Valheim - Get your survival fix with this low fantasy game of the year candidate.

[Sable]

Nice, I've been wondering if I should get off troll gear and onto bronze (I'm +27 defense with all level two troll gear) and into bronze but the movement penalty seemed bad. For now I just have bronze spear and axe and using the rest on my base decorations.

You can skip bronze and you won't be loads worse off for it IMO.

A full set of Troll is good for sneaking up on deer too.

 

[Vlinny-kun]

Can't wait for iron

Good fucking luck with that.

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

You can skip bronze and you won't be loads worse off for it IMO.

A full set of Troll is good for sneaking up on deer too.

The weight limit to what the character can carry is rather significant, but I think it's worthwhile to walk around in troll armor and only switching into bronze when you anticipate a heavy fight like during a "Forest moves" event. I wouldn't want to fight a troll with bronze gear, the slow movement-speed would make it impossible to outrun and dodge that huge fucker.

Good fucking luck with that.

That bad?

 

[Sable]

The weight limit to what the character can carry is rather significant, but I think it's worthwhile to walk around in troll armor and only switching into bronze when you anticipate a heavy fight like during a "Forest moves" event. I wouldn't want to fight a troll with bronze gear, the slow movement-speed would make it impossible to outrun and dodge that huge fucker.


That bad?

You need a lot of iron to make iron gear- the difference between hunting for it and say, copper is that you'll know where the iron will be, but you need more of it. Also it's heckin' heavy.

When you do start raiding swamps I'd recommend you make a little port outpost to store/smelt and make your iron to be shipped to your base later - the gear itself can be made wherever, but if you want to have your home forge/craft stations upgraded, they need the bars, and metal ores/ingots can't go through portals.

In a similar shipping sense, once you've made the pick and wc axe, it's worth making the nails so you can make the biggest boat. You can store a lot of stuff in the biggest boat.

 

[Crazedking]

Like 20 hours hour into this game and loving it. I was never much fond of the Rust or minecraft genre but this one just tickle the right bone.

Atmosphere: 10/10.
The music on loop and the various weather/smoke effect seriously make this game looks gorgeous even with the low graphic stuff. Resting in your house with the fire crackling and the rain outside is just pure bliss for me but then again im also the type of guy that listen to rain audio to get to sleep. The fog and outside rain looks amazing and sailing the high seas looks amazing.

Combat/control: 8/10
The game soul-lite combat is pretty fun. Various weapon to use. Decent dodge and blocking/parry system. Stealth system is iffy, seems similar to skyrim but i dunno if environmental affects it. Boat/raft control, is like how id imagine steering a boat feels like.

Skill system: 9/10
Pretty simple you do the action and you get better at it. Nothing complex but thats fine too. Theres some "magic" from killing the boss but nothing too extravagant (first one give you a buff on cooldown to make you consume less stamina when running/jumping).

Building: 7/10
Im not too versed with the build your base genre so i dont know what to compare it but its been pretty fun trying to build big ass house as early as possible. I havent unlocked rock building yet but i struggled for a while trying to make big building early on until my dumbass realized that its a bit more complex and has its own "upgrade system". When you are finally able to atleast access core wood you can start building something bigger than a small shack. The system isnt very intuitive, i feel like the tip crow should explain that you need a solid foundation to build better and the stability color system (blue -> green -> yellow -> red).

Crafting: 9/10
Pretty solid so far. Im in the bronze age at the moment but the build up of slowly discovering new materials and new things to craft is pretty fun. From what little i have glimpsed online without spoiling myself too much it looks pretty comprehensive.

Inventory/UI: 5/10
So far the most annoying part of the game is the lackluster inventory, managing it and the various UI for it and crafting. It definitively could use a bit of work. Lots of small QoL stuff to improve that doesnt impact the main game.

Multiplayer: -
I pirated a copy and am solo playing atm so i cant say how the online part of it handles sadly but its been a pretty solid solo experience so far.


Overall: 8/10
Pretty solid game from what i have experienced so far and theres still 4 more boss to kill (though the first one isnt much of a boss compared to your first troll). This game will also only get better in my opinion. For 20$ dollar its definitively worth it. Id buy it if i had friend to play with.

 

[Vlinny-kun]

That bad?

I searched through 2 swamps and haven't found a single crypt, the only place where you can get iron. I had to sail way the fuck out to the south to find a good sized swamp that looked like it had two in it from the shoreline. I'm not going to just get off of the shoreline and march into the swamp just to get my ass kicked, so I sailed around the island to look for a meadow to set up shop for when I need a breather, and that's on the other side of the island with a plains biome in between (supposedly the hardest biome). I'm not looking forward to that shit, so I went home and now I'm preparing for it by making sausages and poison resistant mead. I can tell that it's going to be some time before I so much as get the iron helmet (20 iron).

And I thought that bronze was annoying...

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

Crafting: 9/10
Pretty solid so far. Im in the bronze age at the moment but the build up of slowly discovering new materials and new things to craft is pretty fun. From what little i have glimpsed online without spoiling myself too much it looks pretty comprehensive.

In my first (ie: current) playthrough, I think a lot of the fun is figuring out the game and exploring new biomes for new materials and new stuff to make.
I have a hunch that even on subsequent playthroughs, without this layer of finding out new things, the game is still going to be a lot of fun, since the dynamic surroundings make every game a little different and scavenging for new materials is fun even without the discovery process.
Gathering certain resources like copper and tin is a bit of a hassle, but up to this point, it didn't feel like meandering busywork or grinding to me. Seems iron is a bit more of a hassle, but I'll see how that will come across gameplay wise when I get there. In things like Minecraft, you very quickly have access to everything and then it becomes a rather boring matter of farming/grinding material and the best thing you can do is making huge castles that serve no real purpose and exploring for no other reason than to explore.

With this game, you're forced to explore the map to collect stuff, but at the same time, you gather so much wood from cutting down trees, that you can do most basic stuff rather easily without much grinding.
It feels like the game has hit a nice balance between making some resources very abundant, while witholding some others, to make it rewarding to gather them in large numbers even when you're already familiar with the game. Lategame resources are still rare and require some work, making it all the more satisfying to get them.

And lest we forget: Playing with bros means that gathering resources in large numbers becomes much easier.

 

[Sable]

I searched through 2 swamps and haven't found a single crypt, the only place where you can get iron. I had to sail way the fuck out to the south to find a good sized swamp that looked like it had two in it from the shoreline. I'm not going to just get off of the shoreline and march into the swamp just to get my ass kicked, so I sailed around the island to look for a meadow to set up shop for when I need a breather, and that's on the other side of the island with a plains biome in between (supposedly the hardest biome). I'm not looking forward to that shit, so I went home and now I'm preparing for it by making sausages and poison resistant mead. I can tell that it's going to be some time before I so much as get the iron helmet (20 iron).

And I thought that bronze was annoying...

Honestly, if you've got some spare cores you can just make a teleporter in the swamp, and if you're careful where you build (i.e not near Draugr) the structure will be safe. Slimes and Oozes can only really fail at poisoning the walls, and leeches are trapped in the water (bring a hoe and strand them on land for fun).

If there's a meadow right next to it though then that works too, but remember that you're going to need to carry all the iron out as well. Poison resistand mead isn't super needed right now, but uh...make a lot of it anyway.

 

[thejackal]

Spent another couple hours fleshing out my main base last night. I got a 10x5 long house up and started to fill it with furniture. Trying to get more comfort bonuses. I want to get it better defended before I take on the 2nd boss as I guess that's when the troll attacks will start. Man I was farming wood in the forest during a huge storm at night and I felt like I was fucking there. The immersion in this game is the best I've had since Rust, and again -- single player that is impressive. I really hope they flesh out the multiplayer aspects. I can elements of PvP adding a lot of complexity. Sounds like they have had some networking issues lately. As with any EA game have to be patient.

The building system needs more in game instructions. The bird should tell you the basics about stability and there should be some sort of "the visions of your ancestors" thing that shows some examples of various buildings. It sounds dumb but I'm trying to avoid too many spoilers so I literally built a house like in Rust only to find out that the floor tiles would not stop rain so I had to redo the entire thing with a real roof and the only way I figured it out was just looking at the buildings already in the world around me. Anyways, now I got a badass fucking house with a lot of core wood added for stability. Once I get this moat dug out and a sniping tower I am ready for trolls.

 

[Peasant]

The single greatest mechanic in this game is the ability to recover all building materials when you tear down a structure or object. Not having to sweat placing things right the first time is tremendously liberating and helps greatly to alleviate the resource grind.

 

[thejackal]

The single greatest mechanic in this game is the ability to recover all building materials when you tear down a structure or object. Not having to sweat placing things right the first time is tremendously liberating and helps greatly to alleviate the resource grind.

Thank god because I've fucked up a million times.

The Elder is stupidly far away from me. Guess I'm going to have to make another base closer to him in case I die or some shit. Didn't really get much accomplished last night other then building a sniping tower in my compound and crafting a backup gear set. Going to have to make a satellite base on the water and move a bunch of resources closer to the Elder via boat. I did find what seemed like a "super crypt" deep in the Forest that had 10 cores in it and some sort of mini-boss that almost killed me with its AOE attack in the cramped chamber. Luckily I was able to kill it with 14 HP left. After that, I have enough cores to build another smelter and forge at the satellite so that's good.

Getting kind of sick of running so much hopefully they introduce some sort of mount soon. Just a tamable horse would be a god send.

 

[flapjacks]

If you guys are having problems finding biomes or the trader you can always use the world generator with your seed to see where things are. Or take your player and load one of the other seeds people have shared to grab resources and then jump back to your seed.

Easy wood can be gotten by pissing off a troll and getting him to smash the forest while chasing you. I also didn't realize there was a cart you can make which makes toting materials less of a chore.

 

[Peasant]

The problem with carts is that the vast majority of terrain in the game is not at all amenable to them, so you'll need good pathfinding skills or make a road. Better to just plop your base down by the water so you can easily unload boats into your storage.

If I were playing on a multiplayer server, then maybe it wouldn't be a waste of time to embrace my inner Roman and build roads and bridges all over the land.

 

[TVStactic]

The problem with carts is that the vast majority of terrain in the game is not at all amenable to them, so you'll need good pathfinding skills or make a road. Better to just plop your base down by the water so you can easily unload boats into your storage.

If I were playing on a multiplayer server, then maybe it wouldn't be a waste of time to embrace my inner Roman and build roads and bridges all over the land.

we*

structural faggotry as arches or whatever can be set for late, however considering how autistic the terrain tools are at the moment i'd say it's quite the challenge doing that.

If you guys are having problems finding biomes or the trader you can always use the world generator with your seed to see where things are. Or take your player and load one of the other seeds people have shared to grab resources and then jump back to your seed.

Easy wood can be gotten by pissing off a troll and getting him to smash the forest while chasing you. I also didn't realize there was a cart you can make which makes toting materials less of a chore.

how about the kiwis sharing their generated seeds then? generating worlds might seem odd for some puritans but whatever, some people managed to get generated worlds where the merchant is literally one or two feet away from them.

 

[thejackal]

Spent about an hour digging out a moat around my base. I guess I hit bedrock at a certain point. Not sure how I am supposed to go about filling it with water. Tried to dig a trench from the river but didn't seem to want to work. Have to look online I guess for how other people have done it. The game should have a creative mode so you can practice this shit with unlimited resources and stamina.

The sound of the trolls still scares me but now with the 2nd tier bow and copper arrows those fuckers go down fast. Have more troll skins than I know what to do with at this point. Still looking for the merchant. I could really use the carry buff. Getting tired of inventory management. Be nice to have a fast transfer button between chests and inventory like Rust and most other games in the genre.

I find myself just fucking around a lot, which I enjoy. Like it's not a hardcore every second counts type game like the Long Dark, thank goodness. Like at night I went up to the top of my sniping tower and just tried to hit graydraves from 100 yards with fire arrows. Seeing them light up is fun.

 

[Crazedking]

Spent about an hour digging out a moat around my base. I guess I hit bedrock at a certain point. Not sure how I am supposed to go about filling it with water. Tried to dig a trench from the river but didn't seem to want to work. Have to look online I guess for how other people have done it. The game should have a creative mode so you can practice this shit with unlimited resources and stamina.

the game has a debug mode you can access for singleplayer. https://www.shacknews.com/article/122852/valheim-console-commands-and-cheats-guide

 

[Corn Flakes]

This really could really do with a list-based inventory mode, like in Fallout 3. Probably as a toggle. Icons in grids are nice, but I do better when I can just read down a list of items to move between containers.

 

[Love Machine]

Minecraft for people who want to pretend they arent autistic.

 

[Vlinny-kun]

how about the kiwis sharing their generated seeds then? generating worlds might seem odd for some puritans but whatever, some people managed to get generated worlds where the merchant is literally one or two feet away from them.

I'll bite. Seed:p7kiqKB5tN

There's a merchant in the upper-west area of the starting island. In that same area are a shitton of caves where you can quickly acquire gold, sulton cubes, and other valuebles. Just make sure you sneak everywhere you go in that forest because of trolls. The Elder is located in the very north. Two draugr camps are northeast. Swamp in the northwest corner is painfully small with nothing in it other than enemies. You'll have to go down 3 more islands to find a huge ass swamp with some crypts, unless you find a few in the swamp on the island before that one, where I haven't explored yet. Beware the plains, where you will encounter draugr hordes, killer mosquitos, and cock gobbling goblins that WILL one hit KO your ass out of nowhere. Stay sneaking at all times, or just sail past on a boat.

Speaking of sailing. I'm terrified of going anywhere out in the actual ocean biome because of sea serpents. Three times has one of these motherfuckers spawned out of nowhere and wrecked my shit. It's a massive pain in the ass to get the shit back because you are forced to build a slower and daintier boat to go get your shit, which may require more than one trip, the possibility of the serpent dickhead still being there to fuck you again, and depending on how far you sail off, take fucking forever. Can you guess the events that have just taken place?

I could really use the carry buff. Getting tired of inventory management.

This really could really do with a list-based inventory mode, like in Fallout 3. Probably as a toggle. Icons in grids are nice, but I do better when I can just read down a list of items to move between containers.

Inventory would be just fine with me if the chests were a row larger than just 8 spaces. I personally like the grid system because I'm an autist that would rather sort little icons around than read off a list, but I can see where you're coming from, and this game reminds me of Elder Scrolls games the most which would fit the theme.

There needs to be a way to increase the weight limit, even temporarily. That also drives me a little nutty when you have over half of your inventory free, and yet just 2 stacks of wood prevent you from continuing on and you have to run all the way back to base to drop it off in your 10th chest dedicated to wood. It would sure as hell make up for not being able to teleport with raw metals and maybe make mining a little more adventurous and thrilling, as I think the devs originally intended with it.

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

Do trolls get attracted by loud noises? I have a troll spawn some distance to my main area of mining copper and he usually minds his own business, but the moment I start mining copper, that assholes strolls right up to me.

Can't really test it out, though, there's some issue with my harddrive and it might be related to the game. When I try to boot it, it spazzes out and my harddrive goes nuts, but I don't know what's the cause and what's the effect. Shit sucks.