Assassin’s Creed Valhalla has just received a free update that features a brand new mode.
Mastery Challenges are a series of trials that you can play any time you want. They are basically challenges that will ask the best of you in Melee, Ranged and Stealth missions.
How to unlock Mastery Challenges
First of all, in order to access Mastery Challenges your character needs to be Power Level 221 or higher. Also, the main quest “Uninvited Guests” needs to be completed. This will appear once the Grantebridgescire and Ledecestrescire alliances have been secured and reported back to Randvi.
During this mission, you need to defend Ravensthorpe from a group of Danes. After doing so, a meteorite crashes to Earth and a new character called Hildiran will appear in this region.
Speak to her, and agree to let her join the settlement. When you visit her in Ravensthorpe again, she'll have laid out a kind of arena. She'll ask you to do battle. We won't spoil the occasion, but be prepared -- for an old lady she's quite tough.
Once you've beaten her, she'll divulge her secrets, and teach you about Hugrheim - the realm of the mind. After this, you can go searching for shrines to take on challenges. Each region
What do Mastery Challenges entail?
When you find one of these shrines, you’ll be able to enter the realm of Hugrheim. Inside, there will be three types of trials waiting: ones that test your combat skills (Trial of the Bear), others that require your aim (Trial of the Wolf), and those that will demand your stealth abilities (Trial of the Raven).
For each trial, you’ll get one pre-defined loadout with specific gear, weapons and abilities. Your original equipment will be available when you exit any of the trials.
Each trial has a unique objective and you will gain points as you try to complete it. The more points you earn, the better the medal will be, between Bronze, Silver and Gold - which usually require a perfect (or near) score for the level.
Usually trials involve eliminating enemies (or stealing artifacts in the case of the stealth missions), but you'll get bonus points for a specific criteria.
At the first shrine you'll encounter, for example, the ranged challenge requires you to get 'indirect kills'. This means taking out the enemies through passive damage, such as dropping things on their heads or blowing up explosive pots near them so they die from fire damage.
Don’t worry if you don’t get the score you wanted at first, because each trial can be replayed as much as you want until you achieve it.
What rewards are on offer?
Regarding rewards, you'll get Energies for each medal level. These are an exchangeable currency that you can use to acquire new weapons, tattoos and decorations for your settlement. Hildiran will wait for your Energies at Hildiran’s Wares in Ravensthorpe.
To begin with, there are six mythic-quality weapons on offer, so get grinding!