Assassin's Creed Valhalla Players Are Using Cheats to Unlock Unreleased Content

Published: November 30, 2020 2:48 PM /

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Assassin's Creed Valhalla Cheat Engine Ubisoft Store cover

Want to dress up as Ezio in Assassin's Creed Valhalla? You can't just yet, but some players have already gotten access to unreleased content using Cheat Engine — and they're also unlocking Ubisoft Store items for free.

As Eurogamer reports, a number of players have gained access to the game's premium Ubisoft Store items by using a cheating program on the PC version of Assassin's Creed Valhalla. These items are normally acquired by grinding in the game or paying for them in the Ubisoft Store; instead, some players have simply opted to use a third-party program to unlock this content at the push of a button.

That's not the only thing they've discovered, either. Apparently, there's a fair amount of unreleased content that is already built into the game's files. This isn't anything unusual for games these days — many "leaks" about upcoming content in games such as Fortnite is based on files secreted away in the game's code. The way this is being done, however, might not be the best idea.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla Cheat Engine Ubisoft Store slice

How Are Players Getting Free Assassin's Creed Valhalla Ubisoft Store Items?

Players are getting their hands on these Assassin's Creed Valhalla items through the use of a program called "Cheat Engine," working in tandem with a script that has been uploaded to Nexus Mods.

A video game (and software in general) is essentially compromised of millions of on-off switches. These switches are the driving force of everything you see in a game, but some of these switches are really important. Players can utilize a program like Cheat Engine to flip specific switches outside the rules of a game — for example, a player could use the program to change their maximum health from 100 to 10,000 in a game.

In this case, the "switches" that are being flipped pertain to whether or not particular items have been acquired by the player. This has allowed them to get their hands on Ubisoft Store items without paying for them or grinding for the in-game currency to buy them. More interestingly, however, is the fact that some players have unlocked content that hasn't yet been released in the game.

Thus far, the unreleased content includes Ezio's outfit from Assassin's Creed Brotherhood and the fiery wolf that you see above. Reported discussions on current efforts to break into the game's code indicate that there may be even more unreleased items hidden away in the game's code somewhere and these persistent players may well find them before they're even announced.

It's very important to note that using Cheat Engine is generally a bad idea in modern gaming. Anti-cheat systems will detect the program running in the background and it could result in a ban for multiplayer games. Circumventing the built-in systems for acquiring in-game items likely violates the Uplay terms of service, too, which means that using this program could ultimately result in your Uplay account being banned.

That said, it's pretty cool that a handful of crafty players have so easily circumvented Ubisoft's system less than a month after Assassin's Creed Valhalla has launched. A patch to fix this exploit will likely arrive at some point in the future; for now, we can at least enjoy a look at some of the new content that is coming in a future update.

What do you think of using programs like Cheat Engine to circumvent in-game requirements? Have you ever cheated in a single-player game? Let us know in the comments below!

Have a tip, or want to point out something we missed? Leave a Comment or e-mail us at tips@techraptor.net


A photograph of TechRaptor Senior Writer Robert N. Adams.
| Senior Writer

One of my earliest memories is playing Super Mario Bros. on the Nintendo Entertainment System. I've had a controller in my hand since I was 4 and I… More about Robert N

More Info About This Game
Learn more about Assassin's Creed Valhalla
Developer
Ubisoft Montreal
Publisher
Ubisoft
Release Date
November 17, 2020 (Calendar)
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