With the River Raid Update, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla became a much bigger game. River Raids are a new repeatable type of content for players to take on. In amongst these raids are new items to collect, and new systems to learn. In this guide, we’ll cover exactly what the Assassin’s Creed Valhalla River Raid Key is. We’ll also explain how that plays into the main game, and why you need to be aware of them.
What is the River Raid Key in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
You’ll pick up River Raid keys as you raid various locations in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. They’re used to unlock certain chests along the rivers that are locked. You’ll find these chests in various locations. The locations of these chests changes with every raid, so you can’t plan for them. All you can do is pick up every River Raid Key and use them when you can.
These keys function in a similar way to those you’ll find in the main game world. They often open a chest or door in the same location that you are. However, it’s more common that you’ll find multiple River Raid Keys before you find the chests they open.
Where Are the River Raid Keys and Chests?
As we’ve already mentioned, the chests and keys will change places as you play through raids on each river. The only way to ensure that you have a key when you need it is to pick them up when you find them.
It’s worth upgrading your longboat’s capacity so that you always have enough space for the potential cargo you’ll be picking up. This doesn’t effect the number of keys you can carry, but it will change how much cargo you can carry.
When to Use River Raid Keys
You won’t find these keys out in the world in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. They’re limited to the rivers you raid in the River Raid game mode. You’ll find this in the new building that you can create near your Settlement.
Once out on the river, you can raid various locations and pick up all sorts of cargo. This can be used to upgrade your longboat and Jonsviking Hall back at your settlement. You’ll get more by using these keys when you find them.
While the locations are random, with more space in your longship, you can raid for longer. This means that you can pick up more keys and unlock more chests as you push forward in future raids.
The only issue you might have with using these keys is when there are a lot of strong enemies around. While you can run in and open all the chests straight away, it’s likely that this will cause many of your crew to die. The best tactic is to kill all the enemies in a location first. Then you can take your time when opening the chests around the location.
This will also give you time to look for more keys, which you can use further down the river.
Risk vs Reward
There’s a huge degree of risk versus reward with River Raids. The more you raid, the higher the level of reinforcements present at locations further down the current river. This means that if you keep raiding, there will be more challenging enemies at the next location.
Players need to consider this when thinking about the potential rewards they can get. If you only have space left for 50 more supplies, but the reinforcement level is at its highest, you might want to turn back. If however, you have space for 200 more supplies, then it’s worth taking the risk to pick more up. Even with those added reinforcements, there’s enough potential reward to make the risk worth it.
Generally, River Raid Keys open up chests with materials in. These are far from essential to any player. By thinking about how much you could lose if you fail, you can decide whether pushing on is worth it.
With space for only 50 more supplies, you stand to lose a lot more than you gain if you die by moving onto one more raid. Having keys in your inventory shouldn’t affect your choice of moving to another raid. you don’t stand to gain much more for your effort, but you’ll lose everything if the enemies are too tough.
Best Chance of Picking up River Raid Keys
You stand a much better chance of getting a River Raid Key if you go into a raid prepared. There are a couple of things you can do to give yourself a better chance.
The first thing is to improve your longship. Having a better appearance will make it feel like more of a successful run. You can give yourself a better mindset to go into a raid with if you feel like you’ve got the best boat.
The second thing you can do to improve your chances of getting more keys is by hiring more Jomsvikings. The more you have in your crew, the better your chances or never having to kill an enemy. Jomsvikings are far more powerful than standard NPCs, and they’ll destroy a location’s defenses when you land.
This makes it far more likely that you’ll survive for longer across all your raids. Which means that you’ll pick up more keys, and open more chests. This really is the crux of what you need to be doing when heading into raids.
The higher the level of your Jomsvikings, the better chance you’ll have for surviving for longer as well. You can upgrade your Jomsviking Hall back in Ravensthorpe with supplies earned from raids. Make sure you do this when you can because the better quality warriors you can hire will help you out immensely.
Finally, you’ll get more River Raid Keys if you explore every location thoroughly. If you land somewhere, kill the enemies, take the loot, and then leave, you’ll miss something. Make sure you explore every building. Usually, the keys are out of the way and require some effort to find.