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ACV Nodens' Arc

Nodens' Arc

The Nodens' Arc was a hunter bow created by the Isu, adorned with glowing lines of light and named after the Celtic god of hunting Nodens.

During the 9th century, the Viking shieldmaiden Eivor Varinsdottir of the Raven Clan discovered this bow during her travels at Eurviscire.[1]

Weapon statistics[]

Class Attack Speed Stun Critical
Chance
Headshot
Damage
Weight Perks Availability
Raven 133 47 144 110 99 11 Increase attack the further you are from your enemy Break the glowing rock on the island of the lake at Eurvicscire using Excalibur.
Description
A mysterious bow forged from an unknown material, it seems to have been crafted by a civilization prior to ours.

Behind the scenes[]

Nearly three months after the November 2020 release of Assassin's Creed: Valhalla, several players stated across social media that a fourth Isu weapon, a bow, was hidden within the game. On January 23, 2021, YouTuber "JorRaptor" was among the first members in the community in sharing a method that would unlock the bow by using a save/load glitch, in which players were to hit a glowing rock located in northern Eurvicscire a few times before saving and reloading until obtaining the weapon.[2] The next day, narrative director Darby McDevitt replied to Jorraptor's tweet, saying that there was a legitimate way to unlock Nodens' Arc.[3]

The Collector's Edition of Valhalla contained all the clues needed obtain the Isu bow, as revealed by the fansite Access the Animus in a YouTube video posted on January 27 describing each of the necessary steps to unlock Nodens' Arc.[4]

Strange symbols were featured on several items in the Collector's Edition, namely, the main box, the soundtrack disk, the CD case, the lithographs, and within the steelbook. To understand their meaning, players needed to translate the Isu script introduced in Valhalla using Layla Hassan's personal files in the game.

  • The main box contained a sentence that, once translated, read "The sword is the tool to unlock it." The box also featured the image of Excalibur hidden within the raven tailfeathers, implying that the Sword of Eden was the object needed to complete the task.
  • The soundtrack disk featured the words "Hidden Inside", but gave no location or object for players to look in.
  • The chemical formulas for silica, periclase, and magnetite—all compounds present in rocks— were written on the back of the CD case.[5]
  • When arranged in a specific pattern, the lithographs formed the Isu word for "Now". Astute players could notice that the drawing of a sun was depicted in the center, giving the illusion that the Isu word was hiding it, indirectly hinting at the time of day when the bow became obtainable.
  • The steelbook contained the Isu words for "This Lake", the Isu's hexadecimal numeral system, and some Isu numbers. The numeral system was meant to teach players how the Isu wrote their numbers while also showing their equivalent in the binary. If the steelbook was opened to form a right angle, the numbers on the bottom side would create an impromptu 16 x 12 coordinate grid. By drawing it and painting its squares in accordance to their equivalent value in binary, players would reveal the shape of the lake where Nodens' Arc was hidden.[6] Curiously, the lake shape is very similar to the borders of Singapore. In fact, the Ubisoft Singapore studio was in charge of developing some of Valhalla's territories.[7] and one of its developers, Antoine Henry, created the Isu language.[8]

Put together, the sentence read "The sword is the key to unlock it. Hidden inside this lake now." After deciphering the clues, players were encouraged to search for a breakable rock with glowing veins in a Singapore-shaped lake and destroy it with Excalibur at sunset. This lake was, indeed, located in the northern part of Eurvicscire, close to Brunton Turret.

Although all these hints come from the Collector's Edition, it is unknown how Eivor found out about Nodens' Arc in the canon of the game.

Appearances[]

References[]

  1. Assassin's Creed: Valhalla
  2. YouTube How To Get A New Secret Isu Bow In Assassin's Creed Valhalla (AC Valhalla Best Bow) on the JorRaptor YouTube channel
  3. Twitter Darby McDevitt (@DarbyMcDevitt) on Twitter "@Jorraptor FYI this is a clever brute force hack, not the "proper” way to get this bow. There is an "in world" way to achieve it. But I suppose this works for an Any% Speedrun.😎" (screenshot)
  4. YouTube Assassin's Creed Valhalla - We Cracked the Mystery and Found the Real Way to Unlock the Noden's Arc! on the Access The Animus YouTube channel
  5. Twitter Antoine Henry (@bob2356) on Twitter "It is done! The last little clue is solved! Congrats! I hope you all enjoyed the journey. It is an honour to have such an awesome community. Thank you all for making our efforts worth it."
  6. Twitter Antoine Henry (@bob2356) on Twitter "Well done! The mystery of the numbers on the Collector's Edition steel case is solved!"
  7. Twitter Antoine Henry (@bob2356) on Twitter "Replying to @JBrod4455 and @DarbyMcDevitt Yes indeed, our world team in Singapore built - among other things - Jorvik and Eurviscire, and collaborated with Ubisoft Philippines on Snotinghamscire."
  8. Twitter Antoine Henry (@bob2356) on Twitter "They [Access The Animus] did it! This language and the puzzle that comes with it is one of the proudest achievements of my career. I'm so happy to see that some people enjoyed it! I can't wait for their next video to see how far they unraveled the mystery! :-)"
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