Best Assassin's Creed Valhalla armor: Should you take the Way of the Wolf, Raven, or Bear?

Protecting yourself with the best Assassin's Creed Valhalla armor is vital – function over form, after all – but looking the part is important too. No matter how intimidating you look, your enemies won't cower away and flee from you, but you will be able to withstand way more hits in Assassin's Creed Valhalla with the best armor. Eivor has five different inventory slots to fill with the best Assassin's Creed Valhalla armor.

Just like weaponry, you’ll find Assassin’s Creed Valhalla armor scattered across the world in gear chests so it’s always worth hunting down those gold armor symbols on the map. Use your Odin’s Sight to see the location of the chest and you can puzzle your way to it. This usually involves a combination of shooting barred doors or weakened wood so keep an eye out for weak spots on nearby buildings and flaming pots for explosive access to new areas. 

Handily, you can actually make all of these pieces invisible with a press of the right analogue stick so you can show off all that delightful ink but still keep the necessary protection. Unlike Odyssey or Origins, you can’t tweak the visuals of each piece and keep the stats but that might come in a future update as it seems that Ubi is in this for the long haul.

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla armor set buffs 

While you can of course mix and match your Assassin’s Creed Valhalla armor, there are serious benefits to completing a full set and wearing them all. You’ll see in the stats box that each item comes with certain buffs and the more of the same set you wear, the more of these buffs you’ll get. You’ll need to be wearing at least two items from the set to get the first benefit on the list. You’ll know you’ve got the buff because the text is highlighted in white and the symbol to the left of the text will be glowing. Complete the armor set and you’ll get the additional buff too. 

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla armor tiers

Just like its weaponry, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla armor can be specced up through a series of quality levels. Armor with a grey background is the starter stage, bronze is a Superior offering, blue is Flawless, and gold takes you up to Mythical pants level. While you can upgrade a few extra stats with your own resources, you’ll need to take each piece back to Gunnar the Blacksmith at your settlement and use ingots for quality upgrades. Carbon ingots are initially what you’ll need to get Superior armor but you’ll need Nickel ingots and Tungsten Ingots to reach Flawless and Mythical respectively. These are rare in the world but you’ll find them in ingot chests scattered across the counties of England.  

Again, just like weapons, each upgrade from Gunnar will give gear items a new shiny appearance and extra rune slots. Do make sure you keep filling these up by shopping at merchants as each attack buff can really make a difference. 

But what’s the best Assassin’s Creed Valhalla armor? Well it very much depends on your style of Viking play but here are some of the sets not to miss out on and the benefits of each. 

Berserker Set - Way of the Bear

Well, it doesn’t get more ursine than Valhalla’s Berserker armor set. This exceptionally furry offering includes an actual bear hat which you’ll either love or make invisible faster than you can say ‘but that was Baloo once.’ The Berserker set offers up two very useful all round benefits if you can find and equip them all. The first benefit which you’ll get from equipping two items is increased speed when taking damage until you heal. This is exceptionally useful as it means you can quickly dodge out of the way before scoffing some rations after a fight goes awry. Complete the set and you’ll get an additional benefit of a general increase to attack and armor. Both very welcome when you’re being crushed by a Zealot or haven’t managed to avoid a Goliath’s disturbing belly bash attack. You could say it’s the bear necessities... 

Hidden Ones Set - Way of the Raven 

Enjoying Valhalla’s return to the more hay-obsessed games of old? You’ll want the Hidden Ones armor set which is all about being sneaky and stealthy like a true member of the Brotherhood. You’ll find this armor set in the Hidden Ones Bureaus in cities and towns across the map which are full of movement puzzles to find keys, underwater adventures and not unlike Ezio’s tombs of old. In terms of benefits, as well as looking very 2020 with the Hidden One’s Mask, the first buff of the Hidden Ones armor is an increase in assassination damage when you have been crouched and undetected for 10 seconds. So yes, you’ll have to be patient before sliding that blade into an artery or six. The second benefit once you’ve equipped them all is an increase in headshot damage. Perfect for picking off unsuspecting guards with your favourite Hunter or first-person Predator bow. 

Huntsman Set - Way of the Wolf 

The exceptionally bony and furry Huntsman set is all about range. If you’re a distance fighter and don’t fancy crawling into the fray to be pummelled, the main benefit of this armor is range based. Keep 20m away from your foes and you’ll get increased ranged damage. If you decide to go for the whole set because you can’t get enough of having animal bones all over your head, you’ll also get an additional increase to your speed. Ideal when you are scuttling 20m away to turn around and fire your bow and toss axes. It’s also ideal for Legendary Animal fights where it’s much better to stay out of tooth’s reach. 

Thegns Set - Way of the Bear

It’s time for a more brawler based set again. The swish, shiny armor of the Thegns set is perfect if you’re looking for a more Destiny Hunter style cape and, most importantly, it’s all about critical hits. If you’ve got two or more items in the set equipped, you’ll get an increase in the chance of a critical hit while you are parrying. A successful parry is satisfying at the best of times but hit at just the right time here and you’ll annihilate your foes in a flurry of devastating blows. They probably deserved it. And, if you’ve decided to go the whole hog and complete the set, you’ll additionally increase that critical damage to make sure no one is going to stand a chance. 

Raven Clan Set - Way of the Raven

And last but not least, we’ve got the Raven Clan armor set which is all about increasing defence as well as representing your Viking roots. Equip two or more of this black fur obsessed range and your armor defence will increase as your health decreases which is a nice bonus, especially near the start of the game and if you’re heading into areas you really shouldn’t. Equip it all and you’ll also get an increase in your critical chances, meaning more lovely death animations even faster. It’s what ravens would want…