Assassin’s Creed Valhalla guide: Complete skill tree

Within the first few hours of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, you’ll gain access to the massive skill tree for the first time. But the menu in which you spend those points is shrouded in fog, hiding most things until you get farther down a particular path.

In this Assassin’s Creed Valhalla guide, we’ll show you how to get skill points and all of the skills that you can unlock.

All skills

Graphic: Jeffrey Parkin | Sources: Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft via Polygon

In Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, you don’t level up like a traditional role-playing game. Instead, you’ll gain two skill points every time you reach an XP threshold.

When you take those skill points into the Skills menu, you’ll start at a central point. You can then spend your skill points to branch out into numerous constellations themed after three play styles: melee, ranged, and stealth. As you invest skill points in stat nodes (the little ones) and main skills (the big ones), you’ll raise your Power, which will help you determine when you’re ready to enter a difficult area or fight a big boss. You can see Eivor’s Power level at the bottom center of the Skills menu.

As you make your way into each of the constellations, you’ll see one main skill surrounded by a bunch of smaller stat nodes. These help improve Eivor’s fighting skills with bonuses like increased resistance to status effects like poison, as well as boosts for health, stealth, ranged attacks. You’ll end up with a variety of these stat nodes as you up your Power, but they’re not worth focusing on. The real prize here are the named perks — Assassin’s Creed Valhalla’s main skills.

Because the game shrouds the constellations you haven’t unlocked yet, it’s difficult to tell where you’re going or what you’re building toward. Below, we’ve listed out all the skills and their descriptions. Check out our maps to see the path to each one.

Melee skills

Graphic: Jeff Parkin/Polygon | Source images: Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft

The melee skills are all to the north. You can get some powerful tools in here like Adrenaline Fiend and Stomp.

• Stomp. When an enemy falls to the ground, press R3 to stomp on their face.
• Dual Swap. When Dual-Wielding, hold R2+R3 to swap weapon hands.
• Perfect Attack. Press R1 again during a weapon swing to do more damage on the next hit.
• Parry Damage. Successful parries also deal damage to the attacker.
• Adrenaline Fiend. When one or more adrenaline slots are filled, you gain a damage boost and attack-speed boost. This effect augments with each slot filled.
• Arrow Volley. Discharge all loaded arrows at once by holding and releasing R1 with a Light Bow. Each volley of arrows has a stamina cost.
• Warrior Takedown. Attempt a R2 Takedown on an unaware enemy with your melee weapon. It will alert all enemies around you but will fill your adrenaline for everyone one of them.
• Sprint Bash. Unlocks the ability to bash into breakable objects and push NPCs to the ground while sprinting.
• Adrenaline Upgrade. +1 Adrenaline Slot
• Berserker’s Mettle. Fight with reckless abandon. A partially filled adrenaline bar will not be affected by an enemy’s first strike.
• Light Bow Combo. Consecutive shots with a light bow deals extra damage.
• Battlefield Cremation. Enemies who perish from one of your fire attacks will continue to burn, dealing fire damage to enemies nearby.
• Terror. After a Stun Finisher, weal enemies nearby may cower in fear.
• Heavy Dual Wield. You can dual wield with heavy weapons. This will alter the stats and handling of each weapon.

Stealth skills

Graphic: Jeff Parkin/Polygon | Source images: Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft

The stealth skill are in the bottom left part of the skill tree. Here you can pick up some really powerful tools like Breakfall, Advanced Assassination, and Chain Assassination.

• Backstab. Landing a blow directly on an enemy’s back will inflict increased defense damage and cause them to stagger.
• Brush With Death. Dodging just before an attack lands grants you heightened senses, making others around you appear to move slower for a time.
• Guided Arrow. Your mastery with the Predator Bow allows you to perform unbelievable feats of accuracy. Press R1 to adjust the arrow’s trajectory as it flies.
• Advanced Assassination. Unlocks the ability to assassinate high-level targets with a timing based attack.
• Predator Bow Combo. Consecutive headshots with a predator bow deals extra damage.
• Counter Roll. Dodge towards an enemy’s Rune Attack just before it lands to vault directly behind him.
• Explosive Corpse. Booby-trap a dead body to damage anyone who investigates it. Hold R3 near a dead body to load it with explosive powder.
• Miasma. Enemies who die from one of your poison attacks will release a toxic cloud around them, infecting those who enter.
• Adrenaline Upgrade. +1 Adrenaline Slot
• Chain Assassination. After performing a successful assassination, throw an axe at a second NPC standing in close proximity.
• Assassin’s Cantrip. Following a successful parry, quickly press Triangle to throw a smoke bomb at your feet and disappear.
• Auto-Loot. Loot an enemy automatically after a melee kill or a stealth takedown.
• Breakfall. Eivor automatically performs a roll when landing from a dangerous height, reducing the amount of damage taken.
• Missile Reversal. Send it right back at ‘em. Catch and throw back virtually any projectile to its sender by pressing L1 just before it hits you.

Ranged skills

Graphic: Jeffrey Parkin | Sources: Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft via Polygon

The ranged constellations are in the bottom right part of the skill tree. You can pick up some good skills here like Emergency Aim and Grit.

• Stealth Recon. Automatically highlight enemies when crouched and undetected.
• Emergency Aim. Holding L2 will snap your aim to the enemy as they detect you, giving you an opportunity to kill him and remain undetected.
• Bow to Melee Link. Alternating between bow and melee attacks deals extra damage for a short time.
• Sprint Attack. Press R1 while sprinting to do a sprint attack.
• Hunter Bow Combo. Release your arrow as you finish drawing it to make the next one draw faster.
• Arrow Reinforcement. With this skill, loosed arrows will never break and may be collected from fallen enemies.
• Stealth Adrenaline. While in stealth, gain Adrenaline by looting a chest or pick-pocketing in a restricted area.
• Bow Stun Finisher. Press R3 when aiming at a stunned enemy head to trigger a Bow Stun Finisher.
• Battleground Bolt. Press Triangle to pick up the nearest discarded weapon, and automatically throw it at an enemy in sight.
• Charged Shot. Fire two fully charged arrows by pressing R1 with the Hunter Bow. This attack cannot be cancelled.
• Grit. Regain the “red portion” of your health bar when landing successful melee hits on enemies.
• Last Chance Healing. When your health reaches a critical state in conflict, everything around you will appear to move slower, giving you time to heal or flee.
• Adrenaline Upgrade. +1 Adrenaline Slot