Assassin's Creed® Valhalla 20201113000705

Assassin's Creed Valhalla is a 2020 open world action RPG from Ubisoft. You play as the Viking warrior Eivor, who leaves his or her home of Norway in order to establish a settlement in merry old England. The only problem is that 9th Century England stands fractured and war-torn, so Eivor is tasked with forging alliances with the country's many kings and clan chiefs.

We gave the game a respectable 7/10 score in our Assassin's Creed Valhalla PS4 review, and an improved 8/10 score in our updated Assassin's Creed Valhalla PS5 review. In short, it's a great open world adventure with a surprisingly good story running through it.

In this Assassin's Creed Valhalla guide, we're going to pass along some tricks and tips that should help you get started. We've also written an extensive guide on the game's massive skill tree: Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Best Skills. And we have an armor set guide that's being updated on a regular basis: Assassin's Creed Valhalla: All Armor Sets and Where to Find Them.

We'll be adding to our Assassin's Creed Valhalla guide as content updates and expansions are released, so be sure to check back.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla Guide: Skills

The skill system in Assassin's Creed Valhalla is sprawling and quite in-depth. You can customise your Norse hero by unlocking various perks that alter gameplay, grant passive bonuses, and add new techniques to your arsenal.

You unlock skills by gaining exp out on your adventures. Completing quests grants you by far the most exp, so even if you just stick to the main story — which is huge — you'll still have plenty of skill points to spend. Killing enemies and discovering new locations also gives you a little bit of exp, which might be just enough to net you a couple more points.

There are 38 core skills to learn in Assassin's Creed Valhalla, but some are much better than others, and should be prioritised. The following guide has everything that you need to know.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla Guide: Armor

Alongside skills, armor sets in Assassin's Creed Valhalla can help define your character and your style of play. Unlike in previous Assassin's Creed games, loot is not random in Valhalla. Instead, unique armor sets can be found throughout your adventure, each of them boasting different stats and perks.

Armor sets are broken down into five different pieces: Cloak, Helmet, Torso, Gauntlets, and Greaves.

Equipping all five pieces of one armor set grants you a set of bonus perks that are designed to enhance specific styles of play.

For much more information on the armor sets that you can find, check out the following guide.

To upgrade your armor, you'll need need Carbon, Nickel, and Tungsten (Gold) Ingots. For more information on upgrading your gear and where to find these materials, check out the following guide.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Weapons

There are multiple weapon types to choose from in Assassin's Creed Valhalla, and you can combine them by wielding different weapons in each hand. It's a very customisable system, and adds a lot of depth to the game's combat.

Some weapons are very quick (like daggers) while others are quite slow (like Dane axes). Finding the right weapon for your style of play can take time, but our advice is to experiment as much as you can.

New weapon types have been added to Assassin's Creed Valhalla via DLC and free updates. Added weapon types include sickles, one handed swords, and scythes.

In the following guide, we highlight the game's first one handed sword, added via a free seasonal festival update.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla River Raids Guide

River Raids are an activity that was added to the game with patch 1.012 on PS5 and PS4. River Raids take place in their own unique maps, away from the open world of England and Norway. They also feature their own unique rewards in the shape of weapons, armor, and Books of Knowledge.

For more information on River Raids, check out the following guide.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla Wrath of the Druids Guides

Wrath of the Druids is a great slice of DLC that takes Eivor to Ireland. We gave it a very respectable 8/10 in our full Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Wrath of the Druids PS5 review.

We have two guides that cover the DLC:

Assassin's Creed Valhalla Tombs of the Fallen Guide

Tombs of the Fallen were added to Assassin's Creed Valhalla via title update 1.4.0. Eivor can explore these tombs in order to complete a powerful armor set. However, these tombs are not shown on the map, which means that you have to track them down yourself.

The following guide has all of the tomb locations, as well as details on the reward:

Assassin's Creed Valhalla: The Forgotten Saga Guide

The Forgotten Saga is an entirely new adventure that was added to Assassin's Creed Valhalla, for free, via update 1.060. It adds a rogue-lite-inspired 'mode' to the game which sees Odin (otherwise known as Havi) descend into the realms of the Norse dead in order to save his son's soul. It continues on from the mythological storyline of Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarok.

Our guide on The Forgotten Saga covers everything that you need to know, complete with loads of tips and tricks on how to complete it:

Assassin's Creed Valhalla Guide: Tips and Tricks

Below, you'll find a bunch of tips and tricks based on our own experience playing Assassin's Creed Valhalla. We've broken them down into two categories:

  • General tips, tricks, and advice
  • Combat help
ACV Exploration

Assassin's Creed Valhalla General Tips, Tricks, and Advice

The following tips and tricks cover general gameplay, the structure of the game, and how it's best to approach different aspects of it.

Stick with the Main Story

Being an open world game, it's easy to find yourself wandering off into the wilderness while playing Assassin's Creed Valhalla — and that's fine. There are a lot of secrets and strange happenings to discover, but don't worry about savouring the main story.

The main story quests in Assassin's Creed Valhalla make up most of the game. There are loads of them, and they take you all across England and beyond. In fact, exploring each region before taking on the nearest story quests can actually result in some repetition. A lot of these main missions will take you to the various landmarks that dot the landscape, so if you've already been there and looted the place by yourself, you'll just be ruining the surprise.

In short, it's best to hit up the main story quests first, before you start exploring each region in greater detail.

Enjoy the Hunt

Hunting is actually a good way to gather resources in Assassin's Creed Valhalla. Animals drop leather when they're killed, which can be used to upgrade your weapons and armour. What's more, once you've unlocked the hunting hut at your settlement, you'll be able to trade specific animal parts for all kinds of rewards.

The game doesn't specifically point this out, but hunting and killing animals also gives you rations, which restore your health. Animal meat fills the ration gauge much faster than simple berries and mushrooms, so if you're running low, it's a good idea to take a look around and hunt some beasts.

Appreciate Your Settlement

Eivor's settlement, Ravensthorpe, expands over the course of the game. You can build housing and new services with the resources that you gather while out on your adventures, and you gain all kinds of bonuses for doing so.

But it's not just about opening your own item shop, tattoo parlour, and blacksmith. Ravensthorpe is home to many of Eivor's friends, and they often have things to talk about. These conversations can sometimes lead to side quests, or even romance depending on your actions. It's well worth taking the time to relax at Ravensthorpe.

It's More Dangerous Off the Roads

If you're looking for a fight — either with bandits or wild animals — you could try leaving the main roads. In forests, you're likely to find criminal gangs and other baddie, whereas on the roads, you'll run across guards and peasants. On that note, guards won't attack on sight while you're out in the countryside — they'll only become aggressive if you strike first.

Of course, it's worth braving the dangers of the wild every now and then. Old ruins and abandoned camps often hold secrets or resources.

Look for Flyting Opportunities in Towns

'Flyting' is the old Norse art of embarrassing someone through verse and rhyme. In other words, they're basically rap battles. You can find flyting opponents all across England, denoted by a white mask symbol on your map or compass.

Why should you seek these people out? Well, not only is flyting both dumb and fun, but winning a match boosts Eivor's charisma. This is a stat that, when high enough, unlocks additional dialogue options during quests — even those in the main story.

Some of these dialogue options can change the outcome of a quest quite dramatically, so you'll definitely want to look out the game's flyting champions. They can usually be found in towns and other settlements.

ACV Combat

Assassin's Creed Valhalla Combat Help

The following points focus on the game's combat system, which can be a bit tricky to get to grips with during the opening hours of your journey.

Experiment with Different Weapons

There are several weapon types in Assassin's Creed Valhalla, each with their own attacks, strengths, and weaknesses. Eivor starts off with a trusty axe and a shield, but it won't be long until you're presented with a bunch of different options. Your best bet is to experiment with each new weapon type that you come across, and see which fighting style feels most comfortable.

The weapon system gets even better when you start putting different combinations to the test. You can dual wield two light weapons at the same time — one in each hand — so be sure to mix and match. You can go with two easy-to-use axes if you like, or you can pair something agile with something that has a bit more weight to it. Again, it's best to give everything a try at some point — you never know when a new weapon will capture your heart.

Patience!

You may be playing as a blood-hungry Viking warrior, but combat in Assassin's Creed Valhalla demands patience — and not just because some of the bosses have ridiculously long health bars.

Even against the lowliest bandit or weakest wolf, it's best not to mash buttons. For the first time in the series, your character has a stamina bar. It refills quickly enough — even faster if you land light attacks — but you've still got to watch that you don't exhaust it completely. Doing so will leave Eivor temporarily vulnerable, unable to dodge, block, parry, or attack with any speed.

Speaking of parries, get them down and you'll be a much more fearsome opponent to even the game's toughest bosses. A quick tap of L1 (by default) will make Eivor perform a slight jab with his or her left arm. If the enemy strikes while this animation is ongoing, you'll parry, and deplete part of their stagger bar (that's the yellow one above their health).

Once the stagger bar is gone, you can perform a deadly stun attack, which either kills weaker enemies outright, or deals huge damage to bosses. Patience is always the key.

For now, that's all from our Assassin's Creed Valhalla guide, but we'll be adding more in the near future. Until then, let us know if you're enjoying the game in the comments section below.