Ubisoft adds new premium items at the cash shop in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla almost every Tuesday. In this review article I will show you the two new packs – the Taranis Gear Pack and Ship Pack. Let’s get into the details!
If you are a new player, check out the first article in the series to learn What is the Helix Store in AC Valhalla and read the Reda’s Shop Guide to get yourself familiar with how these work and what you can expect from them each week and even each day!
Table of contents
From time to time on Tuesday, when it’s the weekly reset for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, the Helix store is stocked up with new cosmetic contents. It can be in the form of single items for stand-alone purchase or themed packs like armor sets, ship decorations bundles and more. This week we get a new pack – the Taranis Pack.
For the week of March 30, 2021 there are two new packs – the Taranis Pack, which contains Gear Set, Weapon, Shield, Mount and Raven skins and costs 2000 Helix Credits; and the Taranis Ship Pack, which contains five unique skins for the five different parts of your ship, and costs 500 Helix Credits.
Note that the quality and rarity of the items you get from the store depends on the highest rarity items you have in your inventory at the time of picking up the new gear. You may be paying real-life money, but if you are low level and wearing low quality gear, you will get the same low-rarity Helix store gear and have to level it up just like normal gear.
Once you purchase anything from the store, it will be immediately added to your inventory. The mount and bird skins are available at the stables, while the ship decorations are available at the docks shop.
Below you will find my full overview of both these packs! But first, a little mythology!
Who was Taranis in the Celtic Mythology
Taranis is the God of Thunder, who was worshipped primarily in Gaul, Britain and Ireland, but not only. Many representations of a bearded god with a thunderbolt in one hand and a wheel in the other have been recovered from Gaul, where this deity apparently came to be syncretized with Jupiter.
Taranis, along with the cyclops Brontes were associated with the chariot wheel in the Greek mythology. Symbolic votive wheels were offered at shrines, cast in rivers, buried in tombs or worn as amulets since the Middle Bronze Age. Such “wheel pendants” from the Bronze Age usually had four spokes, and are commonly identified as solar symbols or “sun cross”. Artefacts parallel to the Celtic votive wheels or wheel-pendants are the so-called Zierscheiben in a Germanic context. The identification of the Sun with a wheel, or a chariot, has parallels in Germanic, Greek and Vedic mythology. The identification of the Sun with a wheel, or a chariot, has parallels in Germanic, Greek and Vedic mythology.
Source: Wikipedia.
Taranis Pack Contents Overview
The Taranis Pack contains the following items:
- Taranis Helmet
- Taranis Hood
- Taranis Armor
- Taranis Bracers
- Taranis Pants
- Cailleach Bheara (Mount Skin)
- Thunderbird (Raven Skin)
- The Thunderer (One-Handed Bearded Axe)
- God’s Ire (Light Shield)
Taranis Armor Set
The Gear pack contains a full set of armor, a bearded axe (1-handed), a light shield and two skins (one for your bird and one for your mount). Here is the set bonus:
- (2 pieces) Deal Bonus Damage when Completely Unarmed
Bonus: +20.0 Ranged Damage - Additional increase to Armor
Bonus: +25.0 Armor
This is a Wolf set and its description reads:
” No sparks ever dance across the surface of this material, no matter how furiously you brush it.”
Each one of the items from this armor set (including the spear and shield) have three rune slots. As per the recent changes made by the developers, all sets now have identical rune slots and only the armor and weapons have slots for the square runes.
The Thunderer (Bearded Axe)
The Thunderer is part of the Taranis gear set. It belongs to the Wolf gear collection. This is a one-handed axe and it has the following perk:
Increase Stun depending on the Remaining Defense Slots of the Target
Bonus: +15.0 to 75.0 Stun
God’s Ire (Light Shield)
God’s Ire is a Wolf light shield from the Taranis Gear Pack. It has the following perk:
Increase Stun after a Block
Duration: 10s
Bonus: +25.0 Stun
Cailleach Bheara (mount skin)
This is one of the most beautiful mount skins released so far in the store in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. This stag will alter your mount’s appearance, but it will not bring you any benefits (or drawbacks) in combat or while riding. It’s just a cosmetic appearance changer.
To change your mount’s appearance, visit the stable master at Ravensthorpe.
Thunderbird (raven skin)
The Thunderbird is a reskin for your raven. It turns it into a gorgeous golden bird that is really hard to take your eyes off of .
This item changes the appearance of your bird and gives it a flashy new look. It will not change the functionality of your bird or its features. It only alters its visual style, same as the mount skin.
To change your bird’s appearance, visit the stable master at your settlement.
Taranis Ship Pack Contents Overview
TheTaranis Ship Pack costs 500 Helix Credits and is a collection of skins and unique designs for your ship. You can use them on both your regular ship as well as on your River Raids Long Ship.
To change your ship’s appearance, visit the new docks. To change your long ship’s appearance, visit the old docks.
Are the Taranis Packs worth purchasing
The Taranis armor set’s visuals are quite nice and thanks to the recently added Transmog feature in AC Valhalla, you can now alter the appearance of your favorite armor and weapons to the ones you enjoy looking at, without losing any of the stats, perks, benefits that best match your playstyle.
The gear set is crazy strong in terms of performance. Overpowered, really. The axe and shield have a big stun bonus and can be useful in a build that revolves around that gameplay mechanic.
Below is a short video with gameplay from Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, in which Eivor is using the Taranis armor set with bare hands (unarmed). The set bonus is indeed crazy powerful and the effects are also very cool.
The Taranis Ship Pack is, as usual, a complete waste of money, unless you have some to spare and are wondering where to throw it. The visual appearance is nice, but unless you really want to change your ship’s appearance for the short periods in which you actually sail in the game, I’d suggest you spend your money on something more useful… like supporting this site. That sounded more fun and playful in my mind than it would on your screen when you read it, for sure :)))
The stag mount skin from the gear pack is very beautiful and I personally like its appearance very much. Same goes for the raven skin. You don’t generally use your bird as often in AC Valhalla as you did in Odyssey and Origins, but after the addition of the “Raven’s Loot” skill, the bird can be seen a bit more often on your screen.
This is all for the Ubisoft in-game helix store update for March30th, 2021. Check out our full Assassin’s Creed Valhalla coverage and don’t miss any update or useful new info about the game.
