The next update Assassin’s Creed Valhalla launches tomorrow, and it adds a variety of new content, including three new River Raid maps, the bone-crushing new Aesir (Nightmare) difficulty, and, of course, a wide variety of smaller gameplay tweaks and improvements.
Here’s a rundown of all the new content Ubisoft Montreal has prepared for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla update 1.3.1:
River Raids Update
- Added 3 new Rivers to the RIVER RAIDS game mode. (Erriff, Berbha, Rhine)
- Face 2 River Champions and the new Champions of the Faith. Defeat them to get your hands on new weapons.
- Added new rewards to River Raids (Lugh’s Armor and 5 weapons – including a short sword)
- Jomsviking Hall can be upgraded to Level 4-5, allowing players to hire Jomsviking of Level 4-5, respectively.
- Jomsviking of higher rank can carry more rations and do more damage to enemies.
- River Raid Longship cargo can be upgraded to Level 4-5.
- 3 new abilities can be found in River Raids monasteries:
- Spinning Harpoon = Eivor performs a spinning attack that can be combined with other harpoon-based abilities. Enemies caught in the spin are knocked back
- Percussion Arrow = Hit an enemy’s Shield to create a shockwave that staggers and damages nearby enemies.
- Precision Axe Throw = Eivor performs a devastating axe throw that targets an enemy’s weak point.
Rune Perk Changes
- Targeted Rune socketing – This update means that RUNES will only affect the weapon they are socketed in, allowing players to create more targeted loadouts.
- For example, you could fill your left-hand weapon with Attack runes and your right-hand weapon with Stun runes so that both weapons have very different effects.
- Some stats will stay global (example: Assassination damages, Fire damages, etc.).
- No changes have been made to Runes slotted on armor; they will still impact your character as a whole.
- Perk & Rune Perk Cap removal – We also removed the CAP that prevented Perks & Rune Perks (diamond shape) effects from stacking beyond a certain threshold.
- Players will now always see the impact of their Perks and be able to create more specialized loadouts.
Difficulty Setting Adjustments
- Added Aesir (Nightmare) combat difficulty to the game.
- +200% damages received
- Standard damage inflicted
- -40% rations heal
- -38% Parry timing windows
- Players will now heal according to their selected difficulty setting:
- Easy & Default = 100%
- Hard = 80%
- Very Hard = 60%
- Nightmare = 60%
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla update 1.3.1 weighs in at around 25 GB on PC, 26 GB on Xbox One, 34 GB on Xbox Series X/S, 30 GB on PS4, and 14 GB on PS5. As mentioned, the update also includes a variety of fixes and tweaks – you can get the full, unabridged patch notes here.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is available now on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, Stadia, and Luna. Update 1.3.0 drops tomorrow (August 7).
