Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is packed with secrets and surprises, but perhaps the biggest has finally been discovered, and it’s a testament to not only the developers for creating such a comprehensive, but also the fans and sleuths who finally discovered it. It all starts with the Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Collector’s Edition, which turns out to contain some hidden clues. However, these would never have been found without Access the Animus, which released a video in January revealing they decoded the Isu language that is part of the game (via IGN).
Now that they had the language, they could decode any message with it, including some of the messages found on the Collector’s Edition packaging. Those messages included terms like “hidden inside,” “this lake,” and “now,” and knowing they were onto something, the team continued.
It has happened! We were able to find the correct path in the world to get into the Nodens’ Arc arc #Assassin’s Creed Walhalla!
Join us as we will not only show you the correct steps to obtain it, but we will also show you the reasons justifying the said steps!
Full video: https://t.co/oPCQZyNKR4 pic.twitter.com/6G7FaR9L5x
– AccessTheAnimus (@AccessTheAnimus) January 27, 2021
They got a helping hand from JorRaptor, who posted a video revealing that you could find a secret Isu Bow in the game called Nodens’ Arc. All you had to do was hit an unbreakable piece of iron ore, quit the game and reload your save to unlock it, but Valhalla Narrative Director Darby McDevitt revealed that this was a “brute force” method to solve this mystery. fix it, and Access The Animus finally found the steps needed to fix it correctly.
This coincided with more translated text from the Collector’s Edition box that read “The Key Is The”, which was below a drawing of a crow. The crow also had another secret, the sword Excalibur, and so the “Key” he referred to was the “Sword,” more specifically Excalibur, as it can break anything.
Judging from the previous video showing the brute force method, fans saw that the venue, a lake in Northumbria, looked a lot like the island of Singapore, and it turns out Ubisoft has an office there. That was a big missing piece, as the office was in the exact location of the unbreakable ore. This was further enhanced thanks to the realization that the Isu language was designed by designer Antoine Henry, who works in that office.
The last important piece was the realization that the lithographs in the Collector’s Edition contained symbols that, when pressed together, covered an image of the sun. Access the Animus realized that this referred to when the ore needed to be hit.
Once you put it all together it meant hitting the unbreakable ore with Excalibur at sunset to unlock the Ard’s arc of the Nodens, and this has got to be one of the most comprehensive unlockables ever.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is available now for PS4, Xbox One, PC, Xbox Series X, PS5, Stadia and Luna.
Have you unlocked the Legendary Bow yet? Let us know in the comments or give me a call on Twitter @MattAguilarCB for all about Assassin’s Creed!