The difference between raids and assaults in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla

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Assassin's Creed Valhalla
Image via Ubisoft

There are a lot of new mechanics coming to Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, with the introduction of Vikings to the series. You can expect to spend a lot of time wandering the seas on a longboat, raiding smaller settlements, and then returning to your base of operations to put your loot to work. Among these new mechanics and things to do are raids and assaults. While they involve taking part in large battles, they work a little differently. 

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Of the two, raids are much more free form. You can expect to take part in these far more often than you will an assault. When you conduct a raid, you’re attacking a smaller settlement, similar to the one you return to once you’ve finished wandering the world in Valhalla. These locations won’t have too many defenses, and you can expect to take it out with a longship or two. During a raid, another player’s custom-made Viking can show up to aid you if you connect online while playing Valhalla.

Assaults, on the other hand, have a lot more going on with them. You can only conduct an assault against larger fortresses, and unfortunately, many, if not all, of them will be in Valhalla’s story. These won’t take place in the main world, and they can’t happen as often as a raid. The assaults have far more cinematic moments for players, serving a story piece. We don’t know too much about assaults, but they could feature unique gameplay elements you can only experience here, such as boss battles.

The two do have a higher focus on combat, though. A raid is likely how you obtain necessary resources to add to your settlement to upgrade your gear, weapons, longboat, and many other useful tools. An assault will likely serve as a way to complete the main story quest, advancing Valhalla’s world.

Hopefully, after we wrap up the story in Valhalla, we find ourselves being able to replay an assault to experience them in a new way. If not, there are always more raids to conduct on those settling nearby, unprepared for a Viking invasion.


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Zack Palm
Zack Palm is the Senior Writer of Gamepur and has spent over five years covering video games, and earned a Bachelor's degree in Economics from Oregon State University. He spends his free time biking, running tabletop campaigns, and listening to heavy metal. His primary game beats are Pokémon Go, Destiny 2, Final Fantasy XIV, and any newly released title, and he finds it difficult to pull away from any Star Wars game.