Assassin’s Creed has been around for over ten years. The franchise’s most recent release has become its most profitable. During Ubisoft’s latest earnings call, CEO Yves Guillemot told investors that Assassin’s Creed Valhalla surpassed $1 billion in revenue as of December 2021. Today, the next update coming to the game tomorrow has been detailed. Plus, from December 24-28, a free trial will be available for the game leading into the latest expansion, Dawn of Ragnarok, on March 10.
Update 1.5.0 adds a bunch of game improvements, fixes for numerous quests, and most notably difficulty tuning and stealth updates. The fixes to stealth include improvement to A.I. reactions to whistles, getting detected by enemies when using environmental traps, wild animals detecting Eivor regardless of distance/angle which alerts nearby NPCs, NPCs disengaging from conflicts extremely quickly, enemy detection cones reducing when using a bow, and monks having difficulty to leave the music crowd stations in the quest “Taken.”
A new difficulty option called Saga has been added to the game. Saga is the easiest difficulty option players can choose. Players can write their own Viking saga without having to worry about the challenges of stealth and combat. Enemies will inflict less damage and don’t scale with players. There will also be more time allowed to perform actions when being detected (assassinating, shooting, disengaging, etc.). New combat settings have also been added to the game. Players can now adjust the damage Eivor takes, Eivor’s damage output, ration healing ratio, adrenaline regeneration, and an enemy health modifier.
The new update has added support for the new expansion Dawn of Ragnarok. In Dawn of Ragnarok, Eivor must embrace their destiny as Odin, the Norse god of Battle and Wisdom. Unleash new divine powers as you embark on a desperate quest through the breathtaking world of Svartalfheim. Complete a legendary Viking saga and save your son in the face of the gods’ doom. The new expansion brings in new, incredible, otherworldly powers. As Odin, Eivor can absorb new abilities from those you’ve defeated and use them to slay all those who stand in your way. Players can shape-shift into a raven for spectacular assassinations or resurrect defeated foes to fight on your side. Eivor can also transform their skin into magma for protection or infuse weapons with ice to unleash devastating strikes, and more.
New players will be able to start the expansion at any time from the main menu with player boost. Players will start at power level 340 with a predefined selection of gear and abilities. Dawn of Ragnarok brings in a new Divine Quality for gear and weapons with three new tiers of upgrade and a special rune slot. The expansion adds four new abilitiies and six new skills with new weapon and armor sets too.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarok launches on March 10, 2022.