Yesterday, a Sunday, I woke up and decided to jump directly back into the world of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. Generally speaking every day that I’ve played it since getting an advance copy (Thank you, Ubisoft) it has managed to surprise me with blindsiding plot twists and genuinely fun gameplay, but yesterday was the first time I experienced an issue that left me so wholly frustrated that I’m reconsidering whether I even want to keep playing the game at all.

That issue? A confusing and quiet bug that doesn't let you complete the absolute first thing you must do in Asgard (closing the goddamn gate), rendering it impossible for you to progress. But what's even more frustrating, is that it's really easy to not know that something's gone wrong, AND there's literally no way to leave Asgard until you've completed the uncompletable of this quest. 

After 6 hours of foolishly running around Asgard trying to figure out what the hell was going on, I started googling to see if I was alone in this issue or if anyone had found any answers. After finally finding one that worked, I decided to write this for you so that you can skip the HOURS of frustration that I experienced.

SPOILER ALERT: Below are plot and gameplay spoilers that you may want to avoid.

How to get to Asgard

When you build up your settlement in Ravensthorpe you must choose what buildings/businesses that you want to build including a bakery, an armory, a forge and so on. The most mysterious of these places being the Seer’s Hut where Valka (the woman who's obsessed with your visions) lives. Her hut costs 800 supplies, 60 raw materials, and can’t be built until your settlement reaches level 3, triggering Valka’s arrival.

Once you’ve built her hut she will send you on a mission to acquire Thistle (which is easy enough to find using Odin’s Sight). Once you’ve returned with the required amount of Thistle, Valka will make you a hallucinatory concoction that will make you travel to Asgard.

Tip: Keep in mind that Asgard is suggested for those with level 90 or higher, so entering in early is going to lead to A LOT of frustration as there's no way to leave Asgard without some battle.

"View Above All": Your first quest in Asgard

The first quest in Asgard is titled “View Above All” with the opening mission being “Close The Gate to Jotunheim”. This requires you to go to the town square, choose a fighter you want to take with you (choose Thor, duh) and cross what is clearly Asgard’s version of the rainbow bridge, where you can just run past the battle toward the far side of the bridge.

When you reach the top of the small hill you’ll be faced with another group of Jotnar (the blue guys you’ve been running past for the last 5 minutes) and one extremely dangerous Jotnar with a glowing axe that will 1 or 2 hit kill you if you’re a lower level.

The Jotnar here seem to respawn endlessly so I would advise against wasting TOO much time with them, and just make your way to the door without being noticed by the glowing axe Jotnar dick.

The Problem

Once there you should be able to close the door by holding down the suggested button, but for a lot of us it never successfully closes the door. It just repeatedly resets the completion meter, all the while removing the “Close The Gate” portion of the quest in the HUD, but unless you actually get the animation that the door has closed, you’re not done.

This is what the door/gate closing animation SHOULD look like.

After this animation you should be prompted to go talk to Loki about whether or not you should trust a stranger. If this ISN'T what's happening, then something is wrong. 

The Fix (you're not going to like this)

If the Norse gods have blessed you with this bug what you’ll need to do is open up the Load Save Options and choose the most recent “Exclusive Quest Save - Episode Save 1” option, restarting your entire time in Asgard. (Told you that you wouldn't like it)

IF YOU DO NOT DO THIS EVERYTHING YOU WILL DO AFTER THIS WILL GO UNSAVED AND WILL BE LOST. YOU WILL BE STUCK IS ASGARD FOREVER AND NOTHING WILL MAKE SENSE. YOU WILL LOSE 6 HOURS OF YOUR SUNDAY AND YOU WILL BE EXCEEDINGLY ANGRY ABOUT IT AND BE FORCED TO WRITE THIS ARTICLE. THIS WILL BE YOUR FUTURE.

Good luck and hit me up on Twitter if this works for you >>> @colbydroscher

If it doesn't call 911.