Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Discovery Tour: Viking Age teaches you a lot about Viking culture that you won’t have gleaned from the base game. Each quest is packed with Discoveries and Behind-the-Scenes facts to collect. However, there aren’t any dotted around the map during Into the West. Instead, they all pop up as part of the main story. The most interesting of these relates to a horse and a decision you’ll need to make. This guide covers what happens if you make Gunnhilda ride a horse during Into the West and what happens if you don’t.
What happens if Gunnhilda rides a horse?
Once you take control of Gunnhilda, you’ll see that you have to travel a considerable distance to reach your objective. You have the option to ride a horse, but it’s considered bad luck to even speak of a horse before a sea voyage in Norse culture, so it would seem that riding one is bad luck. Of course, the game doesn’t tell you to avoid a horse, but it does suggest that things might go badly for you if you do.
We chose to have Gunnhilda ride a horse, and the consequences came pretty swiftly. Once you arrive at your destination, Gunnhilda needs to convince a crew to sail with her. A man called Hamarr will comment on how he saw Gunnhilda arrive on a horse, and that’s the reason he gives for him and his men sticking on dry land. However, another crew will step up and sail with you eventually.
We’re not sure what happens if Gunnhilda doesn’t ride a horse, but we’d assume that you simply miss out on this dialogue. We feel that it’s better to see it, though, because it gives you the chance to respond to Hamarr’s comments by stating that she was trying to undo the bad luck of sailing with a woman by riding a horse. In addition, it’s a new insight into the culture and beliefs of the time that you wouldn’t see otherwise.