Complete Anomaly Guide: Shadow Projects Animus Assassin’s Creed Shadows - Quick Farm Walkthrough

Konnichiwa Anomaly Farmers! We’ve put together a streamlined walkthrough guide for you to complete anomalies involving travelling Ronins, Guardians, Samurai, Arena Oscillation and more. 

"Where's that Shinobi?!"

We have a 2 minute solution for that, you’ll get step by step guides, quick route plans, and pro tips to complete through each anomaly painlessly and save yourself from rage-quitting and wandering aimlessly across the map looking for a Shinobi. Let's get started. 

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Table of Contents

1. How to Unlock Shadow Projects Anomaly? (Early as Level 5)
2. How to unlock the Arena Oscillation anomaly?
3. Where to Find Travelling Ronin?
4. Where to find Samurai? 
5. How to find Guardians?
6. How to find the Shinobi?
7. Other Anomalies (Mine Echoes, Corrupt entities, Hemp Cloth)
8. Missing anomaly purple icon in the map (Solved)
9. Known bug: Missing/Locked Shadow Projects (Solved)
10. Advance Tips and Tricks

Beginner Tips: Prioritize unlocking the Shadow Projects and the Arena before getting lost in the game, or you'll miss out completing weekly quests and its limited-time rewards. 

Dive into each anomaly and you’ll walk away with 2,800 Data Fragments plus stacks of sweet XP—enough to crank your favorite Project up a few levels and finally chase down those elusive Cerulean armor and weapons. Best part? These fragments are your ticket to the Exchange’s rotating weekly stash of store-exclusive legendary gears with no IRL money required.

How to Unlock Shadow Projects Anomaly? (Early as Level 5)

Yes, you can unlock the anomaly from Shadow Projects in Assassin’s Creed Shadows as early as level 5 as shown from the video below. Get the free battle pass progression and start earning your rewards, here's how to do it.

Unlock Shadow Projects Anomalies Early video guide

1. Play through the main story until you unlock the Hideout.  That’ll trigger the “Finding New Allies” side quest—finish it out quickly.
2. Skip the rest of the side quests, exploring and other activities, (They aren't time-sensitive and they will be there anytime you play them.)
3. Next, dive back into the main campaign by tracking down “The Wounded” from the Shinbakufu Onryos.
4. During the mission "Heads Will Roll" where you meet your allies before the final assault of the Amagasaki Castle, the animus breach portal will appear. 
5. Enter the rift, power through the cutscene with The Guide, and the Animus Systems will unlock the week’s anomalies. See your Objectives tab and verify, select an anomaly mission and see them in the map.

How to unlock the Arena Oscillation anomaly?

To complete the "Win the Tournament" anomaly, you’ll first need to unlock the Arena—this opens the door to multiple objectives in one go.

In fight rounds, you'll face Shinobi, Guardians, and Samurais, which often overlap with the Arena Oscillation mission. This lets you nail the "Kill a Shinobi, Guardian, or Samurai" anomalies simultaneously—think of it as the "three birds, one kunai" bonus. Plus, Arena Oscillation offers higher Data Fragment payouts than standard anomalies, making it a key farming mission.

How to unlock the Arena?

1. Step one requires you to unlock the Shadow Projects Anomalies from above.
2. Progress through the story missions and defeat seven of the Shinbakufu. 
3. Gyoji will appear at your Hideout bringing in the "The Tournament" side quest. complete it by going to the location of the Ominesanji temple in Yamato region.
4. Complete all rounds of the tournament. If you are low level, you may want to switch to the easy difficulty setting "Story" to breeze through the fights.
5. Upon completion, the arena oscillation should be unlocked. Select it in your objectives tab and the purple icon should point to the Ominesanji temple.
6. Arena Oscillation anomaly will introduce random NPC enemies just like the arena fights in Assassin's Creed Odyssey, defeat them all to complete.

Where to Find the Travelling Ronin?

"Killing Ronin travelling the roads" anomaly is a time consuming mission, these masterless warriors can be found across the map and part of random encounters playing the game. Here's an easier route to find them. 

1. Buy the Kakurega Hideout in Kakogawa Estuary (Harima region, southwest corner of the map).
2. Travel via road leading to Muko Post Town, north of the Amagasaki castle. This stretch is packed with travelling Ronins. (This could get patched and nerfed in the future) 
3. Story-wise this area has a notorious Ronin as told in the "The Kabukimono" side quest. Save your game, fast travel to the kakurega and repeat.
4. For the scenic route, you can keep exploring the game's map through the main roads and you will eventually get ambushed by a Ronin, which counts toward anomaly kills.

Where to Find Samurai?

To complete the "Kill Samurai" anomaly, you’ll need to distinguish actual Samurais from others. These two are not Samurai, do you know why? 

❌ Not Samurais

Brutes (Kanabo wielders, 4–5 health bars): Tough but classified separately.

Masked enemies: Often tied to the Guardian anomaly, not Samurai.

Spearmen with 1–2 health bars: Basic soldiers, not valid targets.

✅ Samurais to Kill 

Armored Samurai: 3 health bars, typically roam towns or lead camps.

Kimono-wearing Samurai: 2 health bars, often found within castles or tensho inside.

Where are the best locations for Kill Samurai anomaly?

1. Kakogawa Estuary in Harima - Find 4-9 Samurais inside the Takasago Shrine just a few steps from the kakurega including the ones patrolling outside.
2. Yoshino river in Yamato - Fast travel to the kakurega, hit the River Camp and Dorui Field Camp. When the region’s wealth is high, these sites overflow with samurai.  
3. Arena Oscillation Anomaly - Ring the bell and face off against 1 or 2 samurais in the arena rounds for the kill credit.

Tip: Castles and military settlements are Samurai hotspots. Farm anomalies while exploring or assaulting forts for the legendary chest—two objectives, one kunai.

How to find Guardians?

Kill Guardians anomaly is easy, it does not require a route or specific location, you will choose which is the most convenient way for you. 

Let the bell rang to taunt the Guardians to come out

1. Go to the nearest castle or military fort - Head straight for the alarm bell area and kill 1 or 2 two enemies and let them trigger the alarm. 
2. Guardians with the red skull icons should appear in a few minutes, kill them to complete.
3. You can also do the arena oscillation to fight a Guardian in one of the rounds.  

How to find the Shinobi?

Complete the Kill Shinobi anomaly by hunting down your hunters. Similar to the travelling Ronins, the Shinobis can also be encountered in the roads but they are far more elusive. This is the most frustrating and time consuming weekly anomaly. Sometimes it will take you days wandering around hoping they will pop out from the tall grasses of Iga or Yamashiro. Good thing I have a guide here that will help you complete it in 2 minutes or so.

Godai is the way

Pick any target for the "The Godai Shinobi" mission given by Shotei after defeating "The Naginata" of the Shinbakufu. Easy peasy, no need to spend your hours and days wandering around the map.  

Arena Oscillation - Eliminate a Shinobi in select rounds for the same credit.

Tip: Create a save game file before starting the mission so that you can go back to it every time this anomaly pops up. 

Other Anomalies

Mine Echoes: System search anomaly is simple as it gets but challenging during the day, the chest you need to open is usually in the thick of your enemies. Use Naoe at night, wear your assassin build, sneak inside the castle, avoid unnecessary fights, just clean ninja-grade thievery.

Gather hemp cloth: For this mission, run kakurega contracts or castle sweeps and target chests or high-value enemies—they’re practically spilling the stuff. After each season shift, check the hideout stash; the chest there often restocks with fresh cloth, no sneaky work required.

Purge corrupt entity or entities: Zone Instability, Rogue Memory Trace and Fructured Lineage all fall into the easy category. When the objective reads “Purge corrupt entity,” you’re diving into classic assassination territory—silent, swift, and personal. Meanwhile, “Purge corrupt entities” flips the script into a chaotic camp wipe. Bring out Yasuke for maximum impact on 1v1 elite duel or tanking through enemies. 

Missing anomaly purple icon in the map (Solved)

If your map shows no anomaly markers, check your Objectives tab and select another anomaly, if it's still missing,

1. Restart the game or load an earlier save
2. Ensure you’ve unlocked the Shadow Projects Anomaly from the "Heads Will Roll" quest, see the steps above. Check your Objectives tab
3. If the bug persists, submit a ticket via Ubisoft’s in-game bug reporter ⧉ with screenshots or a short clip.

Known bug: Missing/Locked Shadow Projects (Solved)

If you finish the "Heads Will Roll" quest, without entering the animus portal, it may not appear again and anomalies will remain locked and missing from the Objectives tab. That happens to us, and the only solution to this at the moment of this writing is restarting a new game. 

You are bugged! If you missed the anomalies from the Objectives and you already defeated the "Wounded Onryo" from your Shinbakufu list. 

Restart a new game or submit a ticket via Ubisoft’s in-game bug reporter ⧉ with screenshots or a short clip.

Advance Tips and Tricks

1. Shadow Projects Anomalies resets every Thursday
2. Progress is account-wide. Claim once—every save file gets the reward, just like store items. No repeats, no regrets.
3. Creating a save game is a smart grind. Do this before taking on the Godai Shinobi mission, while restarting the game might feel tedious, it can be the key to avoid frustrating hours of finding a Shinobi. 
4. Make sure to activate Shadow Projects and the Arena early—before diving deep into the game. These unlock weekly quests and exclusive limited-time rewards. Miss them now, and you're passing up items you can get in months.
5. You can swap between Legacy and Awakening Projects without losing progress. If one reward track doesn’t excite you, pivot to the other and keep farming Fragments.

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