New Player Help | Assassins Creed Valhalla Wiki

Assassin's Creed Beginner Guide

Pages to check out First

• Controls - make sure you know how to do things!
• Difficulty Modes - there are many to pick from, and they impact your experience
• Combat - understand the basics of hostile encounters
• Skills and Abilities - understand how your character stats will develop and how to do powerful moves.
• Equipment - Weapons, Armor, Runes and how to upgrade and enhance your gear.
• Settlement Guide - Build the best for your settlement.

Main Gameplay

Movement and Camera

The world of Assassin's Creed Valhalla is a harsh, hostile, but beautiful place worth exploring. Use the Left stick on your controller to walk or run. To significantly boost running speed, press the Left stick to sprint. Use the Right stick to move the camera around the character.

Parkour

You can easily pass over obstacles and climb almost anything in the world. To do so, press or hold the space button on the PC and run in the desired direction - Eivor will climb or jump automatically. Using the Space button during climbing will increase your climbing speed. While near an edge or hanging, use C to crop. Be careful though - falling from a great height can lead to health loss or even death.

Health Regeneration

Eating wild berries, mushrooms, and food from pots you can find around the world regenerates your health. When fully healed, the food you collect will be stored as rations and can be used at a later time. Press H to heal yourself with rations if at least one is available. Don't forget to replenish your rations while exploring the world, as one day, they may save your life in the most intense fights. You can upgrade your ration pouch to carry more healing rations.

Disguise

Using the cloak reduces the enemies' detection range. This can be helpful when infiltrating distrust areas, where it is very important to attract as little attention as possible. Select the hood/cloak icon on the quick actions wheel to put it on.

Raven's-Eye View

Using the Raven, Synin, provides a wider view of your surrounding environment. Press the designated button to switch to Raven's-Eye View. While controlling Synin, you can see major points of interest, including wealth, mysteries, and quests. It also allows you to spot enemies and locate your objectives more precisely. You can also place custom markers.

Odin's Sight

Odin's sight highlights nearby enemies, quests, objectives, mysteries, and wealth opportunities. It will help you to better evaluate areas, avoid unwanted encounters, and find valuable items in the approachable range. Hold down the designated button to activate Odin's Sight. On console, press down the Right analog stick for it to release a pulse.

Horse Riding

Riding a horse is one of the best ways to roam around the world faster. You can call your mount, and ride it.

Swimming

While swimming, on the PC, press C to dive underwater and hold the same button to swim down and the space bar to swim up. Swimming underwater consumes air. Running out of it will cause Eivor to gradually lose health, so don't forget to pay attention to the status of the air gauge. Air regenerates automatically over time once you reach the surface.

Combat Gameplay

Fight Basics

When engaged in close combat, press the designated button to perform light and heavy atacks. Light attacks are fast and deal moderate damage. Heavy attacks are slower but deal more damage and can break the defense of your opponent. Well-timed dogges allow you to avoid damage and reposition yourself during a fight.

Stamina

Dodging or blocking enemy attacks with your shield and performing unsuccessful heavy, special, and light attacks consume stamina. When at low stamina, you won't be able to perform a dodge or protect yourself with a shield, so all incoming hits you missed will inflict damage to your health. Stamina regenerates automatically over time, but successful light attacks replenish it faster. Using abilities regenerates all your stamina.

Hunter's Aim

Bow allows you to attack your enemies from a distance and strike them with more precision. To shoot with your bow, aim with the designated button and fire. There are several types of bows with different functions and specialties.

The damage you do with a bow depends on where you aim and how long you pull. Try aiming for an enemy's head to deal more damage and stun them even more. When you run out of arrows, you must find them in the world craft them with materials, or buy them. Upgrading your quiver will improve the number of arrows you can carry.

Advanced Fighting

For better focus during a fight, target an opponent and press the right analog stick of your controller to lock your vision on them. And you can change your targets by pushing the right analog stick to your left or right. Press the designated button at the right moment to parry an incoming attack, and in turn, you create an opening to counter-attack. As an additional way to defend yourself, hold the block button to block an opponent's attack with your shield. Pay attention to enemies when they're glowing with a special red effect and a rune. This means they are preparing an attack that can't be parried. Such attacks can only be dodged.

Weak Points

Shooting an enemy's glowing-orange weak point to instantly remove one of their defensive slots. Shooting such points will also stun the enemy, giving you an advantage in an intense fight. The less defense your enemies have, the more damage you can inflict to their health with attacks.

Dual Wielding

You can assign any type of melee weapon both to your main and secondary hand in the inventory menu. Press the designated buttons to perform an attack with your secondary weapon. Wielding two weapons allows you to perform special attacks when you hold down the attack button, however, this depletes stamina. The attack style will also vary according to the weapon you choose, so try different combinations. Shields equipped in your main hand will be used as the main source of damage and your fighting style, so you won't be able to use them for defense.

Adrenaline

You need a full adrenaline token to launch an ability. You can build up Eivor's adrenaline by landing hits, successfully dodging, parrying enemies, and performing kills.

Using Abilities

Gain the upper hand by using Abilities during fights. Abilities are powerful fighting moves that can be used during battles at the cost of adrenaline. Some of them focus on melee, while others provide ranged opportunities to fight your enemies.

Difficulty Indicators

You will find a difficulty indicator on each enemy you encounter. This is based on the difference between your Power and the enemy. Knowing how tough your enemies are will allow you to better evaluate your chances to win the fight.

There are four types of difficulty indicators you can find. Green indicates a weak enemy, white means it's a fair fight, a red diamond is a challenging enemy, and a red skull means the enemy is overwhelming and too powerful for you. If you're having a hard time with a challenge, try to come back later once you have improved your Power or changed your equipment and Skill Tree builds.

World Map and Quest Log

World Map

The World Map will help you track your progress for each territory and the world in general. There are an array of icons, such as your current location, tracked quests, various activities, fast travel points, your photos or those of other players, and much more. You can also place a custom marker to track specified areas you want to explore.

While hovering over a specific territory, you will see its name, its difficulty, and your progress for the opportunities therein. To freely explore certain locations, make sure your Power level is high enough. Synching with High Points will reveal territory activities and unlock fast travel to that location. You can always zoom in to observe a territory from a more detailed perspective.

Quest Log

The quest log keeps track of your progress in active territories and quests. Throughout your adventures, territories and their quests will be displayed. Tracking a quest will update the information shown on the map, compass, and in-game log. Sagas are Eivor's long-term objectives. Hovering over their titles will provide additional information on their current state.

Stealth Gameplay

Crouching

When you are crouching, you are much more difficult to see. Crouching will hide you in low bushes, high grass, and fields. This is a perfect way to stay undetected, plan your next steps, and catch enemies by surprise.

Enemy Stress

Enemies become stressed after witnessing dangerous events nearby and will remain more alert for a long period of time. To stay undetected in such situations, you need to be more careful than usual and avoid being detected.

Detection

Enemies who spot you may approach and investigate suspicious areas. Once you are identified, they will attack. You can avoid detection by using your cloak, walking alongside a group of local monks, bribing local drunks, sitting with the locals, or using nearby stalls. When you get detected by an enemy, time will slow down to give you a brief window to react. Fight or flee - it's entirely up to you.

Longship and Crew

Longship

Sasiling a longship is a good way to explore the world. Hold the down button on the D-pad of the controller and select the longship icon to call your longship icon to a nearby river. Use the left analog stick to navigate while controlling the longship. While encountering hostile ships or sailing near military or bandit locations close to the river, your longship will serve as an excellent combat unit. On the Xbox controller use LT to aim and RT to fire with your bow. Your crew will also provide supporting fire in the designated direction. Hold LB to protect yourself with a shield and to avoid incoming attacks.

Raiding

Raiding is a perfect opportunity to get endless wealth and bring new glorious victories to Eivor's story. You can start a raid with your crew in locations that have the crossed-axe icon, these locations such as monasteries and small camps that are settled on the coastline can be raided. During the raid, you and your crew will be involved in a bloody battle, but don't forget that your main goal is to not only defeat all the enemies, but also to find wealth chests containing supplies, raw materials, and gear. Use Odin's Sight to find such items if you're having a hard time.

Harbors

Harbors with the anchor icon allow you to dock or call your longship and crew. You may also fast travel between them while in the World menu.

Progress

Power and Skill Tree

Your power reflects your progress and is based on the number of equipped nodes in your Skill Tree. It will also increase your base stats, which in turn will improve your ability to survive in the world and be more prepared when you encounter challenging enemies. Equipping available Skill Points on nodes will not only increase your Power and your base stats but they also better define your playstyle and may unlock new capacities. Stat notes improve base fighting stats, while main skills unlock new passive fighting moves.

Skill Tree Traits

There are three types of traits in the Skill Tree: Wolf, Bear, and Raven. Blue nodes provide a bonus to all your Wolf-aligned gear, red nodes provide a bonus to all your Bear-aligned gear, and the yellow ones provide a bonus to all your Raven-aligned gear.

XP and Skill Points

While completing quests, looting rare chests, killing enemies, and accomplishing other activities will earn a certain amount of XP. Paxxing X thresholds earn Skill Points that you can invest in your Skill Tree to increase your power and bast stats, as well as unlocking new capabilities. The Skill Tree can be intimidating at first, and you may be afraid of spending your SP in the wrong way. But don't worry too much. You can respec already spent SP whenever you want and discover the best suitable build for your playstyle.

Unlocking and Equipping Abilities

Books of Knowledge unlocks new Abilities and upgrade current ones. When you find a second Book of Knowledge with the same ability, that ability is drastically improved. Abilities learned through the Books of Knowledge can be equipped in the Abilities menu. To do so, select the necessary one when reaching the menu and assign it to an appropriate ability slot. Up to eight active Abilities can be assigned at once. To find more Books of Knowledge, search for wealth in each territory. Books are often heavily guarded in monasteries or military camps.

Weapons and Gear

Equipping Weapons

There are three main slots for weapons: main hand, off-hand, and ranged. Each weapon is unique and comes with its own fighting style. You will find a specific icon displayed when a new piece of gear is looted. Weapon equipped in the main hand will supply the main source of damage and fighting style. Shields can also be equipped in this hand for a more defensive approach.

Weapon or Shield can be equipped in the off-hand that will offer a supporting fighting style. Alongside your melee weapons, a bow is always equipped for long-ranged attacks. There are 3 types of bows and each type uses its own ammo.

Upgrading Equipment

Each weapon or a piece of gear you found in the world is unique and can be upgraded in your Inventory menu with crafting materials. When you have enough materials, you'll see the upgrade icon displayed on the specified weapon or gear slot. It means you are now able to upgrade it. You can upgrade your weapons and gear multiple times. Each upgrade will increase its base stats but require a new quantity of crafting materials. Common materials can be easily found as you roam in the world, loot animals, or find obsidian rocks. Some require you to use Raven's-Eye View to spot rare materials such as Titanium.

Equipment Quality

Better quality of your weapons and gear will unlock new possibilities, such as the next tier for upgrades or Rune slots. Quality can be enhanced at the Blacksmith's Forge in your settlement by using ingots. You can find them while roaming the world.

Runes

Runes can be slotted into your enhanced equipment and can contain stat boosts. Some runes are very rare and powerful, and can only be equipped with equipment of high quality.

World and Activities

Exploration

Synching High Points will reveal territory opportunities, such as Wealth, Mysteries, and Artifacts. It can also be used as fast travel to that location. Take your time to roam the world and explore the wilderness to find new locations and unique rewards.

Hunting

Hunting is another way to spend time, test your combat skills while encountering wildlife, replenish your stock, and obtain trophies. The Hunter in your settlement is always interested in different wildlife species. Don't forget to bring her animal goods and trophies after a good hunt to earn unique rewards. While roaming the world, you can encounter Legendary Animals. They are bigger, stronger, and far more dangerous than any other animals. After defeating them, you will get very rare trophies. Return these trophies to the Hunter and she will gladly grant you not only many valuable rewards but also mementos of these victorious hunts.

Photo Mode

Photo Mode allows you to capture high-quality shots of beautiful views or interesting moments in-game without the user interface in the way. When this mode is active, you can move the camera around freely and zoom in and out. This mode also provides a number of options for editing your photos and making them more appealing. A selection of photos will be displayed on the world map, including those of your friends and all those you have taken while playing your epic saga!