities to interrupt her attacks to claim victory.
She drops the Bloody Naginata of Grace when defeated.
Lord Suguru
Next up is Lord Suguru, who is in the fast samurai-style enemy archetype. This means he can deflect attacks easily, move around quickly and attack with a bow from distance. However, because of his mobility though, he has low health, making this fight short and deadly.
The main thing to watch out for is him dropping a small explosive when he dodges backwards, which can open up distance quickly with its stagger and leave you in a tough spot trying to dodge arrows to rebridge the gap. Either way, spam your abilities and he’ll go down quickly. He drops a pair of items: the Austere Katana of Elegance and Ardent Bow of Plenty when defeated.
Lord Hokuto
The hulking Lord Hokuto is next, embodying the large Kanabo-wielding enemy type.
The trick to fighting these guys is not to anticipate the end of their combo too early, as the additional swings can catch you off guard and crush your health bar to pieces. Again, use your abilities to interrupt his attacks, then quickly grab hits when it’s safe to do so. His grab attack can be dangerous, but gives you three red dots of warning as it comes out.
You get the Stalwart Kanabo of the Guard for winning.
Lady O-Sen
Fourth on the list is Lady O-Sen, who helpfully warns you about her poisoned katana before the match. She’s a fast shinobi-style enemy again, but unique in that she wields two longer katana instead of two tanto.
Regardless, you need to treat her in the same way, focusing on spamming your abilities and dodging rather than standing toe-to-toe to fight her. This is because she can easily withstand your attacks without flinching and let loose a devastating combo of her own. Just a couple of hits will leave you poisoned or dead, so if you do get hit, try to make sure it’s only once by dodging backwards out of harm’s way.
She can also throw poison kunai, but these are relatively weak and simple to dodge. When you go on the offensive, control your greed and focus on building adrenaline before making full use of the invulnerability your abilities grant.
She’s by far the most difficult fight of the quest, given her ability to rush down your health bar with ease. But when you eventually win, you get the Ronin’s Katana of Honor.
Lord Unkai
Finally, only the champion stands in your way: Lord Unkai.
He’s another Naginata user, but this time with a unique drunken Kung-Fu style, and to pump up the challenge of this final bout has been given a damage buff to rival even the most powerful enemies. However, this is balanced by his lack of armour, which gives you a relatively soft target to aim for.
His flurry attacks are tough to punish and dangerous, so it’s best to give him a wide berth entirely and focus on using your own abilities to safely deal damage. His drunken fighting style is also difficult to predict, but you need to continuously keep up the pressure, otherwise he can heal with a swig from his flask.
Really though, I feel like he’s probably easier than the previous bout, but has a lot of unique character that’s fun to battle against. When he’s defeated, you get the Vengeful Foe Naginata which gives +35% bleed buildup on parry.
Then, as the new tournament champion, return to speak to Gyoji. You’ve given him and his allies a new lease on life, free from the ties that bound them, and as a reward you’re given a hefty chuck of XP and access to the arena.
As you may have seen as you’ve played through the game to this point, once a week you can enter the arena to earn progress towards the season track in the Animus menu. This takes the form of 3 rounds against a series of progressively more difficult enemies. However, it’s nothing compared to what you’ve already overcome to win the tournament.
For more Assassin’s Creed Shadows action, check out our other walkthrough guides as well as our pages on the Iron Hand Guild locations, Yokai locations and the Godai Shinobi.