Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is a gigantic game, just like all of the AC games are. But, with a gigantic game, comes a big pile of optional content, and sometimes it’s just not worth it to go full-throttle into that side of the game right away.
So, here are a couple of reasons why it’s beneficial for new players to stick to the main story for a bit, and also a few reasons why it’s better to go out and explore ASAP.
10 Side Content: Gathering Materials For Settlement Locations
As soon as players get to England and settle themselves at Ravensthorpe, they can then immediately go out to Raid & pillage nearby Monasteries. And, turns out, that’s not a bad idea considering they use the Raw Materials and Supplies found there to build all their settlement locations. Some locations are better than others, and by focusing on Raids early, players can get their town setup quick with the most useful ones.
9 Wait A Bit: At Least Get Setup In England First
Valhalla starts off a bit slow, with the actual title card popping up about 2-3 hours in. And, past that title card, there are still few story missions players have to go through before actually traveling to England. New players might just want to focus on the main game story content completely until they get to England. Because, as soon as they do, the ability to fast travel back to Norway at their own convenience is unlocked. So Norway isn’t exactly going anyway. And, the only thing Eivor should even possibly go off the beaten path for in the intro are the two Books of Knowledge that contain Rage of Helheim & Mark of Death.
8 Side Content: Weapons Don’t Really Scale With Level Anymore
The changes to the weapons/armor in Valhalla are mostly for the best, as players no longer have to breakdown 20+ useless weapons in order to upgrade the one they’re using once or twice. But, because of this new system, Weapons don’t really “scale” anymore, meaning Eivor can pretty much use any armor/weapon they pick up at the same relative power (though there are some innately insane ones out there). With that in mind, players who get to England might find immediate benefit in going out & clearing all the “Wealth” icons on the map, because they don’t have to worry about finding gear above their level.
7 Wait A Bit: Eivor Might End Up Having To Re-Clearing Areas Again
Once the group is initially settled in Ravensthorpe, Eivor can then pledge themselves to focus on making allies in a particular region. And, from there, players will go through all the associated story quests to bring that Region onboard.
These missions usually involve re-capturing, sneaking into, or bursting through the gates of the nearby towns and fortresses. And, these spots usually have a ton of mysteries and wealth hidden in them. So players who spend a big chunk of time clearing out…say Tamworth Fortress will find, that they would’ve had to come right back there anyway and reclear it out to progress the story.
6 Side Content: Collecting Books Of Knowledge
The abilities in Valhalla are some of the most creative and fun the franchise has ever had. Players can pretend to be dead in order to draw guards closer, sick a wolf on unsuspecting victims, and even charge-tackle and throw opponents off cliffs. And, because they’re no longer tied to the skill tree, players can use every ability regardless of their build. But, in order to unlock most of these powers, players have to go around collecting Books of Knowledge first. And, frankly, doing so is well worth the effort, whether it’s done earlier or later.
5 Wait A Bit: Some Areas Are Locked Off For Story Progress
Just like how players will have to re-fight all the enemies in certain fortresses and towns due to story missions, there are also areas in the game players straight up can’t access until the story allows them to. And, when that happens, it can make all the effort it took to travel and avoid high-power enemies while getting there seem pointless. Thankfully, thanks to the Synchronize points, when this happens at least Eivor can fast travel back later, but it’s still quite annoying to find a building, town, or fortress that’s literally impossible to access.
4 Side Content: Flyting Can Open New Dialogue Options
When players go out and explore all the new towns and settlements throughout England, they’ll find that most sizeable societies have an Orlog player, one Drinking Competition, a Floating Paper icon, a Trading Post, and very likely one Flyting opponent. And, quite frankly, going through and completing all these activities as soon as Eivor arrives is worth it. Playing Orlog (which is getting a real-life version next year) unlocks new God Favors, Drinking Contests earns quite a bit of silver depending on the bet, Floating Papers unlock tons of new tattoos, and the Trading Post has money to offer for trinkets. But, Flyting is likely the activity that can make the most difference for the main quest, because the higher Eivor’s Charisma gets, the more likely they are to have some new dialog options show up in their conversations.
3 Wait A Bit: Players Can Over-Level For Story Quests Insanely Quickly
The scaling enemies in Odyssey really seemed to bother a lot of the fanbase but that’s been changed in Valhalla. Now, it’s a bit more like Origins where certain areas have harder enemies, rather than them scaling to Eivor’s Power Level.
That said, players can accidentally become overleveled for story quests pretty easily. And, no matter what, they’re usually overleveled for the post-game anyway. A good example of this is the Siege of Tamworth Fortress, which is supposed to be this long uphill battle in order to reclaim the longhouse. But, for players who went and made good with Soma in Grantebridgescire first, this conquest was like a bear fighting a bunch of mice, and Eivor is one powerful bear.
2 Side Content: Eivor Can Look Their Best In Cutscenes
Once again, new towns have a lot to offer Eivor on arrival. Visually, the best offering to take advantage of are the Floating Pages and the Trading Post. These paper chases actually give some of the best Tattoo designs (for face, front, and back). But, the Trading Post also has a ton of cosmetics to offer, both for the settlement and for Eivor, so players who go explore and clear the optional objectives in a bunch of settlements can deck out their version of Eivor to look as stylish as possible for all the story cutscenes.
1 Wait A Bit: It Makes The Story Feel Limp And Bogs Down Enjoyment
This happens a lot in open-world RPG’s but in particular, this happens often for Ubisoft games. Basically, they give the player so many icons to clear out & places to explore right away and the more dedicated players tend to go around clearing out all the side content for the first 30+ hours. And then, after doing that, they come back to the main story 50+ levels too strong, thousands of silver coins too rich, and way too well equipped for any of the story missions to feel impactful anymore. And, Valhalla is especially big in both content and terrain. But, if players just hold themselves back a little bit and make sure to restrict their side-content to a certain quota per main story quest, they’ll find themselves much more invested in Eivor’s story.
NEXT: 10 Major Differences Between The PS4 And PS5 Versions Of Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla
