What Breed are the Giant Cats in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla?

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is packed with gorgeous places to explore, exciting combat, and cats that you can pet. Not only do you get to pet these adorable felines, you get to scoop them up in your arms and give them a hug.

As many gamers have noted, the cats look abnormally large when they’re being held by Eivor which leads to questions like whether they’re supposed to be that big.

Believe it or not, it’s not an accident the cats look this way as they’re based off a real breed of cat, and yes, these cats really do get that big! 

Update: According to Ubisoft, the cats in the game were based off the Scottish Wildcat. Given that you can’t own a Scottish Wildcat as a pet, we’re keeping the rest of the article intact. If you want to own your very own giant cat, there are two common cat breed options to choose from. 

What Breed are the Giant Cats in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla?

The quick answer to the question of what breed the cats are in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is the Scottish Wildcat. If you were to come across one of these cats in real life, we imagine it wouldn’t be too friendly.

You wouldn’t be able to pick it up and give it snuggles. With that in mind, there’s a domesticated breed of cat that you can look to as well… the Norwegian Forest Cat or “skogkatt” as they’re called in Norway.

Looking up information about the breed, it’s noted that the Norwegian Forest Cat might’ve originated from cats brought to Norway by Vikings, which sounds fitting for a game with Vikings like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla.

If you look up images of people holding a Norwegian Forest Cat, you’ll see that the cats really do get as big as the cats that are depicted in the game. 

You can pet the cat in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla pic.twitter.com/aPadBkopMm

— Can You Pet the Dog? (@CanYouPetTheDog) November 11, 2020

On average, female Norwegian Forest Cats can weigh up to 18 pounds while males can weigh up to 20 pounds (or more). In comparison, the average weight for a cat sits at around 9 to 11 pounds.

Norwegian Forest Cats aren’t the only breed of large domesticated cats, either. The Maine Coon breed has some record-breakingly large cats as well. 

So yes, certain cat breeds really do look as big as the ones in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. 

Photo Credit: MSN

Knowing that the cats were based off the Scottish Wildcat, and the fact that there are domesticated cats that get pretty huge as well, it seems the large cats in the game were an intentional design decision rather than an inaccurate accident.

That’s not to say there weren’t some odd choices when it comes to the scale of other animals in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla as you’re able to ride around on a wolf that looks as big as a horse but that’s a different topic for a different day.

It’s also really cool, you have to give it that.

Anyway, if you’re looking to adopt a big, fluffy cat to hang out with you while you play Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, you can get yourself a Norwegian Forest Cat like the cats shown in the game, or you could get yourself a Maine Coon.

Or both.