The Order of Ancients, later known as the Templars, are the primary antagonists of the Assassin’s Creed series, and play a big role in the story of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla.
After Eivor meets the mysterious Hidden Ones, Basim and Hytham, in Norway, they take up arms against the Order in an effort to stop their nefarious agenda.
Once the Raven clan reach England, Hytham sticks around to set up a headquarters in town – feeding Eivor intel, and leading them towards new targets.
There are 30 full Order of Ancients targets to find Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, with between 3 and 4 Zealots – who serve as enforcers – for each branch.
Many of these targets reveal themselves during the main story of the game, but to uncover all of them requires Eivor to search the medieval countryside for clues.
First we’ll going through some tips on how to take down the Order of Ancients’ feared Zealots, before going into the locations of some of the early full members you can find.
How to beat Order of Ancients Zealots in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
The relentless Zealots of the Order of Ancients are some of the toughest foes you’ll face in the whole of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla.
Not only do they spam unblockable runic attacks and often come heavily armoured, but they can’t really be stealth attacked, ambushed, or fired on with arrows.
Plus to make matters even more difficult, when you first encounter them, Eivor is massively underleveled to take on the challenge. The lowest power level of any Zealot is 90, a full 70 higher than the 20 power level of Ledecestrescire and Grantebridgescire areas where they appear.
However, there is one early way to defeat them very easily. As shown in the embedded clip below:
Since you can re-spec your skills at any time for free in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, you can go down to the bottom of the Raven line (the left-hand side of the skill tree) and acquire Missile Reversal pretty much from when you reach England.
Now, get the attention of a Zealot, lock on, then backpedal away from them until you reach medium distance.
From here, the Zealot will try and throw spears at you. Since you’ve got Missile Reversal, the fight now just becomes a question of pressing L1 just as the spear is about to hit you. Eivor will then throw the spear back at the Zealot and deal a good chunk of damage.
Continue to backpedal away from them, throw back their spears, and they should go down in about 10-15 shots.
This also works if you climb up to a high place, or if the Zealot throws a different projectile – like a mine or gas bombs – at you.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Order of Ancients Locations
The Order of Ancients has spread its tendrils all throughout medieval England. To root them out you’ll need to search the whole of the country, finding clues at hidden locations and in the belongings of the members you hunt down.
There are 6 members per branch of the Order of Ancients menu, and taking one target down gives you clues to finding the others. Once you’ve defeated all 6 in one branch, you’ll find the Maegester of that branch.
Defeat all five Maegesters of the order of Ancients, and you’ll uncover the Grand Maegester behind it all.
To avoid spoilers at this early stage in the game’s lifecycle, we’ll add more members of the Order of Ancients as we find them.
Right-hand Order of Ancients Branch
- Kjotve the Cruel – Killed in Story
- Leofgifu – Learn about from Hytham – Found in Utbech in the east of Grantebridgescire – Killing her gives notes on the Keel and The Anvil
- Hunta, Son of Hunta – Learn about from Hytham – Found in the market in the town of Ledecestre – Killing reveals clue to The Vellum
- The Leech – Learn about from Hytham – Continue story to reveal
- The Arrow – Learn about from Hytham – Continue story to reveal
- The Compass – Learn about from Hytham – Continue story to reveal
- The Keel – Learn about from Hytham – Continue story to reveal
Leogifu location:
Hunta, Son of Hunta location:
Centre-right Order of Ancients Branch
- The Vellum – Learn about from Hunta, Son of Hunta, Investigate the Thieves’ Den north of Glowecestre
Centre-left Order of Ancients Branch
- The Tang/Wigmund – first clue from Hytham – killed during the Grantebridgescire story arc
- The Crozier – first clue from Hytham – Continue story to reveal
- The Anvil – learn about from Leofgifu – Investigate the Smithy at St. Albanes Abbey in Oxenefordscire – Then find at the forge in Oxeneforda on the western border of Oxenefordscire
- The Billhook – learn about from The Anvil – Investigate Aelfgarstun farm northwest of Lincoln
The Anvil location and clue location:
Left-hand Order of Ancients Branch
- The Bell – Learn about from The Anvil – Investigate the chain blockade on the Ember River in Suthsexe
For more on Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, check out our run-down of the full skill tree.
Or if it’s action you’re after, here are our picks of the best weapons for the early, mid, and late game.
