Valheim - a brutal exploration and survival game - now available on Early Access

[Burning Bridges]

This is rpgcodex, page after page of manchildren condescending each other. A rough place for housewifes playing cutesy games with "hubby"

 

[ERYFKRAD]

As a female

Ultra gay

 

[typical user]

I am currently trying to get the 3rd boss on swamp areas although I feel like I need to build 2nd base close to mountains and swamps to have easy access to surtling cores, silver and other high-end materials. The long journeys with supplies across seas are killing me. My starting base and sacrificial stones were spawned on isolated island. I had to build a raft to get out of there to kill my first boss.

 

[Hellraiser]

I fucking crave a decent sailing exploration+survival game with random worlds, sailing into the unknown, discovering and looting shit. This kind of scratches that itch but needs way more work, this is very likely a "modders will fix it" game unless the devs get a clue (very likely the popularity of the game will ruin it later on).

This game needs a mod that fixes the enemy balance (wolves being stronger than trolls), enemy spawning overkill (fucking wolves and drakes), reduces the material grind (especially fucking ores) and adds good random loot (runic enchantments for tools/weapons, not this "go to dungeon type X to mine/loot more Y for Z") to incentivize exploration. In general it could use more reasons to explore, especially with sailing and more dungeon types. If I could change anything I would remove the railroading after the first boss and flatten/squash the enemy difficulty/strength, likewise making the Forsaken give drops/benefits that are "nice to have if you want to do X or Y" rather than a "you must kill a boss to mine iron" retarded progression gate making it too fucking linear despite the randomly generated open world.

It has a decent base to work with, but at this point I have seen so many games that have potential and the devs fail to utilize it that I am cautiously pessimistic, although at least the ocean is supposed to get expanded upon.

Also it could use a fucking pause button in singleplayer.

 

[typical user]

So since my last post I have made a decent progress. I have killed Eikthyr, Elder, B O N E M A S S and Moder and I am currently in Linen-age with 3 bases: a fort on starter island with sacrificial stones, a stone tower in swamps close to surtling geysers for easy coal farming and just recently I have settled in Plains biome - I have already made a proper forge with all crafting stations, two spaces for farming and I am preparing to make a longhouse in between farming materials to fully upgrade my new linen armor and black metal weapons. It took me the longest to find Moder since I had to explore 4 different Mountains on 4 different islands, I have found Yagluth location before her. The hardest boss to kill so far was in swamps due to his high resistances, poison and permament rain. I have made a Frostner just to deal with his ridiculous hp pool as a solo-player.

I think this "solo-run" is legit even though a friend hopped in for one coop session and using his equipment from silver-age he uncovered one silver vein and brought in materials for me to craft a wolf-cape. I had frost resistance potions and was lucky enough to find more silver on my own without wishbone. I am fairly confident the last boss from current version of the game will be managable. Moder was easy enough with healing potions and upgraded gear.

When it comes to mods I've only started using texture pack to change up the looks of the game. I've also spotted a one that expands trader allowing him to sell equipment for which you have already unlocked schematics - I will probably use that in the future since that seems like a cool option to spend extra gold and skip additional farming for early stage gear. Fulings and trolls drop enough gold coins, draugr crypts also host enough treasures which is piling up in my chests, being able to buy extra silver shield or arrows instead of farming the materials would be great. Maybe the developers will implement this change in one of the content updates.

 

[Wild Slop]

That trader mod sounds good.

Bonemass is by far the hardest Boss fight. I was playing with 1 other friend and taking it done felt like a feat.

Moder took most effort to summon but when it came to fighting was a (glitchy) joke. She was about as much threat as one of the ice dragonlings - or even less so. Speculating - I was thinking maybe this was in part due to not being able to chose which of us to target? At that point we brought in a 3rd player and the fight was pretty much her just aimlessly flying around only shooting ice attack a handful of times. After the Bonemass we were dreading another brutal asskicking x10.

 

[Latelistener]

I've been playing it for some time now, killed two bosses. My first impression was that it isn't a survival game. Technically it may be called that, but practically survival in my opinion is something akin to Don't Starve. Here though you don't even need to drink or sleep. Eating is vital, but not necessary (it gives hp and stamina boost) and food doesn't spoil. If you won't eat you won't die, so you can do stuff like building at your own leisure, but getting deep into wilderness without food is a suicide (as the base hp and stamina are quite low).

The more I played the more I realized that it's 3D Terraria. This is where they took the tier-based progression system. Some of the stuff is clearly inspired by Breath of the Wild (simulated waves and falling trees), but I do hope they expand further on that (i.e. currently lightning doesn't exist in the game as a physical object and cannot do any harm). Other than that I do get some Skyrim and Gothic vibes.

Combat is simplistic, but works. Visuals are intentionally stylized, but quite advanced actually. Volumetric fog is especially good.

My biggest gripe is that dungeons are separated from the world. Also, devs are slow on updates, so it's unclear what kind of future awaits the game, but it's worth its price.

 

[typical user]

I have officially beat the game (mostly solo). I have killed Yagluth which was the last boss so far. I have died once but that was when a Fuling Berserker distracted me and I died from a laser beam from the boss itself otherwise he was a push-over. I easily smacked him with ny level 4 black iron sword and he couldn't do much since I had stamina potions or abused i-frames from dodging.

I have made a teleporter for trader for future updates, might make an outpost there with a small cabin made of core wood. I have also made a nice long-house in Plains with stone wall which has Lox spawn-generator. If I get attacked by trolls or some other crap those huge lizards usually defend my base for me lol.

Here is the seed I played on:
iazjf0DFRG

Really hope dev team manages to update the game with new biomes without the need to start a new world. I would like to continue with my camps and venture north or south. There are plans already to make Deep North, Mistlands and Ashlands.

 

[Infinitron]

After a long and harsh adventure, every viking needs a warm and welcoming home to return to. What will yours look like?

Hearth & Home will be available on September 16th 2021.

 

[Calthaer]

I don't know if this is enough to get me back into this game. Once they finish the bosses and biomes they have half-implemented in the game now, then I'll think about it.

 

[Latelistener]

Update: Hearth & Home arrives!
Where the grass grows underfoot,
And the sky is blue overhead.
There will always be a
Hearth & Home.


(Spoilers ahead! If you want to discover the rest of the content yourself, you might not want to read this post just yet.)


Another month has passed since we spoke to you last, and what a month it’s been. First of all, the feedback from our cinematic trailer was incredible, and it has been great to see so many excited comments ahead of the update!

But now the wait is finally over, Vikings – Hearth & Home releases today. We’re incredibly excited to bring our first major update to you all, as well as a new video to show off some new gameplay!



As many of you will now know from the series of short spotlight videos, the Hearth & Home update brings plenty of new content to Valheim, expanding your gameplay options by introducing new mechanics, furniture, building pieces, food, weapons, optimizations and more.

The name of the update is Hearth & Home, which means that the cooking and the building got a bit of extra attention. For all the builders out there we have added a whole bunch of new build pieces and furniture, ranging everywhere from sturdy shingle roofs to a mighty stone throne.

We’ve also done our best to listen to community feedback, and several highly-requested features have made their way into this update. You’ll now be able to share map data with other vikings in your world, find seeds to plant more types of trees, and finally destroy your unwanted items with the new obliterator.

If taming animals is your thing, you’ll now find that you can name your favorite pets. We also suggest that you spend some extra time with your Lox...

While many features introduced in Hearth & Home have already been revealed, not even Odin has spied some of the new features being added with the update, including something dark and mysterious that seems to spread across the plains… Brave vikings should go and find out for themselves!

We hope you all enjoy the new content and want to thank you all again for your continued support as we continue our journey through Early Access together.

Skål!

The Iron Gate Team

Discord: https://discord.com/invite/valheim
Twitter:
@Valheimgame

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/valheimgame
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/valheim_official/
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/valheim/

Patch 0.202.14 (HEARTH & HOME)
General improvements

* Weapons rebalanced (All weapons have been rebalanced to be more viable as main weapon and also have more unique playstyles)
* Blocking system overhauled (Current maximum hp now greatly affects your ability to block attacks, stagger bar gui added)
* Naming tamed creatures
* Gamepad sensitivity settings
* Auto-pickup toggle button added
* Graphics settings (Active point lights & Active point light shadows)
* Tamed creatures affected by friendly fire setting (i.e you can’t hurt a tamed creature unless you enable friendly fire or use the new Butcher knife item)
* Various other improvements and bugfixes

Food

* Food rebalance (Most food items now give mainly stamina or mainly health to make food choices more interesting)
* Food GUI overhauled to work better with the rebalanced food
* Over 10 new things to eat (Actually 12)

World

* Tamed Lox now have a purpose
* Slimy locations & creatures added to plains
* New plantable seeds: Birch, Oak & Onions

Items

* New weapons: Crystal battleaxe, Silver knife
* New shields: Bone tower shield, Iron buckler
* Butcher knife (Special weapon for butchering tamed animals)
* Thunder stone (Sold by trader)
* Lox accessory

Building

* New Darkwood building pieces like shingle roofs, beams, decorations and more
* New types of furniture, including but not limited to a mighty stone throne and a steamy viking hot tub
* Crystal walls
* New types of stacks to show off your treasure and resources
* Cauldron improvements: Spice rack, Butcher’s table, Pots and pans
* Cartography table (For sharing map-data with other players)
* Oven added (For baking bread and pie)
* Obliterator added (Items be gone)
* Iron cooking station (Required to cook some types of meat)

 

[Hag]

Classical EA bullshit. "Half of the world is unfinished wasteland but hey, you can now rename your pets".
Reading their reddit, food and weapons seem to have been nerfed, meaning they don't plan to add more challenging content. Tone of the game is probably moving from "explore and fight" to "survive and craft", as fuckin usual. Lazy bastards.

I'm angry 'cause with full content it could have been a killer game, but now it is yet another Minecraft clone with ok graphics.

 

[Undead Phoenix]

Developers at Iron Gate have said that players should start a completely new game to best experience the upcoming Hearth And Home update for Valheim.

You monsters.



Food and weapons being nerfed isn't a big deal. The game was already too close to being equipment-capped rather than skill-capped.

 

[Latelistener]

There is a lot of butthurt over stamina on Steam forums and apparently devs are aware and working on it.

Personally I think this game doesn't even need stamina. They should remove it and rework items that currently give stamina bonuses.

As for the update itself. It's called Hearth & Home. Not sure what people expected. After the release they were making patches and changes for about 3 months and then went on to summer vacation. This patch is basically a 2 months work maximum + probably some stuff before the release that they didn't have time to put in.

 

[mkultra]

i've always seen this game as another No Man's Sky (i waited several years before playing that), though with a much, much better and more successful start. If they continue like this we'll have a pretty great game in around 3 years, most likely a bit of a waste to play right now if you just imagine what they can do. but who knows..

 

[Cyberarmy]

This is game is the opposite of brutal btw, don't really need it in the title.

 

[Latelistener]

i've always seen this game as another No Man's Sky (i waited several years before playing that), though with a much, much better and more successful start. If they continue like this we'll have a pretty great game in around 3 years, most likely a bit of a waste to play right now if you just imagine what they can do. but who knows..

Unlike NMS which is fundamentally broken, Valheim has a solid foundation. It's lacking a few things here and there, like overall polish and bits of content (there is an empty biome for example), but not using Early Access wouldn't have changed anything.

 

[Hag]

i've always seen this game as another No Man's Sky (i waited several years before playing that), though with a much, much better and more successful start. If they continue like this we'll have a pretty great game in around 3 years, most likely a bit of a waste to play right now if you just imagine what they can do. but who knows..

Unlike NMS which is fundamentally broken, Valheim has a solid foundation. It's lacking a few things here and there, like overall polish and bits of content (there is an empty biome for example), but not using Early Access wouldn't have changed anything.

There are currently four missing biomes (Mistlands and the two extreme ones are just empty shells that wouldn't be worse for a big "WIP" notice board on their entrance, and the ocean is so underwhelming water travel is made painful not because of danger, but only of how tedious it is). There is no kind of endgame whatsoever, balance is a complete mess (early game exploration is fine but gives way from midgame to never-ending grinding), overall it feels to me it is missing over half it contents. World map is huge but it could be ten time smaller with no loss. From Norse-warrior-afterlife premises it goes straight downhill to farm-farm-farm-griding. Griding. This is the word for this game.

But I do agree the foundations are solid and the technical and gameplay systems are sound. Early game is great (contrary to NMS), and with one more year of development the devs can truly create something amazing if they can climb-out from the EA-openworld-crafting ghetto. Well, I hope so, since I've bought this shit anyway.

 

[thesheeep]

I play this semi-regularly with my GF and while we initially really liked the idea of teleporting not allowing you to bring metal ore through, after 40-50 hours, it totally pissed us off and we installed a mod that allows you to use portals freely.

I feel that in the beginning, that limitation made the game more immersive as it really required you to travel, take a risk and go on an actual adventure. We hade some really tense situations due to that.
At that point, the "sense of adventure" in the game is really awesome.

The big problem is that you "outlevel" most of the areas rather quickly - yet you still need to travel there manually to get your resources.
For example, you'll quite soon empty the silver ore inside the mountain near your base. After that, you'll have to travel much further to get to the next source and then back to your forge. It takes a long ass time and since you have grown much stronger in the meantime, there is no real challenge left.
The only alternative to that (besides mods) is to build multiple FULL bases with smelters, forges, workbenches, workbench upgrades, etc. all around the map.

But who the fuck wants to do that? That's doing the exact same thing you already did multiple times more...
I want to build one base and keep improving that instead of having to take care of a plethora of nearly identical full bases.

I honestly think they should allow some kind of black metal-based upgrade to the portals that enables taking metals & ores through.
That way, you'd still get that early-mid game adventuring, but once you get "too strong" for mountains and below to be any threat, black metal would enable you to travel much faster when doing mining runs.

 

[mkultra]

i've always seen this game as another No Man's Sky (i waited several years before playing that), though with a much, much better and more successful start. If they continue like this we'll have a pretty great game in around 3 years, most likely a bit of a waste to play right now if you just imagine what they can do. but who knows..

Unlike NMS which is fundamentally broken, Valheim has a solid foundation. It's lacking a few things here and there, like overall polish and bits of content (there is an empty biome for example), but not using Early Access wouldn't have changed anything.

NMS was perhaps really broken at start, i don't really see how it is now though (or rather 2 years ago when i played it the last time for around 120h). But yeah, like i said, really solid start for this game..

Did they post a roadmap for Valheim btw..?

 

[Hag]

Did they post a roadmap for Valheim btw..?

Official stuff :
https://valheim.fandom.com/wiki/Road_Map

Older roadmap :

Spoiler

Update 1: Hearth and Home

The first update is called Hearth and Home, which "as the name suggests will focus on the house building aspect of the game, with more building pieces and stuff to do in and around the house," Törnqvist said.

"It will probably be pretty focused on the food preparation aspect of the game with more recipes and stuff like that," he continued. "But there are also new additional building pieces."

With all the amazing Viking homes being constructed, that's sure to be good news for Valheim's fort-builders. Personally, my house sucks and I'm more interested in having new recipes to cook, which also hopefully means new seeds and plants to farm. My carrot patch made me happy for a while, but I'm ready for more options.


Update 2: Cult of the Wolf

This is the most intriguingly named update, but Iron Gate unfortunately didn't give us a whole lot more to go on.

Cult of the Wolf, said Törnqvist, "will be an update that focuses on exploration and combat with hopefully some some new fun and different encounters for the players."

Since wolves frequent the Mountain biome, I'm guessing this update will focus on that area, but we still don't really know.


Update 3: Ships and the Sea

Ships and the Sea "will bring in some ship customization and try to flesh out the ocean biome a bit more," said Törnqvist. "Since it's not not as populated, I guess you could say, as the rest of the land biomes, so we want some more stuff to do out in the ocean."

Not a huge surprise based on the name, but more encounters in the sea would be welcome, and so would more ship customization. Particularly since the Viking longship originally appeared to be decorated with colorful shields, and that doesn't currently seem to be an option.


Update 4: Mistlands

Mistlands will add an entirely new biome to Valheim. "So it will be new enemies, new items, a new boss, new resources, everything, and that's what we have planned for this year. So yeah, that's quite quite a big task, but we will accept the challenge, so to speak," said Törnqvist.

Speaking of bosses, Törnqvist also confirmed that each new biome added to the game will contain its own boss. And if that's not enough, some new lesser bosses might make an appearance at some point, too.

"In the finished version of the game, there will be nine biomes with nine bosses. And then we're also exploring adding mini-bosses and stuff like that," he said. "So yeah, there will be more bosses coming."

(source : https://www.pcgamer.com/valheim-roadmap/)

All those were planned for 2021 initially.

 

[Latelistener]

For example, you'll quite soon empty the silver ore inside the mountain near your base. After that, you'll have to travel much further to get to the next source and then back to your forge. It takes a long ass time and since you have grown much stronger in the meantime, there is no real challenge left.

I'm on my way to the 4th boss, but do you really need that much silver? Judging by the wiki, it's mostly for gear. I don't think upgrading it to the maximum level is even worth it.

Overall I got enough to craft and upgrade the full armor set, the hammer and the bow from my first mountain (build a base there for that). Of course playing with another person will require twice as much, but it will also be faster.

So far I wouldn't say resources are a problem. It they'll make that portal I'm afraid it will trivialize the end game.

 

[thesheeep]

It they'll make that portal I'm afraid it will trivialize the end game.

How?
You can only trivialize what isn't trivial already.
And getting silver (or iron) at that point in the game from far away mountains/swamps is entirely trivial - that's the whole problem of it, you just spend time doing something completely trivial.
Spending time is not a challenge on its own.
And overcoming "challenges" that you already overcame many hours ago (and now you're even stronger) is not fun.

The only thing portals do is turning a boring, trivial long trip into a boring, trivial short trip.
It's an improvement that increases motivation instead of the normal way - which decreases motivation by forcing you to do things that aren't fun longer than absolutely necessary.

The only non-trivial thing about endgame is the final boss (though I guess there might be more at some point?) as well as the plains with their rather hard-hitting enemies.
But then, once you get padded armor, even plains is not really threatening anymore unless you somehow run into 2+-starred enemies.
For some reason, the final armor set doesn't even require black metal, but instead iron - which is even less challenging than getting silver, at that point in the game you don't even need poison protection anymore.

 

[Latelistener]

How?
You can only trivialize what isn't trivial already.

Because it will be the first thing people will google when they'll see that obstacle and getting black metal isn't that hard. Unless the devs lock the schematics for that portal behind some boss, players will start hoarding ore early in the game. The only way this could work if they'll lock it behind some of the last bosses so by that time it will be useless for anyone except hoarders who could as well install a mod (like you did).

I have made only one trip to swamps and had made so much iron that I won't need it again until I learn how to create the last set of armor, which will require another trip to the same swamp (it still has a lot). It begs to question why would I personally need that portal? Getting iron to the boat and back to the base is actually the easiest part. Mining it in the dungeons on the other hand will take some time. It could save me time transporting it, but it will also mean that I won't be traveling. And getting your ass into weird situations while traveling is basically what holds this game together.

 

[thesheeep]

Because it will be the first thing people will google when they'll see that obstacle and getting black metal isn't that hard.

If you try and go to the plains early on, you'll just die.
Everything there would kill you in one hit. Especially with the recent changes to how blocking works.
I don't see how new characters could reliably survive in that area, this isn't exactly Dark Souls where skill alone allows you to beat any enemy.

I have made only one trip to swamps and had made so much iron that I won't need it again until I learn how to create the last set of armor, which will require another trip to the same swamp (it still has a lot). It begs to question why would I personally need that portal?

Yeah, it's pretty clear that the entire problem only exists when you play with multiple people.
Solo, you probably won't need to seek out types of areas you have drained nearby.

But already with just two people, we drained all nearby areas of iron & silver, and other further swamps and another mountain as well. Guess we weren't very lucky in our seed, either... we found multiple swamps without any crypts, for example.
I can only imagine how annoying shit gets with 3-4 people. Sure, you gather faster, but you'll have to go to a lot more areas, so the travel time necessary increases much faster than the gathering speed does.

Either way, though, the portals are optional. Nobody has to use them - if for some reason you enjoy completely eventless travelling for hours, you are entirely free to do so.

And getting your ass into weird situations while traveling is basically what holds this game together.

Yes, but only in the early-mid game.
Afterwards, I don't see how you could get into weird situations, honestly. Nothing is a threat in previous areas...
Now, if they introduced more things that can happen to you as you travel, made the ocean more dangerous, etc. that would probably change things somewhat.