Combat for Assassin's Creed Valhalla covers information regarding the basic and advanced mechanics of the combat system of the game. From indicating the usage of the various weapons that can be equipped, battle movements, player and enemy combat details, and many more. Challenge yourself with the most varied collection of deadly enemies ever found in an Assassin’s Creed game.
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Assassin's Creed Valhalla Combat Guide
In this AC: Valhalla Combat Guide we'll be focusing on the key aspects that players must understand in order to succeed in combat. AC:V has some important differences from the previous AC: Origins and AC: Odyssey installments, so players should be mindful to first check out the following pages:
- Controls: The controls for AC:V are different than the previous games, and only 8 Abilities may be mapped at once (4 ranged, 4 melee)
- Abilities: Abilities are no longer unlocked with Skill Points, they are found in the world by collecting Books of Knowledge
- Skills: There are large Skill Trees with passive and active skills. They all provide bonuses to your character's Stats. Active skills increase your attack power. See Skill Points and Experience for details on leveling up your skills.
- Equipment: Equipment is different to other recent AC games. You will obtain pieces that can be upgraded up to a point, but must be "Enhanced" in order to be upgraded further. See Upgrades and Enhancement Guide for details.
- Adrenaline: You will now earn adrenaline from consuming Mushrooms or dealing finishing decapitation blows
Difficulty Modes
AC: Valhalla features difficulty modes that impact the challenge you will face when playing the game. You can see the Difficulty Modes page for full details on what changes.
The Basics of Combat
Combat in AC:V focuses on two main elements: Ranged and Melee. You can mix and match and combine these two as you wish, and can opt for stealth assassinations or head-on takedowns. Your choices in this regard will necessitate that you follow a Builds as the points that you put into your skill trees will determine your proficiency with different elements and tools.
Players would most often attempt to thin out enemies via Stealth and Assassination (mostly Raven Skills) and opt for closer combat battle skills for when they are found out.
When in combat, you can press RB (R1) for light attacks, and RT (R2) to heavy attack, and hold RT / R2 down and press another button to perform a special Ability that you have mapped. Abilities consume Adrenaline, which can be increased by developing your character.
Attack Cancelling is availabel in AC:V. This allows players to perform an EVASION in between attacks, and thus reduce the animation and create smoother combos. Heavy Attack - EVADE - Light Attack, for example.
- How to evade: Press the Left Stick and X (xbox) or Square (playstation) - be mindful it will consume Stamina
Stamina is displayed as a blue bar under your health, and Heavy Attacks and Dodging consume it.
Dual Wielding is an option: You can equip two weapons, one to each hand, but your off-hand will have only some specific attacks that it can perform by pressing LB (L1). A shield can be equipped to the offhand for defense, and to the mainhand for offense. You can also play with bare hands which creates a punch and kick sequence of combos.
Parry is a mechanic available with any weapon, and allows you to briefly stun or open an opponent to a stronger attack.
Enemies have a defense bar and a health bar. The defense bar is displayed as a thin line above the health bar, and usually divided into segments. Removing the defense bars can cause stagger and open the enemy to taking significant damage
Downed enemies are best handle by the Stomp active skill - so it's recommended that you get it.
Weapon Types
There are several kinds of weapons on AC:V, and each has their own movesets and perks. Weapons can be single handed or two-handed, and have attributes such as their attack (damage), speed, stun and critical. Weapons can also have special bonus effects, and have Runes applied to them as they are Upgraded.
- Bows: Ranged weapons used to deal damage from a distance
- Shields: Protective weapons used to deflect incoming attacks as well as bash enemies
- Swords:
- Axes:
- Two-Handed Hammers:
- Two-Handed Axes:
- Daggers:
- Spears:
- Flails:
- Polearms:
