Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is fun. There’s plenty to do like finding old artifacts, fighting wolves, or romancing fellow Vikings. But the developers and publisher Ubisoft gifted gamers with yet another feature. They endowed players with something else to do in the newest 1.1.2 “River Raids” update -- that being the titular river raids.
While out on the new raids in the fairly empty new areas, it’s possible to find books of knowledge containing one of three new abilities to use. Once found, players can spend an ability point to unlock them and add them to Eivor's repertoire. There are also six skills that have been automatically added to the giant skill tree the game contains, available for immediate purchase with any unspent skill points. Unfortunately, these new abilities and skills were not all created equal. But, a couple, as the kids say, totally slap. Below, they’re ranked based on their current overall usefulness to players.
9 WORST - Shoulder Bash
Don’t even bother with the "Shoulder Bash." The "Kick of Tyr," this game’s successor to the amazing and satisfying "Spartan Kick," exists and does what this move is trying to do much, much better. The River Raid mode practically gifts you this ability as a way to water the mouth, but all it truly does is leave a bad taste at the start of the meal.
The range is short, the attack itself is inaccurate (even when locked on to an enemy), and it doesn’t even knock enemies down. It does stagger and interrupt them, sure, but there are better ways to accomplish that goal. Plus, there’s no way to level it up! Worthless. While there are some unpopular Valhalla opinions out there, this is not one of them.
8 Long Ship Brace
As a River Raid carries on, defenses get stronger. There may be extra traps or extra sentinel archers observing narrow watery passageways. The new Long Ship Brace skill makes the entire Jomsviking crew aboard the player’s ship put up their shield when Eivor does. It doesn't make sense that they don't do this already, but a lot of things about this game don't make sense.
This bracing skill could potentially be useful, but in the reality of the game, enemy snipers don’t do that much damage to Jomsvikings nor do the flaming grenadiers. Blockades are easily maneuvered around (or rammed through if they’re wooden), so damage is easy enough to avoid and mitigate already. Rations are also plentiful enough to where damage isn't much of a concern. Don’t waste a skill point on this one.
7 Assassin Carry
Sneaking around (and just the general practice of being sneaky) has been a staple of the Assassin’s Creed series. Stealth games love making players hide bodies as secret murderers are wont to do. Valhalla finally makes this step a lot easier for burgeoning assassins by adding an automatic body carrying skill after a close-quarters assassination.
Unfortunately, the AI in this game doesn’t tend to care a whole lot about finding corpses. Sure, they go on “alert," but bushes and heights maintain stealth regardless of how alerted enemies are. They also have the attention span of a goldfish. So, while the automatic carry could be useful - it’d be more useful in a Hitman game - it really doesn’t add anything here. At least it didn't cost players anything unlike the other microtransaction-ridden parts of the metagame.
6 Power Stroke
Traversal in open-world games can often be the most mind-numbing aspect. Huge, gorgeous worlds are great, but players just wanna play games sometimes. With the "Power Stroke" skill addition, early players can now navigate English rivers quicker at the expense of the crew’s stamina. That’s...really all this one does.
But, it is useful...kind of! For impatient people. Also, boats don’t handle corners very well, and apparently, Jomsvikings don’t have a lot of stamina as this boost is shorter-lived than one might hope. Still, at least this skill has the ability to be useful in the beginning. However, once multiple fast travel spots are unlocked, this all becomes much less useful.
5 Arrow Looter
Aim true, assassins; let the quiver flow freely! Well, even more freely now that arrows are even more abundant now since the arrow looter skill has been gifted to all aspiring snipers out there. Never worry about constantly missing a Man At Arm’s weak points now.
With the arrow looter skill, it’s much more likely that slain archers will provide Eivor with more arrow-based loot! Never will the machinegun-like light bow (or any of the other great bows in the game) be empty of light arrows. This could potentially be a rather useful skill, depending on playstyle, but maybe not the most useful.
4 Fight Ready
Special abilities can make or break a video game. What would a Street Fighter or a Mortal Kombat be without a "Hadouken" or a spine-rip-and-tear? Valhalla has so many different special abilities and they all have one thing in common: adrenaline. It costs adrenaline to pull off a special ability that can sometimes be in short supply -- especially if a fight is going poorly.
Luckily, players won’t be caught off-guard now with no adrenaline as the "Fight Ready" skill grants players a full adrenaline slot if they walk into an encounter without one. Higher-leveled versions of Eivor might not encounter this issue too often, but for low-level players, this skill is quite the boon. That alone makes it much more useful than some of the other 1.1.2 additions.
3 Battle Cry
Finally, someone at Ubisoft let Vikings do what Vikings are gonna do: yell real loud and go all aggro. The new "Battle Cry" ability lets Eivor, in the heat of battle, unleash a big, bad, bloodcurdling scream that interrupts enemy attacks. It also boosts melee damage by some amount for a short amount of time which is useful for clearing out those hordes of zealots.
While there are already a few interrupting abilities in the game like the godsend "Kick of Tyr," the "Battle Cry" has the additional damage boost that really gives it an edge and long-term usability. Keep this one in rotation while replaying to find things missed the first time through.
2 Assassin Slide
Everyone knows the famous dancefloor tune: to the left. Take it back now, y’all. One stomp this time. Two stomps this time. Freeze -- everybody stomp some bandits! Aside from reminding people of certain songs, the "Assassin Slide" is one of the most useful additions 1.1.2 granted on all Vikings across the land (even if it was already included in some earlier entries in the series).
That unfortunate fact aside, this upgraded version - much like Valhalla's iteration of the Assassin's Creed formula - is more ubiquitous than ever before. It allows Eivor to keep her momentum, avoid an arrow or two, breakthrough smashable walls or objects, and, most importantly, push enemies to the ground in perfect stomping form. This slide sets up easy kills and can easily turn a botched ambush into an assassin’s paradise.
1 BEST - Berserker Trap
Now, this is an ability worth using pretty much constantly. The most outwardly offensive-focused of the new batch, this ability allows Eivor to shoot a trap arrow spiked with a berserker potion to turn enemies against each other. It works better than one might expect which is a nice change of pace.
A basic enemy will get, on average, one kill before the potion wears off, but it leaves them in a weakened state from their intra-team scrap for an easy finishing blow or two. The potion even works on unique enemy types including the burly, man-throwing Goliath. Don’t waste the arrow on bosses, obviously, but feel free to go to town turning those dang Crusaders on each other! Hopefully, this one makes a return in a rumored new entry slated for next year.