Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: Combat skills guide — The best skills to pick

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: The basics of leveling and combat skills

So, how exactly does leveling work in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla? Well, for starters, it’s actually quite easy. I believe you only need roughly 7,000 EXP to gain a level-up. But, the thing is, most quests award you with 3,000 to 5,000 EXP already.

Unlocking nodes

Whenever you level-up in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, you obtain two skill points. These let you unlock nodes in the skill tree. Moreover, if you don’t like your build, don’t fret because you can reset your skill tree for free anytime you want.

Likewise, some parts of the skill tree remain hidden. You’ll need to activate the nodes that link to these to make them visible. Alternatively, if you’ve amassed a lot of skill points already, just try to reach the hidden sections first. Then, reset your points and reach a different section. As long as you don’t reload a save, these sections will remain visible to you.

Stat boosts, passives, and active skills

There are two types of nodes in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla‘s skill tree:

• Smaller nodes – These are stat boosts (i.e., HP, melee damage, ranged damage, assassination damage, and the like) and armor boosts (explained later).
• Larger nodes – These are either passives or active skills.

Bear, raven, or wolf?

You’ll notice that Assassin’s Creed Valhalla‘s skill tree has multiple branches, but three colors or types: red (bear), yellow (raven), and blue (wolf). You might think that each type will only boost a specific stat or capability (i.e., red skills will only boost melee damage). But, the mechanics are actually not like that at all. The stat boosts are scattered and distributed evenly in each section, regardless of their color. As such, you could pick, say, lots of yellow skills first and still find melee damage-boosting perks there.

The two differences here come from:

• The larger nodes that are available.
• The weapon/armor type gets boosted by certain nodes.

You might notice smaller nodes that say “Way of the Bear” (red) or “Way of the Raven (yellow). These show buffs corresponding to that type of equipment. The buffs, such as +1 attack, +3 stun, and so on are actually similar. It’s just the types of armor that get affected. You’ll see the type above that equipment’s name.

Here are some examples when it comes to armor sets:

• Bear – Berserker, Brigandine, Thegn, Valkyrie
• Raven – Thrall, Raven Clan, Magister, Mentor
• Wolf – Huntsman, Draugr