You might think you’ve seen it all with the franchise by now, but even if you’re a veteran of Ubisoft’s series, there’s still new additions with Assassin’s Creed Valhalla that really shake things up. There’s a number of things that the game doesn’t tell you, and you’ll no doubt want to know heading into the massive adventure in England.
Focus on Your Settlement First
Near the beginning of Valhalla, Eivor establishes their Settlement in the heart of England, a safe refuge for their viking clan. The Settlement might seem pretty small at first, with only a few upgrades available, but if you’re willing to put in the time to gather resources, your Settlement can really bolster Eivor in a big way, unlocking additional upgrades and stat increases to health, armor, damage, and more.
Skill Points Really Change the Way You Play
There’s a lot of skills to unlock and obtain in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. Like, a huge amount. While the vast majority of the skills available are actually passive, like raising your health or assassination damage, there are some that can truly change the way you play the game.
For example if you invest in the gold Assassination Skill Tree, you’ll unlock the ability to take down two enemies at once with an assassination attack. Alternatively, there’s a skill that lets you stomp on the heads of enemies in the red Melee Skill Tree, effectively giving you an execution attack. Pay attention to the skills you want to unlock, because they’re really going to change Eivor.
Keep in mind that you can freely reset your skill points! Just check the bottom right corner of the screen for the button to press.
Eagle’s Dive Isn’t Automatically Unlocked
Ah, the Eagle’s Dive. A stylistic feat of awe when pulled off correctly, and an awkward thing of calamity when the game glitches and your assassin goes splat into the ground. It turns out the Eagle’s Dive isn’t actually unlocked from the beginning of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. To obtain this feature, you need to build the Hidden Ones Bureau, and talk to Hytham, who shows Eivor the ways of the Eagle’s Dive.
Use Light Bows in Close Combat
Hear us out on this one. There’s a subcategory of bows in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla called light bows, and they basically function as semi automatic rifles, firing off arrows with incredible speed without drawback time.
Don’t forget to use light bows in close combat. They can be really useful for delivering quick damage to a tough enemy, letting you get in a quick few shots and putting them on the defensive, while also giving you some brief time to heal.
The Cultists Are Back, in a Big Way
Remember the Cult of Kosmos from Assassin’s Creed Odyssey? Valhalla pits a similar enemy force against Eivor called the Order of the Ancients. There’s an entire army out to stop you, with generals, commanders, lieutenants, and more. None of the aforementioned commanders are unlocked and visible from the beginning of Valhalla, so it’s really easy to forget about them. Construct the Hidden Ones Bureau in your Settlement if you want to begin hunting down these shadowy operatives.
Find Vantage Points to Uncover the Blank Map Quicker
Everything in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is bigger than what came before, and that includes the game’s map. When you arrive in England, there’s a daunting blank map to uncover, which at first seems like you can only do by adventuring around as Eivor and exploring the entire map.
A shortcut to unlocking the map is to find vantage points. These are denoted by an eagle on the map, and at the beginning of the game, they’re all white, signalling that they haven’t yet been found and synchronized. If you’ve played Assassin’s Creed at all, you know what comes next: find the vantage point, ascend to the top of it, and synchronize to unlock it as a fast travel point.
It’s not just a fast travel point that you’re unlocking, though. Synchronizing with a vantage point will also uncover the surrounding map area, clearing away the fog of war. Doing this will uncover nearby points of Wealth, depicted with glowing gold orbs, as well as side quests, collectibles, and more.
