Assassin's Creed Valhalla finally gets New Game+, and your favorite gear can come along for the ride
Six years after Assassin's Creed Valhalla launched, Ubisoft has added one of the features players kept asking for: New Game+. The free update lets players start Eivor's journey again with progression carried over and a rising challenge on repeat runs.
Title Update 1.8.0 is available on PC, PlayStation and Xbox, according to Ubisoft's release notes. It also brings new gear upgrades, a stash for organizing equipment and changes to the Rune Forge. On PC, Ubisoft lists a 7.8GB download on Steam and 12.27GB through Ubisoft Connect.
There is a condition before Eivor can set sail again. Players must complete Holy Day, the final quest in the Hamtunscire region, to unlock New Game+. Ubisoft says that point comes before the game's true ending, a choice intended to let people restart without completing every last part of the lengthy story.
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What happens to gear you already own?
Ubisoft says New Game+ lets players replay the adventure with their progression carried over. If a new run would give you gear you already own, or you interact with a book of knowledge you've already collected, the reward becomes Mithril instead.
Image: Ubisoft
Mithril is a new upgrade resource. It can also be obtained from the Niflheim, Mastery and River Raid shops, giving people who stay in the endgame another route to it. Divine gear can now be upgraded from its previous maximum of level 13 to level 27, with Mithril required for those additional upgrades.
The update also makes Divine gear quality available without owning Dawn of Ragnarök. Platinum ingots, previously associated with that expansion, can now replace carbon, nickel and tungsten in wealth chests on a New Game+ run, Ubisoft says. That is a change to the reward system, not a giveaway of the full expansion.
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A stash and more ways to tune Eivor's build
Back at Ravensthorpe, a new stash lets players store gear and runes instead of keeping everything in their active inventory. The Rune Forge gains an upgrade tab: lower tiers can be improved with silver, while the new Superior tier requires Mithril.
Ubisoft has added more than 300 engravable runes to the forge. It says eligible perks from acquired weapons and full armor sets can be turned into runes for silver, giving players more options when combining equipment effects.
There's also an optional Extended Progression mode, in which gear upgrades, runes and masteries contribute to Eivor's Power score. A Naoe-inspired Master Assassin outfit is included for free, and the update adds new achievements. Ubisoft says each successive New Game+ run gets harder; it does not promise a single fixed difficulty for every player.
PlayStation 5 Pro support for PSSR 2 is part of the same patch. PC players should instead check their storefront's download and the full notes for the extensive weapon, skill and balance changes before returning to an existing save.
