All Assassin's Creed Odyssey epic encounters returning as part of 1st birthday celebrations

Assassin's Creed Odyssey is turning one this month, and, as part of its birthday celebrations, Ubisoft is giving players a chance to have another crack at all previous epic ship and mercenary encounters, polishing off any they might have missed first time around.

Ubisoft's murderous anniversary event will run from today, 1st October, until 4th November, with a different epic encounter scheduled each day. These will alternate between mercenary and ship battles on a weekly basis, and Ubisoft is increasing Orichalcum payouts for the duration of the event, with each defeated ship or mercenary rewarding 15 Orichalcum. That means it'll be possible to accrue 105 Orichalcum a week instead of the usual 40.

Here's how the next five weeks of epic encounters breaks down:

Week 1

• 1st October - Abia the Shaded
• 2nd October - Occylos the Successor
• 3rd October - Polycaste the Jilted
• 4th October - Edonos the Charging Bull
• 5th October - Shapur the Unforgiving
• 6th October - Perdix the Wayfarer
• 7th October - Okaleia the Lotus Eater

Week 2

• 8th October - Delos
• 9th October - Palaityros
• 10th October - Old Neurus
• 11th October - Piraeus
• 12th October - Keta's Wrath
• 13th October - Lakedaimonia
• 14th October - Salaminia

Week 3

• 15th October - Ariathate the Winner
• 16th October - Astarte the Swamp
• 17th October - Aretos the Aid
• 18th October - Harpina the Heavy-Hitter
• 19th October - Testiklos the Nut
• 20th October - Hygieia the Sword
• 21st October - Laches the Eternal

Week 4

• 22nd October - Black Wind
• 23rd October - The Tyrant
• 24th October - Shadowed Nymph
• 25th October - Hekate's Grace
• 26th October - Glory of the Law
• 27th October - Fly Ikaros
• 28th October - Lakonia

Week 5

• 29th October - Iaeira the Overcomer
• 30th October - Narkissos the Babbler
• 31st October - Nanno the Abacus
• 1st November - Nester the Great
• 2nd November - Thaleia the Talon-Hand
• 3rd November - Auxesia the Spawn of Chaos
• 4th November - Damais the Not-So-Indifferent

As part of its anniversary musings, Ubisoft has also shared a number of eye-opening statistics regarding players' first year in the game. For instance, the combined might of Odyssey's player base has managed to accrue over 645 million hours of playtime, sending over 20 billion enemies to their doom and taking more than 48 million photos along the way.

Additionally, evidence suggests the majority of Odyssey players are good eggs deep down. 68% of players preferred to go with friendly dialogue options over their aggressive counterparts, and 66% favoured telling the truth over lying. And when flirting was an option? 71.5% would choose that path, almost certainly with a saucy twinkle in their eyes.

A few further stats and word on Assassin's Creed: Odyssey's next title update (plus a partially purple unicorn) can be found in Ubisoft's latest blog post.