Locations

River Raids gave Valhalla three maps that exist nowhere in the main game. They are not regions of England you can walk into; they are separate raid arenas reached by longboat from the River Raid dock, and everything in them is a target. Farms, villages, monasteries and military encampments, laid out along a river you sail from one end to the other.

Because they are built for repetition rather than exploration, the useful way to compare them is by how much is on each one and what the game makes you do to get there.

The river raid maps guide lists Exe's fifteen by name, from the Exe Blockade and Keats Farm through five small camps, the Eastern and Western Fortifications, Escanceaster Monastery and the Fortress on the Exe. Severn is the bigger of the two starters at eighteen, adding Llanidloes, Caersws, an island camp, an island monastery and a pair of homesteads to the same mix of camps and farms.

The two monasteries that matter

Out of thirty-three locations across the two starting maps, exactly two do something other than hold loot. Escanceaster Monastery on the Exe and Northern Monastery on the Severn each hide a river map clue, and collecting both is what opens River Dee. Everything else on either map is optional forever.

That makes the first two maps a strange kind of tutorial. You can raid them indefinitely for supplies and gear without ever progressing, and plenty of people do, because the raids are replayable by design and nothing degrades. But if you want the third map you need those two specific buildings, and our walkthrough guide covers the quest that formalises the errand.

Why the third map is different

River Dee is the only one of the three with an ending. The other two are loops; Dee has a fortress at the far end of the river with a champion inside it, and beating him hands over the Sword of Saint George. That single fact changes how you should approach it, because the rest of the mode rewards speed and Dee rewards bringing a full crew.

It is also the hardest of the three by the page's own description, which is consistent with it being locked behind the other two. Treat Exe and Severn as the place to build up a raiding party and a stock of supplies, and Dee as the thing you spend them on.

What raiding here actually gives you

The rewards are resources, armour and weapons, and the armour is the point: the Saint George set is split across every river, and no one of them holds enough pieces to finish it. Two pieces sit on Exe, two on Severn, and the remainder plus the sword are on Dee.

There is one more thing hiding in these maps that is easy to miss. Three Books of Knowledge exist only in River Raids, two on River Dee and one on River Severn, and they unlock Battle Cry, Berserker Trap and Shoulder Bash. Those are permanent abilities rather than cosmetics, which makes them the most valuable thing in the mode and the strongest argument for raiding at all. Our items guide covers where the rest of the game's abilities hide.

One practical note that applies to all three maps. The raids can be run again from the start as many times as you like, so a bad first attempt costs you nothing but the sail back. Our page recommends levelling up and preparing properly before the first run rather than treating the early maps as disposable, since the same enemies are what you will be fighting on Dee with more of them.