Assassins Creed Valhalla: Best build - assassin Assassin's Creed Valhalla guide, walkthrough

This Assassin's Creed Valhalla guide page is a collection of tips on building the best assassin you can have in the game. The entire build is about eliminating enemies silently. You will learn what abilities, skills, runes and weapons to choose in order to silently kill enemies.

Last update: 04 January 2024

On this page of our guide for Assassin's Creed Valhalla you will find tips and tricks on how to create the best character build for Eivor, whose specialty is assassination, i.e. efficient elimination of opponents through stealth attacks.

• Warning - some battles are mandatory
• Weapons and armor
• Runes
• Skills
• Abilities

Warning - some battles are mandatory

The following description provides advice on how to efficiently surprise and eliminate your opponents while in stealth. Unfortunately, in some situations direct combat is mandatory. This includes mainly boss fights, which you can't avoid in any way. Direct combat can also occur in other situations, e.g. if, as part of a quest, you have to defend the camp against enemy attack or take part in an assault on a castle. In this type of scenes you can rely on stealth attacks only in secondary role, for example by distancing yourself from the fighting characters and using the bow, or looking for an opportunity to back stab enemies busy fighting someone else.

Never go for 100% assassination build Eivor, because you may have problems in those situations where direct confrontation is required. Assassin gear, abilities and skills may prevail, but the build cannot rely solely on them.

Weapons and armor

The best armor for assassin Eivor is the Hidden Ones' Set. Other elements of this armor are given as rewards for finding and exploring assassin hideouts. This topic is described in detail in the chapter on Assassin Bureaus. You will learn the locations and walkthroughs for all 6 bureaus.

Try to equip all 5 pieces of your assassin's outfit, thanks to which you will gain two bonuses to Eivor's stats:

1. Increases assassination damage, with the requirement to remain hidden in couched position for at least 10 seconds. You will often be able to rely on this bonus if you intend to accurately plan all the assassinations.
2. Increased headshot damage. You can expect the best results using Predator Bow.

The dagger called Suttungr's Claw is the best choice for the main melee weapon, which is also a reward associated with the exploration of assassin hideouts. The unique feature of the dagger is that it inflicts increasingly more critical damage as more attacks are carried out. The ideal tactic to fight with the dagger is to rely on a series of very quick stabs. There is a good chance that you will be able to land quite a few of them before your opponent manages to defend himself and counter attack.

With the second weapon you have a lot of freedom. We recommend playing with a shield so that you can block your opponent's attack more efficiently if necessary. If you prefer to play more risky, you can alternatively bet on using two daggers.

The ideal ranged weapon for stealth attacks is the predator bow. This type of bows has a low rate of firing, but when playing as an assassin and trying to eliminate single targets this will not be a problem. The most important thing is for a single bow attack to deal as much damage as possible (normal and if possible also critical). Developing the predator bow will enable you to eliminate more and more types of opponents with a single hit. Always try to aim at the head or, if the kill is not guaranteed, at a weak point on the enemy's body.

An important issue when using the predator bow is to constantly improve the quiver, and this is because by default Eivor can only carry a few arrows for this type of bow. Spending resources on quiver upgrades will reduce the risk of running out of arrows at a key moment in the game.

Runes

In the initial phase of the game you won't have much choice in terms of runes, but as the campaign proceeds, their stock in your inventory should increase quickly. You can also buy new runes in stores.

In the case of runes placed in the slots of various pieces of armor, we recommend with following bonuses:

1. Increased Stealth Damage
2. Increased Melee Damage

In case of runes placed in weapon slots (and possibly shields) we recommend the following bonuses:

1. Increased Assassination Damage
2. Increased Elite Damage - the chance that an elite enemy can die in one attack will increase
3. Increased Ability Damage
4. Increased Critical Damage - you will appreciate this especially when using the predator bow.
5. Bonus for Fire Damage and Poison Damage - take a look at these runes if you have active abilities with such effects

If you have been exploring Assassin / Hidden Offices bureous to complete the Hidden Ones' set, you should also have the Hidden Ones' rune. This rune will guarantee increased back-stab damage, but only when hidden and unnoticed for at least 10 seconds before the stealth attack. Unfortunately, you can only put it in the slot if you have upgraded one of the items to the highest, mythical quality.

Skills

The two main skills for aassassin are:

1. Advanced Assassination - you can execute QTE sequences and kill elite enemies with single attacks.
2. Chain Assassination - you can easily kill enemies in pairs without alarming the rest of the area.

Also, take an interest in the following skills:

1. Backstab - damage bonus from backstab attacks is very useful.
2. Stomp - you can easily kill a knocked down enemy and reduce the risk of alarming the area.
3. Brush With Death - this skill will be useful in case of a mistake and during mandatory boss fights.
4. Predator Bow Combo - damage bonus is useful in locations where the bow is used to eliminate more than 1 enemy.
5. Emergency Aim - you can use the bow to prevent the guards from raising alarm.

You will find more information about the aforementioned skills listed on a separate page Best main skills - which ones?

In addition to unlocking the main skills, you can also choose smaller stat bonuses, which will help you play as an efficient assassin. Useful stat bonuses:

1. Stealth Damage
2. Assassination Damage
3. Light Damage - you will use this attack more frequently for the dagger we recommended earlier.
4. Melee Damage
5. Ranged Damage
6. Stun - you can use it to disable your opponents in combat

If, as suggested earlier, you have acquired the complete set of Hidden Ones / Assassin gear, then from the skill tree you should also choose bonuses for raven school gear (better attacks, blocks, stuns, dodges and critical damage, less weight and better armor). That's the school represented by the assassin set.

Similarly, if you have listened to our advice and started using the predator bow to deal very large amounts of damage to individual enemies, you can look for bonuses related to this particular bow variety on the tree. Selecting them will make the predator bow do more damage and improve its rate of fire and chance of critical hits.

Abilities

Same as with runes, you can't initially choose many abilities, because you will acquire them gradually. You have to start choosing better skills after you have unlocked more than 4 different ranged and melee abilities.

For an assassin, ranged abilities are more important. Useful abilities include:

1. Incendiary Powder Trap - you can use exploding arrows that are great for eliminating groups of opponents.
2. Piercing Shot - a single powerful shot, able to break through obstacles and enemies (may kill several enemies standing in a straight line).
3. Ranged Fire Strike - you can use flaming arrows and set enemies on fire. The flames can spread to other people.
4. Ranged Poison Strike - in this case, you can poison your enemies, including entire groups that will be in range of the poisonous cloud.
5. Thorn of Slumber - you can put your opponents to sleep to sneak past them or to attack someone else.

You should treat your melee abilities more as an emergency way out in case Eivor is detected, and as a help in situations where combat is mandatory. The abilities we recommend are:

1. Blinding Rush - you can use stamina to temporarily become "invisible". This effect remains active until the endurance bar is exhausted or an enemy is attacked.
2. Dive of the Valkyries - this ability is always useful when the game forces you to defeat a powerful opponent.
3. Throwing Axe Fury - another ability that enables you to hold your ground in direct combat. You can simultaneously weaken several nearby enemies.

You can learn more about abilities from the guide page Abilities - how to unlock?. The places where they are unlocked are also included in the chapter on secrets.