While the Viking hordes might be best known for their destructive and pillaging, thanks to English propaganda as well as Assassin’s Creed Valhalla’s own marketing, they also committed to a lot of settling and infrastructure as well. Although you don’t play as a jarl, Eivor is put in charge of an English settlement early on in Valhalla, and the player is tasked with nurturing the budding township and deciding what buildings to erect.
Assassin's Creed Valhalla is by no means the first game to introduce some base-building elements to break up all the action and violence, but nevertheless, it can be a bit dauntless to decide what to build when the game doesn’t tell you much about the benefits of doing it. To help you with your hooded hardhat, this guide will explain everything you need to know about the settlement building in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla.
You’ll gain access to the mechanics quite early on in the game, almost as soon as you’ve left Norway for rainy old England. There aren’t really any spoilers in that regard to look for, but if you want to experiment and discover all by yourself, be warned.
Other Assassin's Creed Valhalla guides: Beginner Tips and Tricks from the Gods, How to Fight Like a Viking, How to Raid Like a Viking
How to Build
Once you’ve completed the Unwelcome questline, you’ll be able to start expanding your town. Using your raven, you can see where all the structures will be placed - you don’t get a say in that - and from there it is just a matter of heading to that location and reading the sign to see if you have enough supplies to begin construction. Your raven will also tell you what each building does, but the description is often vague, but we’ll explain that in more detail below. Some buildings won’t be available to you right away either, and you’ll need to grow the town's reputation by constructing available buildings first to unlock the others. Valhalla walks you through the basics of this, including constructing a blacksmith so you can continue to upgrade and improve your gear in this new world.
To build anything you’ll need two ingredients: Supplies and Raw Materials. Don’t worry, you won’t have to go on fetch quests and grind through resource management to collect these, because luckily the English have been stockpiling them in the monasteries, villages, and forts up down the rivers and coasts. By far the easiest and fastest way to start growing Ravensthorpe is to start raiding, and you can see our guide on that right here.
Once you have the supplies you need, simply go to the sign of the building you want and order the construction. There’s no waiting time either, bar a loading screen, so as soon as you pick the building you want, you’ll be able to use its features.
What to Build
There are a lot of buildings to create that surround your longhouse and expand your town. Most of them add something to your town that might be useful, from offering a simple buff to the feast mechanics. We’ve separated them out so you can see which is what, and what the more complicated buildings can offer. We also haven’t included the Blacksmith in this list as it's in the main story quest you’ll complete as you first settle into town.
Barracks
Down by the waterfront you can build the barracks. Once completed you can create and customize your own Jomsviking who you can outfit with any weapon and equipment you’ve managed to find on your quest so far. Others can hire out this Jomsviking and you’ll be paid a small tithe each time, which can be collected from the barracks. Other than that, the barracks allows you to choose who to take on raiding missions in your longship.
It's perhaps not the most essential building, but the customization options are nice, and the income can be very useful early on.
Cartographer
The Cartographer, once settled in a nice little home, will sell you maps that reveal hidden treasures across England.
Perhaps not something to worry about unless you’re a completionist, or in dire need of some raw materials to finish up your other projects.
Fishing Hut
A purchased Fishing Hut will give you access to a fishing line, as well as a place to turn in fish you’ve caught for a variety of rewards, including runes and customization options.
The rewards alone make this is good early on construction, and it also just plain adds something else to do as you explore the world, which is always nice.
Seer’s Hut
You’ll gain access to the Seer’s Hut construction once your town begins to develop, and purchasing it will give you access to Valka’s concoctions. This time the visions you explore will be of Asgard and other Norse realms, where you’ll get to meet the Gods and fight alongside them.
Hidden One’s Bureau
Not quite Assassins yet, the Hidden One’s Bureau will give Haythem a place to work. It will also unlock the Order questline that you can find on your pause screen. This acts in much the same way as the Cult quest in Odyssey, where you’ll be provided with targets that will only be revealed when you find enough clues to identify them.
Killing these targets will also net you new abilities, and there is a different codex quest to complete as well. And when you first construct this building, you’ll learn to jump more gracefully, if you care about that sort of thing.
Because of the wide reach of the Hidden One’s quest and influence over the story of England, its recommended to build this one early on.
Hunter’s Hut
The Hunter’s Hut will give you a place to trade in animal parts for other, more useful resources, as well as venture into legendary animal missions. On top of that, there are also a few quests for owners of the hut, where you can get to know them a little better.
There is a lot of utility in the Hunter’s Hut and it should be near the top of your list when you start thinking about expanding your town in Assassin's Creed Valhalla.
Museum
The Museum gives you a place a hand in any roman artifacts you’ve come across amongst the ruins. Like the other trade shops, this provides a collection of rewards, including cosmetic pieces for your town. It also includes a sidequest or two as well, for everyone looking for more to do on the homefront.
Tattoo Shop
The Tattoo Shop will let you continue to customize your Eivor’s tattoos and hair just like it did back in Norway. But you may have collected new tattoos to adorn yourself with since then.
Not a necessary purchase, but provides you with something to do and will help grow your town if you’re waiting for new buildings to buy.
Trading Post
The Trading Post will provide you with the one-stop-shop of Ravensthorpe, and sell you anything from new gear, to coal, to runes and customization options. The basics will always be available but the shop does rotate out some of its stock every once in a while so it's worth keeping an eye on it.
Because you can get anything and everything from here, as well as sell a lot of the junk you’ve been carrying, this should probably be the first thing you construct after the blacksmith. Especially because you can buy upgrade material if you’re a little short.
Shipyard
You might think that the Shipyard will give you access to a greater armada of longships to raid with, but it doesn’t. Instead, it just lets you customize the ship you have now, changing the sails and hull and figurehead much like in Odyssey.
It's a nice addition, especially if you’re bored with the raven motif, but it doesn’t add anything else to the town.
Stable and Aviary
Unlocking the Stable and Aviary will allow you to customize your horse and raven. But unlike the other customizing stations, this building has other uses as well. In exchange for silver, Rowan will train your horse in a variety of ways, including teaching it to swim. This will dramatically improve your horseriding experience in the game and is well worth considering early on.
Feast Buildings
The other buildings you can purchase in Assassin's Creed Valhalla won’t add anything specific to your town but will improve your feast whenever you choose to have one. Feasts offer a temporary stat boost that stacks depending on which of the following buildings you’ve purchased. You can call a feast in the Longhouse by ringing the dinner bell. These buildings are: the Bakery, the Brewery, Hunwald and Swanburrow’s House, Kari’s House, Mayda’s House, the Cattle Farm, the Grain Farm, and the Fowl Farm.
