Assassin's Creed Valhalla

As Eivor leads the Raven Clan from Norway into ninth-century England, a search for a secure home becomes a campaign of regional alliances, raids, and conflict with the Order of the Ancients. Sail rivers, build Ravensthorpe, explore mysteries, and shape Eivor through a flexible skill web, discovered combat abilities, weapons, and stealth tools.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla follows Eivor, a Viking raider who leads the Raven Clan from Norway into ninth-century England in search of a home and a future for the people travelling with them. The political map is divided among rival Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and local rulers, so establishing the clan means entering conflicts that are already underway. Eivor works with their brother Sigurd and other allies, making agreements with English leaders while trying to protect Raven Clan interests. A prophecy threaded through the campaign gives the story a second, more personal line alongside the effort to secure territory. The base game also brings Eivor into contact with the Hidden Ones and the Order of the Ancients, linking the clan's struggle to the longer Assassin's Creed conflict.

The campaign is organized around pledges to individual English territories. At Ravensthorpe, Randvi's alliance map shows which region Eivor can approach; choosing one sends the player into a self-contained story about local leaders, rival groups or a succession dispute. These arcs are substantial main-path episodes and add allies to the clan's political network when resolved. They also differ in tone and objectives, so one might involve negotiating between factions while another ends in a siege or a confrontation with a ruler. Smaller World Events sit directly in the landscape instead of being collected in a conventional side-quest log. They may begin with an odd conversation, a person in danger or a physical puzzle. The player can investigate what is happening nearby, interact with the scene and decide whether to help, then continue travelling without a long list of open errands.

England and Norway are explored on foot, horseback and by longship, with the boat giving Eivor's crew a way to travel along connected rivers and coastlines. The world marks Wealth, Mysteries and Artifacts as broad categories rather than spelling out every interaction in advance. Wealth can include equipment or resources; a Mystery might be a short character scene, puzzle or combat encounter; an Artifact can lead to a collectible or a piece of local history. Settlements, ruins, caves and military sites ask the player to look for alternate entrances, climb walls, move objects or use the environment to reach a chest. Eivor's raven can be sent above the terrain to survey an area, while viewpoints help reveal more of the map. Travel is also social: on longer stretches of river, crew members can sing, talk and tell stories from the ship.

Raids turn that travel network into a direct resource loop. From the longship, Eivor can call the crew ashore to attack a monastery or riverside target; crew members help open barred doors and heavy chests that Eivor cannot manage alone. Raids supply the raw materials used to construct and improve buildings at Ravensthorpe, while ordinary exploration yields other resources, gear and silver. Story-led assaults are larger, staged attacks against fortifications and occur as part of a territory arc. The distinction matters: river raids bring resources home from scattered sites, while an assault is tied to a territory’s local conflict and its characters. Combat can begin with an alarm or a stealth approach, but once the crew joins the fight, Eivor is usually managing several enemies at once. The ship serves as transport for reaching riverside sites and bringing Eivor's crew to raid targets.

Eivor's growth uses two related systems. Experience fills a meter that awards skill points, which are spent across a constellation-like web with Bear, Wolf and Raven-aligned branches. The branches specialize in close combat, ranged fighting and stealth, but paths connect, letting a player mix passive stat increases with new moves and gear-aligned bonuses. Individual active Abilities are separate: Eivor discovers Books of Knowledge at specific locations, often as part of area Wealth, and each book unlocks or upgrades a named move. These attacks and tricks spend Adrenaline, so selecting a small group to equip and deciding when to use them is part of combat planning. Weapons and armor can be upgraded with ingots and other collected resources; dual-wielding allows combinations such as weapon-and-shield or two weapons, while bows give Eivor a route into ranged combat. Skill points can be reset freely, making experimentation possible without locking the character into one branch.

Ravensthorpe is the practical result of the raids and alliances. The early camp grows as Eivor spends supplies and raw materials on buildings, each of which adds a service or a reason to return: the Hidden Ones Bureau opens a target-hunting quest chain, the blacksmith improves gear, the barracks supports a Jomsviking lieutenant, and other buildings add trading, cartography, ship customization or appearance options. Residents can offer short tasks as their homes and businesses take shape. Later settlement development also unlocks feasts at the longhouse; ringing its bell grants temporary boosts to Eivor and the crew, with some buildings improving those bonuses. Cosmetic decorations and building choices add a visible layer to the hub, while the alliance map keeps the next political objective in reach. Returning home therefore links material rewards to both the campaign plan and Eivor's community.

Stealth remains available even though the campaign casts Eivor as a Viking arriving by force. Crouching, cover and restricted sight lines help the player enter camps quietly, and the hood supports blending into crowds in towns where a group of Norse warriors would otherwise attract attention. The Hidden Blade returns, letting Eivor perform close assassinations; an early-game timing option can make an assassination attempt against a stronger target succeed if the player reacts at the right moment. Bows, distractions and learned skills add alternatives when a direct approach would expose the character. The Order of the Ancients investigation gives this playstyle a wider purpose: clues gathered across regions identify members and lead to targeted confrontations, with the Bureau serving as the settlement base for that work. That thread runs beside, rather than replacing, the territory alliances and Raven Clan story that occupy most of the base game's journey.