Assassin's Creed Valhalla is every bit the gigantic game AC: Odyssey was, with tons of new/reworked mechanics. For example, instead of the Cult of Cosmos, this time around we have the Order of the Ancients Zealots. These are fearsome warriors that Eivor hunts down throughout the game, though a lot of them are better left for the post-game).
Each one fights differently and quite frankly, they feel almost as unforgivingly difficult as the Phylakes of AC: Origins. The combat in Valhalla is a ton of fun, but these confrontations do feel a bit unfair sometimes. For those who want the rewards early, or just like a nice challenge, here are some tips for taking them out way earlier than the developers intended.
Updated April 11th, 2021 by Jacob Buchalter: Assassin's Creed Valhalla has been out for a while now, which is long enough for those of you who take your time with these types of games to almost 100% complete it. There's a lot to do in Valhalla, such as fighting the Zealots. But the game has gone through a lot of updates, some that are focused on fixing bugs, and others that tried to balance the combat. There may even be another expansion on the horizon! So, a few of our previous tips needed some adjusting. That, and we found a few more fun tricks to ax these Zealots earlier than intended.
12 Refill Rations, Buy Some Arrows, Build Up Adrenaline
First off, you absolutely need to fill up all your supplies before attempting any of these fights. You're going to need every ratio, every arrow, and a ton of Adrenaline to beat these guys. Arrows you can get from a merchant or enemy camp, Rations you can buy as well or find in the wild, and Adrenaline can easily be built up just from fighting some weak mobs. Sadly, neither Adrenaline nor HP regenerates naturally this time around, so you've got to be a bit more careful.
11 Get Mark Of Death & Upgrade It
Mark of Death is such an insanely useful Ability, no matter what build you're going with. It's a power that lets Eivor charge up a deadly volley of arrows on marked enemies (or just one enemy) until your stamina runs out. And, even with low Stamina, that damage it puts out is crazy! To get it, you can either go to Meldeburne and find it in a guard tower, or in Alrekstad near the riverbank. We recommend getting both, as the upgrade allows you to mark more targets or mark the same target more times, and this ability works as a fantastic opener to a Zealot fight.
10 Aim For Their Weak Points
The weak point mechanic in Valhalla is one that isn't clearly explained early on. Basically, when aiming at an enemy, glowing orange spots show up in random locations on their body. And, if you hit one of those spots, the enemy will take regular damage, stamina damage, and usually stagger as well. And, the amount of weak points an enemy has usually depends on their strength. Lower-level mobs only have one, but Legendary Animals and Zealots have a couple. Stun attacks, that is, attack animations you can do after draining all of an enemy's stamina, are your main way of damaging Zealots. So, at some point in every Zealot fight, you should try and hit all their weak points for a free stun attack.
9 Make Them Afraid Of Heights
This next one is something that's been around since the early days but was only easily exploitable in Odyssey. Basically, no matter how strong your opponent is, they aren't stronger than gravity. For example, using the Spartan Kick in Odyssey was an easy way to take out Mercenaries who were way above your level, since you just baited them into chasing you to the top of a building before kicking them off.
Sadly, this isn't nearly as easy to do in Valhalla, but it's not hard either. Just to name a few abilities that can do it, there's Tyr's Kick, Rage of Helheim, Harpoon Impalement, Dive of the Valkyries, Rush & Bash, and sometimes even the Incendiary Powder Trap if they're close enough to the explosion.
8 Use An Ability That Interrupts Their Animations
The comparison to the Phylakes from Origins earlier was no joke, a lot of these Zealots can kill you in one shot depending on how early you're fighting them. So, winning isn't just about killing them before they kill you, it's killing them before they even hit so. And, because of that, it's so amazingly frustrating to chip away at their health only for them to force you back with a mine or spear and then heal. Luckily, there are a lot of abilities in the game that can interrupt an enemy's animation, pretty much all the same ones that can knock them off a cliff. Thankfully, they don't immediately try to heal again when they get back up either (most of the time), usually they'll go back to attacking for a second or two, then heal again, which is just enough time to repeat the loop.
7 Go For Unblockable Damage
Speaking of Rage of Helheim, skills like these that are unblockable are insanely useful on Zealots, as its damage is dependent on Eivor's stamina. Rage of Helheim especially can take chunks out of a Zealots HP pool if you learn the punch timing, especially if it's upgraded. Basically, any skill that tackles the enemy or goes past blocking is useful against these guys, because abilities like Throwing Axe Fury basically just bounce right off of them.
6 Have Patience & Be Ready To Parry
Assassin Creed combat has always been dependent on parrying, but the newer generation of them (Origins, Odyssey, Valhalla) treat parrying a bit differently. In older games, you basically had to parry to open an enemy up to your attacks, but in newer ones, that's saved for the stronger enemies only. And, the window for a parry is much less instant than it was in AC 1 or 2, rather, it's more like parrying in Dark Souls, which is why newer players tend to avoid using it. But, against Zealots, you really can't ignore it, or you'll never get a hit in.
5 Stack Up A Bunch Of Useful Skills
There are a lot of skills in Valhalla (and more get added in all the time) that make a huge difference in your playstyle. Some of them vastly change the way you’ll approach combat, letting you dominate the battlefield. But, that same logic doesn’t apply to the Zealots. Because of the Zealot’s powerful blocks and constant attacks, you usually have to fight all of them in a similar fashion. But, if you stack up a bunch of different useful skills, it can make these fights a lot easier. For example, there’s the skill Parry Damage which lets you chip away at their immense HP Pool, or Brush with Death, which gives you the equivalent of Witch Time from Bayonetta whenever you dodge an attack at the right time. Then, there’s the Counter Roll, which allows you to get behind a Zealot by dodging towards their unblockable attacks. Basically, learn how a Zealot fights, then invest in skills that counter their fighting style. Thankfully, re-specing is incredibly easy, so you don’t even have to commit to these skills after the Zealot is dead.
4 Use Multiple Bows
There are three different types of bows in Valhalla, Hunter, Predator, and Light bows. This isn't anything new for AC games, but they do work a bit differently this time around.
Now, each bow has its own use against Zealots, fully charged Hunter bows can break their guard, Predator bows are great for hitting Weak Points since you control the arrow's trajectory, and Light Bows are a consistent interrupt for them since you can fire so many in a row. Frankly, it's not a bad idea to take one of each type (preferably some of the most powerful ones) and just switch between them in combat. It's a bit awkward to go in and out of the menu during a fight, but it's worth it. Plus, Light and Hunter bows share arrows, but Predator Bows don't, meaning you can fire twice the amount of them if you play your cards right. Though sadly, Predator arrows aren't the same in Vahalla, they were nerfed as fans speculated they would be.
3 Missile Reversal
We need to talk about Missile Reversal and the tragedy that was nerfing it. Originally, Missile Reversal was hands down the best way to fight any Zealot that used a spear. Because, if you timed your input correctly, you could toss back any spear, arrow, or even landmine thrown your way for immense damage. But, after the nerf, it does negligible damage at best. Thankfully, it still knocks them down most of the time, so it’s still helpful in Zealot fights. But, these enemies tend to start healing after getting up, so make sure you’re ready to hit them with another ability or big attack after the Missile Reversal. It was a bit too strong before, but this nerf really feels like a giant step in the other direction.
2 Cheese Them Out
Stealth Attacks/Assassinate may not work against Zealots, but that doesn't mean hit-and-run tactics won't. Don't feel bad about using gimmicks or cheap tricks to be Zealots, especially in the early game. These fights are designed to be unfair, Zealots have an answer to everything, which frankly makes them more annoying to fight than fun. Cheesing them out is basically just evening the playing field. To name a few, you used to be able to fire infinite arrows while on your boat, though sadly that's been patched. But, the Zealot AI still kind of breaks while you're on it, so it remains a valid tactic. If you don't want to do that, you can also rely on elemental damage and have them chase you while their health dwindles, or mess with their AI using the smoke bombs as well.
1 Random Mobs Are A Good Thing
So, Zealots all have a sort of path they travel through on repeat, it's why you'll see them in different locations all over the map. 99% of the time Zealots are traveling around on the main road, which is where you'll fight them. Though, doing so usually brings random mobs that join in on the fight. But, this is actually a blessing in disguise, as these soldiers are way easier to fight than the Zealot, and can be picked off from afar to fill Adrenaline, or parried up close for a stun attack that will refill some health/adrenaline as well.