Healing in Assassin's Creed Valhalla doesn't come quite as easily as it did in previous Assassin's Creed games, meaning players will need to be extra careful with their health bar. The best way to heal mid fight is through the use of rations, but the game doesn't tell the player how to upgrade these for quite a while.
Rations in Assassin's Creed Valhalla allow the player to heal during a fight, and can be saved and carried over into combat later. There are multiple ways to get them, but the important aspect of upgrading Eivor's rations goes unmentioned for far too long.
Though players initially have access to only one ration at a time, they can actually upgrade their rations to allow Eivor to hold more. This is a great way to get through tougher fights, as stocking up on four rations or more can help the player outlast certain difficult boss enemies in Assassin's Creed Valhalla or just stay topped off most of the time.
Upgrading rations requires an expenditure of leather and iron ore, but the game doesn't tell players this until they have enough of both resources to purchase the first upgrade. Instead of waiting that long, it's recommended that players expand their settlement in Assassin's Creed Valhalla by building Yanli's merchant hut, where both these materials can be purchased at a cost of one silver per material. In this way, players can buy iron ore and leather in order to get their first upgrade well before the game would have told them about it.
The act of upgrading is done from the inventory menu, and players need simply hover over their rations and hold the button prompt. Assuming they have the required materials, Eivor's rations will be upgraded, allowing them to carry one more than before. The first upgrade costs 100 iron ore and 50 leather, but the resource costs will go up after each upgrade. Eventually, players will need titanium ore and fabric to upgrade their rations further, materials that can be found in the wild or in chests respectively. So long as players are keeping an eye out for these things, they shouldn't have much of a problem upgrading rations over time.
Given the rarity of the materials for later ration upgrades, it is recommended that players try and get their rations to level 3 or 4 as early as possible. These upgrades can be purchased with just a little bit of iron ore and leather and will make a huge difference when raiding high level encampments or fighting tough bosses.
Assassin's Creed Valhalla is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.