Assassins Creed Valhalla: Development, skill trees Assassin's Creed Valhalla guide, walkthrough
This page of the guide to AC Valhalla is a complete information on hero development. You will learn how to: increase your character's power, unlock new abilities, earn development points and how Eivor stats affect equipment.
Last update: 13 March 2024
On this page of the Assassin's Creed Valhalla game guide you will find complete information on developing the main character. You'll learn how to earn skill points, what the main hero's archetypes are, how to increase Eivor's power, how to unlock abilities, and how much the hero's stats are affected by their equipment.
Eivor's skills and power
The strength of the protagonist of Assassin's Creed Valhalla is described primarily by their Power factor. You can read information about your current Power value in, e.g. the Skills tab in the pause menu.
Each region in the game world has a suggested power level - this is a hint of how much you should develop Eivor's power before tackling quests and activities from that region. Fortunately, you don't have to wait exactly until you've obtained the recommended power. You can start exploring the territory even if you currently have a slightly lower power. We described this mechanism in more detail on the Suggested region Power page in the FAQ section.
Individual enemies may be stronger than the Power of the region they are in. This includes zealots or legendary animals. You need to be aware of this and look for a skull icon or information about a higher power level above the opponent's head.
Character development is related to the accumulation of skill points, which can also be called development points. You can get 2 skill points every time you level up. In addition, you can acquire skill points by completing some optional locations, such as cairns and Treasures of Britain.
Eivor's power is increased by spending skill points on the development tree. Only the points spent count. If you have some unspent points "in reserve", the power level will not increase until you spend them.
Development points spent on the skill tree are not allocated permanently. You can very easily undo your previous decisions - you can take a development point out of a previously selected skill slot or reset the entire skill tree. This is a great way to make a different build (for example more geared to a different play style). There is no need to pay for a skill reset and it can be done as many times as you want.
The tree has the main skills and stat bonuses. Regardless of the type of item on the tree, unlocking it always costs 1 skill point. The only restriction is that you can only buy skills and stat bonuses that are connected to those already purchased. So you can't, for example, purchase a skill that is farther on the tree.
Main skills unlock new types of attacks and moves. Eivor can learn, for example, to perform a chain assassination with 2 kills, slow down time when detected by an opponent, or a special sprint attack. The main skills do not consume adrenaline, although they can deplete the stamina bar.
A unique category of skills on the tree are new adrenaline bar slots for activating abilities. Unlock them successively in order to increase the number of adrenaline slots by 1 and, consequently, be able to use active abilities more often.
The stats bonuses are passive, so you do not need to activate them in any way. Most of them improve some single statistic, such as damage for stealth attacks or health bar length. However, there are also bonuses that can increase stats for all skills of the same group, the school of the raven, wolf or bear. They can give you a big stats boost if you wear the "matching" armor pieces.
Initially, you can only see the closest branches of the skill tree while the more distant ones are hidden behind fog. This makes it a little more difficult to plan how you want to develop your character, but it is not very inconvenient. Almost every skill and stat bonus is useful. In addition, you can reset skills for free and go back after discovering a new branch - it won't be covered in fog again.
There is no clear division of skills into different hero archetypes, although in general the attacks and stat bonuses offered can be divided into those that help with melee combat, ranged attacks or stealth.
In AC Valhalla, you have full freedom when creating a character build. It can be a very versatile character or one that focuses on one area or one fighting technique. Remember, however, that the game's boss fights cannot be skipped and, for example, building a character focused 100% on stealth or ranged attacks is not a good idea.
Abilities
Abilities are otherwise active attacks that must be activated manually and whose use is not free. Each activation of the ability consumes 1 adrenaline bar slot. You can recharge your adrenaline by attacking enemies and eating mushrooms found in the game world. You can also get more adrenaline bar slots on the skill tree. Try to extend your adrenaline bar to 2-3 slots in the early hours of the game so that you can use abilities more often and accumulate adrenaline for more difficult battles.
You can unlock abilities primarily by finding books of knowledge. After you find the first volume, the game will unlock a new tab with abilities in the pause menu. Each ability has 2 levels, that is, you can find two books of knowledge for it. Finding a second book for the same ability will enhance its effect or unlock its additional feature (e.g. releasing more arrows).
Alternatively, you can also gain abilities by completing specific quests and additional activities. In such situations, you don't have to get the book of knowledge to learn the ability.
You can't use all your abilities at all times. You have to assign them to the buttons/keys. At any given time, you can have 4 ranged abilities and 4 melee abilities at the ready. On a controller, ranged abilities are activated by pressing the left trigger and the ability button, and melee abilities are activated by pressing the right trigger and the ability button.
You should have different abilities set up just to be ready for different threats. For example, for ranged abilities, we advise you to have abilities for area attacks and those that let you shoot arrows dealing fire or poison damage. You can find a full summary of abilities in our world atlas. We also described the abilities in more detail on one of the pages of the FAQ chapter.
Gear
Eivor's gear does not affect their power, i.e. the power stat will not change regardless of what weapons and armor you have equipped. This does not mean, of course, that choosing and upgrading gear is unimportant.
You can upgrade each piece of equipment to increase its stats, such as making your weapon deal more regular and critical damage, or making your armor have better protection. You need to spend crafting materials to upgrade your equipment. The higher the upgrade level, the more problematic it is to gather the required ingredients - the game may force you to spend more of them or to obtain rarer materials.
You can also increase the overall quality of an item, and to do this you need to visit Gunnar the blacksmith in the settlement and give him ingots (another category of crafting materials). By advancing items to higher quality levels, you increase the number of maximum upgrades and unlock rune slots. For more information, please see the page Improving your equipment.
Runes are items that you can place in the sockets of gear of superior quality or higher. By installing runes, you can grant weapons additional stats that make Eivor stronger - the hero can, for example, start dealing more damage with melee weapons or can become more resistant to certain elements. We have covered this topic in more detail on the Runes and Ingots pages.
The gear you find can be part of a set. The game rewards you for equipping several or, better yet, all items from the same set. The item description always includes information on available stats bonuses, so you can determine in advance whether it's worth the effort to find other items from the same set. The bonus lasts, of course, only as long as you wear items representing the same set.