Assassin’s Creed Mirage: Valley of Memory – Everything You Need to Know

Assassin's Creed Mirage: Valley of Memory, the free expansion for all Assassin's Creed Mirage players, is out now. Valley of Memory introduces over six hours of new content and a fresh chapter in Basim's story set in AlUla - a stunning region rich in history, mystery, and danger. In addition to all of the new content set in AlUla, the Mirage team is releasing a free update that implements a variety of new gameplay changes, which are available in both the main game and the expansion. Here's a full rundown of everything you need to know about Valley of Memory and the changes coming to Assassin's Creed Mirage.

The Story of Valley of Memory

Set before the finale of Mirage's main narrative, Valley of Memory begins with a mysterious lead: Basim hears rumors that his long-lost father may still be alive. After speaking with his old friend Dervis, Basim sets out for AlUla --- a land of secrets, ancient ruins, and vibrant oases - to find his father.

New Gameplay in Valley of Memory

Beyond the main story, Valley of Memory offers hours of world activities, carefully designed to build on Mirage's core systems and to help you uncover the mysteries of AlUla.

Familiar side activities return, including world events and world contracts, alongside new additions. One of the new activities is Stolen Goods, where Basim must steal secret maps from robbers to recover valuable items. Another is Oud Melodies, which challenges players to collect musical themes through parkour sequences --- reminiscent of the sea shanties in Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. Once collected, Basim can perform these melodies himself in a variety of musical settings in the world, offering the perfect chance to enjoy a break in the journey.

Replayable Animus Sequences and Challenges

Major missions and contracts in Assassin's Creed Mirage and Valley of Memory will be replayable after you complete them once. Accessible through the "Animus Sequences" section of your investigation board or directly within the world, each replayable mission will offer distinct challenges, encouraging you to play in new and creative ways. You may have to avoid using Eagle Vision, kill only your main target, or remain undetected, all in a certain amount of time. Completing these challenges will unlock exclusive in-game rewards like Animus mods that offer game-changing bonuses like auto-refilling your tools or auto-replenishing Assassin's Focus. Animus mods can only be used during Animus Sequences or in a New Game+ playthrough.  

Free Jump and Major Parkour Changes

Parkour in Assassin's Creed Mirage is better than ever thanks to some new optional mechanics that you can toggle on or off:

• Free Jump: You'll now be able to toggle on the ability to manually jump, allowing you to weave together free-running parkour sequences that were previously impossible.
• New Control Scheme: A new, optional, control scheme labeled "Modern" is also being introduced to smooth the experience of leaping from rooftop to rooftop; this scheme is especially useful when playing with free jump turned on.
• Back and Side Ejects Mode: Previously, side and back ejects could only be performed when Basim had a clear landing spot or handhold. This is called "Safe" mode. Now, Basim can side or back eject regardless of the landing spot, known as "Free" mode. You can switch between Safe and Free mode as you like.

You'll also notice some other minor changes to parkour to smooth out the overall experience. These new updates allow for more creative parkouring than ever before in Assassin's Creed Mirage.

New Skill and Tool Upgrades 

A new skill called Engineer 2 is coming to Basim's skill tree that will allow him to equip all level 1 enhancements to his tools, and a new level 3 modification has been added to all Tools as well. Basim's tools will be more powerful and useful than ever before. Your enhanced tools will help you overcome some of the new animus sequence challenges and difficulty levels. The new level 3 upgrades include:

• Throwing Knives - Throwing Knives become explosive
• Smoke Bomb - Becomes a corrosive bomb that dissolves dead enemies, leaving no trace of them.
• Blowdart - Can now pierce even the most heavily armored enemies.
• Noisemaker - Can now put enemies caught in its impact zone to sleep.
• Trap - Traps can now cause enemies caught within their blast radius to enter berserk mode and attack their fellow guards.

New Difficulty Levels

Two additional difficulty levels are coming to the game, giving you five difficulty presets.

• Apprentice - The easiest difficulty
• Assassin - Normal difficulty
• Hardened Assassin (new) - Same as Assassin, but enemies have higher defense
• Master Assassin - Hard difficulty
• Ultimate Assassin (new) - Hardest difficulty

Of course, you can also customize the difficulty on your own, tuning it to your desired level of challenge. You can also take on permadeath mode, where a single death means restarting from the beginning. Completing permadeath mode on Hardened Assassin will reward you with the Obsidian Rayhan costume dye, while beating it on Ultimate Assassin will get you the Skull Emblem Talisman.

How to Access Valley of Memory

When accessing Valley of Memory through a new or returning playthrough, you'll encounter a boy waiting for you at the Harbiyah Bureau. The boy will prompt a cutscene to go to Dervis' shop. Once there, Dervis will introduce the Valley of Memory questline and ask Basim if he wants to go to AlUla. Answering "yes" will officially start Valley of Memory.

• New Playthrough - If you're playing Assassin's Creed Mirage for the first time or starting a new game from the beginning, you'll encounter the Valley of Memory questline at once you have "The Head of the Snake" mission available to you and must "Report to the Bureau". You'll then encounter the Valley of Memory questline once you visit the Harbiyah Bureau.
• New Game+ - Creating a New Game+ will give you the choice to start at the beginning of the game or directly at Baghdad. Since you're already familiar with the main story of Assassin's Creed Mirage, the Valley of Memory question will be available right after the Caravanserai when you have to report to Roshan at the Harbiyah Bureau.
• Returning Playthrough - If you've finished Assassin's Creed Mirage, or advanced past "The Head of the Snake" mission, you'll be able to load your saved game and have access to Valley of Memory immediately through the Investigation board. You'll be asked to go directly to Dervis's shop.
• Access Valley of Memory Immediately - If you want to jump straight into Valley of Memory without a preexisting save, you will have the option of starting the expansion directly when you chose to start a new playthrough. Doing this will prompt a recap video, detailing the events of the main game up to this point. If you select this option, Basim will start with certain skills already unlocked - which you can reinvest as you like - as well as the materials needed to upgrade your tools as you see fit. You'll also be given some in-game currency and tokens to help replicate what a late-game Basim would normally have.   

Assassin's Creed Mirage: Valley of Memory is out now and available on Ubisoft+, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Amazon Luna, iOS and PC through the Ubisoft Store, Steam, and the Epic Games Store.

Join the conversation online @assassinscreed with the hashtag #ACMirage and #ValleyOfMemory.