Survive the myth to become a legend
Have you ever wanted a survival game based upon Norse mythology? Give thanks to Odin, for Valheim is here to fulfill your wish. From developer Iron Gate Studios, Valheim lets you explore (after)life as your own Viking warrior. Recently fallen in battle, you find yourself in the 10th world, where Odin long ago banished the many monsters from Norse lore. If you can survive the many dangers of Valheim and conquer different lands, you may prove yourself worthy to enter Valhalla.
The first thing you will do is create your character, the choices are pretty limited but that doesn’t stop you making a cool looking Norseman or woman. You can change your appearance later in the game if you decide that you really don’t like the look of your character by finding one of the traders that have found their way into the world. Once you have your warrior, you can create a world or join one with friends. Upon entering Valheim you find yourself in the meadow biome, this is the easiest area to live in and it is always at the centre of any world you create. The meadow is also home to the sacrificial stones, these stones are where you will take the trophies of each boss that you defeat in order to gain their forsaken power.
As with most survival games, you start by picking up stones and branches to make basic tools and weapons for yourself, some things like the axe can be used as both, but it will break twice as quickly. All items that you create have a health bar which will drain as you use them, if it empties completely you can usually just repair the item rather than crafting a new one, with the exception of things like torches. To craft and repair items you need to make a hammer, a workbench and a shelter. The shelter is a strange requirement, some things in the crafting menu can only be made or repaired if you have a roof over the workbench, but as you will be building a home anyway it doesn’t affect you much. You will also need a roof over your head to sleep once you create a bed. Sleeping passes the time and sets your bed as a spawn point to return to when you die. You don’t have to sleep if you don’t want to, but it is more perilous to wander in the dark as enemies are more active at night and there are no lights but the torches you carry with you.
As well as materials to build with, you need food. Your health and stamina bars are fairly small but they can be increased temporarily by eating, meat gives you the largest boost and lasts longer than fruit and honey. You can eat up to three different things, each of which will increase the size of both your health and stamina by different amounts and allow you to regenerate health. Boar meat is easy to come by early on as they are numerous and aggressive, and they will attack you if you get near. Deer meat on the other hand will require you to craft a bow and some arrows. If you make too much noise when trying to get close to deer they run away, so you have to crouch to make less noise in order to get close enough for a good shot. Once you have some meat it’s time to get cooking, you can craft a fire and a cooking stand to place the meat on, you have to be careful you don’t burn it but a sizzling sound will indicate when it’s cooked, you can cook two pieces at a time with a single cooking stand. As well as meat, hunting boar and deer will provide you with leather and deer hide to craft with, which is where your early armour comes from as well as the sails for a raft and later a ship, you can’t be a Viking and not sail the seas after all.
Crafting is a massive part of the game, so you will spend the majority of your time gathering materials. As you progress through the different biomes, new materials will be available and you will learn to craft the tools you need to gather them. You unlock new items as well whenever you pick up new materials or build certain items, the chopping block and tanning rack increase your workbench level when placed beside it and adds to the list of items you can make. Sometimes you can find new materials in chests hidden in ruined shelters, I found some flint arrows in this manner before I had reached the sea shore where flint is normally found.
Each biome comes with its own challenges, the game balances its difficulty by the kind of items you learn to craft as you advance through the biomes, for instance when you start off in the meadow you can make wood and stone weapons, which are sufficient to hunt animals and kill the aggressive little creatures called Greylings that make a nuisance of themselves. Once you reach the black forest, these weapons aren’t nearly as effective against the Greydwarves, giant Trolls and massive bears that dwell there, so you will have to begin mining for metals and other materials to make better gear. You can of course run off to explore the world if you choose to in favour of the steady progression from biome to biome, but if you do you will spend a lot of time waking up in your bed with nothing but your underwear. If you are killed you will drop your entire inventory, armour, weapons, the lot, and respawn at your bed. You can return to the point of your demise to gather your things, but if you have ventured into an area you are not ready for, it may be easier said than done.
Dying has another, more permanent consequence. There are no levels to gain or skill points to spend in Valheim, your skills level up through repetition of an action. The more you do something, be it chopping wood, fighting, running, swimming, cooking etc, the higher your skill rises in that activity, but if you die your skills are lowered a small amount each time, adding an extra kick in the longship to losing your gear as well.
Each biome contains a boss, but before you can fight it, you need to gather the necessary items to make an offering at its altar in order to summon it. The alter itself gives you a clue to what you need for the summoning. Once you beat a boss and gain a trophy from it, you can take it to the sacrificial stones I mentioned earlier and place it on its corresponding stone to gain its forsaken power. These are like ultimate abilities that boost a specific aspect of your stats, for instance the first one you gain reduces how much stamina is drained by running, jumping and swimming. Forsaken powers each last for 5 minutes and have a 20 minute cooldown. If you are playing with a group, you can each have a different forsaken power slotted and everyone in the vicinity will benefit from its effects when activated. Boss battles take a little preparation before you summon them as their health bar is large and they do a lot of damage, but they aren’t frustratingly difficult, each can be beaten alone, though they are much easier in a group.
Weather plays a part in your survival in Valheim. Status effects like being cold or wet slows regeneration of health and stamina, or even halts it completely in some cases such as extreme cold. Some weather types are more prevalent in certain areas and you will have to equip yourself accordingly to combat its effects. You do have to be careful of how much you are carrying in your inventory though, you can carry a maximum weight of 300, as soon as you go over the limit your stamina drains quickly and does not regenerate. If it reaches 0 you will not be able to move or fight unless you drop enough weight to regain your stamina. Inventory space is also fairly limited once you count your weapons, armour, tools and food that you need to carry around. You can make chests to store anything that’s unnecessary to keep on you, though the inventory space for these is even smaller.
Combat in Valheim isn’t difficult as long as you are prepared. Keeping yourself well fed is a must as swinging your weapon, dodging and blocking all use stamina. As I mentioned earlier your standard health and stamina bars are small and easily depleted, eating different foods increases the size of these bars, allowing you to fight for longer and take more damage. Keeping your weapons and armour in good condition is also a must, your inventory space is too small to carry multiples of these items, and their durability can drain swifter than you realise against some enemies or multiples. You can try to run away if you cannot win, but this is actually the one thing that really irritates me with Valheim. Once an enemy has detected and begins attacking it will not leave you alone. Where in other games you can run away and they will stop chasing you after a short distance, in Valheim most enemies are relentless and will chase until you either kill them or they kill you.
I did like that different weapons affect some enemies more than others, Skeletons for example are weak against blunt damage weapons but weapons with piercing damage do next to nothing against them, spears are good for hunting boar (though you cant throw them) and killing greylings and greydwarves, but are useless against bears. Valheim does not tell you these things, it points you in the right direction and lets you figure the rest out yourself.
