Gear System#
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla builds its gear around the “five-piece set”: helmet, chest armor, bracers, leg armor and cloak each occupy one slot, and owning two or five pieces of the same set triggers the two corresponding set bonus tiers. Quality and upgrade level are calculated independently for each piece, and panel values change with quality and upgrade level, so there is no single fixed total — check the in-game gear codex for the exact numbers.
Set Bonus Overview (Verified Entries)#
The table below only lists bonuses that have been cross-checked against external guide sources; wherever the original wording could not be verified, it is marked “see in-game codex” rather than guessed at. Game updates may adjust the wording slightly, so the actual effect is whatever the game shows.
| Set | Gear Line | 2-Piece Bonus | 5-Piece Bonus |
|---|---|---|---|
| Raven Clan | Raven (Stealth) | Increases armor when health is low | Increases critical hit chance |
| Hunter | Wolf (Ranged) | Increases ranged damage when hitting enemies beyond 20 meters | Increases speed |
| Hidden Ones | Raven (Stealth) | Increases assassination damage after staying in stealth for over 10 seconds | Increases headshot damage |
| Mentor | Raven (Stealth) | Increases attack after a critical hit | Increases attack when health is low |
| Thor | Bear (Melee) | See in-game codex | Critical hits have a chance to call down lightning, hitting and stunning nearby enemies |
| Brigandine (formerly translated as Brigantia) | Bear (Melee) | See in-game codex | See in-game codex |
| Thegn (formerly translated as Housecarl) | Bear (Melee) | See in-game codex | See in-game codex |
A few notes:
- The Raven Clan, Hunter, Mentor and Thor entries match the records of several English guide sites; the Hidden Ones entry on “increased assassination damage after 10+ seconds of stealth, increased headshot damage” is also clearly sourced.
- Loose Hunter pieces mostly carry the “Huntsman” prefix, which refers to the same set.
- Older guides claiming things like “the Traveler set boosts exploration XP” or “the Magnis set boosts poison” have no traceable source and have been removed; the Magister set bonus likewise has no reliable wording, so check the in-game codex for its effect.
- Gear lines refer to the three major lines of Bear, Wolf and Raven, corresponding to melee, ranged and stealth build tendencies; they are independent of the gear upgrade system.
Set Acquisition Overview#
| Set | Main Acquisition Method |
|---|---|
| Raven Clan | Obtained piece by piece through the main story; the helmet comes from an early side quest in Norway |
| Hunter | Wealth chests across the shires of England (Ledecestrescire, Grantebridgescire and others) |
| Hidden Ones | Hidden One bureau secret rooms, usually in the same bureau as the coded pages |
| Mentor | Caches in bureaus and underground passages in Suthsexe, Sciropescire and Hamtunscire (Winchester) |
| Thor | Defeat the three daughters of Lerion, solve the three-notch statue puzzle, and clear out the Order of the Ancients (see the next section) |
| Brigandine | Two pieces in Sciropescire (cloak, helmet), three pieces in Cent (bracers, leg armor, chest armor) |
| Thegn | Two pieces in Jorvik (bracers, chest armor), two pieces in Hamtunscire Winchester (helmet, cloak), one piece in Gloucesterscire (leg armor) |
| Magister | Wealth chests in East Anglia, Oxenefordscire and elsewhere |
| Galloglach | Wealth chests in East Anglia and elsewhere |
Thor Set Acquisition Clues#
The Thor set has the longest acquisition chain in the game — all five pieces have separate sources and none can be skipped:
- The three daughters of Lerion: Goneril drops the Thor leg armor, Regan drops the Thor chest armor, and Cordelia drops the Thor bracers; each of the three also drops a Lerion dagger. All three fights are demanding, so take them on once your stats are built up — Cordelia is especially dangerous.
- The three-notch statue: once you have all three daggers, find the puzzle hut containing the “three-notch statue” and slot the daggers into it; the statue shatters to reveal a hidden passage, and clearing the ornate chest at the end of the passage yields the Thor helmet.
- Thor cloak: after eliminating every member of the Order of the Ancients, return to the Ravensthorpe settlement and collect it from the Hidden One mentor Hytham.
- Bonus reward: once you wear the full Thor armor, travel to the northernmost coast of Hordafylke in Norway and you can pull Mjolnir, the hammer of Thor, from the stone.
Gear Stat Mechanics#
Quality Tiers#
Each piece of gear grows in quality independently, from lowest to highest:
| Quality | Upgrade Material | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Fine | — | The common starting quality |
| Superior | Carbon Ingot | Second quality tier |
| Flawless | Nickel Ingot | Third quality tier |
| Mythical | Tungsten Ingot | Highest quality in the base game, with the most rune slots |
| Divine | Titanium Ingot | Added by the Dawn of Ragnarok expansion |
Upgrades and the Blacksmith#
- After building the blacksmith’s forge in the settlement, you can upgrade gear there; both quality promotion and strengthening within a quality tier are done at the blacksmith.
- Quality promotion consumes the ingot material listed in the table above; step-by-step strengthening within the same quality consumes leather and iron ore, and the higher the upgrade level, the more it costs.
- Every quality promotion adds rune slots to the gear; armor and weapons do not share the same slot cap.
- Armor, weight and all resistance values change in real time with quality and upgrade level, so the widely circulated “fixed total defense for a full set” is meaningless — always refer to your current in-game panel.
Rune Slots#
- Runes are divided into weapon runes and armor runes, covering attack, armor, resistance, health and other bonus directions.
- Runes can be removed and reused at any time, so there is no risk of wasting them; the higher the quality, the more slots are available, and runes socketed early on can simply be moved onto new gear later.
Upgrade Materials and Sources#
| Material | Main Source | Use |
|---|---|---|
| Leather | Hunting wild animals, sold by merchants | Basic cost of strengthening within a quality tier |
| Iron Ore | Mining, opening chests, sold by merchants | Basic cost of strengthening within a quality tier |
| Carbon Ingot | Early and mid-game wealth chests, sold by merchants | Fine to Superior |
| Nickel Ingot | Mid and late-game wealth chests, dropped by Zealots | Superior to Flawless |
| Tungsten Ingot | Late-game region wealth chests, dropped by Zealots | Flawless to Mythical |
| Titanium Ingot | Obtained inside the Dawn of Ragnarok expansion | Mythical to Divine |
Set Build Recommendations#
The following combinations are based on the verified set bonuses above and are offered as build references:
| Build | Recommended Set | Idea |
|---|---|---|
| Melee damage | Thor | Critical hits trigger lightning that suppresses nearby enemies, which pairs well with a high-crit weapon |
| Assassin | Hidden Ones, Mentor | Hidden Ones boosts assassination out of stealth, Mentor boosts attack on crits and at low health |
| Ranged kiting | Hunter | Stay more than 20 meters away to keep the ranged bonus, and the speed boost helps with repositioning |
| Balanced transition | Raven Clan | Can be completed early on; low-health armor and crit chance are both universal perks |
Appearance Transmog#
Once you own a piece of gear, you can visit the settlement blacksmith to transmog your current gear into that style. Transmog only changes appearance — it does not affect stats or rune slots — which suits players who want their look decoupled from their stats; you can return to the blacksmith to change the look again whenever you pick up new gear.