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Assassin's Creed Valhalla | Best Weapons for the early, mid, and late-game

James Billcliffe avatar
Guide by James Billcliffe Guides Editor
Published on

An assassin is nothing without their arsenal of weapons, be that a hidden blade or trusty axe.

The weapon system in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla works a little bit differently to previous games in the series, but here’s where you can lay your hands on some of the best weapons in medieval England.

Although there’s plenty of powerful weaponry to sniff out in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, through most of the early and mid-game, you have relatively few options to choose from until you can make your way into the main open world.

First, we’ll run through some fun options to look out for in the early and mid game, and warn against a few which don’t feel as great, so you can get your Viking invasion in full swing.

Finally, we’ll list off the best legendary weapons we’ve found so far across our pillaging of England. The strongest and most powerful weapons that you’ll want to keep and upgrade until the end of the game.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla weapon slots: on-hand, off-hand, and two-handed weapons

Before we introduce you to our picks of the best weapons Eivor can pick up during their adventures in Viking Norway and Medieval England, it's worth taking a moment to talk about weapon slots. Long-term fans of the Assassin's Creed games might notice there's been a bit of an overhaul in this regard.

This time around, instead of two independent weapon slots that you can switch between, you can equip each of your character’s hands individually. Meaning you can either turtle up behind a big shield, or go full Viking berserker and flail with a weapon in each hand.

Or, if you’re feeling extra tactical, you can forgo the explicitly offensive or defensive routes and opt for a two-handed weapon. These long-reaching armaments tend to be slow, but strong – perfect for the huge melees that erupt during Assassin’s Creed Valhalla’s castle sieges.

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla - Best Weapons for the early game

Unlike in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, you’ll be holding onto your favourite early game weapons for a while.

In Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, the loot and level up systems have been completely revamped. So, instead of constantly switching between loot as you find it, you now have to specifically go out into the world in search of wealth.

Some of this wealth will turn out to be useful new weaponry, which you can try out and upgrade if you like it.

Here are a few of our favourite weapons we’ve found:

Varin's Axe

Your father’s weapon - Varin’s Axe - despite being given to you as a basic weapon in the game’s main story, is actually a perfectly decent weapon to chop through the early game with.

You upgrade it as part of the game tutorial, so it’s already more powerful than a lot of things you pick up, and it’s one-handed weight means you can wield it with a useful shield or off-hand weapon.

Iron-Star Flail

Speaking of off-hand weapons, I really liked using the Iron-Star flail in Eivor’s left hand. If you have your parry timing on-point, then you’re not leaving yourself open defensively.

But the best part is that if you hold L1, then Eivor absolutely yeets the flail around their head - hitting anything unlucky enough to be caught in the way.

You can find the Iron-Star as one of the wealth icons in Kjotve’s fortress that you visit as part of the main story.

Ubisoft rewards: get better bows sooner

An early way to get your hands on a Superior-level light bow, is to visit the Ubisoft CONNECT store from the main and pause menus. This isn’t the microtransaction Animus store, but a proprietary Ubisoft service where you earn coins for unlocking trophies in their games.

For 100 coins, you can buy an Assassin’s Creed Odyssey Spartan Bow, which is quite good.

Fafnir's Fang spear

Generally, I’ve found the two-handed weapons like the Dane Axe to be very clunky in the best cases and near-useless in boss fights. However, I really like the Fafnir’s Fang spear you get as a reward for beating the Lost Drengr, Erik Loyalskull.

What it lacks in short-range utility, it makes up for in range and damage output. Many enemies don’t really seem able to do much about getting hit by a spear. The R2 attack can hit multiple enemies for crowd control, while the hold L1 attack does a quick stab followed by a leap backwards that’s great for zoning.

You can find it in the Drengr's cave to the north of Fornburg.

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla - Best Weapons for the mid game

Once you reach England, you not only gain access to more wealth icons, but you can buy new weapons from the shop in Ravensthorpe too.

Usually, weapons you buy from vendors aren't great in games, but there are a few here to take note of.

Doppelhander greatsword

The Doppelhander two-handed greatsword is a powerful weapon with a great perk: imbuing your heavy hits with poison on enemies you fell to the ground. It's much faster than some other heavy two-handed weapons, so it's much more manageable.

Death-Speaker hunter bow

Then on the ranged side, the Death-Speaker bow is also great. This hunter bow comes with ability to regenerate your health when you hit enemy weakspots, so is a quality addition to your arsenal.

Housecarl's Axe

For dual-wielders, try out the Housecarl's Axe. This is found as a wealth icon in Utbech in the east of Grantebridgescire.

It's perk increases your attack on every hit, making it stack well with the speed buff from Varin's Axe. If you're a fan of the double axes, then this is a good combo to try.

Blodwulf shield

Or if you're more into shields, consider prioritising the Grantebridgescire story arc, because the Blodwulf light shield - which lights your weapon on fire when you parry - is brilliant.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla — Best weapons for the late game

As you approach the end of Eivor's journey, you'll naturally want the best weapons you can get. The further you get towards the end game the more options you'll have, but what to take with you?

There are several things to bear in mind when choosing your go-to weapons for the late game. Keeping hold of your preferred mid-game weapons and getting them fully upgraded ensures their stats are top-of-the-line, making sure that Eivor's skills are suited to your play style and weapons of choice, and dual wielding weapons that make effective combos.

Unlocking the Heavy Dual Wield skill

By this late stage of the game your Eivor's skills and weapon sets are almost certainly customised around your play style and personal preferences. However, one thing that never goes amiss is unlocking the Heavy Dual Wield melee skill, which allows you to wield what would ordinarily be considered a two-handed weapon, one in each hand.

While dual wielding two-handed weapons does alter the stats and handling of each, it nevertheless makes for some powerful attacks — and crucially, renders some of the slower and more unwieldy two-handed weapons far more useful than they are on their own.

Dual wielding Gungnir (Odin's Spear)

Gungnir is a mythical weapon once belonging to Odin himself; and, as you might expect from such a fierce piece of kit, it cannot be obtained until quite late in Assassin's Creed Valhalla's story line.

Equipping Gungnir by itself is a bit of a trade-off: it deals the highest damage of any spear in the game — if you manage to land a hit with it. Unfortunately, it's also the slowest spear in the game, giving your enemies ample time to potentially evade your attack.

However, equipping Gungnir alongside another weapon using the Heavy Dual Wield skill brings it back into the running as one of the most useful weapons in the end game.

Plus, the spear possesses a powerful perk: a force field that extends its reach, meaning your combatants are unlikely to get in a successful counter-attack on you even in the event that they are able to dance out of Gungnir's reach in time.

How to get the best weapon combo: Blacksmith's Hammer & Plank and Buckler shield

The most powerful combination I've found in the game is the Blacksmith's Hammer paired with the Plank and Buckler Heavy shield. Despite your power level, it's quite easy to ride into any region in the game, grab some loot and leg it back to safety.

You need three things for this combo:

  • The Blacksmith's Hammer
  • The Plank and Buckler Heavy Shield
  • The Stomp Skill

The special perk of the hammer knocks enemies to the ground when you hit them with a heavy attack, while the Plank and Buckler shield buffs your heavy damage when you parry. This means you can parry an incoming attack, retaliate with a extra strong heavy slam - which often knocks an enemy to the ground - before finishing them off with a Stomp. There are very few enemies in the whole game which can't be quickly felled with this strategy.

The Plank and Buckler Heavy Shield is found at Sutton Hoo in the southeast of East Anglia. To reach it, pinpoint the chest's location with Odin's Sight, then descend into the mine.

Kill the elite soldier in the passageway to get the Sutton Hoo key, then break the weak boards at the end of the path.

Next, throw a torch - hold down on the d-pad and push up on the right stick to select one - over the weak wall on the other side to blow it up. Now open the chest and collect your prize.

The Blacksmith's Hammer is found in Lunden, on the east side of the city at Bodilsburg Garrison.

To grab it, you need to kill the nearby elite in the church to grab the Captain's Key.

You can then shoot through the weak boards in the ceiling to get up to where you can see the loot chest is with your Odin's Sight.

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla - Legendary Weapons

The easiest way to lay your hands on legendary, mythical tier weapons, is through Reda's Opal store.

By collecting Opal from the world, as well as completing his daily and weekly contracts, you can pick up special weapons on a weekly rotation. Check back regularly, and you can pick up some really cool stuff.

For instance, you can grab Mythical weapons that you're usually only available on the Helix Store - like the Scimitar - for 120 Opal.

We can get a peek at some more awesome Legendary Weapons from the in-game Helix Store itself.

In Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, weapons which inflicted statuses were particularly powerful, and we know about two which induce poison in enemies:

Mournful Cry

This legendary hammer powers up your critical hits, imbuing the weapon with poison every time you crit. When this happens, follow-up hits or attacks against new foes will cause poison build-up which eventually drains their health.

Hag’s Bite

The Hag’s Bite is more direct, when you knock down an enemy, either with a skill or through battle, a heavy hit with this flail will instantly poison them. This lets you move onto a new target while the weakened foe is finished off by the status.

Where to get Excalibur in Assassin's Creed Valhalla

Any collection of mythical weaponry wouldn't be complete without this Arthurian legend.

As shown in the below video from Youtuber TagBackTV, if you collect the Treasures of Britain Tablets from around the country, then you can unlock the sword in the stone itself!

For more on Assassin's Creed Valhalla, check out our run-down of all the best skills in the game, here.

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