The latest free update to come to Assassin's Creed Valhalla is Mastery Challenge, a new questline that will unlock a new feature in Eivor's settlement. As Mastery Challenge is meant for veteran players, the requirements to unlock it come fairly late in the game.
Ubisoft has been releasing a fairly steady stream of free and paid DLC for Assassin's Creed Valhalla. The free updates have included two limited-time festivals for the Ravensthorpe settlement, where players could participate in challenges and earn special cosmetic items. In May, the first of the two currently announced expansions was released, Wrath of Druids. While this paid DLC reviewed fairly well, Ubisoft's free updates have been a little more problematic. The spring Ostara Festival in Assassin's Creed Valhalla was bugged to the point where Ubisoft had to roll back part of the update until certain features were fixed.
In a new video, Ubisoft revealed how the new Mastery Challenge will work after it goes live on June 15. Players will have to wait until they are fairly far into Assassin's Creed Valhalla until they can take part in the challenges, as the required power level to unlock it is 221. Players must also have completed the Grantebridgescire and Ledecestrescire story arcs, as well as the Uninvited Guests main quest. Once they have reached the right power level and completed the required quests, a meteorite will crash outside of the Assassin's Creed Valhalla main hub of Ravensthorpe. Eivor needs to go investigate the crash and discover a new NPC, a mysterious woman named Hildiran. After some dialogue, she will join Eivor and unlock a new building in Ravensthorpe, where she will train Eivor in battle meditation. From there, players will find five new shrines have been added to their map, with each shrine containing challenges geared towards melee, stealth, and archery.
Assassin's Creed Valhalla: What New Items are in Mastery Challenge Mode
Players who complete trials will receive a new kind of currency called energies that they can trade to Hildiran for special items. This currency can be used to buy weapons, decorations, and tattoos in Assassin's Creed Valhalla that are exclusive to Hildiran's store. The better a player does in a trial, the more energies they will receive. As players beat the shrine challenges, they will also be solving a "mythical mystery," and Hildiran claims that completing her battle meditation training will reveal a secret treasure. Whether that treasure is new armor or a plot red herring is for the player to discover.
Nearly eight months after release, Assassin's Creed Valhalla continues to be fairly healthily supported with constant updates. While Ubisoft recently announced it would be spacing out Assassin's Creed Valhalla patches to give its team more time to smooth out bugs, there is still a number of free updates left on the road map. Besides the currently unknown free updates, players can also look forward to the free Discovery Tour update, as well as the second paid DLC, Siege of Paris. While it's currently unclear how much support Assassin's Creed Valhalla will receive after its first year, for now, players still have plenty more content on the way.
Source: Ubisoft
Assassin's Creed Valhalla is out now for Google Stadia, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S platforms.