Last month, three skills mysteriously showed up in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, but only if you disconnected your console from the internet. Now, those skills are officially available, included in the game’s 1.1.2 patch, out today for all platforms.
The massive 1.1.2 update (it’s 10GB on PlayStation 4, 19.5GB on Xbox Series X and S) adds the Fight Ready, Arrow Looter, and Assassin Carry skills to Valhalla’s complex skill tree. They’re joined by three other skills: Long Ship Brace and Power Stroke improve your abilities while on your boat, while Assassin Slide allows you to slide while sprinting—and lets you to do so into enemies—as if Assassin’s Creed Valhalla wasn’t already kick-ass enough.
In addition to those six skills, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla also receives three new abilities. Shoulder Bash sounds a whole lot like a generic, if powerful, melee ability. Battle Cry boosts your attack power, and causes nearby enemies to stumble over in fear. But the coolest-sounding new one is Berserker Trap, which allows you to use your bow and arrow to fire traps that release a cloud of hallucinatory toxins.
Today also sees the addition of Valhalla’s anticipated River Raids mode, allowing for replayable raids. Those who enjoy the various raids from the main game—miniature objectives in which you rally your crew and loot a fortified location, often a monastery—will surely get a kick out of it. (I’m currently downloading the patch and will report back if the River Raids mode is anything to write home about.)
The patch also offers fixes for a bunch of busted quests. For instance, that boss in “Extended Family” won’t get stuck in walls anymore. You’ll actually be able to move that box in “Blood From a Stone,” too. I’ve never heard of this one, and it’s nothing to do with a specific quest, but today’s patch “addresses an issue that caused all Order members to be killed after killing a Zealot.” To be honest, I wish that one remained untouched. It could’ve saved me a lot of time in hunting down the rest of the Order!
And, of course, today’s patch brings requisite “performance and stability” improvements. Alas, still no word about custom loadouts.