If you only follow Assassin’s Creed Valhalla’s gold quest markers, you’ll miss its best surprises. The standout discoveries are Excalibur in Myrddin’s Cave, Mjolnir in Hordafylke, the deliberately hidden Nodens Arc bow, Ragnar Lothbrok’s death pit, secret Roman ruins, and a string of developer jokes tucked into caves, abandoned houses, and apparently ordinary world events. Most require a specific ability, outfit, quest state, or piece of information before the detour pays off.
This guide focuses on the best secret locations and Easter eggs in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla PC, including exact regions, access requirements, puzzle solutions, and the traps that waste the most time. The PC version adds no exclusive secrets, but higher draw distances and a mouse-controlled camera make environmental clues easier to read—provided your settings aren’t turning every distant rock into a smear.
The Secrets Worth Detouring For
Valhalla’s secrets aren’t all equal. Some offer weapons with unusual identities, some complete a legendary armor collection, and others exist purely to reward players who notice a strange note or an oddly placed object. Before riding across England, it helps to understand which discoveries deserve a full expedition and which are five-minute curiosities.
| Secret | Exact location | Requirement | Reward or payoff |
|---|---|---|---|
| Excalibur | Myrddin’s Cave, Hamtunscire | 11 tablets, including 8 from Zealots | Two-handed greatsword |
| Mjolnir | Hordafylke, Norway | Full Thor armor set | Legendary hammer with stun-focused identity |
| Nodens Arc | Isle of Skye, northern lake | Reachable after entering the region | Predator bow and hidden chest |
| Ragnar’s death pit | Northumbria, Eurvicscire | Defeat the six Lost Drengir | Quest conclusion and historical Easter egg |
| Roman artifacts | Scattered across England | Exploration, climbing, and puzzles | Settlement decoration from Octavian |
The most important practical tip is to unlock Advanced Assassination early if you’re hunting tablets and artifacts. It lets Eivor kill high-level targets with the timing minigame, rather than treating every Zealot as a full boss encounter. Raven Distraction is also excellent for isolating guards around monasteries, while Incendiary Powder Trap opens barred destructible walls that otherwise look completely solid.
For a broader look at PC stability before a long collectible sweep, compare your setup with Steamoz’s PC crash and FPS troubleshooting advice. It isn’t Valhalla-specific, but the same clean-driver and background-process discipline helps during long Ubisoft Connect sessions.
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View on Steammoz Store →Excalibur and Mjolnir Are Separate Hunts
How to reach Excalibur
Excalibur is hidden in Myrddin’s Cave, in Hamtunscire, near Stonehenge. The sword cannot be pulled immediately. You need eleven tablets: eight carried by specific Zealots and three found in British Treasures of Britain locations. The tablet caves are spread through Cent, Essexe, Grantebridgescire, East Anglia, Eurvicscire, Snotinghamscire, and Hamtunscire, so this is a late-game treasure hunt rather than an early power spike.
The three tablet caves have the same basic language: follow blue-lit passages, dive through underwater tunnels, and look for breakable walls or movable obstacles. At Grime’s Graves in East Anglia, the tablet is part of a dangerous underground route with timed jumps and poison. At Wiccan’s Cave in Eurvicscire, fire and explosive pots matter more than combat. Don’t sprint past every side chamber; several tablets sit beyond a seemingly pointless detour.
Once all eleven tablets are in Eivor’s inventory, return to Myrddin’s Cave. You’ll find a circular chamber with twelve stone pillars and a central receptacle. Place the tablets, approach the sword, and claim Excalibur. Its damage and stun values scale with Eivor’s power level and weapon upgrades, so screenshots showing a single universal stat line are misleading. Its real value is the heavy greatsword moveset and the dazzling weapon effect when its perk conditions trigger—not a fixed endgame number.
How to claim Mjolnir
Mjolnir is easier to locate and harder to qualify for. First, collect Thor’s Breeches, Thor’s Battle Plate, Thor’s Gauntlets, Thor’s Cape, and Thor’s Helmet. The first four pieces come from the three daughters of Lerion and the associated underground discovery; the helmet is found in an East Anglian crypt after defeating the daughters. Thor’s Cape is awarded after eliminating every member of the Order of the Ancients.
Travel to northern Hordafylke in Norway after the main story has opened the region. The hammer rests at the end of a snowy mountain pass. Wear the complete Thor set, walk to the weapon, and interact with it. Mjolnir’s appeal is its stun-oriented identity: repeated hits can call down lightning around the impact, and the Thor armor bonuses make stun buildup more reliable. It’s fantastic against clustered elites, but its heavy weapon speed feels deliberate compared with a fast bearded axe or dagger.
| Weapon hunt | Best combat profile | Biggest obstacle | When to attempt it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Excalibur | Heavy two-handed reach and burst damage | Eleven widely scattered tablets | Late game, after most regions open |
| Mjolnir | Stun pressure against groups and elites | Complete Thor armor and Order cleanup | Post-story or endgame |
| Nodens Arc | Long-range predator bow damage | Easy to overlook the lake chest | Any time Isle of Skye is available |
For exact combat optimization, pair heavy weapons with Brush With Death, which slows time after a well-timed dodge, and Perfect Attack, which rewards stamina-efficient aggression. The game’s weapon stats are level-scaled rather than immutable arcade-style numbers, so upgrading the weapon at the blacksmith and improving quiver capacity often matters more than chasing a screenshot’s damage value.
Nodens Arc and the Isle of Skye Chest Trick
Nodens Arc is a Predator Bow hidden on the Isle of Skye, introduced through the A Fated Encounter content. Travel to the northern part of the island and search around the large lake near the cliffside. The chest is tucked beside the water and can be easy to miss because it doesn’t announce itself with a dramatic quest marker.
There’s an important bit of history here: the original release contained a strange interaction that let players break the ore rock near the chest with an unusual save-and-load sequence, revealing the bow before the intended conditions. Ubisoft later addressed the exploit, and modern PC installations may behave differently depending on updates. Don’t build your entire hunt around an old video showing a precise rock reload; if it fails, that’s probably your patch version rather than a missed step.
The legitimate route is still worth taking. Use Synin to mark the shoreline, dive around the chest, and inspect the rock formations from several angles. Nodens Arc is a Predator Bow, so it suits a stealth build using Predator Bow Combo, Charged Shot, and Chain Assassination. Predator bows trade rate of fire for precision and damage. On PC, a mouse makes headshots and weak-point hits much less awkward, especially when the target is moving through snow glare or foliage.
While you’re on Skye, don’t rush through the island’s mystery chain. Its red-haired NPC and dreamlike imagery deliberately echo the game’s interest in memory, fate, and Isu symbolism. The writing is more playful than the main Isu plot, but the setting rewards players who stop treating every objective as a straight line.
Ragnar’s Death Pit, Isu Clues, and Roman Ruins
The Lost Drengir’s final clue
Ragnar Lothbrok’s death is hidden in Eurvicscire, not presented as a standard cinematic flashback. To see the full discovery, defeat the six Lost Drengir scattered across England and Norway, then follow the quest trail to the snake pit. The final location is a rough timber enclosure in Northumbria, and the visual answer is grim: Ragnar was lowered into a pit of snakes after being captured by King Ælla.
The best way to handle the Drengir fights is to watch their stamina and weapon tells rather than mash light attacks. Missile Reversal sends thrown weapons back, Brush With Death creates a punish window after a perfect dodge, and a shield with strong parry timing makes the heavier duelists far less threatening. Their power levels can be above yours if you find them early, so returning later is smarter than forcing a heroic but miserable fight.
Roman ruins and Octavian’s collection
Roman artifacts are one of Valhalla’s quietest collectible threads. You’ll find them in ruined villas, baths, towers, and collapsed underground structures across England. Bring each artifact back to Octavian at Ravensthorpe, then trade the collection for Roman-themed settlement decorations. The payoff isn’t a combat stat; it changes the visual character of your settlement and gives the archaeological thread a satisfying endpoint.
Look for Roman masonry in places where the surrounding Saxon architecture suddenly changes. A broken aqueduct, symmetrical arch, or marble column is usually a stronger clue than the world map. Many artifacts require the same practical toolkit as wealth: explosive jars, a dive, a movable shelf, or a climb from a nearby tree. This is where Odin’s Sight earns its keep. Pulse from outside the structure, then trace the gold highlight instead of attacking the first barred door you see.
The stranger Easter eggs
Valhalla is packed with references that don’t improve Eivor’s build. In Cent, you can encounter the bizarre mystery involving a man and a cow, while other world events parody modern anxieties through anachronistic dialogue and objects. The game also hides recurring references to the wider Assassin’s Creed mythos in documents, architecture, and Isu motifs. They’re easy to miss because the clues are often in letters rather than quest objectives.
One of the most rewarding habits is reading notes inside isolated cabins and restricted monasteries. Valhalla’s writers use these scraps to add context to raids, betrayals, and local legends. If you only use Odin’s Sight to locate loot, you’ll miss half the joke. Open every readable document when a room feels unusually decorated; that’s often the game telling you the location has a story beyond its chest.
A PC Route That Saves Time and Reveals More
The cleanest secret-hunting route is to collect ability books and basic movement skills first, clear the regions around Ravensthorpe, and postpone the tablet-heavy Excalibur sweep until Hamtunscire is unlocked. Keep a hunter or predator bow equipped, carry incendiary and explosive abilities, and maintain at least one weapon capable of quickly breaking guard stamina.
On PC, use a stable performance profile rather than blindly selecting Ultra. Valhalla’s biggest gains usually come from reducing volumetric clouds, world detail, and shadows while keeping textures high if your GPU has enough VRAM. The table below is a practical 1440p starting point, not a universal benchmark; CPU-heavy areas such as Ravensthorpe can still dip below your average.
| Setting | Recommended value | FPS impact | Visual trade-off |
|---|---|---|---|
| World Details | High | Medium | Preserves distant ruins and terrain clues |
| Clutter | High | Low to medium | Keeps foliage readable around caves |
| Shadows | Medium | Medium to high | Less depth in forests and settlements |
| Volumetric Clouds | Medium | High | Clouds lose some softness; exploration stays clear |
| Water | High | Medium | Useful around submerged tablets and Nodens Arc |
| Anti-Aliasing | High or adaptive | Medium | Reduces shimmer on distant structures |
| Motion Blur | Off | Small | Sharper camera pans and bow aiming |
Save before entering every tablet cave and before investigating the Nodens Arc chest. Ubisoft has patched many of Valhalla’s launch-era quirks, but a manual save protects you from a stuck NPC, a failed world-event trigger, or a collectible that doesn’t register. The official Valhalla support page remains the right place to check known issues, while the Steam listing shows current PC requirements and platform details.
For extra PC troubleshooting, Steamoz’s guides to higher FPS in another Ubisoft open-world game and crash and low-FPS fixes cover the same fundamentals: verify files, update drivers, disable unnecessary overlays, and test changes one at a time.
Finally, use the official Assassin’s Creed Valhalla site for expansion and post-launch content details. The best part of Valhalla’s secret design is that it rarely shouts about what you found. A broken Roman arch, a lake with one suspicious chest, or a cave that seems to lead nowhere is often enough. Slow down, read the notes, and let Eivor’s raven do more than mark the next yellow icon.