Here I thought Assassin’s Creed Valhalla could move away from those experience point boosters that Ubisoft would like to put into its games, unfortunately it wasn’t. At the Valhalla game store, you can now buy XP increments for real-life money, which effectively doubles your XP gain. They’re designed to save you time, so you don’t need to do numerous side missions to level up. But they caused a bit of a backlash in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, and I can’t say I’m especially happy to see them back.
With the big Valhalla 1.1.0 update coming out this week, XP boosts entered the store. For the price of 1000 Helix credits (around £ 9 / $ 10), they will permanently increase your XP gain by 50%, or another slightly more expensive one will also double the gold you earn.
“As more and more content becomes available after release, we want to give players the option to move forward in their progression,” Ubisoft told Game Informer. “Utilities [the store category boosters are under] It allows players who do not have time to fully explore the world of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla to acquire the best equipment in the game, as well as other items, accelerating their progress. For example, these players can buy maps that reveal some interesting places in the world, but they should visit them and play them for their profits. “
XP’s impulses fell into flames when Odyssey came out because some players felt the game was intentionally annoying to make you want to buy them. However, in her review of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Alice Bee didn’t have the feeling that the annoyance was worse than most open world games: “[Boosters] they are tempting if they really can’t bother you doing any side missions, but it’s not essential. I don’t agree that the game is a deliberately slow wheel to force you to splash more. “
This seems true from what I have experienced so far with Valhalla; the pace is quite nice and i certainly don’t feel like i need extra XP.
I’ve always found XP boosts to be a bit gross, especially in single player games. Tell me the old-fashioned way, but I think it would be nice not to feel the need to spend extra money to level up. That said, I guess it’s good to have the option if you want to explore higher level areas a little earlier.
If you need help with the game that does not involve your cash earned, check out our Assassin’s Creed Valhalla tutorial.
Our review of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla called the Viking adventure “an animation bag with all the best chunks of past Assassin’s Creed games.”