How gear works in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Guide

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla has a new approach when it comes to gearing, equipment, armor and weapons for your character compared to the previous games of the series. This guide will help you understand what gear means, how to get it, how to level it up and how to choose the best possible items for your Eivor build!

This guide does NOT contain any story spoilers from the game. I did my best to keep it clean and simple, easy to understand and use. Enjoy!

If you are a new player, you might also want to check out the Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Skills and Abilities Guide. You will find a ton of useful stuff in the AC Valhalla Guides section here on VULKK.com!

AC Valhalla’s approach to Gearing

Gear in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is considered literally everything that you can pick up or earn and equip in a slot in your Inventory screen.

On the left side of your screen you have a Quiver and Rations, which both can be upgraded using resources, but more on that later.

The left column next to your character has slots for Hood, Torso, Bow and Main Melee Weapon. On the right side of your character you have a Helm, Bracers, Boots and Secondary Weapon or Shield slots.

Further on the right there are a few numbers of the resources you currently have. Resources are collected by exploring the world, opening chests, breaking rock formations, hunting animals and completing quests.

Armor sets and Weapons are few, but unique

Every single Armor piece, Weapon and Shield are unique in this game. Each one has their own name. There are no generic axes, swords and armor pieces.

When you loot a new piece of gear, you know that it will have its place in a specific build or place. It will have the potential to stick with you throughout the whole game. Gear in AC Valhalla means more to you and to your gameplay than it did in the previous games from the series.

Gear in AC Valhalla compared to previous games

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla’s approach to gearing differs a lot compared to the previous games in the series. Both AC Origins and AC Odyssey offered you a ton of loot.

Every enemy you defeated, every chest you opened, everything dropped a piece of loot with different stats and perks, all available and demanding leveling and upgrading.

AC Valhalla simplifies the loot and gearing process to find a great spot between obtaining, keeping and leveling armor and gear that you wear and use in your builds.

There are no character levels here, so there is no limit to what and when you can equip. If you have found it, you can use it. Gear drops in AC Valhalla have different starting tier based on the location you found the item.

Each region in the game has its own Power Level recommendation and the gear tiers in it usually follow roughly that Power Level. You still need to level up the items, though.

What types of gear are available

There are three general types of gear based on the slot and purpose they serve: Armor Pieces, Weapons, Shields. Each one of those can be further leveled, upgraded and tuned with Runes

There is one more category in which Gear is divided in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla – by Skill Tree. The game has three Skill Trees:

• Yellow (Raven) – suitable for a stealthy, assassin-style of gameplay.
• Blue (Wolf) – useful for ranged gameplay style and excessive use of a bow.
• Red (Bear) – designed for melee combat and brutal face-to-face action.

Every single piece of gear you obtain the game will belong to one of these three groups. Your Skill Tree Passive abilities will directly contribute to the item if it matches the Passive you have learned.

How to get gear in AC Valhalla

There are four ways to obtain new gear for Eivor in the game – loot it from a treasure chest, earn it as a quest reward, purchase it from a merchant or purchase a pack from the Ubisoft cash-shop.

Find gear by completing main and side quests

In certain cases you will earn armor parts, weapons or shields as you progress through the main story or by completing side quests in the world of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. These items are often very cool in both design and function and you should not skip on them with an easy heart.

You don’t know if or what item you may receive as a reward for a certain quest before you do it. That’s now how AC Valhalla’s quest system is designed to work. Often the rewards come as a surprise.

Find gear by exploring the world

The best part of AC Valhalla is the exploration of the world. It doesn’t matter in what part of the main story you are, you can always get back and forth to any place you want to. This includes Norway, by the way. You can travel back to explore every corner of the map there at any time after you set sail for England and establish your Settlement there.

Based on what choices you made for your game’s interface and level of assistance in exploration before you started the game, you will see more, less or no icons on the map and on your compass bar to help you navigate your way to hidden treasures.

If you are reading this guide, it is more likely that you have opted to have some level of guidance in the game as well, so let me show you how to find gear in the world.

On your world map you will see small gold dots. They represent either a gear piece or a big treasure. You cannot know unless you scout them. Send your Raven to take a closer look or approach the locations on the map by yourself.

Once you are roughly 100m away from a gold dot on your compass, use your Raven sense and this dot will turn into a bigger icon showing you what is hidden in this location.

• The Gear icon means you will find armor, weapon or shield in this spot.
• The Ingot icon means that nearby a special resource material is hidden.
• The Ability icon means that in this location you will find a Knowledge Book, revealing a new or upgrading an existing ability of yours.

This guide focuses on Gear, so we’ll take a deep dive into the first of these three only. Here are a couple of screenshots to show you these icons in the game:

I have complete step-by-step guides showing you how to obtain each armor piece, weapon or shield in the game. Check them out! I will leave the full list of guides at the end of this article, because it’s quite large and keeps growing each day.

Purchase gear from Shops

Shops in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla are usually in the marketplace of any bigger city or town. You will need to earn the trust of the leader of the region or district to be able to trade. You can also build a Trading Post in your own Settlement Ravensthorpe.

Shops offer a limited selection of resources, usually a mix of “easier” ones and “harder ones”. They all cost Silver. Silver is the generic currency in the game. You get it by… looting everything and selling trinkets to shop owners.

Purchase gear from Reda

Reda is a shadow market merchant that appears in your Settlement in England at a certain part of the story. Reda’s Shop offers a small, but very unique collection of items both cosmetics and gear.

Reda only trades with Opal, which is a special unique currency you can only obtain by completing Contracts for Reda and his associates (available in every town market) or by finding it in very small quantities by exploring the map.

Reda’s gear offerings are quite expensive, but they come at a higher tier and level than most other gear pieces you will find in the world. In the example above you see a Shield that has three Rune slots and is already in its highest tier – Mythical, which unlocks all ten levels for that item. More on leveling and upgrading tiers of your gear further below in the guide.

Purchase gear packs from the Ubisoft store

Ubisoft promised that the cash-shop in the game will not offer “time saving” items this time around. To some extend they kept their word. The shot still does offer Gear Packs, though. These gear sets contain armor with set bonuses and unique appearance, a mount skin, a raven skin and a weapon/shield.

I have reviewed the Berserket Gear Pack, which you get from purchasing the Ultimate Edition of AC Valhalla (or higher). It’s available for a stand-alone purchase as well.

Below is an example of one such Gear pack currently available in the store. Each of the armor pieces comes at its highest tier Mythical, with three rune slots and kind of defeat the purpose of upgrading your gear. In a way it is a “time saving” thing, which Ubisoft promised not to do, but… oh well…

How to upgrade your gear in AC Valhalla

Each piece of gear you find, earn or purchase in the game will come with a certain Tier and Level. Here is a brief overview of what these mean and how they differ from each other.

How to level up your gear

Each piece of gear in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla can be leveled up to ten times, represented by rectangles in the item’s description when you hover over it.

Based on when and where you find a piece of gear in the game, it may come at a different level. If you obtain it from a quest later in the game, the item will come pre-leveled to at least partially compensate you for the time and effort you have spent to reach this point. You don’t have to level up each piece of gear from the start.

To level up your gear, open the Inventory screen and click on the gear slot and item you want to level up. Right-click (on PC) and hold to level up. Each level has its own resources requirements.

Each item will have up to ten levels available, but not all of them may be unlocked when you get the item. This depends on its rarity or as I call it – Tier. In the example above you see a Cloak that is in its second Tier – Superior. More on Tiers below!

How to upgrade your gear’s tier

On top of leveling your gear items, you can and must also upgrade their tiers. As you find different gear pieces in different regions and at a different stage of your character progression, some items will come at a higher tier (rarity) than others as well as pre-leveled to a certain degree.

There are four tiers of gear in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla:

• Tier I: Fine (grey) – this is the basic tier and it only has two level slots and no Rune slots.
• Tier II: Superior (red) – this tier allows you to get the item up to level 4, it also has one Rune slot.
• Tier III: Flawless (blue) – this tier allows your item to get to level 7 and adds a second Rune slot to it.
• Tier IV: Mythical (gold) – this is the highest tier, it unlocks all ten levels of the item and adds a third Rune slot.

Below are examples of items from each one of these tiers:

To upgrade the Tier of your gear, you’d need to visit the Blacksmith Gunnar in your Settlement. First, obviously, you need to build it so Gunnar would have a place to work for you.

When you hover over an item in Gunnar’s Blacksmith, you will see what the next Tier upgrader will bring you.

At the bottom of the first tab you see the cost of the upgrade. On the left hand-side you have a short list of the available resources you currently have.

Each Tier quality upgrade requires a different Ingot:

• Carbon Ingot – upgrade an item from Fine to Superior Tier quality.
• Nickel Ingot – upgrade an item from Superior to Flawless Tier quality.
• Tungsten Ingot – upgrade an item from Flawless to Mythical Tier guality.

How to find resources for gear upgrades

Each gear piece requires specific resources to be leveled and upgraded.

Leveling requires what I would call “easier resources”. Things like Leather and Ore. These can be found in smaller treasure chests, which you find as you explore the world of the game. Leather can be collected by hunting animals. Ore can be mined from breaking rock formations (glowing chunks of rocks).

To upgrade the tier of a gear (its rarity), you will need one of the more special resources – ingots. These are available in specific locations, usually in guarded camps or monasteries.

Here are a few tips on how to gain resources easier and quicker in AC Valhalla:

Use your Raven to spot and mark resources
Send the raven to look from above and spot any resources nodes in the world around you. Use the Stationary mode for better precision. Once spotted, mark that location and it will appear in your compass for you to follow easily.

How to get Leather
Hunt small or large animals for Leather and other valuable items. Use a Pradator Bow for better precision and higher damage. Use your Odin’s sight to highlight nearby creatures. Approach them silently.

How to get Ore
Ore is found in small treasure chests in villages, crypts dungeons and more. use your Sight to discover a small treasure as they are not marked on the map by default. Ore can be mined from Obsidian formations, which are usually found outside of the populated areas (mountains, and rocky hills).

How to get Fabric
Fabric is a rather rare resource. It can be found in chests. Never skip on a chess as you explore a dungeon, a building or if you raid a monastery. You can also find it in shops.

How to get Titanium
This resource is also rare. It can be found in chests, like Fabric. You can also purchase it from shops or find it randomly in the world.

How to get Ingots
Ingots are the rarest of the resources you need for your gear. They are found in large treasure chests. You can also purchase some from Shops for Silver.

Runes in AC Valhalla explained

Each gear piece in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla in Tier II and higher comes with one, two or three Rune slots available. You can place Runes into them to increase specific perks or boost a certain stat.

Runes in AC Valhalla are two types based on the slots they can be placed into. Circular Runes are easy to find, they drop from a lot of places as loot.

Rectangule-shaped runes provide more unique bonuses and are harder to find. They drop as loot from members of the Order of the Ancients. When you reach a high enough Power Level, the Shop will start offering them to you as well. The Shops upgrade their offerings as you progress through the story and the Power Levels of the game.

When you hover over an item you will see the rune slots it has. Items from Tier I have one slot. Items from Tier II have two circular slots. Items from Tier II have three slots that vary in shape based on the gear type. Weapons and Shields, like the Great Sword Excalibur in the picture above have two circular and one rectangular rune slots. Armor parts have three circular rune slots, except for the torso item, which has two circular and one rectangular.

The rectangularly-shaped runes always give you a temporary buff, which you can see marked in the lower left corner of your screen, right above the Health bar, where all other buffs appear as well.

The circle-shaped Runes are available in three separate Tiers: Minor, Normal and Great. Each one of these tiers increases the amount of stat bonus they grant. The higher regions and quests you do, the better your chances are to get a higher tier Rune. The “normal” tier doesn’t feature the word in front of the name of the rune, while the other two start with “Minior” and “Great”. You will also recognize the tiers by the different amount of glowing around the rune itself.

It is important to upgrade your gear

If you play the game on a lower difficulty tier the statement in this heading above might be wrong. However, upgrading and leveling your gear is something you should be doing any way.

Higher tiers of gear allow you to further modify and diversity your Eivor build by inserting Runes into the gear pieces. Different armor sets offer different set bonuses as well.

Upgrading and Leveling gear is a bit of a chore, but it’s nowhere as annoying as it was in AC Origins and AC Odyssey, for example. In AC Valhalla armor sets and weapons have a meaning. They serve a bigger purpose than just a money and resources sink.

It’s easy to pick an armor set and weapon(s) and stick with them for the whole duration of your game. The ability to upgrade and level each piece of gear means that you can make everything as powerful as the next thing.

If, say, the dagger you found in your first hour of the game fits your playstyle and build, you can keep it and know that once fully upgraded and leveled, it will be on par with everything else.

Upgrading Gear Quality changes its appearance

This could easily fit in the previous section of the guide, but I wanted it to be more noticeable. Upgrading Gear pieces from one Tier to the next also changes their visual appearance. Below is a comparison of the Mentor’s Set in its Superior vs its Flawless version (Tier II vs Tier III).

What Gear to upgrade first

If you are short on resources and have to make a choice which gear piece to upgrade first, I strongly suggest you start with your Weapon. It will boost your damage and if you are careful and dodge/block/parry attacks, you will not really need armor that much. At least not in the earlier Power Levels, when resources are scarce.

If you are wondering which item specifically to upgrade, that would depend on your preferred play style and build you are going for. I personally recommend this Assassin Hybrid build, but whatever you go for, you can always take a look at the full collections of Weapons and Shields and Armor Sets the game has to offer. Then you make your decision on which ones you want to get and keep. Those are the items you will spend most of your resources initially upgrading and leveling first.

As I have said earlier in the guide already, items you loot will be of different tier and level, based on the region or quest you get them from. You do not need to upgrade and level up every item you loot from the bottom all the way to the top. And some of the best items in the game, like the Tegn Set, Odin’s Spear, Excalibur and so on, come already upgraded to Tier III or Tier IV even.

If you are looking for the Best Assassin’s Creed Build, I have my favorite one shared and explained in detail in the Skills and Abilities Guide. Check it out!

List of all Armor Sets, Weapons and Shields