I’ve played Valheim several times, including a few times multiplayer. I didn’t finish every playthough, but most of them reached the end (the end being whatever was in the game at that time). I’ve found that my willingness to reach the end is largely impacted by how much I’m satisfied with my build projects. My abandoned runs usually end with me being unhappy with my house and losing motivation to fix it. My latest playthrough takes this into consideration, and I’ve focused more on the build and being stocked on materials than usual.
Previous Valheim Adventures
- The first run (a 3-part adventure, parts 2 and 3 links at the bottom of part 1)
- Hearth & Home update
- Pre-Mistlands run
What’s New?
Since my last article, Valheim has had a few updates. Mistlands was added, some more smaller updates including new NPCs, and this year was the release of Ashlands as well most recently a quality-of-life update that added new skills to the game!
Mistlands
Mistlands are interesting. It’s a very vertical biome with tall pillars of rock, but you can craft a new cloak with a slow-fall effect. The enemies have a bug theme to them with the boss being a giant queen bug. They’re probably my least favorite enemy type; bugs just don’t really evoke much from me. There’s a large flying one, the Gjallr, that I really like. It’s much more unique and interesting compared to the others that feel like oversized ants.
But one thing the new biome did that I liked was the inclusion of dwarf NPCs out in the wild. Sometimes they’re patrolling around, but they also keep towers and dig sites. They’re neutral until you attack them or destroy their stuff. Which you’ll need to do. Having NPCs in the wild makes the world feel more alive.
The dungeons in Mistlands are also pretty neat. They’re infested mines with huge bugs running around. These are really tough places but with some good loot. I also really like the “hidden doors” which are really obvious, but they’re neat anyway. These dungeons definitely feel like an improvement to the generation; they’re much more interesting to explore compared to the original burial chambers.
The boss, however, is not great. The fight is really, really long, with bugs showing up mid-fight every couple of minutes. And the queen has an absurd amount of health. The boss arena is actually really cool; you unlock a giant prison/temple structure and the fight actually takes place inside instead of outside. That said, my first time fighting the queen lasted something like half an hour with not one but two trips back home to repair because my weapon just couldn’t last long enough.
Ashlands
Thus far, I’ve only played Ashlands multiplayer (more on that below), and we had decided to play on Hard to shake things up. Ashlands was brutal.
We stuck to hard for a while, but eventually lowered it to normal because it was just taking too long getting around. Every fight was an intense battle as enemies seemed to always show up to join in mid-fight. And it felt like there was a fight every 20 feet.
And if one person died (frequently 2 people did), they’d have a frantic run back because anything would one-shot them. And the power level of enemies has reached a point where, unless you have a second set of armor and weapons equal to what you dropped on your corpse, there’s little reason to bother fighting back to your corpse. You’re just as likely to get one-shot anyway, and you’ve now cluttered half your inventory with your backup gear.
All that said, I loved Ashlands. The dwarves make a return, with occasional outposts of safety. There are fun new harvest-ables with a vine mechanic that changes how you plan out your crops. The enemies are really well designed and there’s good variety. Even a new type of sea serpent! Even just crossing the boiling seas into the Ashlands was an adventure.
There’s also some really neat lore to explore on the runestones. And the fortresses are pretty cool, though the siege stuff could use some work. The catapult was a little buggy and nearly impossible to hit with. The battering ram was really good, though. And the loot from the fortresses is great; I love the new customization of weapons. Overall, Ashlands has definitely become one of my favorite biomes.
The Slow Playthrough
Some friends and I played through the Ashlands update earlier this year. About a month or so later, I had the itch to start again, this time in a solo run. After I started, there were previews of a smaller patch update that would bring some really nice quality-of-life improvements like new skills, a new vendor NPC, lots of new potions, and a new harvesting tool. In anticipation, since I wasn’t yet at the swamp, I slowed down and took the time to build a base I was happy with. And since the patch took a while to release, I had plenty of time to make it perfect.
I also want to shout-out to my first couple of houses. One was a temporary shack, but a cozy one. It had a few beehives out front, but they had been moved when I took the screenshot. I managed to tame a couple boars early; two remain there to this day.
The second house was something of an experiment in design. It worked better than I expected, and it’s a building shape I might return to later, but it was clearly not large enough to work for long, so I tore it down to rebuild. The location was too perfect for relocating.
The Longhouse on the Coast
I’ve gotten a lot better about spacing the design out before getting too far. I also planned ahead for the fact that I would soon need more space after reaching iron in the swamps.
The concept was to go back to a somewhat more traditional Viking longhouse, but suitable for my needs in Valheim. I also wanted a full dock and a lighthouse. That’s not too ambitious, is it? But before I got to all that, it was Halloween, and I made sure to decorate appropriately.
When it was time to do the docks, I had to tear up the front porch. Goodbye stairs. Since I built very close to the shore, I needed the height to keep the waves from overtaking the docks.
The lighthouse worked! It’s a touch on the small side, but functions. But the docks came out great. The warehouse holds the carts which have tons of storage space, and I built everything spaced far enough that carts can be taken from the docks to around the back of the house by either side. And part of planning the second house at this location was figuring out how to fit the runestone into the layout because there’s no way to remove them. Also, they’re cool and I wanted to keep it.
The workstations have pretty good space, and I like how the kitchen area came out. I didn’t know originally what to do with the side area, but I knew I’d eventually need the space for something. Turns out, the fermenters fit in there comfortably. The corner near the front door became extra storage, mostly overflow with old gear under the stairs. The stairs are the one part I wasn’t totally happy with, but the stairs are always a pain because they need so much space. They’re not the worst stairs I’ve done.
I had plans to try and spruce up the upstairs some, but never got to it. The portals had been upstairs early on, but they had to be moved once I needed too many portals.
The whole of the grounds was built very slowly. I had time since I was waiting on the patch. Until I needed the extra portals, the area where the portal hall ended up was actually just nothing, and deer kept spawning there like crazy. This location had great hunting.
Early in the construction, I had decided to get some trees on the property, so I had to make sure there was room. The fir trees in particular need a lot of space because the low branches are very wide; they clip into the walls if planted too close to the house. The pines, however, were tall enough to not be a problem, even when planted right next to the house. I also experimented with the new ivy which grows like the grape vines, taking over whatever wall it’s planted near. This was a mixed bag as it got in the way of the farm door.
The stables worked great. I built an interior fence so I could open the door to feed/slaughter the pigs without worry of any escape. There was just no door directly to the pigs, so they were trapped. However, the piglets were small enough to squeeze out (or they spawned on the other side of the wall; I’m not sure which), so I periodically ended up with pigs wandering around. I ended up naming them and keeping them as pets. There was Guard Dog, Sneaky Cat, Trashpanda, Spooky Rat, and Trick Crow. Sadly, Spooky Rat died during an event that broke the main defenses open.
Overall, I really enjoyed the layout of the grounds. Nothing felt too cramped, there were plenty of paths to take wherever I needed to go, and there was plenty of space for trees. But I knew I’d want to do another base (okay, I simply decided to do another one; it’s a slow playthrough, after all). And I knew what kind of base I’d want to do, I just need to find the right place. And then I found it. Then the even slower build began… with chopping down half a forest.
Thomas P. King, author and game designer 