Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Update Adds Difficulty Options And Improves Stealth

The latest Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla update is here and with it comes a plethora of difficulty options, improved stealth and more.

Firstly, Update 1.5.0 introduces the Saga difficulty mode. In a nutshell, it seems like this difficulty mode will make the game easier while removing much of its stealth elements.

In a blog post, the Saga difficulty is said to remove “the challenge of stealth and combat”. By choosing this difficulty mode, enemies will not only inflict less damage but also, enemies will not scale alongside your XP progression.

In terms of stealth, the update will improve enemy AI reaction time to whistling, as well as fix issues related to the player being detected when using traps as well as wild animals detecting the player from silly distances.

A new combat setting will also alter the amount of damage Eivor can take, as well as the amount of healing when using potions. The option of the speed at which your adrenaline can increase has also been implemented.

Update 1.5.0 is also in preparations for the highly anticipated expansion, Dawn of Ragnarok which releases next month on March 10th. Three new ability tiers have been added as well as a special Rune slot. There will also be new armour and weapon sets to acquire.

A game-breaking bug is fixed

Naturally, with almost any new update, a number of reported bugs will be fixed. One particular bug that stands out the most is regarding the main story mission “A Brewing Storm.” During the campaign, Eivor will be required to sleep at the longhouse. When they awaken, a moment is triggered which requires you to fight a certain character.

However, for a lot of people, when Eivor awakens, that moment is not triggered. This results in random NPC behaviour, and Eivor not being able to interact with elements of the settlement.

Furthermore, and most importantly, it blocked the player from progressing in the campaign. Thankfully, I can confirm that once update 1.5.0 was downloaded, that bug was fixed (at least for me), so hopefully, it will work for you too.

Credit: Ubisoft

How big is the patch?

Depending on your platform, Update 1.5.0 varies in size. For PC, it’s 15.09GB, PS4 is 7.94GB, PS5 at 3.60GB, while Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S comes in at 9.84GB/12.27GB, respectively.

Play Valhalla for free this weekend!

If you’re yet to pick up Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, then you can play the game for free this weekend. During the trial, you will have full access to the game and all your progression will carry over should you decide to make the full purchase.

The free trial is available for PC, PlayStation, and Xbox. The trial is available as of right now and will end on Monday, February 28th.

Are you happy with update 1.5.0 and will you take advantage of this weekend’s free trial? Let us know across our social media channels.

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Featured Image Credit: Ubisoft