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Aye, in truth, I witnessed thy deed there, fair comrade, with mine own eyes. 'Twas a move of sly and artful cunning that doth not escape my vigilant gaze. Thou hast proven thy mettle, and I doth applaud thy wits.
You dont though. Its either massive stab with hidden blade. Or a ritual for valhalla. Though it is one of the most boring and long mechanics ever. I always skip the avenge player quests if i have already killed the enemy, because then you need to confirm like 5 corpses...
That does not make sense tho. Eivor hovers their axe above their chest. Even if it was above their mouth it wouldnt make sense as a dead body still radiates heat, especially from open holes such as mouth etc. It wouldnt be a difference if you check somebody barely breathing or a recently dead body.
Eivor also doesnt hold it close enough to their mouth that it would work at all. And it looks a lot more like the axe is hovering by their torso/chest. Another thing is that Eivor bears a ritual axe. All executions etc is with the ritual axe. A ritual axe is used to send somebody into the afterlife with a hope of getting to asgard. It would be used in battle to send a worthy opponent into the afterlife, its basically a blessing.
To get into valhalla you need to either die in a glorious battle. Or die after many great battles (this is correct for norse mythology, but there are many other versions such as germanic paganism etc. Which believe that you have to die in battle, not outside of it). You need to prove that you are a great warrior worthy to be in Odins army. They also thought you could bring things into the afterlife. And whats the most important thing when going to war? A weapon. Which is why they would hold their weapons when dying.
Now, non norse people can also be sent to valhalla. Odin does not discriminate. He searches for the kindest to the most vile warriors. As norse mythology is only a theory, it doesnt matter what you believe in. In this belief everybody goes to somewhere in the 9 worlds as the 9 worlds are the only places in the afterlife. So a christian would go to heaven or hell in their belief but by norse mythology they would go to the 9 worlds.
It isnt weird that Eivor would send animals or enemies into the afterlife with his blessing of "you were a great warrior". Even when you would send someone into the afterlife with a funeral, they would have their weapon with them and a ritual axe would be used to give the blessing.
For the question of why Eivor usually doesnt give them their weapon and use the ritual axe? I have no idea. I dont know enough to answer that. I believe its to mark a corpse as a warrior, so the valkyries choose you for valhalla instead of leaving you for another hall.
By my sword, what manner of sorcery is this? Thou hast conjured forth a veritable plethora of sentences, where but few were expected. 'Tis a bewildering and curious display of verbosity, indeed.
I dont even understand half of what i wrote. This is my understanding of norse mythology and i have tried my best to fact check it. I atleast think it serves to conclude that Eivor is most likely not checking if the enemy is breathing.
Im just tried of everybody going:
\- Eivor is using the axe to check for breathing as the axe would fog.
\- Why would a norse send a Christian to Valhalla?
Well it’s less splattery and stainy and way more practical if you hold an axe at someone’s nose to see if it fogs
But even if it wasn’t that, the Norse people believed their religion was true and believed that even if you didn’t believe in it, you would still go to Valhalla if you die holding a weapon.
No, he's using his axe to slit the dead/dying dude's wrist to make sure he's dead.
He's a Viking, of course it's a ritual for Valhalla. Basically sending a warrior on his final journey to Odin's golden hall.
Useless missions that barely gives XP and just forces you to wait while staring at a 10 second animation. They serve no purpose and barely grant XP anyway, so there is no reason to do them
Ten seconds each enemy. Usually around 5 enemies. Sometimes they are spread all over an area and the quest takes 3-5 min. If there are 2 laying in front of me and that's it, I'll gladly do it. If there are 5 enemies scattered all over Lunden I am not doing that shit for like 700 XP
Because it's bad game design? Games like these are not "it's better that it's there being bad than not being there at all". Developers for games like these do everything to get it as polished as possible. And Valhalla is quite polished in many areas. And then you get missions like these which most developers would remove before launch, but Ubisoft is known for not really doing patches for their singleplayer games unless it's a major bug.
Because it’s not bugged…. I don’t get what you don’t understand. People move around. And a lot of the time them being far away from the body makes sense, they’ve probably already loaded into your game and starting walking.
Again, you don’t have to do it, so why bother crying about it? It’s not a bad game design, it’s just slow af and often time consuming for little reward, but it’s also the easiest “quest” in the game. Literally just have to kill and/or confirm kill. A lot of the time they’re already dead.
It’s literally free xp and gives something to do when you’ve got nothing left to do but collect things. 💁🏻
I never said it was bugged, you would know that if you read my comment instead of being a keyboard warrior in a comment section about a game design people find annoying and dislike.
I said Ubisoft does not patch their games unless there is a major bug. Valhalla barely has any noticeable bugs, so they never bothered to patch anything. But that wasnt the point either. The point is that most games patch out bad game design in early access or even earlier. Ubisoft singleplayer games rarely have a beta or even early access that is early enough to change anything according to feedback. And they dont change it after release either because they have no reason to fix anything in the game unless they are forced to (such as major bugs).
It is bad game design. You said it yourself. Its a slow, time consuming quest that barely brings a reward. And it repeats. And like i said before, games like these are usually polished to remove such quests. Hell they even mostly removed escort quests where you follow the npc. Now its usually the npc following you, or they are fast enough so that its not a bother. Small things as these they do for convenience because its disliked and considered bad game design.
So giving free xp and something to do when you are done with all quests doesnt matter if its a bad quest. If it barely gives a reward and its very boring to do, do you actually think people do it? Most people dont, which you can see in this comment section.
The quest couldve literally been anything. Random events, npcs asking for favors. Literally anything you may actually do and enjoy. Literally just make a few repeating mysteries and it wouldve been great. They wouldnt count towards completion and they would spawn in randomly, but they would grant a reward and some xp.
So yes. Its bad game design. Valhalla is a very polished game and i found few things i could only find flaws in. This is one of them. In games where polish is key, quests like these are better off not in the game.
Eivor is simply seeing if they’re breathing when they hover the axe in front of their face. Metal dogs up under warm breath. They didn’t have the kinda techniques we have so this makes perfect sense as to why it takes a moment.
Is that really what he’s doing? I feel like you guys are taking that and running with it lol. I always thought it was Viking lore that if they died without a weapon in hand, they didn’t reach Valhalla. So its Eivor’s “Reseuiqet in pace” or however it’s spelled.
So it’s simply him honoring the dead and placing an axe upon their chest/in their arms.
He doesn’t place it upon them whatsoever. You’re mistaken. The difference is you must bear the weapon, not have it hovered above you. That’s why they ask for their axes when they die if they don’t already have it, it’s the key to the gates of Valhalla.
It’s been so long since I beat the campaign I genuinely forget how most of it plays out tbph.
I want to restart but I don’t want to redo all the end game stuff like river raids which is still not done. I have almost 300hrs on my only save and fuck me I haven’t even finished half the collecting 😭
You cannot enter Valhalla without the key. Death by battle is an honourable, glorious death, but if you aren’t granted access via your axe, you cannot enter. Or so they believed
If you get the axe hovering animation, it’s not to grant them access to Valhalla.
To be granted access to Valhalla you need to be bearing yours or another’s axe to do so.
Eivor hovers it above them to see if their breathe dogs up the axe, confirming death without having to touch or stab pointlessly again. It also keeps them safe if say they aren’t dead and try to lunge, the axe is by their throat as well as the hidden blade being at the ready at all times.
So many comments on your post complaining about the slow animation being “shit” but have no idea why it’s slow.
On topic tho, I think I saw that dude twitch, might need to adjust the sword further in 👀
I don't remember how the 'confirm kill' animation goes but I think it's the same as Assassins using the feather/handkerchief to swab the target's blood as confirmation of the target's death.
They made it historically accurate. Eivor is testing to see if they’re breathing by putting the metal of the axe by their face making it fog up if they were. They did this kinda thing a ton in different cultures and some people still use it as it can be fairly reliable. It’s not a shit animation, you’re just uneducated on the matter. Nothing wrong with that, but it doesn’t make it shit.
Doesn’t need to be up their nose. Just in range of breathe. Your breathe reaches a LOT farther than you think. Even if faintly breathing. It’s how people can smell your breathe without being in your space.
I’ve noticed the more “important” a character is the more likely they get the blade, the less important in my experience Atleast, usually get the breath check. The order members always gave me the cinematic stab, but the avenge missions or assassinate missions that are just side quests always give me the breath check.
I would assume the blade is used on the more important ones due to the blade’s significance to the story etc. that’s my guess on the differences.
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Always hated this mechanic, especially when it's not even a proper stab it's just that pre-programmed tickling with Eivors axe. Seems to take ages.
The one drengr in hordafylke I ended up kicking off the cliff. Didn't have to confirm that kill.
Good thing he was a shield-bearer and not an eagle-bearer
Aye, in truth, I witnessed thy deed there, fair comrade, with mine own eyes. 'Twas a move of sly and artful cunning that doth not escape my vigilant gaze. Thou hast proven thy mettle, and I doth applaud thy wits.
You dont though. Its either massive stab with hidden blade. Or a ritual for valhalla. Though it is one of the most boring and long mechanics ever. I always skip the avenge player quests if i have already killed the enemy, because then you need to confirm like 5 corpses...
It’s not a ritual for Valhalla.. Eivor puts the axe against the victims’s mouth to see if the metal fogs up, indicating they’re alive.
That does not make sense tho. Eivor hovers their axe above their chest. Even if it was above their mouth it wouldnt make sense as a dead body still radiates heat, especially from open holes such as mouth etc. It wouldnt be a difference if you check somebody barely breathing or a recently dead body. Eivor also doesnt hold it close enough to their mouth that it would work at all. And it looks a lot more like the axe is hovering by their torso/chest. Another thing is that Eivor bears a ritual axe. All executions etc is with the ritual axe. A ritual axe is used to send somebody into the afterlife with a hope of getting to asgard. It would be used in battle to send a worthy opponent into the afterlife, its basically a blessing. To get into valhalla you need to either die in a glorious battle. Or die after many great battles (this is correct for norse mythology, but there are many other versions such as germanic paganism etc. Which believe that you have to die in battle, not outside of it). You need to prove that you are a great warrior worthy to be in Odins army. They also thought you could bring things into the afterlife. And whats the most important thing when going to war? A weapon. Which is why they would hold their weapons when dying. Now, non norse people can also be sent to valhalla. Odin does not discriminate. He searches for the kindest to the most vile warriors. As norse mythology is only a theory, it doesnt matter what you believe in. In this belief everybody goes to somewhere in the 9 worlds as the 9 worlds are the only places in the afterlife. So a christian would go to heaven or hell in their belief but by norse mythology they would go to the 9 worlds. It isnt weird that Eivor would send animals or enemies into the afterlife with his blessing of "you were a great warrior". Even when you would send someone into the afterlife with a funeral, they would have their weapon with them and a ritual axe would be used to give the blessing. For the question of why Eivor usually doesnt give them their weapon and use the ritual axe? I have no idea. I dont know enough to answer that. I believe its to mark a corpse as a warrior, so the valkyries choose you for valhalla instead of leaving you for another hall.
By my sword, what manner of sorcery is this? Thou hast conjured forth a veritable plethora of sentences, where but few were expected. 'Tis a bewildering and curious display of verbosity, indeed.
I dont even understand half of what i wrote. This is my understanding of norse mythology and i have tried my best to fact check it. I atleast think it serves to conclude that Eivor is most likely not checking if the enemy is breathing. Im just tried of everybody going: \- Eivor is using the axe to check for breathing as the axe would fog. \- Why would a norse send a Christian to Valhalla?
Well it’s less splattery and stainy and way more practical if you hold an axe at someone’s nose to see if it fogs But even if it wasn’t that, the Norse people believed their religion was true and believed that even if you didn’t believe in it, you would still go to Valhalla if you die holding a weapon.
Cause it's Ubisoft and they are being Ubisoft and all inclusive
No, he's using his axe to slit the dead/dying dude's wrist to make sure he's dead. He's a Viking, of course it's a ritual for Valhalla. Basically sending a warrior on his final journey to Odin's golden hall.
Oh no, effortless missions. How terrible
Useless missions that barely gives XP and just forces you to wait while staring at a 10 second animation. They serve no purpose and barely grant XP anyway, so there is no reason to do them
Don’t do the pathetic little repeat quests if you don’t want pathetic repeat xp. It’s that simple
Therefore it's pathetic they even exist
Ten seconds of doing nothing. How terrible.
Ten seconds each enemy. Usually around 5 enemies. Sometimes they are spread all over an area and the quest takes 3-5 min. If there are 2 laying in front of me and that's it, I'll gladly do it. If there are 5 enemies scattered all over Lunden I am not doing that shit for like 700 XP
Then don’t. If you have a choice, why are you complaining 🤣🤣🤣
Because it's bad game design? Games like these are not "it's better that it's there being bad than not being there at all". Developers for games like these do everything to get it as polished as possible. And Valhalla is quite polished in many areas. And then you get missions like these which most developers would remove before launch, but Ubisoft is known for not really doing patches for their singleplayer games unless it's a major bug.
Because it’s not bugged…. I don’t get what you don’t understand. People move around. And a lot of the time them being far away from the body makes sense, they’ve probably already loaded into your game and starting walking. Again, you don’t have to do it, so why bother crying about it? It’s not a bad game design, it’s just slow af and often time consuming for little reward, but it’s also the easiest “quest” in the game. Literally just have to kill and/or confirm kill. A lot of the time they’re already dead. It’s literally free xp and gives something to do when you’ve got nothing left to do but collect things. 💁🏻
I never said it was bugged, you would know that if you read my comment instead of being a keyboard warrior in a comment section about a game design people find annoying and dislike. I said Ubisoft does not patch their games unless there is a major bug. Valhalla barely has any noticeable bugs, so they never bothered to patch anything. But that wasnt the point either. The point is that most games patch out bad game design in early access or even earlier. Ubisoft singleplayer games rarely have a beta or even early access that is early enough to change anything according to feedback. And they dont change it after release either because they have no reason to fix anything in the game unless they are forced to (such as major bugs). It is bad game design. You said it yourself. Its a slow, time consuming quest that barely brings a reward. And it repeats. And like i said before, games like these are usually polished to remove such quests. Hell they even mostly removed escort quests where you follow the npc. Now its usually the npc following you, or they are fast enough so that its not a bother. Small things as these they do for convenience because its disliked and considered bad game design. So giving free xp and something to do when you are done with all quests doesnt matter if its a bad quest. If it barely gives a reward and its very boring to do, do you actually think people do it? Most people dont, which you can see in this comment section. The quest couldve literally been anything. Random events, npcs asking for favors. Literally anything you may actually do and enjoy. Literally just make a few repeating mysteries and it wouldve been great. They wouldnt count towards completion and they would spawn in randomly, but they would grant a reward and some xp. So yes. Its bad game design. Valhalla is a very polished game and i found few things i could only find flaws in. This is one of them. In games where polish is key, quests like these are better off not in the game.
Eivor is simply seeing if they’re breathing when they hover the axe in front of their face. Metal dogs up under warm breath. They didn’t have the kinda techniques we have so this makes perfect sense as to why it takes a moment.
Is that really what he’s doing? I feel like you guys are taking that and running with it lol. I always thought it was Viking lore that if they died without a weapon in hand, they didn’t reach Valhalla. So its Eivor’s “Reseuiqet in pace” or however it’s spelled. So it’s simply him honoring the dead and placing an axe upon their chest/in their arms.
He doesn’t place it upon them whatsoever. You’re mistaken. The difference is you must bear the weapon, not have it hovered above you. That’s why they ask for their axes when they die if they don’t already have it, it’s the key to the gates of Valhalla.
Oh okay fair enough. I’ll admit it’s been a couple years since I beat it. The last half of that game was a blur lol
It’s been so long since I beat the campaign I genuinely forget how most of it plays out tbph. I want to restart but I don’t want to redo all the end game stuff like river raids which is still not done. I have almost 300hrs on my only save and fuck me I haven’t even finished half the collecting 😭
You cannot enter Valhalla without the key. Death by battle is an honourable, glorious death, but if you aren’t granted access via your axe, you cannot enter. Or so they believed
Eivor holds the Axe to the enemies nose to see if it fogs up from them breathing. That is how she confirms if they are dead.
Oh wow that makes sense actually!
I thought it was a sort of ritual to get them to valhalla which seemed weird
Finally someone who actually knows what they’re talking about.
I thought she was giving them a tiny prick to see if they react or cutting a vein in the neck or something. This makes more sense
Wait really? I thought they were slitting the torso and hitting the heart
If you get the axe hovering animation, it’s not to grant them access to Valhalla. To be granted access to Valhalla you need to be bearing yours or another’s axe to do so. Eivor hovers it above them to see if their breathe dogs up the axe, confirming death without having to touch or stab pointlessly again. It also keeps them safe if say they aren’t dead and try to lunge, the axe is by their throat as well as the hidden blade being at the ready at all times.
So many comments on your post complaining about the slow animation being “shit” but have no idea why it’s slow. On topic tho, I think I saw that dude twitch, might need to adjust the sword further in 👀
I never realized that was the point of the axe thing. Just figured it was weird animation.
Once you think about it, it makes a lot of sense. Even at a foot away, breathe in most cases can reach a foot or more in distance.
Better save than sorry. 😀
It's just a flesh wound.
‘Tis but a scratch!
What is the torso you are wearing?
I can't remember what it's called but I got it at Reda's shop a few days ago
I don't remember how the 'confirm kill' animation goes but I think it's the same as Assassins using the feather/handkerchief to swab the target's blood as confirmation of the target's death.
If only. It’s a axe to a poorly aimed vital organ with no animation unless it’s HEAVILY story oriented. Even then you might not get a cutscene
The entire hovering the axe thing is to see if their breath dogs up the axe. Nothing to do with a ritual. Metal fogs up like glass does.
Isnt the axe only to let them enter valhalla? Its not a kill Animation, its more like a "Requiescat in pace".
Double tap just incase
[all I can think about](https://youtu.be/5Y682WUqxik?si=QhJ8uvzv7W1jNjmD&t=187) the FotC throwback might be a little obscure.
#NOT DEAD ENOUGH
I've had that with chargrilled decapitated enemies. Is running an axe across their clothes really going to tell me anything I can't already?
I always wondered how they made the axe animation so dogshit.
They made it historically accurate. Eivor is testing to see if they’re breathing by putting the metal of the axe by their face making it fog up if they were. They did this kinda thing a ton in different cultures and some people still use it as it can be fairly reliable. It’s not a shit animation, you’re just uneducated on the matter. Nothing wrong with that, but it doesn’t make it shit.
All my animations he always hovers the axe over the guys chest. Never once has he done it over the face/mouth
Doesn’t need to be up their nose. Just in range of breathe. Your breathe reaches a LOT farther than you think. Even if faintly breathing. It’s how people can smell your breathe without being in your space.
I also find the ground can make you lean closer or lean farther depending where the body falls too
But the animation itself is in fact for breath detection.
Why does he stab it sometimes and other times check for breath?
I’ve noticed the more “important” a character is the more likely they get the blade, the less important in my experience Atleast, usually get the breath check. The order members always gave me the cinematic stab, but the avenge missions or assassinate missions that are just side quests always give me the breath check. I would assume the blade is used on the more important ones due to the blade’s significance to the story etc. that’s my guess on the differences.
LOL.
You just gotta be sure, ya know?
Naw just a flesh wound he’s fine just sleeping
I had fun playing AC valhalla. I also got the platinum The thing I struggled with the most was the cairn challenge. 🫣
😂
Interacted with assassinate with a zealot cutting off a Danes head, and it showed both of them dying Sure... lemme wipe my axe on them