Your settlement acts as Eivor and company’s hub of operations throughout Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, and upgrading it will unlock a host of additional features and activities. There are two ways to do so, though one is arguably faster than the other.
The settlement in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is upgraded by constructing buildings, or completing story arcs.
Your settlement in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla will be one of six ranks, starting out at rank 1 once you arrive in not-so-jolly England. To rank it up and unlock additional buildings for construction you’ll need to do one of two things. The first is the fastest, but will rely on your Power Level. Christian monasteries are sprinkled all throughout England, and they can be found on the map via the dual red axes. These are viking raids, and pillaging these holy places will yield the raw materials and supplies needed to construct buildings in your outpost.
You can trigger a raid one of two ways. Either approach via longboat and tap the Raid button (Y on Xbox) to sound your war horn and start the raid, or approach on foot and select the “Start Raid” options from the quick-select radial menu (down D-Pad). Once a raid begins you’ll need to clear out some of the guards and force open doors that lead to the raw material caches. These are indicated on your compass by a golden barrel, and you’ll want the nearby guards dead because you’ll need an A.I. companion to both assist you in opening the door and sliding the lid off the supplies. If your companions are busy fighting they won’t help you, so if you find yourself waiting on someone to help check the area for hostiles.
You can return to your settlement and use these supplies and raw materials to construct new buildings in your settlement. The early buildings will cost roughly 400 supplies and 25 raw materials, but as your settlement increases in rank the new buildings will cost more. Thankfully you can loot additional supplies from small caches in raid locations (that are not marked on the map, but will pop up and glow yellow when you trigger Odin Sight), but raw materials are only found within the large raid caches. Each building you construct will advance the rank-up meter, though the higher your rank the more you’ll need to build to advance it. If you are struggling to find supplies build the Cartographer’s Hut and he’ll sell you maps for all the supplies you may have missed in zones you’ve visited.
Finally, you can advance the bar by completing zone “alliance” arcs from the Alliance Map. Each zone will have a reward icon, and a greenish-blue arrow indicates completing that arc will advance your settlement’s rank-up meter. These naturally take longer to complete than raiding and building, but they do provide more towards the meter than a single building. Raid and complete the story to upgrade your settlement from a small camp into a bustling village, and reap the rewards that come with it.
