@orcbeard92 Weird fanta orange hair, lmao... That's exactly it.

Jeez. Ubi, please revert what you did to the red hair texture, or lighting on it, just figure out whatever was done. It looks so much worse now, and an unwanted change.

@damfrallan I'll have to try that, thanks for the info.
And I agree, this is one of the buggiest "AAA" games I've seen in years and certainly the most frustrating, I feel like I can't go explore Mysteries/Wealth without possibly triggering it wrong or causing a bug that screws my save, and Ubi probably won't patch for a long time (if they even can fix it) and I might be done with the game by then, considering it's singleplayer/storyline with little replayability and they made the genius decision of removing New Game+.

I completed The Compass quests in Lunden and the NPC finally spawned, but the small pillar-box is out of the track where it should've been, and I so far haven't been able to push it back over with bodies. It's like they didn't beta test at all. I've submitted so many bug reports.

@adarklore You're very lucky the wolf came back in time. For those of us for whom it didn't, if the wolf runs off and vanishes, we didn't get credit for the skill. And Ubisoft still has not patched/fixed that.

A simple check "if quest completion, check if skill point granted." Might be a more complex since I found the later knowledge book by now and have attained Rank 1 in it, but it's stuck that way now and my save will never go higher unless Ubi actually does anything.

But yes, the skill itself does seem disappointing & lackluster (and could also stand to be buffed some, but that's trivial compared to all the actual bugs they have yet to fix.)

@sharp2spartacus I agree. I was able to move the buggy shelves (by destroying the jars that somehow got under them...) but the NPC wouldn't spawn for me.

Poor design. A map marker should not show itself if the player cannot yet actually do it -- just have it appear after the main quest is completed, or make the NPC spawn before that.

What netspook said. In my opinion, don't buy, and I'm sorely considering not purchasing from Ubi again anytime soon. The sheer amount of bugs (and reports I've made) has been astounding. And the fact that their support is rather poor and hasn't fixed many of them.

For example...
I had a support ticket with them since day one about how Ubisoft Connect recognizes I have a PS4 Dualshock controller wirelessly connected to my PC, yet the game menus won't detect it (and Input Mode stays on Mouse & Keyboard, won't let me select Hybrid Mode)... even though any other game I play (and I have extensive Steam/Epic libraries), I have no issues at all with this controller or my setup. Valhalla is the only one that refuses to see and utilize it.

And yet... the moment I add Valhalla as a non-Steam game and launch it through Steam, suddenly Steam actually lets the controller work (due to their innate controller stuff, whereas Ubi's doesn't even seem to work for some people, and these input issues have been reported by others before me.)

Fast forward from launch til now... still nothing done about it. At least my controller works with Steam. I'd have been furious I couldn't enjoy the game with a controller if I hadn't figured that out. And it would've been all this time, since Ubi has done nothing about it... and of course, their support tried to pin it on me as if I use third party programs like DS4Windows (I don't) or update my drivers, other useless nonsense.
So yeah. I'm salty about it, and Ubi won't be seeing more money from me.

In addition to all the tons of other bugs... Just wait until a big sale, and only do it if you really love vikings/time period/etc. Otherwise it's just recycled same old Assassin's Creed. Even their horse models are the exact same garbage imported from old AC games, they couldn't even be bothered to make new ones to try to compete with RDR2's lovely horses that should've raised the bar for everyone. We deserved better overall.

@orcbeard92 Weird fanta orange hair, lmao... That's exactly it.

Jeez. Ubi, please revert what you did to the red hair texture, or lighting on it, just figure out whatever was done. It looks so much worse now, and an unwanted change.

I'm in agreement, the hair color change is hideous and needs to be reverted. I started the game up once again (to see if they had fixed some of the awful bugs I've reported that interfere with me even enjoying the game, which lulz they haven't) only to find they've also messed with my character. Uncool.

I, too, was disappointed that the water seems far less developed than past games, and was nothing to be concerned about. Felt like less depth (har har) to the game.

But I guess I'll be fair to the point that there isn't much to be afraid of in English rivers/waters, had to work with what's there.

@adarklore You're very lucky the wolf came back in time. For those of us for whom it didn't, if the wolf runs off and vanishes, we didn't get credit for the skill. And Ubisoft still has not patched/fixed that.

A simple check "if quest completion, check if skill point granted." Might be a more complex since I found the later knowledge book by now and have attained Rank 1 in it, but it's stuck that way now and my save will never go higher unless Ubi actually does anything.

But yes, the skill itself does seem disappointing & lackluster (and could also stand to be buffed some, but that's trivial compared to all the actual bugs they have yet to fix.)

@damfrallan I'll have to try that, thanks for the info.
And I agree, this is one of the buggiest "AAA" games I've seen in years and certainly the most frustrating, I feel like I can't go explore Mysteries/Wealth without possibly triggering it wrong or causing a bug that screws my save, and Ubi probably won't patch for a long time (if they even can fix it) and I might be done with the game by then, considering it's singleplayer/storyline with little replayability and they made the genius decision of removing New Game+.

I completed The Compass quests in Lunden and the NPC finally spawned, but the small pillar-box is out of the track where it should've been, and I so far haven't been able to push it back over with bodies. It's like they didn't beta test at all. I've submitted so many bug reports.

@sharp2spartacus I agree. I was able to move the buggy shelves (by destroying the jars that somehow got under them...) but the NPC wouldn't spawn for me.

Poor design. A map marker should not show itself if the player cannot yet actually do it -- just have it appear after the main quest is completed, or make the NPC spawn before that.