Valheim (Part 1)

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5

Anniversary review time! And as usual, I’m doing a big one.

If I had a nickel for every video game about Vikings stuck in purgatory trying to earn their place into Valhalla... well, I’m pretty sure I’d have more than just two nickels. More like four or five, easy. “But it’s weird that it happened twice, right?”

Hey, somebody has to cultivate the veggies, and I don't
see anybody else around here.

When it comes to survival games, the story is rarely a plot with beats and more of a suggestion – you can have a gaming experience of dozens of hours without ever thinking about whatever story justifies the setting. You may have a goal... or not. You may choose to focus on anything else if you want. Games like this are ginormous sandboxes for adventurous and/or creative players to do whatever they want. You feel like braving dangerous lands today? You want to chill at the base and spend five hours sorting your item chests? Build and protect your land? Farm? Fish? Go. For. It.

Valheim, developed by Iron Gate AB, published by Coffee Stain Publishing, and “released” on February 2nd, 2021, is still in Early Access, but has already made a name for itself in the genre. Like many survival games, this experience can be done on your own, or with friends; up to 10 players can join the same multiplayer server.

Hey! Careful there with those talons! I was struck by an
arrow at that exact spot in my back before I died!

Full disclaimer, for the needs of screenshots for this 5-part
article, I created a new character, but I dropped him in the
world I had played in up to finishing the Mistlands.
Makes it easier to take pictures and retrace my steps.

This game’s "story" begins after character creation – you can play as a male or female Viking, no difference in gameplay. Your character is dropped in the middle of a circle of sacrificial stones, with nothing but rags on your back. You died ingloriously in battle, and to earn your way into Viking Heaven, you must prove yourself to Odin. Hugin, a helpful crow, explains the quest to the player character: Hunt down the six Forsaken, massive monsters residing in the various biomes of this “tenth realm”, take their trophies and bring them back to these rocks. The defeated Forsaken grant abilities that will come in handy for whatever comes next.

I’ve accumulated over 350 hours on this game since I began, and I’ve been determined to see it to the end. I’ve played alone and with friends, so I’ve got a pretty good understanding of how the game works. It would make sense to cover the game in much the same way that one would discover it. My point of view on this game comes from three different playthroughs: My first, where I learned the game as I went; one I played joining a Quebec streamer’s multiplayer server, contributing as much as my stupid n00b ass could; and my third one, taking full advantage of the knowledge gained and the World Modifiers, which at the time had been freshly added. As a result, while this series is a review, it’s also an excellent guide for a newcomer to Valheim. Alright, on with the article.

The Meadows – “Eikthyr”

Who needs axes when you've got
*smooches both fists* these guns?
Valheim barehanded monk challenge go!

All you’ve got is rags and nothing else. Not even the most basic of weapons – aside from your fists. From the beginning, you know how to craft a basic axe, a basic club, and a hammer out of wood and rocks. Your fists are powerful enough to take down small trees, resulting in more wood, and you might even get some resin.

It doesn’t take that long to meet the locals... or at least their offspring. The Greyling, the first enemies you encounter, are juvenile Greydwarves, and whereas the adult forms drop both resin and wood, the babies only drop resin. There’s the occasional wild boar; those are hostile and will attack on sight, and upon defeat drop boar meat and leather scraps.

Wait, no, that's a Greydwarf. Where's the Greyling?
I could go for the lowest-rank enemy at the moment.

The lands of Valheim lend themselves to some beautiful
sights, if you can take a second to take in the view.

Soon you learn that the hammer can be used to build a workbench, which can then be used to create more complex items – though you need a roof above it. No worries, you unlock build pieces like walls and angled roofs. And, of course, you need the most basic of amenities: A bed, which once constructed (and protected by a roof), can be set as the player’s new spawn point – if none is set, their Viking will respawn at the circle. Other early options include a campfire, which can be used to get a “rested” buff. See, when your Viking is rested, they replenish health and stamina faster, and will even gain additional experience to all their skills. As a result, it’s highly encouraged you keep that buff active, which is mainly done by sleeping at night.

Early in the game, this is our only true way to cook, but the
recipes we later unlock blow basic cooked meats out of
the water.

Speaking of health and stamina, your early options are limited when it comes to nutrition. Mushrooms, strawberries, boar and deer meat – cooked over a campfire. Foods in Valheim give boosts to your health and stamina; most foods will boost one over the other but still give some to both. The foods that give equal amounts to both tend to be disappointing. A time comes where you’ll be able to pick whether you want more health or stamina (I recommend stamina), but I’m getting ahead of myself. Early-game foods give tiny amounts, is all you need to know.

Sure, I'm less likely to miss, but point-blank
kinda defeats the purpose of ranged weapons.

More creatures in the world: Necks, little lizards whose tails are edible when cooked; birds, who when killed provide feathers (alas, no bird meat); and deer, who provide hide and meat. All enemies can also drop trophies of their species; trophies tend to be rare drops and are seldom used in crafting. However, you do need deer trophies to awaken the first Forsaken, Eikthyr.

See, most Forsaken won’t just come out to play when you knock at their door. Nah, they request an offering. The altar will provide a riddle as to what item you need to bring. First, though, you’ll need to find that altar, and it can be tricky. Not so much in Eikthyr’s case, as this one is a freebie; a Vegvisir (a special stone with a symbol on it) next to the first sacrificial stone shows exactly where the first altar is located.

Thar bosses, huh?

But to bring out the electric stag, you’ll need two deer trophies. However, deer will instantly run away when spotting you. And it’s impossible to catch up to them. How, then? Easy. Bow and arrows. The crudest bow requires wood and leather scraps. Basic arrows require nothing but wood, but with feathers and resin, you can craft fire arrows, and by checking the shores, you can pick up flint to make stronger arrows and a better axe.

That head. Is going. On my wall.

Alright, so let’s say we sniped plenty of deer, got more meat and hide than we know what to make of, we were clever enough to build ourselves a treasure chest or two in which to keep that stuff, and we have the two trophies. We drop them at the altar and summon the stag, and... what a sight. Unless you got supremely unlucky, this will be the first impressive battle you’ll be in. Boss battles are at the same time one of the coolest moments in the game – especially when you’re all geared up – and one of the most frustrating, even if you’re ready.

Will say though, this stag really is a shocking sight.

Compared to the Forsaken that would follow, Eikthyr is a walk in the park. Its battle is set in the calm and unobstructed meadows, and it’s unlikely to be disturbed by a lot of enemies – not like Greylings and Greydwarves pose much of a threat. The stag runs fast, but its attacks are heavily telegraphed and give you plenty of time to dodge and hit back, whether it’s a few whacks with an axe or a few arrows. None of its attacks feel insurmountable.

The one thing that can happen is if you play hide and seek with the thing, and end up meeting worse. As an example, if you make the mistake of running into the Black Forest to escape and meet an angry troll.

I’m speaking from experience. Trust me, I have a lot of Valheim experiences to share. I called myself a n00b for a reason. I have a lot of shameful moments to recount here.

This thing really likes to get up close. I could live without
having those big blue nuts in my face.

The world doesn’t grind to a halt when you summon these massive monsters. Enemies can and will crash your fight. If your inventory is mostly empty on your way in, you’ll end surrounded by items to pick up, of a combined weight too heavy for a single trip. Eikthyr can lay waste to the surrounding forest; wait till you see what the others can do. Each Forsaken is a great encapsulation of what you’ve faced to get to them, serving like an exam for their biome.

When Eikthyr is defeated, it explodes into its trophy, also dropping its antlers. That’s a constant with the Forsaken; while their head will adorn a sacrificial stone (and, if you challenge them again, you can get a second head to decorate your home), the other item they drop will be vital in the next biome. The antlers can be used to craft the first pickaxe, a tool that will become important as we explore the Black Forest and learn to work with metals.

The Black Forest – “The Elder”

Ah, yes! This is gonna help a lot.

It is highly recommended to set the Forsaken trophy on its sacrificial stone before moving on to the next biome, since every Forsaken altar activated grants a skill. You can only have one skill at a time. Skills are activated with the F key by default, last 5 minutes, and have a 20-minute cooldown. In multiplayer, everyone can have a different skill, and activating theirs will also grant it to anbody close by – this works even if different skills are activated, allowing players in groups to have multiple boosts active at once. Eikthyr’s skill reduces use of stamina by 60%. It’s useful in the early game, where you worry less about dying to enemies and more about having the energy to do anything.

Troll: *is just chilling out there*
Me: I'm about to ruin this thing's day.

The Black Forest is hillier and harder to trek, is covered in trees (no duh) and introduces many features you can expect in the next biomes. New crafting materials, new concepts, and new threats. You never forget the first time you encounter a troll, those giant naked blue monsters so powerful they can easily kill you in a few hits. Sometimes, they’ll carry an entire tree and swing it at you. Now, take that image of an almighty foe that takes forever to defeat with your current equipment, and tell yourself that every biome has one. I repeat: You never forget the first time you meet a troll. These forests also house skeletons, lots of them. They aren’t tough, but can appear in large numbers, especially around their tombs. Finally, the Greydwarf family is here as well, with new members: The Shamans, which can inflict a poison status effect on your Viking, and the Brutes, who hit harder and have more health.

Bring some copper and tin home, refine it all into ingots,
make bronze, turn it into nails, make a cart, THEN you
can carry all of the other copper and tin home. PHEW!

The other difference is the addition of mineable metals – large copper rocks all over the forest, and small patches of tin near bodies of water. This is the point where the game encourages you to build a base for yourself, as you’ll soon need new crafting stations, like a forge (where you’ll create metal-based equipment), a cooking pot, and smelters to turn the mined ore into ingots usable in crafting. Bronze is the only stupidly complex metal to make, as you need to craft it using three ingots, two copper and one tin; no other metal demands that step. From there, you use bronze to make armor, weapons, and necessary items like nails.

Lots of skeletons in these tombs.
Thankfully they're VERY easy to kill.

Since you weren’t told where the Elder resides, you have two options; either you spend forever looking for its altar, or you explore the tombs overrun by skeletons, where you’re likely to find a Vegvisir. As a bonus, these tombs contain surtling cores, which can be combined to the fine wood obtained from oak trees (only choppable with a metal axe) and Greydwarf eyes (dropped by said forest zombies) into portals. After which you can set one at home, and a second wherever you want, and connect them by giving two portals the same name, case sensitive.

Seriously? My boat is at an entire day's worth of walking.
Fuck that!

Originally, ores and ingots couldn't be teleported; it adds to the difficulty to be forced to carry them home. It’s fine for one’s first game, but it quickly becomes a chore from the sheer number of metals you need to carry, and it gets unpleasant down the line to have to come back home the long way. To say nothing of what sailing can be like on a bad day. The World Modifiers implemented in 2023 add the option to be able to use portals while carrying ores and ingots, cutting down significantly on what is a lengthy game even with that option toggled on. I get those who want to play the original way as it’s more challenging, but the time investment feels too great for the returns.

Let’s say you found a Vegvisir, you found the altar, all you need is the sacrifice. You must tribute three Ancient Seeds, dropped by Greydwarf Brutes and found by destroying Greydwarf Nests, which spawn them. Ready for the fight?

Well, I’ll talk about it in Part 2!