The naked truth behind AC Valhalla's nudist mystery glitch
Perhaps the weirdest Assassin's Creed glitch ever.
Assassin's Creed Valhalla is Ubisoft's most ambitious open-world title to date. The latest installment of the adventure series takes gamers on a quest through Scandinavia and Europe as a group of Vikings expands their reach and influence of their empire.
Developers spent countless the better part of two and half years building the icy fjords and winding rivers that dot the landscape of Valhalla, but like any other newly released game, there are bugs. And there's one particular mission that will put the game in an unintentional loop and force you to boot up a past save, which could cost you a great deal of progress if you aren't careful.
And it has to do with nudists.
Spoilers for an Assassin's Creed Valhalla side mission ahead.
The Norse-themed role-playing game is Ubisoft's most successful Assassin's Creed launch ever, which means potentially millions of players have set off to conquer England since its November 10 release date. Some of them stumbled across a random world event called a "Mystery" that kept them from completing the mission. In some particularly bad cases, it keeps users from progressing through the rest of Valhalla entirely.
The Mystery can be found directly South of Ravensthorpe.
"Winchell the Robesfree" is a Mystery you'll find in England directly South from Ravensthorpe past the Elisdon Altar. The event begins when the player speaks to a shouting man named Winchell on top of a boulder that's dressed in only a loincloth.
Winchell is an overly-enthusiastic nudist who will tell you about a nearby nudist colony that has exiled him because of his constant over-excitement about being naked. He'll then ask you to extract revenge for him by stealing the colony's stash of clothing. Not completing his request exactly as Ubisoft intended can result in the Mystery becoming uncompletable, or worse, it might lock your game in a loop.
That's particularly difficult for this Mystery because Winchell doesn't explain what he wants you to do with the clothing to begin with.
Many players were unsure of where to deposit the box of clothing upon collecting it, which led to them trying to dispose of it by tossing it into a nearby river. That will result in the box becoming unretrievable, which will make the Mystery impossible to complete. It'll also cause a strange loop with one of the nudist NPCs in the colony.
Winchell the Robesfree will begin as soon as you speak to Winchell.
"I then picked up the box of clothes and threw it into the lake, as that is what I thought the guy wanted me to do. I then watched the clothes box fall through the map on the bottom of the lake," writes one Valhalla player. "I then took my clothes off and got caught in a loop of 'dancing' with the nudists which ate up all of my autosaves and I could not load an earlier save."
Booting up a past save will get you out of the loop, but Redditors have reported that the crate of clothing won't respawn. This can be incredibly frustrating, especially if you're a completionist.
How to prevent this issue? Unfortunately, there's no hotfix for the Winchell the Robesfree Mystery just yet, but Ubisoft has been responsive to other bugs which could mean this particular bug will eventually be patched.
Deliver the crate to a tent near the nudist colony to complete the Mystery.
For the time being, the only way to avoid this glitch is to deliver the box to a nearby tent and drop it onto a blue mat. This small camp is hidden behind a cliff that overlooks the colony that you'll find by following a path leading away from the nudists.
Once you place the crate on the mat, the Mystery will be complete.
Assassin's Creed Valhalla is out now for PS5, PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, and PC.
