Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: Best Great Swords Breakdown | AC Valhalla - Outsider Gaming (2024)

With Assassin’s Creed Valhalla offering a plethora of melee weapons to use when facing your foes, it can be a struggle to nail down the best approach for you – both stats-wise and in terms of personal preference.

Each weapon type has its own in-game mechanics, coming with pros and cons. In this article, we focus on all of the great swords available in the game at the time of writing, including their stats, abilities, and how to acquire them.

Included in the game is a variety of skills that can improve your prowess in combat. When it comes to wielding two-handed weapons, the skill ‘Heavy Dual Wield’ in the ‘Way of the Bear’ section of the skill tree proves invaluable.

In terms of the stats of these great swords, the numbers may vary in your game as the skills that you’ve acquired and the gear that you equip can improve some aspects of your weapons stats. In an attempt to get the truest numbers to represent the base and maxed stats, we reset all skills and unequipped all gear to get an unaltered core stat for each of these Assassin’s Creed Valhalla great swords.

What are the best swords in AC Valhalla?

So, here’s the full breakdown of each of the great swords in Valhalla to help you find the best ones for you.

6. Doppelhander

This great sword is one of the first that you can acquire in the game. With a ‘Way of the Raven’ affinity, it starts with a fine gear classification, meaning that it requires carbon, nickel, and tungsten ingots to upgrade through the tiers to reach mythical status.

Once you’ve fully upgraded the Doppelhander, these are the max stats that it holds.

Doppelhander Base Stats

• Attack: 56
• Speed: 48
• Stun: 26
• Critical Chance: 49
• Weight: 16

Doppelhander Max Stats

• Attack: 112
• Speed: 48
• Stun: 76
• Critical Chance: 69
• Weight: 16

Due to its low starting tier, it’ll require many resources to upgrade, including iron ore, leather, and the invaluable titanium, aside from the ingots to reach each new tier.

Doppelhander ability

• Heavy hits on fallen enemies poison them

If you’re looking to employ a gear build that uses poison to finish off your enemies, the Doppelhandler great sword is definitely an appetising option; all heavy hits on fallen enemies poisons them, dealing damage over time.

Doppelhander location

The Doppelhander is available from any merchant that you come across in the game. It’ll set you back 390 silver. Silver can be hard to come by in the early game, but you can earn some extra silver by fishing, selling trinkets, or looting your victims in enemy territory.

5. Carolingian Longsword

The Carolingian Longsword is boosted by the ‘Way of the Bear’ skill enhancements, and when found, it starts at the superior tier. If you want to reach the mythical tier for this great sword, you’ll need nickel and tungsten ingots.

Carolingian Longsword Base Stats

• Attack: 71
• Speed: 41
• Stun: 40
• Critical Chance: 47
• Weight: 18

Carolingian Longsword Max Stats

• Attack: 121
• Speed: 41
• Stun: 85
• Critical Chance: 65
• Weight: 18

Upgrading the Carolingian Longsword will take a hefty amount of iron ore, leather, and titanium to reach the max level.

Carolingian Longsword ability

• Increase Critical Damage after a finisher
• Stacks: 5
• Duration: 10 seconds
• Bonus: +4.0 to 20.0 Critical Damage

The ability of the Carolingian Longsword focuses on improving your critical damage output after using a finishing move on an enemy, with the effect stacking up to five times. This makes the great sword a top option for a gear build centred on increasing your critical damage and critical chance.

Carolingian Longsword location

This great sword can be found in a chest within the Forest Hideout in the west of the East Anglia region, as shown in the map above. You can find the chest in the red tent on top of the central platform of the hideout.

4. Saint George’s Holy Sword

One of the newer additions to Eivor’s arsenal of melee weapons is Saint George’s Holy Sword. It made its way into the game with the River Raids update back in February.

Aligned with the ‘Way of the Bear’ skill path, this great sword starts in the superior tier. At the cost of your nickel and tungsten ingots, it can be upgraded to flawless and finally to the mythical tier.

Saint George’s Holy Sword Base Stats

• Attack: 65
• Speed: 41
• Stun: 35
• Critical Chance: 45
• Weight: 18

Saint George’s Holy Sword Max Stats

• Attack: 121
• Speed: 41
• Stun: 85
• Critical Chance: 65
• Weight: 18

These are the max stats that this great sword presents after reaching the mythical tier and upgrading the ten slots, costing iron ore, leather, and titanium.

Saint George’s Holy Sword ability

• Heavy critical hits knock enemies to the ground.

The ability of Saint George’s Holy Sword can be easily underrated. When combined with a build that focuses on critical hits, the ability really comes into its own.

With each heavy critical hit knocking enemies to the ground, it can give you some valuable breathing room when faced with a horde of opponents.

Saint George’s Holy Sword location

The exact location of this weapon is a little tricky to nail down because it doesn’t spawn within the same chest for every player, rather a random one within large military locations on the River Dee.

The River Dee is unlocked once you’ve found the clues on both the River Severn and River Exe as part of the River Raids questline, which we detail in our Saint George’s armor set guide.

3. Scimitar

This ‘Way of the Bear’ weapon from the east starts in the mythical tier with four bars already upgraded. So, it’ll take fewer resources to max out, saving your ingots and titanium for other weapons or gear that you want to enhance.

Scimitar Base Stats

• Attack: 83
• Speed: 41
• Stun: 51
• Critical Chance: 52
• Weight: 18

Scimitar Max Stats

• Attack: 121
• Speed: 41
• Stun: 85
• Critical Chance: 65
• Weight: 18

These are the maxed stats of the Scimitar. As mentioned above, it comes with four of the ten bars upgraded, so it doesn’t take as much as other weapons to reach its maximum ferocity.

Scimitar ability

• Increase light damage after a heavy finisher
• Duration 15 seconds
• Bonus +15.0 Light Damage

The ability that the Scimitar possesses can be a pretty lethal one if you can combine several heavy finishers.

As a stack limit isn’t mentioned, as long as you can chain heavy finishers together in the 15-second duration, you can increase your light attack damage by +15.0 for each one, giving you an impressive damage boost in battle.

Scimitar location

The Scimitar can be found at Reda’s store within Ravensthorpe; during our playthrough, it was available early in the game, making it a brilliant choice of weapon as you enhance your power level.

This great sword will set you back 120 opals, which are pretty hard to come by. The best way to collect opals is to complete the daily contracts available from Reda, or use your raven Synin to locate opals on the map. Alternatively, you can use Helix Credits to purchase a map that details the location of all of the opals in the game.

2. Excalibur

The legendary sword in the stone that King Arthur was said to have once wielded can be found in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. It’s not available until late in the game, but when you do acquire it, you’ll have it as a mythical item with seven out of the ten upgrade slots filled.

As with most of the great swords in the game, this weapon is aligned with the ‘Way of the Bear’ skill path.

Excalibur Base Stats

• Attack: 103
• Speed: 40
• Stun: 69
• Critical Chance: 59
• Weight: 18

Excalibur Max Stats

• Attack: 122
• Speed: 40
• Stun: 86
• Critical Chance: 65
• Weight: 18

With seven of the upgrade slots already filled when you find this weapon of legend, it won’t cost as much as some of the others to max out. That sai, the titanium cost dramatically increases the closer you get towards the tenth upgrade slot.

Excalibur ability

• Heavy finishers and critical hits blind all enemies around you

This ability is especially useful for inciting chaos on the battlefield, with it blinding all around you every time that you land a heavy finisher or critical hit, leaving your foes in disarray as you carve through them.

It’s best combined with a critical chance type of gear build to ensure that you make the most of the ability to its maximum potential.

Excalibur location

One of the more difficult items to collect in-game, Excalibur can only be acquired once you’ve found all 11 of the Treasures of Britain tablets.

Most of these tablets are tucked away within caves around the map, represented as mystery locations in the regions. Some others are carried by the most ferocious zealots of the Order of the Ancients.

Once all of the tablets have been collected, a location will be uncovered on your map for you to go and retrieve this great sword.

We’ve covered a couple of the Treasures of Britain in guides to get you started, including ones for the Wocig tablet and the tablet of Deoraby Spar cavern.

1. Surtr Sword

This mean-looking ‘Way of the Bear’ great sword once belonged to the fire giant Surtr and was made to set Asgard ablaze during Ragnarok.

It is a store item, so its weapon tier will depend on the tier of your best gear at the time of purchase; ours came at its max level, so the base stats weren’t available for us to note. Still, one thing is for sure, it looks as awesome as it is deadly.

Surtr Sword Max Stats

• Attack: 117
• Speed: 44
• Stun: 80
• Critical Chance: 81
• Weight: 17

If you have any gear that is at max level when you purchase this item, the Surtr sword will come with everything maxed without the need to spend your precious resources upgrading the ten available slots.

Surtr Sword ability

• Increase Attack when the weapon is ignited
• Bonus: +30.0 Attack

Best employed with a fire-type gear build, the Surtr thrives under fire and will increase your attack when it is ignited, making the fire strike ability a must when looking to get the best out of this great sword.

Other weapons and shields can also give you the chance to ignite your weapon with critical hits or parries, giving you another way to increase your attack without using up an adrenaline slot.

Surtr Sword location

This sword, unfortunately, can only be acquired through the game store, costing 350 Helix Credits. Or, if you’re lucky, it may pop-up in Reda’s shop within Ravensthorpe for around 120 opals.

Bonus: Swordfish

The last weapon on this list is a bit of an enigma; the Swordfish is exactly what it says it is, a giant swordfish. This ‘Way of the Wolf’ aligned great sword can only be obtained by completing all 19 of the delivery challenges in the fishing hut within Ravensthorpe.

At the time of writing, the challenge cannot be completed without the use of mods. This is because two of the fish needed for this are currently bugged and won’t spawn in-game. The culprits are the big mackerel and big flatfish.

Until Ubisoft addresses this known issue, the sword will be unavailable for most players, but with some luck, the developers will patch this in the upcoming DLC release on 29 April 2021.

That’s all of the best great swords currently available in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. Have you found a new favourite weapon for marauding?

You should also read: Assassin’s Creed Valhalla wealth, mysteries, and artifacts

Looking for the best weapons and gear in AC Valhalla?

AC Valhalla: Best Armor

AC Valhalla: Best Spears

AC Valhalla: Best Bows