Assassin's Creed Valhalla - Crafting and upgrading gear

Crafting in Assassin's Creed Valhalla is a very important part of the gameplay, and this guide will introduce you to its basics. You won't get a lot of weapons in the game, so upgrading the items in Eivor's inventory will be an important part of the game. This will help you spend your time with Assassin's Creed more pleasantly, and fighting enemies will no longer be so exhausting.

1 Acquiring materials for crafting

The materials available in the game are needed to raise the stats of gear, and also play an important role in expanding the settlement.

Iron ore

Iron ore is most easily obtained by smashing obsidian stones found in various places in the game world. Another way is to buy it from merchants or acquire it while looting monasteries and other places you can raid.

Leather

You can easily obtain leather by hunting wild animals, but you can also skin farm animals, such as those found in the Ravensthorpe. You can also find skins from various animals in chests or by searching killed enemies.

Ingots

There are yellow icons on the map, which often hide ingots of nickel, carbon or tungsten. You can find them this way or obtain them from the bodies of opponents, who are also marked in yellow on the map. After eliminating such an opponent, you must plunder him, otherwise you will not obtain the ingots.

Opal

Opal is one of the most valuable currencies in Assassin's Creed Valhalla. With it, you'll pay for very high quality items from the wandering merchant Reda, who will stop by your settlement after you level up. The only way to obtain this valuable currency is to perform tasks for the secret guild of the Thousand Eyes. Remember to be online, otherwise these tasks will be unavailable, as the rewards for completing them are often modified.

Fabrics

You can acquire fabrics by exploring the game world, but the easiest way is to buy them from merchants. At the beginning of the game, unfortunately, they are not available for purchase, but once you get to a higher level, the fabrics will appear in the merchants' offerings.

Building materials

To expand your settlement you must have building materials at your disposal. The best option is to raid the rich abbeys marked on the map with two red axes. These raw materials can be found in huge chests, at which Eivor must summon someone from his crew to open them. 

2 Upgrade items and increase quality

Upgrading items in the inventory

Upgrading your equipment allows you to increase its basic stats. You can upgrade items by going to your inventory. When you select an item, you will see an option to upgrade it in exchange for previously collected materials.
Armor items such as pants and various weapons are suitable for upgrading. With the materials you acquire during gameplay, you can strengthen them and apply runes that give additional stats. Keep in mind that you can also increase the amount of stored provisions and the number of arrows in your quiver. All you have to do is upgrade your quiver and provisions by marking them in your inventory, in exchange for iron ore and leather.

Increasing the quality of gear

By going to the blacksmith located in the Ravensthorpe, you have the opportunity to increase the quality of your gear. This does not increase the stats of the item, but changes the quality and adds slots so that you can increase the stats of a particular weapon and armor item yourself and apply new runes. 

You'll improve the quality of your equipment at the blacksmith, and to access it you'll need to build a forge in Ravensthorpe. 
When you're at the blacksmith, select any item and hold down the Improve Quality button. A new slot will be added in exchange for materials, and you will need an ingot of nickel, carbon or tungsten.

3 Runes

Runes can be placed in inventory slots and add new stats. You will find smaller and larger runes in the game, and their color indicates what parameters you get when you place them. You can only place them in weapons or armor - depending on the type. When you select a rune from your inventory, you will see a description, in which you will see what equipment you can place them in and what additional stats they offer.

Worth noting are runes that add bonuses to:

• critical damage
• backward attacks
• inflicted damage to elite opponents
• inflicted damage through abilities
• resistance to fire
• strength of armor

How do you find runes?

While exploring the game world and searching through the bodies of powerful enemies, you're bound to find runes, but there are other ways to get these valuable stones. 

In some side quests, it may happen that your contractor will give you a rune stone instead of silver.

When you build a fisherman's and hunter's hut in your settlement then you will get the opportunity to take part in fishing or hunting challenges. For completing them you will get runes as a reward.

The most convenient solution is to buy runes from traders. You will make it even easier for yourself when you build a trading post in your settlement. This will give you easy access to stones. Runes are not among the cheapest, and when strengthening Eivor's equipment with them you sometimes have to pay a large amount of silver. 

You can place runes on weapons or armor items yourself, you won't need the help of a blacksmith to do so. At the beginning of the game you need to talk to the blacksmith to raise the quality level of your gear, because runes are not available at the standard quality of the item. Each time the blacksmith increases the quality of your item you will get more rune stone slots to use, giving you even more stat improvement. Remember to carry ingots with you, which are crucial for the smith to increase the quality of your gear. 

Runes that you don't need and just remain in your inventory can be freely sold at traders. You can also remove them from items and mount another rune stone that will improve the stats of the item more.

Healing and improving the ration bag

Healing in the game is quite simple, when Eivor's health bar drops, start collecting different kinds of plants, mushrooms or search the pots in the buildings. If you have a full life then the food you collect will be used to create rations. There is a heart icon next to the health bar, it illustrates the provisions you have collected, when the number one appears in it is a sign that you can replenish Eivor's health bar. In the inventory you can expand your victuals bag, you will then be able to use healing more than once. This may come in handy for you when fighting a challenging opponent.
Another way to regenerate your health bar is to sleep in Eivor's room, located in Ravensthorpe.
The game still allows you to meditate, but it unfortunately does not regenerate health, you can only use it to wait for the day or night. 

Improving quiver, collecting arrows

In the inventory you have the ability to upgrade your quiver, the more upgraded it is, the more arrows will be in it. The game does not give you the ability to create arrows, so the only way to get them is to collect them from stands, tree trunks or buy them from traders. Buying arrows is the least profitable, but it is the easiest solution. At the merchant you can purchase arrows of many types: for the light bow, the hunter's bow and the predator's bow.
It is important that the arrows are dedicated to the correct bow so that you will deal more damage.