Massive Assassin’s Creed Ragnarok leaks online.

Reveals details about combat, map, mechanics, and narrative.

Official announcement allegedly set for next month.

Few franchises fall foul to leaks like Assassin’s Creed. After Ubisoft took a year out following Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, the rumor mill is once again awash with speculation about what the developer is conjuring up this time around.

We’ve known for a while now, courtesy of reliable sources such as Kotaku’s Jason Schreier and a teaser in The Division 2, that Ubisoft is turning its attention to the rich history and mythology of the Nordic lands’ Vikings in what is widely expected to be titled Assassin’s Creed Ragnarok.

Massive Assassin’s Creed Ragnarok Leak

A new leak that first appeared on the message board of questionable repute, 4Chan, before spreading to Reddit, offers a massive dive into what we can expect from Ragnarok.

Ubisoft has yet to unveil the game officially and, as such, approach these details with the pre-requisite amount of skepticism. With that said, 4Chan leaks concerning past Assassin’s Creed titles have occasionally hit the mark.

Firstly, here are the practical details:

Title of the next game is Ragnarok, code-named Kingdom. Will launch on Xbox One, PS4, PS5, and Xbox Series X. Officially announced in February at the upcoming PlayStation event, release date September 29th, 2020.

According to the leak, players will take on the role of a protagonist named Jora and Assassin’s Creed Ragnarok will feature co-op play, a first for the series:

Up to 4 player drop in drop out co-op like Ghost Recon Wildlands. Players can only play as a single character, Jora, who can be chosen to be male or female. Jora leads a small band of 4 during their adventures, which is why other players can drop in and out for co-op. The map is massive. Like all of northern Europe. My source mentioned big cities being York, London, Paris, and Kiev. Every Kingdom was meant to be really unique.

Deeper RPG Elements

Ragnarok’s will continue the integration of RPG elements, first implemented with Origins and, more overtly, in Odyssey:

Continues heavy RPG mechanics now including different classes and mild skill tree changes based on class. Player class can be changed by a specific character. Combat is upgraded with more weapon types and special abilities for every weapon grouping. Each weapon can have runes added, be upgraded, and durability increased. Weapon durability does now come into play, forcing players to use their weapon pool more effectively and forced to manage a smaller inventory that can be upgraded. Replacing adrenaline is a Berserker mode, which also activates special runes like fire, frost, or lightning damage. Difficulty returns but focuses more on parry times, player health, and enemy reaction times rather than enemy health Leveling is overhauled to allow players to improve skill sets to gain experience, like in Skyrim. As a result, level locking regions and content is gone. Some skills are unlocked by reaching a high enough skill set level, some must be bought with skill points, and others are unlocked through game/ story progression.

Improved Stealth

As for other mechanics in Assassin’s Creed Ragnarok:

Sailing returns is less combat-intensive and more focused on exploration and travel including being able to navigate tight rivers and wetlands. Parkour is upgraded with tree climbing and new animations. The hidden blade is back and is far more customizable in terms of cosmetics. Can be upgraded to kill in one stab. Stealth is upgraded by having physical stealth skills such as hiding in mud, snow, crouching in bushes, hiding in bales of hay, etc. Players can now also hide in crowds of civilians if their outfit/ armor is appropriate otherwise it can attract attention. Players now have a reputation system based on quests completed for people in cities, the town officials, clothing worn, crimes committed, etc. Some quests and story missions can only be completed after reaching a certain reputation with kingdoms.

Narrative Outline

Finally, the leak offers a little insight into Ragnarok’s story, which will weave a narrative involving prominent figures from Viking history, including Ragnar and his sons.

There you have it, and there’s a lot to digest. As far as a first official look goes, we’d wager on Ragnarok featuring heavily at E3 2020. The leak suggests February, so it may, in fact, be sooner.

2020 is lining up as a busy year for Ubisoft with the release of Watch Dogs: Legion, which has already been delayed, so we can’t discount that Ragnarok might not even release this year.