Assassin's Creed Valhalla update improves game's notoriously-shaky stealth

Assassin's Creed Valhalla's big 1.5.0 patch will arrive tomorrow, 22nd February, and improve the game's stealth features.

The update will become available to download from midday UK time, and will weigh in at 15GB on PC, 12.27GB on Xbox Series X/S, 9.84GB on Xbox One, 7.94GB on PlayStation 4 and 3.6GB on PS5.

Primarily, this patch will prep Valhalla for its enormous Dawn of Ragnarök expansion, which launches on 10th March. (This adds four new abilities, six new skills, a new gear quality and more, as well as a huge new map and 40-hour campaign.)

Whether you purchase Dawn of Ragnarök or not, Valhalla's 1.5.0 update will still bring fixes for various stealth issues.

Enemy reaction to Eivor's whistle has been improved, Ubisoft's extensive patch notes state. The developer has also "addressed" players getting detected by enemies when using environmental traps, and wild animals detecting Eivor regardless of distance, alerting NPCs.

The update additionally adds a new Saga (Story) difficulty, for those who wish to "write your own Viking Saga without having to worry about the challenges of stealth and combat". Here, enemies inflict less damage and don't scale with player. You'll also get more time to assassinate, shoot and disengage enemies before being detected.

On PC, controller support has been extended to both Stadia and Nintendo Switch Pro pads. Dozens and dozens more bugs have also been squashed across all platforms.

Fancy trying the whole of Valhalla for free? Ubisoft is letting you do just that from this Thursday, 24th February, until next Monday 28th.

Last week Ubisoft revealed Valhalla had now earned more than $1bn revenue, making it the first game in the publisher's flagship franchise to do so.

Free updates will continue through 2022, including yet another new mode for the game. After those, fan-favourite character Basim is expected to return in a smaller standalone release, apparently once meant as a further Valhalla expansion.

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