Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is full of secrets and surprises, but perhaps the biggest one has finally been discovered, and it is a testament not only to the developers for creating such an elaborate one, but also to the fans and detectives who finally discovered it. It all starts with the Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Collector’s Edition, which revealed some hidden clues. They would never have been found had it not been for Access the Animus, which released a video in January revealing that it had decoded the Isu language that is part of the game (via IGN).
Now that they had the language, they could decode any message using it, including some messages that were in the Collector’s Edition packaging. These messages included terms like “hidden inside”, “this lake” and “now” and, knowing they were on the right track, the team continued.
It’s done! We managed to find the proper internal path to obtain the arc of the Arch of Nodens in #Assassins Creed Valhalla!
Join us, as we will not only show you the appropriate steps to obtain it, but we will also show you the reasons that justify these steps!
Full video: https://t.co/oPCQZyNKR4 pic.twitter.com/6G7FaR9L5x
– AccessTheAnimus (@AccessTheAnimus) January 27, 2021
They had the help of JorRaptor, who posted a video that revealed that you could find a secret Isu Bow in the game called Nodens’ Arc. All you needed to do was hit an unbreakable piece of iron ore, exit the game and reload the rescue to unlock it, but Valhalla’s narrative director, Darby McDevitt, revealed that this was a “brute force” method to resolve this mystery I finally found the necessary steps to solve it properly.
This coincided with more text translated from the Collector’s Edition box that said “The Key is the”, which was under the design of a crow. The crow also kept another secret, the Excalibur sword, and so the “Key” it referred to was the “Sword”, more specifically, Excalibur, since it can break anything.
Leaving the previous video that showed the brute force method, fans noticed that the location, a lake in Northumbria, looked a lot like the island of Singapore, and Ubisoft was found to have an office there. This was a big piece that was missing, since the office was at the exact location of the unbreakable ore. This was further cemented thanks to the realization that the Isu language was designed by designer Antoine Henry, who works in that office.
The last major piece was the realization that the lithographs of the Collector’s Edition featured symbols that, when placed together, covered an image of the sun. Access the Animus who realized it was referring to the time of day when the ore needed to be hit.
After putting it all together, it meant that you had to hit the unbreakable ore with Excalibur at sunset to unlock the Ard de Nodens arc, and this must be one of the most elaborate unlockables of all time.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is now available on PS4, Xbox One, PC, Xbox Series X, PS5, Stadia and Luna.
Have you already unlocked the legendary bow? Let us know in the comments or contact me on Twitter @MattAguilarCB for all the things about Assassin’s Creed!