A new Assassin's Creed Valhalla patch fittingly named "The Most Requested Update" just dropped, adding a range of features and systems that players have been asking for, including the fabled New Game Plus mode.
Ubisoft shared the news on the PlayStation Blog, which notes that the PS5 Pro version of Assassin's Creed Valhalla now sports PSSR optimizations "to enhance 4K image quality and deliver our Quality mode at 60FPS on PS5 Pro." More detailed patch notes are available on Steam.
New Game Plus is, as is often the case among modern Assassin's Creed fans, a headliner.
"We know this has been a request for ages, and we appreciate your patience," writes Ubisoft, some four years after Valhalla's release. "You can now start your Viking quest all over again after completing the main story of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla.
"To access NG+ you'll have to complete the Holy Day Quest, which is the last quest of the Hamtunscire region. (This is before the true ending of the game but since it is a very big game, we’ve decided to allow you to start NG+ a little bit earlier) Each iteration of NG+ will get progressively harder, offering new challenges to players who want to revisit the Viking Age again and again."
Note that you will have to save the game post-update to unlock the NG+ option.
With NG+ in mind, the cap on gear upgrades has been increased from 13 to 27, and upgrading is now tied to the new mithril resource. "You will need a lot of it," Ubisoft says.
There's more progression to be had, too. "Extended Progression Mode" adds "a more granular sense of progression," by which Ubisoft means gear upgrades and Runes "increase Power by 1 point" while Masteries "increase Power every 5 skill points."
"This mode is intended to increase the impact of your gear. The challenge is greater, but the reward is great for the mighty," the studio explains.
Runes can also, themselves, be upgraded after today's update, and may reach the new "superior" tier. This, too, requires mithril.
"The second addition to the rune forge is in the engrave page; we’ve added more than 300 available engravable runes, allowing players to engrave all of the perks that have been added since the release of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, including DLCs and those purchased in the Helix Store," the patch notes add.
For all that gear you're hoarding, Valhalla has also added a Stash inventory. "As we all know, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is a big game, and it keeps getting bigger each year," Ubisoft reflects. So, the kind folks of Ravensthorpe have installed "a newly installed Stash which, when interacted with, will allow players to store any piece of gear and any rune from their inventory."
The long-awaited update is rounded out by two new achievements for completionists (fully upgrade divine gear, and complete NG+), PSSR 2 support for PS5 Pro, and a long list of balance changes "trying to make dual wielding feel better, improve stat runes as well as balancing skill masteries and their bonuses."
