AC Valhalla gets New Game+ six years on, with Divine gear now up to level 27
Finish Holy Day to start it. The free patch also adds Mithril, a Stash, 300+ engravable runes and PSSR for PS5 Pro, and frees Platinum from Dawn of Ragnarok.
Stories on esportz.fun are written by the esportz.fun team under house pen names. About our authors
Assassin's Creed Valhalla received a free patch called The Most Requested Update on November 5, 2026, almost six years after the game's November 10, 2020 launch. It adds New Game+, a Stash, an Extended Progression Mode and a much deeper upgrade path for Divine gear. Ubisoft pushed it live at 14:00 UTC on every platform, which was 10 p.m. MYT on November 5.
The download is not small. Ubisoft lists 15.02GB on Xbox Series X|S, 13.8GB on Xbox One, 13.42GB on PS4, 12.27GB through Ubisoft Connect, 7.8GB on Steam and 5.26GB on PS5.
What's confirmed
How to start New Game+. You unlock it by finishing Holy Day, the last quest in Hamtunscire. Ubisoft's patch notes admit this comes before the true ending, and say it chose the earlier trigger because the game is so long. Every new cycle scales up in difficulty.
Mithril, a new upgrade material. In New Game+, picking up gear or a Book of Knowledge you already own gives you Mithril instead. It is also sold in the Niflheim, Mastery and River Raid shops. Carbon, Nickel and Tungsten found in Wealth Chests turn into Platinum, the ingot that used to come only with the Dawn of Ragnarok expansion. Ubisoft says that means Divine quality gear no longer needs the DLC.
Gear goes to level 27. The upgrade cap on each piece of Divine gear rises from 13 to 27, and every new level costs Mithril.
Extended Progression Mode. This is an optional setting. While it is on, each gear upgrade and each rune adds one point of Power, and Masteries add a point for every five skill points spent. Lead game designer David Larouche told Xbox Wire that this mode, the gear upgrades and the rune changes all work without New Game+ too.
Runes and the Stash. Runes can now be upgraded for silver in a new forge tab, up to a new Superior tier that costs Mithril. The engrave page gains more than 300 runes, covering perks from the expansions and the in-game store, for 450 silver each. A Stash in Ravensthorpe stores spare gear and runes.
Extras. There is a Naoe Master Assassin outfit and two new achievements or trophies: Ivaldi's Heir, for fully upgrading one piece of Divine gear, and Circle of Renewal, for finishing a New Game+ run. The patch also retunes masteries and weapon damage. Ubisoft says the goal is to make dual wielding feel better.
PS5 Pro. The PlayStation Blog says the update adds the upgraded PSSR upscaler. Ubisoft engineering studio manager Priscilla Nguyen says this lets PS5 Pro run the Quality mode at 60fps with sharper 4K image quality.
Background
Valhalla is the third of Ubisoft's big open-world RPG Assassin's Creed games, after Origins in 2017 and Odyssey in 2018. It got two expansions, Wrath of the Druids and The Siege of Paris, followed by the larger Dawn of Ragnarok. Larouche told Xbox Wire that the final content update came years ago but players kept asking for New Game+, and that the team was staffed with developers who had already added New Game+ to other existing games. The same upscaler upgrade has already gone into Assassin's Creed Shadows and Black Flag Resynced, according to the PlayStation Blog interview.
My take: what it means for players
I like that the trigger is Holy Day rather than the credits. Valhalla's story ends arc by arc, region by region, so plenty of players never reached the true finale, and Ubisoft is admitting that and letting those players carry on anyway.
The level 27 cap and Mithril matter more to me than New Game+ itself. Back in 2020, Valhalla's big flaw was that you stopped getting stronger long before the map ran out. Upgrades only nudged numbers you could barely feel. Extended Progression Mode tackles that directly by making every rune and upgrade count toward Power, and it works on a first playthrough too. If I were starting a long campaign today, I would turn it on from the opening hours.
Moving Platinum out of the Dawn of Ragnarok paywall is a small, decent change. Divine gear used to need the expansion, and now it doesn't.
My one complaint is the download. Fifteen gigabytes on Series X|S for a patch to a six-year-old game is a lot, and the gap between platforms is large. The patch notes do not explain it.
What we don't know yet
- Scaling numbers. Ubisoft says each New Game+ cycle gets harder but has not said by how much.
- Carry-over. Neither post lists exactly which items, abilities and settlement upgrades carry into New Game+.
- More updates. Larouche frames the patch as a reason for long-time players to return. Ubisoft has not said whether anything follows it.
- Base PS5 and Xbox visuals. The upscaler changes are for PS5 Pro only, and no other platform gets a performance change in the notes.
Quick facts
| Key | Value |
|---|---|
| Update | The Most Requested Update (free) |
| Released | November 5, 2026, 14:00 UTC (10 p.m. MYT) |
| Platforms | PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X |
| New Game+ unlock | Finish Holy Day, the final Hamtunscire quest |
| Divine gear cap | Level 27 (was 13), paid with Mithril |
| New runes | 300+ engravable perks, 450 silver each |
| Largest download | 15.02GB on Xbox Series X |
| PS5 Pro | Upgraded PSSR, Quality mode at 60fps |
FAQ
How do I unlock New Game+ in Assassin's Creed Valhalla?
Finish Holy Day, the last quest in the Hamtunscire region. You do not need to see the true ending first.
Do I need Dawn of Ragnarok for Divine gear?
No. In New Game+, Carbon, Nickel and Tungsten from Wealth Chests become Platinum, so you can reach Divine quality without the expansion.
Can I use Extended Progression Mode without New Game+?
Yes. Ubisoft says Extended Progression, the higher gear cap and the new runes are all available outside New Game+.
How big is the Valhalla New Game+ update?
It ranges from 5.26GB on PS5 to 15.02GB on Xbox Series X|S. Steam is 7.8GB and Ubisoft Connect is 12.27GB.
More: Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced and Ubisoft's comment on other Assassin's Creed remakes.
Sources: Xbox Wire (Ubisoft interview); PlayStation Blog; Ubisoft press release; RPG Site (Ubisoft patch notes); GamesRadar+. Image: Xbox Wire, from its RSS feed for this story (Assassin's Creed Valhalla screenshot © Ubisoft).
