Blitz Royale is a new limited-time game mode introduced in Fortnite Chapter 6 Season 3 Super that is available until Tuesday, July 15.
Blitz Royale is Fortnite as you know it, but at a much faster pace. Blitz Royale is meant for those on the go as each game can take five minutes or less. Although Blitz Royale is “made for mobile,” it’s available on every platform. As Blitz Royale will only be around until July 15, each week will feature an event to make your battles even more interesting.
Here’s everything you need to know about Blitz Royale in Fortnite, plus a breakdown of the weekly schedule.
What is Blitz Royale in Fortnite?
Blitz Royale is a Zero Build mode that pits 32 players against each other on a tiny map featuring fan favorite locations, Pleasant Park and Retail Row. Blitz Royale is available until Tuesday, July 15 and can be played as a solo, duo, or squad.
As Blitz Royale games are meant to be quick, every player will start the game with the same medallion or unique weapon — allowing you to immediately get into the fray.
To make things even faster, Blitz Royale incentivizes you to hunt down your enemies with the introduction of Blitz Level, which is a new system that will reward you with powerful weapons and boons as long as you’re eliminating opponents and surviving storm circles. As you gain more Blitz Levels, you’ll gain more weapons and boons — making you a force to be reckoned with.
If you’re having a hard time increasing your Blitz Level, you can get your hands on strong weapons and buffs through other means. There are a lot of golden chests containing power-ups scattered around the map, and periodically golden supply drops will fall out of the sky and grant you more medallions.
Fortnite Blitz Royale weekly events schedule
As Blitz Royale is only available for a month, it has been packed with weekly events to keep you coming back:
Fortnite Blitz Royale rewards
Along with the new game mode, you can earn two rewards from playing Blitz Royale:
Verso is more than just a Devil May Cry stand-in. In Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Verso’s combat playstyle evokes this feeling of style, but style doesn’t have to stop at combat. With the right fit, you can defeat the paintress in style. Verso’s outfits unlock many combinations of expression.
As you play Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, you’ll find both outfits and hairstyles to experiment with. Many of them will be directly in your path, but many of them are missable — hidden behind Mimes, side quests, or complex challenges.
In this Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 guide, we offer a list of all Verso outfits and hairstyles and how to unlock them.
All Verso outfits in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
There are 12 outfits you can unlock for Verso. We’ve only unlocked eight so far, though, we can confirm through community sources how to unlock the other four. Included above are screenshots of the Verso outfits we’ve unlocked to date, with an asterisk (*) below to indicate those we’ve yet to unlock.
Here’s how you unlock the following Verso outfits in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33:
All Verso hairstyles in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
There are 10 hairstyles you can unlock for Verso. Similar to his outfits, we’ve only unlocked five, but through the community, we have confirmed how to unlock the other six. We’ve included screenshots of the Verso hairstyles we’ve unlocked so far, and have added an asterisk (*) below to indicate those we’ve yet to unlock.
Here’s how you unlock the following Verso hairstyles in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33:
If you’re just getting started in Dune: Awakening, the ins and outs of making it through each day on Arrakis might seem more than a little overwhelming. There’s a detailed prologue that walks you through some of the basics, but it doesn’t tell you everything and leaves a lot to the assumption that you’ll figure it out as you go along. Dune: Awakening is much more forgiving than some survival games, but not having to learn things the hard way means you can focus your time and resources on things that matter.
We’ve compiled a list of Dune: Awakening beginner tips and tricks to help get you started on Arrakis, everything from how to keep hydrated to the best skills to focus on early in the game.
1. Don’t build your base on the sand. Zantara, your guide, only tells you this after your first construction project, but if you build on the sand, the foundations will get swept away whenever a storm blows through.
2. Don’t get too attached to your first base, either. You’ll have to abandon it after making some story progress, and even though demolishing constructions will refund your building materials, carting everything you stored to your new base is a pain.
3. Focus on raising your faction reputation in between completing main and side quests. Raising faction reputation is key to unlocking some of Dune Awakening’s bigger features, including the option to buy your own Ornithopter.
4. Don’t neglect the main quest, either, as completing story quests unlocks new technologies and teaches you how to use some of Dune: Awakening’s more nuanced systems.
Image: Funcom via Polygon
5. Kill scavengers and extract their blood whenever you can. It sounds gruesome, but their blood is the most reliable way to have fresh water on-hand after you craft the blood refiner.
6. Scavengers respawn after a short time, the same as resources, so you won’t lack opportunities to harvest fresh blood.
7. Pay attention to the sunstroke bar, and avoid letting it max out. Sunstroke won’t kill or damage you, but it does make you dehydrate more quickly. Dehydration lowers your stamina and, at full dehydration, you lose health.
8. Keep a stock of purified water on-hand at your base at all times. The Stillsuit’s hydration mechanism is a helpful top-up, but it charges too slowly to make it your primary water source.
Image: Funcom via Polygon
9. Daytime exploration exposes you to dangerous heat, so if you have to go out before night falls, make sure you plot a path that includes areas where you can rest in shade.
10. Ignore your pistol for a while. Zantara makes a big deal out of using ranged weapons, but they’re incredibly weak for much of the early game. Knife attacks are much faster and safer unless you’re dealing with more than two enemies simultaneously.
11. Grab all the granite, plant fiber, copper, and metal you can find. These materials are required for building walls, foundations, and most other base- and progress-related machines and crafting recipes.
12. Craft a few storage chests early, and dump all your extra rocks, plants, and resources in there before heading out. Your base’s sub-fief has limited initial storage space, and you don’t want to have to waste or discard anything you find on Arrakis.
Image: Funcom via Polygon
13. Once you scan an area and can examine nodes on the map, look for Intel nodes. Completing these rewards you with a lot of XP, and they’re usually in outposts or other areas with valuable resources to pick up.
14. Dying is less of an obstacle than you might think in most cases. You’ll respawn with every piece of equipment you died with and can return to collect your pack with all your resources.
15. If a sandworm kills you, though, you lose everything. Plan your trips across open sand carefully.
16. You can’t kill sandworms, so don’t try. The only options for dealing with them are “get eaten” or “run away.”
Image: Funcom via Polygon
17. Falling from ledges or other high place can damage you, but never kill you. At worst, it drops your HP to critical, which isn’t ideal if enemies are nearby, but it does mean you can quickly get down from a high place without much worry.
18. It’s completely possible to play solo, even if group play makes things easier. You’ll just need to rely on item trades to cover gaps in your resource management.
19. Mobility is far more important than combat, so invest your skill points in movement and survival skills before spending them on improving weapon damage.
When Rockstar Games delayedGrand Theft Auto 6 into 2026, it likely came as a big relief to publishers who had anything on their slate for the back half of 2025. But 2026 is already shaping up to be an exciting, crowded year of big game releases, even without GTA 6.
Beyond sequels, there are plenty of promising original games on the horizon, like role-playing game SacriFire, Warren Spector’s stealth-action PvPvE game Thick As Thieves, and Animal Crossing-but-make-it-vampires indie Moonlight Peaks.
Game release dates are always in flux, though, so Polygon’s guide to the new video games coming out in 2026 will be regularly updated with new titles, release dates, and (inevitable) delays.
Season 8 of Diablo 4, Belial’s Return, out this week, sees the… uh… return of an old foe from Diablo 3: Belial, Lord of Lies. In addition to fighting the large, eye-obsessed boss, you’ll be able to wield powers inspired by some of the series’ biggest and baddest bosses.
In this Diablo 4 guide, we’ll cover when season 8 releases in your time zone and what you can expect from Belial’s Return.
Diablo 4 season 8 release time on PC, PS5, and Xbox
Diablo 4season 8 will launch at 10 a.m. PDT on Tuesday, April 29. Here’s when that is in your time zone:
The launch of season 8 will be global across PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X. Blizzard Entertainment recently announced a Diablo 4 roadmap, showcasing what players should expect for the rest of 2025. According to that roadmap, season 8 will run until sometime in July, when season 9, Sins of the Horadrim, is set to begin.
What to expect from Diablo 4 season 8
Season 8 is all about killing bosses and taking their powers. Players will be able to harness signature abilities that are inspired by some of the game’s biggest bosses, such as the chest beam from Wandering Death.
With the return of Belial, players will also need to battle ghost-like figures spawned from the Lord of Lies in the new Apparition Incursions world event. Belial himself will be featured as a new endgame boss, and Blizzard will be adding multiple bosses from Vessel of Hatred as Lair Bosses (although they will only be accessible to players who own the expansion). Speaking of Lair Bosses, players will be able to earn increased loot from them over the course of the season.
In addition to some of these endgame updates, Blizzard is bringing some interesting new additions to the game’s cosmetics. First, as you can see in the trailer above, the world of Berserkis coming to Diablo 4 via cosmetics (that you can either earn or purchase). Players who complete the Season Journey during season 8 will also earn a new pet, Iris the hairless cat covered in gross, nasty eyes. It’s creepy!
Finally, the studio is updating how the game’s battle pass works with what it’s calling the “Reliquary system.” Instead of a straight line battle pass that you can progress through, the new battle pass is split into four major categories:
There will also be an Event Reliquary section for Berserk coming on May 6 and lasting through June 3.
When Diablo 4’s eighth season launches on April 29, the battle pass will look completely different. Instead of a linear track, it will be split into categories, or Reliquaries, for you to chase after specific types of cosmetic tweaks for your demon slayer. Like a lot of popular live service games that have introduced more choices in their battle passes, Blizzard’s goal is to make it fit with how people actually play Diablo 4.
There were three problems with the old battle passes, senior manager of game design Dan Tanguay told Polygon in a recent interview: The rewards “didn’t feel meaningful enough,” they were “intrinsically tied to seasons,” and they had a general “lack of agency.”
In my experience, this is all true. I’d hop into a new Diablo 4 season, maybe take a peek at the battle pass page, then inevitably forget about it until I felt like clearing the notification telling me something new had unlocked. And a lot of times, the new cosmetic was for a class I wasn’t actively playing, which made me care about it even less.
That seems to be the kind of experience Blizzard is trying to avoid with Reliquaries, a reinvention of the battle pass that lets you pick the rewards you want first. There’s still a price attached. Three of the four categories have an up-front cost before you can start unlocking their rewards, like mini premium battle passes. But if all you care about is the glowing tiger from the Beasts Reliquary instead of the fancy sword from the Weapons Reliquary, you can just skip it. And players who don’t bother starting a new character every season will now have access to the system on the game’s Eternal Realm, too.
Tanguay said the team felt the old battle pass stuck out in an action RPG that’s all about satisfying decision-making. “You’re choosing basically all the choices that comprise your build, you’re choosing how you look, and we then have a battle pass that’s just highly, highly linear and very deterministic, and it’s like, ‘Wow, there’s just not a lot of choice here,’” he said.
Each Reliquary reward costs Favor, a new currency you can only earn by mowing down monsters as you play. Everyone will be able to spend it on cosmetics from the free Reliquary for the duration of the season. Event Reliquaries, like the one launching with Diablo 4’s Berserk collab in May, will show up for a limited time and require a unique currency. Tanguay couldn’t confirm whether returning events will have their own Reliquaries, but said the team is still “talking through” those opportunities.
The Reliquary system is another step in Blizzard’s ongoing approach to reworking parts of the game that have fallen behind. Tanguay added that by disconnecting battle passes from seasons, Blizzard can do more with the Season Journey, which is a free set of challenges, like killing bosses and completing dungeons, that reward loot and cosmetics. These were often so straightforward that you’d complete them accidentally. But Tanguay said the team is trying to get players to “stretch and do more aspirational type of content” to complete the later chapters. I spotted one for season 8 that asks you to defeat one of the endgame bosses using a specific seasonal power, which should be fun to figure out how to accomplish once the new season opens.
If you’ve ever wondered what the Venn diagram of Bikini Bottom, Los Santos, mysterious archipelagos, and a few other locations looks like – the center is “Places You Can Visit Soon with Game Pass” (not many people have wondered that before now, but at least I could give you that answer!). We have updates on games, benefits, Perks, and some launches you might have caught in some previous Xbox Showcases. Let’s get to it!
Available Today
Grand Theft Auto V (Cloud, Console, and PC) Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, Game Pass Standard
Grand Theft Auto V returns to Game Pass today. Experience entertainment blockbusters Grand Theft Auto V and Grand Theft Auto Online with Xbox Game Pass on console, Xbox Cloud Gaming (Beta) , or the newly enhanced version on PC with Game Pass Ultimate or PC Game Pass.
Coming Soon
Neon White (Console) – April 16 Now with Game Pass Standard
A lightning-fast first-person action game about exterminating demons in Heaven. You are White, an assassin handpicked from Hell to compete with other demon slayers for a chance to live permanently in Heaven. The other assassins seem familiar, though… did you know them in a past life?
SpongeBob SquarePants: The Patrick Star Game (Cloud, Console, and PC) – April 16 Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, Game Pass Standard
Patrick fans, your time has come – and Bikini Bottom is your open-world playground! So become the star of the show, put your silliest ideas into action, and enjoy the physics-based chaos that unfolds all around you.
Crime Scene Cleaner (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) – April 17 Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
Once you get tangled with the mob, there’s no going back. At least the salary is good and all you have to do is clean up after their dirty work. So clean crime scenes, earn as much money as you can, and remember that your daughter’s fate lies in your hands.
Tempopo (Cloud, Console, and PC) – April 17 Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
Available on day one! When Hana’s Garden of musical flowers are scattered across the sky, she asks the Tempopo for help returning them. Chaotic and uncoordinated by nature, the Tempopo needs Hana’s conducting skills to keep on beat and solve each island’s puzzle. Populate your melodic garden with rescued flowers to enjoy musical performances!
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) – April 24 Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
Available on day one! Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a ground-breaking turn-based RPG with unique real-time mechanics, making battles more immersive and addictive than ever. Explore a fantasy world inspired by Belle Époque France in which you battle devastating enemies.
Towerborne (Game Preview) (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) – April 29 Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
The Belfry stands as a beacon of hope and safety amongst the ruins of humanity and the City of Numbers, with monsters lurking right outside the tower’s walls. You are an Ace, born anew from the spirit realm with the skills, grit, and determination to protect the people of the Belfry. With spirit companions fighting by your side, you are destined for battle.
Far Cry 4 (Cloud, Console, and PC) – April 30 Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, Game Pass Standard
As Ajay Ghale, travel to Kyrat to fulfill a promise and dive into in a civil war to overthrow the oppressive regime of dictator Pagan Min. Explore and navigate this vast open world, where danger and unpredictability lurk around every corner.
Anno 1800 (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) – May 1 Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, Game Pass Standard
Welcome to the dawn of the Industrial Age in this city-building real-time strategy game. Experience one of the most exciting and fast-changing periods of all time as you discover new technologies, regions, and societies, implement your own strategy, and build a new world to your design.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (Cloud, Console, and PC) – May 1 Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II drops players into an unprecedented global conflict that features the iconic Operators of Task Force 141. Experience a globe-trotting single-player campaign, immersive multiplayer combat, and an evolved Special Ops game mode featuring tactical co-op gameplay.
Dredge (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) – May 6 Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, Game Pass Standard
Dredge is a single-player fishing adventure with a sinister undercurrent. Sell your catch, upgrade your boat, and dredge the depths for long-buried secrets. Explore a mysterious archipelago and discover why some things are best left forgotten.
In Case You Missed It
EA Sports NHL 25 (Cloud and Xbox Series X|S) – Available now Game Pass Ultimate
Control every inch of the ice in EA Sports NHL 25, now on The Play List. Game Pass Ultimate members can fire off game-changing goals with unlimited access via EA Play or Xbox Cloud Gaming (Beta) on the Xbox app with Windows PC. Plus, they can score a Supercharge Bundle, available for a limited time from April 10 to May 9.
DLC / Game Updates
Forza Horizon 5: Horizon Realms – April 25 The new Stadium Track premiers in Horizon Realms, along with a collection of 11 previous Evolving World locations. Explore every Realm with a group of friends or on your own in both Free Mode and Skill Mode to earn new Accolades, Achievements, Badges, and unlock four new reward cars.
In-Game Benefits
For Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass members, there are more benefits for select free-to-play games. Get in-game benefits like cosmetics, characters, in-game currency, and more with seasonal content drops.
Call of Duty: Warzone – Game Pass Pack 1 – Available now
Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass members get a free in-game bundle for Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and Call of Duty: Warzone. This pack comes with 2x Operator Skins, 3x Weapon Blueprints, 2x Emotes, 2x Stickers, Weapon Charm, Weapon Reticle, Emblem, Background, 1-hour 2XP Token, and 1-hour 2WXP Token.
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Perks Check the Game Pass section on your console, Xbox mobile app, or Xbox app on Windows PC to find new April in-game content, consumables, and offers included with your Game Pass Ultimate membership. Perks vary by region, platform, and over time.
Naraka: Bladepoint – Ignis Bundle – Available now
Claim Xbox headgear, new season treasures, a legendary skin trial bundle, and more in the new Perks bundle.
Stumble Guys: Inside Out Bundle – Available now Unlock the Inside Out Legendary Stumbler, Fools Guy Emote, 250 Gems, and 50 Stumble Tokens now!
Leaving April 30
The following games are leaving the Game Pass library soon. Be sure to jump back in before they go and remember to use your 20% membership discount to save on your purchase if you want to keep them.
Have a Nice Death (Cloud, Console, and PC)
Kona II Brume (Cloud, Console, and PC)
Sniper Elite 5 (Cloud, Console, and PC)
The Last Case of Benedict Fox (Cloud, Console, and PC)
Thirsty Suitors (Cloud, Console, and PC)
The Rewinder (Cloud, Console, and PC)
We’re adding more games over time to the ‘Stream your own game’ collection for Game Pass Ultimate members. Go to Xbox.com/Play to see the list of available cloud playable games to stream on supported devices if you own them.
South of Midnight launches on April 8, or play now with the Premium Edition.
The game arrives for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox app for Windows PC, Steam, cloud, and will be available day one with Game Pass. And with Xbox Play Anywhere, play on Xbox consoles, Windows PC, and cloud with full cross-entitlements and cross-saves.
To celebrate release, we’ve put together 6 tips to help you in both exploration and combat.
South of Midnight invites you into a dark, fantastical world drawn from tales of the American South – and while this might look like a fairytale, both the stories it tells and the challenges it poses are far from simplistic.
Telling the tale of Hazel, who gains the magical power of Weaving after her mother is swept away by a supernatural flood, you’ll need to cross a warped take on the South in your hunt to find her mother, and answers to what exactly is going on. Along the way, you’ll battle Haints – corrupted enemies borne from the sorrow of the world – and cure the wounds of Mythical Creatures, the subjects of real-life folktales brought to life by developer Compulsion Games.
Premium Edition owners can play from today (ahead of an April 8 release date for all players), and to celebrate we’ve put together some tips that cover both exploration and combat, which will help you prepare for this very unexpected journey:
Look Everywhere
Navigating each of South of Midnight’s chapters could be as simple as following your Guiding Strand – a feature that sees magical threads guide you to your next goal. But that’s far from all there is to discover. Each location is stuffed with hidden areas – some require platforming to reach, others need you to use your spells, while others will lead you into battles you might never have otherwise had. All of them will require a keen eye to find.
Your rewards for doing this usually come in the form of Floofs – the game’s upgrade currency – and we hugely recommend you take the time to look for them. With just a bit of concerted exploration, you can add upgrades to your skill tree (more on those later) much faster than by simply running from one objective to the next.
Even better, you may also find Life Filaments as you go. Most chapters contain one of these – usually in its most hidden side area – and collecting three offers a permanent upgrade to your health bar.
Expand These Stories
South of Midnight is all about stories – from the tale of Hazel’s search to find her mother, to the tragic backstories of the Mythical Creatures you’ll find along the way. But if you want to dig really deep, make sure to search each chapter for items, notes, and more. You’ll see these marked by small circles as you approach, often in out-of-the-way locations.
Far from your regular world-building, each chapter’s hidden notes add even more detail to the characters and stories you’re learning about along the core questline. You may discover hidden motivations for why characters are the way they are, simply because you took the time to read about their lives. It’s an enriching way to add to the wider tale.
Upgrade Early and Often
As mentioned above, you can speed through the upgrade tree with a bit of exploration – and when you start hitting harder combat sequences, you’ll thank yourself for doing it. Even on its regular difficulty level, South of Midnight’s combat packs a punch, with even the most basic Haint enemies removing whole chunks of your health bar after a single hit – never mind when you come up against a Mythical Creature. Upgrades are your means of turning the tables.
Upgrades tend to focus more on offering you added perks, rather than simply buffing an ability’s existing stats. When you Unravel a downed enemy to claw back some health, for example, you can add an area of-effect blast to stagger any nearby Haints before you get back into the fray. Adding a quick double-dodge to your repertoire, meanwhile, will come in very handy when you start meeting enemies that can quick-fire multiple projectiles. Take the time to explore the skill tree, and prioritize upgrades that look like they’ll solve problems.
Use Dodges as Attack and Defence
Hazel doesn’t have the ability to block attacks – but she more than makes up for that with a powerful bonus to her dodge. Hitting the dodge button will help you escape in any direction (with some invulnerability frames thrown in) – but hitting a perfectly timed dodge, just before you’re hit, comes with a nasty surprise for whoever was trying to hurt you.
Perfect Dodges send out a blast of energy, staggering any enemy around you and doing some nice damage, too. It’s worth paying attention to not just what attacks enemies can do, but the time it takes to pull them off – pretty soon, you can be doing almost as much damage by not attacking.
Use Spells as Interrupts
As we mentioned, getting hit in South of Midnight can get very nasty, very quickly – and while Hazel has that handy dodge, it can sometimes be easier simply to stop an attack in the first place. Against most enemies, throwing out a spell – whether that’s a Pull, a Push, or a Weave (which incapacitates most Haints) – will break them out of an attack completely.
While it’s tempting to spam your spells as soon as they’ve cooled down, we’d recommend keeping one in reserve as an emergency interrupt – if you see an enemy winding up during your combo, simply hit them with a spell and keep thwacking.
Chain Your Spells
If you really want to keep an enemy locked down, you can use your full spell repertoire to keep attacks going without interruption. This is particularly useful once you have a few upgrades under your belt.
For example, you could Pull an enemy towards you, with an added Weave effect (which you can also upgrade to have them take more damage while tied up). As soon as they break free, Weave them again with that core spell – and when they break free again, use Push to deal some damage and keep your distance, before charging up your ranged attack to deal the killer blow.
With a bit of practice, enemies that felt like they took an age of dodging and poking to beat in the early game can begin to go down in a single combo – it’s extremely satisfying.
South of Midnight will be available on April 8, 2025, on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox App for Windows PC, Steam and cloud, and arrives on day one with Game Pass. Play from today by purchasing the Premium Edition, and get access to digital extras.
South of Midnight Premium Edition
Xbox Game Studios
☆☆☆☆☆ 12
★★★★★
$49.99
Immerse yourself into the macabre and fantastical world of South of Midnight with the Premium Edition, which includes the full game, up to 5 days early access, and digital access (in English) to:
• South of Midnight Artbook
• Original Soundtrack composed by Olivier Deriviere
• The Boo-Hag Comic book by Rob Guillory
• Music Video: Songs & Tales of South of Midnight
• Documentary: Weaving Hazel’s Journey, Director’s Cut
UNRAVEL THE PAST
From the creators of Contrast and We Happy Few, South of Midnight is a spellbinding third person action-adventure game set in the American Deep South.
As Hazel, you will explore the mythos and encounter creatures of Southern folklore in a macabre and fantastical world. When disaster strikes her hometown, Hazel is called to become a Weaver: a magical mender of broken bonds and spirits. Imbued with these new abilities, Hazel will confront and subdue dangerous creatures, untangle the webs of her own family’s shared past and – if she’s lucky – find her way to a place that feels like home.
A DARK MODERN FOLKTALE
When a hurricane rips through Prospero, Hazel is pulled into a Southern Gothic world of memory made real and must embark on a journey to rescue her mother and safeguard her hometown. In this folktale for modern times, Hazel will need to reconcile the weight of family, history, and legacy against her own identity.
CONFRONT MYTHICAL CREATURES
Wield an ancient power to restore creatures and uncover the traumas that consume them. Cast weaving magic to fight destructive Haints, explore the diverse regions of the South, and reweave the tears in the Grand Tapestry.
HAUNTING BEAUTY OF THE GOTHIC SOUTH
Discover the lush, decayed county of Prospero and its locals. Experience a crafted visual style, touching storytelling, and immersive music inspired by the complex and rich history of the South.
South of Midnight
Xbox Game Studios
☆☆☆☆☆
★★★★★
$39.99
From the creators of Contrast and We Happy Few, South of Midnight is a spellbinding third person action-adventure game set in the American Deep South.
As Hazel, you will explore the mythos and encounter creatures of Southern folklore in a macabre and fantastical world. When disaster strikes her hometown, Hazel is called to become a Weaver: a magical mender of broken bonds and spirits. Imbued with these new abilities, Hazel will confront and subdue dangerous creatures, untangle the webs of her own family’s shared past and – if she’s lucky – find her way to a place that feels like home.
A DARK MODERN FOLKTALE
When a hurricane rips through Prospero, Hazel is pulled into a Southern Gothic world of memory made real and must embark on a journey to rescue her mother and safeguard her hometown. In this folktale for modern times, Hazel will need to reconcile the weight of family, history, and legacy against her own identity.
CONFRONT MYTHICAL CREATURES
Wield an ancient power to restore creatures and uncover the traumas that consume them. Cast weaving magic to fight destructive Haints, explore the diverse regions of the South, and reweave the tears in the Grand Tapestry.
HAUNTING BEAUTY OF THE GOTHIC SOUTH
Discover the lush, decayed county of Prospero and its locals. Experience a crafted visual style, touching storytelling, and immersive music inspired by the complex and rich history of the South.
“Heads Will Roll” is the final quest in the hunt for The Wounded, one of the targets in Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ main story questline. It ends with the assassination of Wada Koretake, and asks you to make a choice that could potentially anger Yaya, someone you can recruit as an ally.
In this Assassin’s Creed Shadows guide, we’ll walk you through how to complete the main “Heads Will Roll” quest and whether or not you should side with Yaya or Mitsumune when it comes to sparing or killing Nobunaga’s soldiers.
‘Heads Will Roll’ walkthrough in Assassin’s Creed Shadows
Image: Ubisoft Quebec/Ubisoft via Polygon
To start the quest, follow the marker on your map until you reach an Animus portal. Interact with it.
After a lengthy cutscene, you’ll be dropped into a castle to assassinate Koretake. Your allies will fight a battle against Koretake’s soldiers on the ground, and you’ll start on the rooftops with one goal: kill the snipers at the gates. You’ll get markers on your screen for the locations of all six of these snipers, so work your way across the castle rooftops and take them out.
While you can assassinate many of these snipers to instantly kill them, you don’t need to remain incognito to progress. Because they’re snipers, they’re pretty simple to fight, as they don’t really have any good close-range combat options. They’ll also be distracted by your allies, allowing you to sneak up on them.
Once you kill them all, head to the main courtyard, which has all the yellow flags and curtains. Stay on the rooftops to the left and watch for more archers and snipers.
How to assassinate Wada Koretake in ‘Heads Will Roll’
Image: Ubisoft Quebec/Ubisoft via Polygon
Climb along the rooftops to the back part of the courtyard, behind a small building that Wada Koretake walks up to and pauses at on his loop. Assassinate the snipers and scouts in the area to reduce the likelihood that you’ll get caught. Beware that a beefy castle guard tends to roam here even if you stay stealthy.
Once the enemies are taken care of, climb up the small building and perch on the point overlooking the courtyard. When Wada Koretake gets close enough, assassinate him from your perch. This will bring you into a cutscene that will end the mission and lead to a choice.
Should you side with Yaya or Mitsumune?
Image: Ubisoft Quebec/Ubisoft via Polygon
With Koretake dead, your allies have gathered all of his soldiers in the courtyard area. Mitsumune is looking to execute all of the soldiers, while Yaya and Kyonyo want to prove that they are different than Nobunaga and his goons.
Partway through the cutscene, you’ll get two dialogue options:
“Justice must be served” (kill the soldiers, side with Mitsumune)
“Killing them isn’t justice” (spare the soldiers, side with Yaya)
The game warns you that “this [choice] will impact Yaya,” but doesn’t give you any additional information. After playing the mission twice, we can tell you that Yaya wants the soldiers spared, and she’ll be pissed if you decide to support their execution. However, you won’t see how the decision impacts Yaya until later in the game — and it’s unclear how much of an impact it really makes, outside of her attitude in dialogue — though if you want to recruit her as an ally, go with “killing them isn’t justice.”
Regardless of your choice, Mitsumune and his goons will execute a soldier, and the cutscene will play out almost identically. The only difference is whether Yaya and Kyonyo blame you and Mitsumune, or just Mitsumune. Mitsumune is cold to you either way. Sparing the soldiers will make the fewest people mad at you — specifically Yaya, who is the only character the game explicitly calls out as being impacted by this choice long-term.
The max level cap in Assassin’s Creed Shadowsis so high you might not even need to worry about it.
In general, your level determines the equipment you can use, the in addition to the rating of your base stats, like health. The weapons and armor you find — plus the enemies you run into — will scale in level alongside Naoe and Yasuke. Thankfully, at least the two share experience points and level progress, so you only need to keep track of one experience meter!
Here’s what the max level cap is in Assassin’s Creed Shadows, and a rundown on what we learned during our playtime regarding leveling up.
What is the max level in Assassin’s Creed Shadows?
The max level cap in Assassin’s Creed Shadows appears to be 60, based on how Forge upgrades work at your Hideout.
You can upgrade rooms at your Hideout. As described in the game, when your Forge is upgraded to its highest rank, it allows you to upgrade weapons and armor to level 60, indicating that’s the highest level in the game. This number tracks contextually with how much of the game we’ve played so far, as of this writing, and is aligned with other players who’ve reported a similar max level.
Image: Ubisoft Quebec/Ubisoft via Polygon
Getting to level 60 is no small feat, though. After 62 hours, we’ve finished the main story, completed a bunch of optional activities (like Lost Pages and Kuji-kiri), and still only reached level 50. As a result, it stands to reason it’d take you a considerable amount of time to reach level 50. At this point, the regions have scaled to level 46, and equipment at level 51 and level 52 has started to appear.
By level 50, it takes around 18,000 experience points to level up. Naoe’s flat stats are 945 Health and 492 Attack Damage, while Yasuke’s are 2,211 Health and 985 Attack Damage. Moreover, equipped with a gear set and weapons around this level, Naoe reaches 3,947 Health and 1,969 Attack Damage, while Yasuke gets 9,104 Health and 3,784 Attack Damage.
Image: Ubisoft Quebec/Ubisoft via Polygon
So far, we’ve earned 294 mastery points, but this is also the result of a focus on clearing castles. Each castle features a number of Samurai Daisho; you’ll get one mastery points for every Samurai Daisho you assassinate. Because of that, the numbers may vary depending on how much time you spend clearing castles.
Completing castles is great for leveling up, though, since they generally give you a lot of experience (and, as a bonus, reward you with rare gear). But the biggest source of experience in the game is hunting all of the targets in one single board of your Objectives menu. Doing so involves completing a final quest. In the end, you may earn around 10,000 experience points.
But if you want some quick missions to complete and earn a little bit of experience, you should consider taking advantage of Contracts and Anomalies — not just for experience, but for bonus materials and mon as well.
