Watch 16 Tips for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla in the video above

• Unlike previous Assassin’s Creed games, most collectible items and points of interest are divided up into three categories: Wealth (ingots, abilities, and weapons), Mysteries (side quests and puzzles or challenges), and Artifacts (cosmetics and treasure maps)

• Your raven does not reveal enemy locations and automatically mark them as red like birds did in previous Assassins Creed games. You can, however, manually mark spots while flying as a raven to make finding them as Eivor easier. Note that an early skill in the Wolf Tree can also make detecting enemies easier.

• Many doors are barred on one side – use Odin Sense to detect the red barricades on the other side. This usually means there’s an alternate entrance – either through the windows, a breakable roof, or underground. Some barricades can even be destroyed by sniping through cracks in the walls.

• You’re likely going to find a lot of locked doors in your travels (these won’t have red barricades on the opposite side) – but keys should always be nearby. Your raven can detect if a particular enemy is carrying a key – if you can’t detect one, it might be the reward of a nearby World Event.

• To loot Wealth during a raid, you’ll often need a crew mate to help you either bust down a door that leads to Wealth or to actually open a chest with Wealth within. This means two things: you’ll need to defend your crew mates to keep them alive (and revive them when they go down) and you’ll need to clear the enemies in an area near Wealth so that your crew mates can help you actually get the Wealth.

• Not all wealth like supplies are found at raiding targets – smaller amounts can be found in small chests that appear as tiny gold dots on the map. These don’t count to the collectible wealth total of a region, but are worth collecting to help upgrade your gear and your settlement.

• If you’re low on health in combat and out of Rations, run around the area you’re fighting in to find berries or other foods in the area to restore your health. After you’ve restored your health, any food collected will count toward your Rations meter.

• Throughout the world, you’ll find walls that can be broken. If there’s a nearby red pot, shoot it with an arrow to cause an explosion that hopefully destroys the breakable wall. If you can’t find any, you can also try using the Incendiary Powder Trap ability if you’ve unlocked it, which fires explosive arrows. Use this ability on the wall to destroy it.

• The more you expand your skill tree, the more likely you are to invest in skills that increase the properties of gear of a certain type. Get the most out of these upgrades by having your gear compliment your skills and try to equip a single type – the Bear, the Wolf, or the Raven.

• Eivor won’t have much variety in combat to begin with – prioritize seeking out Books of Knowledge to learn abilities that use Adrenaline, and unlock central Skills in the Skill Tree for perks that don’t require Adrenaline at all.

• Eivor has a blue meter that marks their stamina, but it doesn’t work quite the way you think. You can still dash along without getting tired, but repeated dodging, holding block, or unleashing heavy strikes or off-hand attacks will lower your stamina. Losing all your stamina can make evading attacks harder, so know when to stop pressing the attack and back off before you get caught by a counter-attack.

• Upgrading your Settlement isn’t just for looks – you’ll be able to unlock new quests and features this way. Some items you find like animal parts or roman artifacts can’t be traded in until you’ve built up the right places.

• While you end up leaving Norway early on in the story, you can actually return at any time by hitting the Atlas button in the world map.

• If you see an icon for a secret entrance on your map, always check them out, as they often lead to treasure you can’t reach normally. If your raven detects something under the ground that you can’t reach – secret entrances are likely the place to reach them.

• You can call your longship to you at any time as long as you’re near water — hold down on the d-pad and select it on your wheel using the right stick. This is useful for quick, watery getaways and when you’ve left your boat far from your current location.

• You can mark multiple things on your map. This is especially useful when you notice that on the way to a quest, there are multiple points of interest like a Wealth location or a World Event.

• Not every point of interest will appear on your map just by synchronizing on a high view point. Some must be uncovered by exploring – or speaking to wandering information broker NPCs who have a ? Over their heads and paying to reveal what a dot on the map’s true reward.

• Points of interest often cluster around larger monasteries you can raid, or towns you can visit. Sometimes, a town will provide new world events or minigames after you’ve helped allies in the area take it over.

• Even if you’re overall power level doesn’t reach the heights of a neighboring region, you can still explore them – just don’t wander into any enemy camps.

• Enemies come in many different types across Valhalla from Saxons to Danes to creepy cult warriors. Not only will they brandish different weapons, they’ll use them in unique ways, like a spearman leading a heavy attack charge, or a viking swapping from a two-handed axe to dual hammers. As you encounter new enemy types, learn which moves they are capable of employing to know when to dodge and when to stand your ground and parry several strikes in a row.

• Fire can hurt a lot if you aren’t expecting it. Douse it quickly by holding the dodge button to perform a roll.

• Every enemy has a ranged weak point, indicated by an orange spot when aiming at them with a bow. This can help you pierce the defenses of particularly tough foes, as it will often make them vulnerable to stun attacks.

• Don’t underestimate the value of stunning your opponents with heavy strikes or a well timed series of last second parrying. Most regular fighters can be dispatched as soon as you’ve fully stunned them, and even bosses can be stunned once by full depleting their segmented meters for a juicy hit that can help turn the tide – but they can only be stunned once!

• Certain skills in the Skill Tree can massively boost your potential with certain playstyles. Try out dual wielding heavy weapons, using chain assassinations, or picking off targets with a ranged stun finisher.

• Most enemies have a power level that’s equivalent to the region’s power, but there are some exceptions. Certain bosses and wandering Zealots will indicate their power, which may be well over your own, so engage cautiously!

• While you can actually sneak up and engage raiding targets by yourself, don’t forget that your raiding crew is indispensable, and required to loot the bigger cargo hauls needed to upgrade your camp.

• You hold left on the d-pad to whistle for your horse, but if you tap left on the d-pad, Eivor will let out a quick whistle that’s great at bringing enemies toward your direction. Use this whistle to lure them toward you so that you can assassinate them.

• You don’t have to discover every clue about an Order of the Ancients member to kill them. If you think you know where they are, or if you’ve actually spotted one, feel free to take them out.

• Some combat sites have clusters of purple mushrooms growing alongside other food sources – but these mushrooms will give extra adrenaline.

• You can parry an enemy attack with any weapon — you don’t need a shield. However, if you time the parry wrong, the enemy’s attack will damage you. If you use a shield, you can mess up parry timing but still block the attack.

• Enemies that use heavy attacks which glow orange can still be blocked and parried, but can sometimes continue with multiple slow hits that will require you to consecutively parry to raise their stun meter.

• Certain weapons held in two hands or your off-hand have alternate attacks when you hold the block button down, just remember not to hold it down if you’re trying to parry incoming attacks.

• There are many situations where you may be forced into 1 on 1 combat with mighty enemies. Take the time to carefully watch the moves they use: which ones can be blocked, which need to be dodged, and potential openings to parry or strike back.

• If a boss enemy is giving you trouble, try switching weapon types, or using a shield if you find yourself taking too much damage. Some enemies need to be cautiously parried until they can be stunned to deal massive damage.