@ChuckKatse
Those are all great points, and I certainly agree!! I'm just wondering where the devs came up with the mastery challenge idea. Did we, the community, ask for this? Unless I'm missing something, I don't think we did. I personally would have loved some new side missions or daily missions to fill in the gap between the Paris DLC. Gosh, I would have preferred almost anything but these ridiculous challenges.

@theexpcoffee

I really appreciated what you said here, as I feel the same. These challenges seem so perpendicular to how the game has been so far. If I used an analogy, I would describe AC Valhalla as cruising down the highway at a good clip with these mastery challenges running it off the road into the ditch!! Lol

@spider6418
I am having the same problem. He isn't showing up at my settlement either, and I was really hoping he would be there. He's a cool little fox!! Lol.

@azullfr

Thank you soooooo much for that information!! I kept thinking that mine took so much longer to load up than before the update, and your test certainly confirms that. I also run a Samsung 860 EVO 1TB SSD (I love that thing so much!!), and I kept looking at it to make sure the red light was flashing. I just kept thinking to myself, "Man, this game is taking forever to load up!" Lol

Yeah, I can definitely identify with what many of you are saying here, as I am pretty much despising the mastery challenges as well. So far, I'm finding the combat ones to be the most painful and the stealth ones to be the least painful with the archer ones somewhere in between. I actually went back to Ravensthorpe to see if the rewards were worth all the misery, and I'm kinda thinking not so much. Lol.

@fylkirpanzer
I appreciate your response and your perspective on this. Gosh, we couldn't be any different on this one. As this quest went along, I grew to dislike Ivarr more and more. I just found him to not be a very honorable warrior at all. He killed Ceolbert just so he could get another chance at killing Rhodri, as he had a years long grudge against him. Ivarr's actions got Ceolbert and Rhodri killed very unnecessarily along with countless soldiers in a battle that was going to be avoided otherwise. I just found him to be a producer of disharmony and chaos all of the time. I took great pleasure in killing him AND sending him to Helheim. That's right - no Valhalla for Ivarr!! Lastly, at the end of the quest, I told his brother Ubba the truth about what took place.

This is a very good question about the "X's" that are showing up. As an example on my map, the Isle of Ely Monastery location now shows four "X's" over four of the buildings there. I have completed that raid, so I was thinking maybe it was showing me that I looted all of the treasure out of there. I also see two "X's" at Grantebridge, and I did loot that place clean. So, I think it might be related to loot.

@valtyrnine
You can indeed!! It is part of one of the world events. The fox is supposed to show up back at the settlement. I am having the same problem. Come home, Dandelion Puff!!

So, what are you all feeling about the mastery challenges so far? I'm really wanting to like them, but I'm feeling rather lukewarm about them for now. It's kinda irritating starting these things out with a pre-determined loadout and only one health bar. I have worked hard on my character and am at maximum level with about 88 mastery points spread around. I have my gear just as I like it and am going around crushing everything!! Lol. Now, with these challenges, it's like I'm having to start over in some ways. Maybe I'll warm up to these in time. Or maybe I'll just ignore them until our next content comes out!! Lol.

I did that exact contract yesterday too and thought it was hilarious!! I didn't mind getting some easy XP and coin from Reda!!

@guest-qmxgavqo

I'm on Xbox, and I remember having to manually install the Wrath of the Druids DLC. It didn't automatically install. So that could be what's going on with you.

@azullfr

Thank you soooooo much for that information!! I kept thinking that mine took so much longer to load up than before the update, and your test certainly confirms that. I also run a Samsung 860 EVO 1TB SSD (I love that thing so much!!), and I kept looking at it to make sure the red light was flashing. I just kept thinking to myself, "Man, this game is taking forever to load up!" Lol

I am in the same boat as many others in that Dandelion Puff is there now, but Chewie is missing.

Hello there, fellow Assassins/Vikings!! Okay, so I have long wondered why I haven't seen Dandelion Puff at Ravensthorpe after competing the associated world mystery in Oxfordshire months ago. So today I traveled back to the location of that mystery in the hopes that I either find Dandelion Puff again or unglitch the mystery. Lo and behold, the woman in the mystery was still sitting on the ground waving her arm in the air, and the house is still on fire. She doesn't say anything, and I couldn't interact with her. I went into the house, but no sign of our beloved little fox. So I decided to ride my horse back to Ravensthorpe instead of fast travelling. Much to my surprise, I saw Dandelion Puff there!! I know it was him because he has the green dot over his head. He ran to the back of the settlement into the woods. It was so cool to see him again!! As a test, I went back to the Oxfordshire location one more time, and this time the lady was gone. So I'm thinking it was some sort of glitch. I hope this helps anyone who is having the same problem. Much like the white cat who lives on my longship, I really wanted Dandelion Puff to have a new home at Ravensthorpe.

@cyberdragon92

I haven't seen any acknowledgement from any of the Ubisoft Community Representatives yet, unless I missed it. It would be nice if they could report back to the devs that most of us are not enjoying the mastery challenges at all, so maybe something could be done about it.

You know, everyone, I was thinking that the Summer Solstice will take place this Sunday, June 20th. I can't help but think that a festival in the game celebrating that would have been so much more in the spirit of AC Valhalla than these utterly ridiculous mastery challenges. I'm beginning to think that they should be renamed to misery challenges!! But seriously, I just really feel that Ubisoft dropped the ball with this aspect of the new update. And I'm someone who almost always sees the glass half full and have only good things to say about AC Valhalla, but this part of the update is just a huge letdown.

@ChuckKatse
Those are all great points, and I certainly agree!! I'm just wondering where the devs came up with the mastery challenge idea. Did we, the community, ask for this? Unless I'm missing something, I don't think we did. I personally would have loved some new side missions or daily missions to fill in the gap between the Paris DLC. Gosh, I would have preferred almost anything but these ridiculous challenges.

@theexpcoffee

I really appreciated what you said here, as I feel the same. These challenges seem so perpendicular to how the game has been so far. If I used an analogy, I would describe AC Valhalla as cruising down the highway at a good clip with these mastery challenges running it off the road into the ditch!! Lol

Yeah, I can definitely identify with what many of you are saying here, as I am pretty much despising the mastery challenges as well. So far, I'm finding the combat ones to be the most painful and the stealth ones to be the least painful with the archer ones somewhere in between. I actually went back to Ravensthorpe to see if the rewards were worth all the misery, and I'm kinda thinking not so much. Lol.

@orcbeard92
Lol!! Yes indeed, you are right!! I just really got spoiled going in everywhere with axes blazing!!