It's been two months now since the launch of Assassin's Creed Valhalla, the latest title in Ubisoft's long-running action-RPG series. Assassin's Creed Valhalla takes the series' classic gameplay to ancient Briton, just in time for the Viking invasions. Players step into the furry boots of Eivor, a Viking raider seeking a new home in fertile Britain.

As expected of any game which involves Vikings, there's plenty of opportunities for raiding and pillaging in Assassin's Creed Valhalla. In fact, players will soon be able to embark on a brand new series of River Raids, following the game's second free update which will launch in February 2021.

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What is the River Raid update?

The River Raid update for Assassin's Creed Valhalla was first announced in the Post Launch & Season Pass trailer back in October 2020. In this trailer, which was posted on the official Ubisoft North America YouTube channel, details were given on many of the upcoming free and paid expansions. The River Raid falls in the former category, and is the second of four Free Seasonal Content updates that will drop in the first year following the game's launch. Ubisoft has stated that if all goes to plan these updates should launch every three months.

The River Raid update will be the first piece of Free Seasonal Content for AC: Valhalla to include a new game mode. After the update, players will be able to embark upon village raids against three new locations. These locations will be full of loot for players to grab, including Gear, Silver, Runes, and Books of Knowledge. However, we can also expect these three new raids to be much more challenging than previous missions.

Fortunately, Ubisoft has stated that the three locations will be replayable, allowing players to go back and try again if they fail. It's likely that there will be some kind of timer to prevent farming, but players can expect to be able to repeat the raids fairly regularly. With the expected increase to challenge, players may be wondering how best to secure the treasure of the River Raids. Fortunately, Ubisoft is also releasing a new building that's certain to be vital to would-be pillagers.

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Recruiting Jomsvikings

The River Raids update will include a brand new building for players to construct in Ravensthorpe. While details are still uncertain, we know that the Jomsviking Hall will allow players to recruit more of the mercenary Vikings to their raids. In vanilla Assassins' Creed Valhalla, players with a Barracks can create up to 100 unique Jomsvikings. However, they can only take six of them on a raid at any one time. Therefore, it seems likely that the Jomsviking Hall will expand this number, allowing more unique and powerful allies in each raid.

In the vanilla game players can occasionally run into Jomsvikings created by other players in villages and towns. These can be hired for a small fee, allowing players to easily expand their roster. The player who originally created the hired Jomsviking gets a cut of the loot when they return to the Barracks in Ravensthorpe. This system will be expanded in the River Raids update, allowing players to share their Jomsvikings with other players online.

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In addition to the River Raid game mode itself, there will also be new skills and abilities arriving in February 2021. So far Ubisoft hasn't given any solid details on what these are, but it's probably safe to assume that they'll be related to raiding and Jomsvikings. After the River Raid update has launched, the next Assassin's Creed Valhalla DLC on the horizon will be the Wrath of the Druids paid expansion in Spring 2021.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

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