Valheim is one of the latest hits on Steam, garnering over 6 million players within the first few weeks of it’s early access release. The game features the player, or players as Vikings who have been chosen to be reborn in the tenth Norse world of the Allfather, Odin. This world is one of many parallel world to Midgard, the world we know of, and was created by Odin as a place of exile for his enemies.
The game is full of Viking lore, and entirely immersive in its style and gameplay. The players can choose to work together in an open world against the environment, or can act against one another. The game features one of the best set of building mechanics of any game, and progress is made by finding various materials from the land or from the bosses of each type of biome. Randomly generated, you never know what is going to hit you next.
We have been playing for several weeks as a couple, and are constantly surprised and delighted by the wealth of content in this unfinished game. Until the first major update is delivered, we knew that Yagluth would be the final boss. Today we defeated him for the first time, and wondered what we would do next?
Valheim Longboat Expedition
This afternoon we planned an expedition by boat to find the edge of the world. Fully provisioned and armed for anything that Valheim could throw at us, we set out in our Viking longboat. Before we left our familiar surroundings we were caught in a terrible storm, and were surrounded by no fewer than three giant serpents. We eventually slew these, rewarded with more serpent meat than we had ever seen before.
The following morning we encountered an odd island, covered in abyssal barnacles. We both hopped off the boat and clawed these barnacles away from the ground with a pickaxe. At this stage the ‘island’ decided that it didn’t like us doing this and violently submerged beneath the waves leaving us swimming for the longboat! It turns out that this was a Leviathan, a huge sea creature which inhabits the oceans.
So, after discovering that these barnacles give us the ability to craft an abyssal harpoon, we made a quick portal back to base and came back with the harpoon ready to go. Our goal now was to find a serpent and harpoon it!
Mistlands
Closer to the edge of the world now, we came upon a biome with much larger trees than a normal swamp, so went closer in to investigate. This biome is filled with cobwebs and interesting root formations, but nothing else. A little research tells us that these Mistlands are part of the developers plans for future releases.
The Mistlands are next to a Plains, so we go out for a wander to see what is around. We come upon a new village of Fulings, with multiple berserkers and shamans from which we obtained a bunch of material. As a demonstration of how beautiful this world is, every biome is different. I found a hillock to sit on and looked down on the Plains below, admiring the view just as one would in real life.
Deep North
Hopping back on the longboat, hoping to find either the edge of the world or a serpent, we came across a completely unexpected sight – ice floating in the sea. As we got closer it is apparent that this is yet another biome – the Deep North. From what we can see from the longboat this is going to be a very cold area (glad I brought my Wolfskin cloak) and potentially full of wolves and other animals. I hear rumours that it is another incomplete biome, and that the inhabitants will be added later. Unfortunately real life intruded and the view below is where we ended our adventure for the day!
For us, this was a very satisfying day in Valheim. Far from rueing the end of a game which has provided so many hours of entertainment (and sorrow, at times), we are looking forward to continuing our voyage of discovery. We can’t wait until the next update hits Steam, and we are hopeful that the rest of the roadmap rolls out successfully!
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