Valheim

[Magness]

So I’ve been playing this and have seen a few of you on too so figured we should have a thread. I’m liking it quite a bit so far, it’s a fun mix of Minecraft + Zelda + Skyrim. It’s been stable for me with no issues, graphics are low-if but actually good looking and the gameplay has pretty remarkable depth with so many crafting and item recipes. The world itself is pretty lively with tons of critters and buildings, dungeons, etc and its interesting to explore. Highly recommended, especially for an early access title. 

[dogbert]

Yeah getting tons of good buzz from co-workers and mates, so picked it up. Unfortunately, weather this week has definitely made it hard to start.

 

Any good starting guides?

[Whooter]

This is a pretty good Beginner's guide:  https://techraptor.net/gaming/guides/valheim-guide-for-beginners

 

I wonder if we shoudn't start a shared world...

[Magness]

I think an LCVG world would be kinda cool  

 

Edit: Just to add that there isn’t a server hosting option for Mac yet, only Win/Linux. 

[Magness]

Been playing in a co-op world with my friend and we’re now able to craft bronze gear so I was feeling ready to take on the Elder... and then I fought my 1st wolf 😕🐺I was just exploring and uncovering the map and found the Mountain region and went 20 steps or so into the snow and got the freezing debuff and a wolf aggro’d me. I ran back down but it still took 10secs or so for the debuff to drop and the wolf was WAY faster than me and attacked immediately. I couldn’t block anything so started hitting him with my sword to try and kill him quick but, it seemed to do barely any damage and then I was dead. Doing a corpse run up the Mountain with the wolf still nearby was not without its “challenges” but I got my equipment and attacked him again. After my 2nd death I realized I am a “stupid person” and did my 2nd corpse run 😬 This time though, I got my gear and ran from the wolf while keeping aggro at the furthest distance I could using the bow and got him to a nearby dungeon where I could use hit and run tactics to heal in the dungeon and then come back out and attack again.

 

I finally beat the wolf and I was Elated with the wolf pelt and trophy because it felt so tough to earn but, it was also a wake-up call that Valheim can be quite tough as soon as you’re out of the Meadows. 

[Magness]

My friend and I fought the 2nd boss the Elder and have now “tamed” the Black Forest. There’s still lots of baddies but we’ve cleared every Burial Chamber and Troll Cave we’ve found and even a few trolls attacking at the same time aren’t too bad now. We’ve started setting up an encampment near the edge of the Swamp and are clearing Crypts now for iron and making tougher armor, weapons, etc. Our world seed is a weird one in that between the Swamp and Black Forest there is a tiny stretch of Plains on one side with every Deathsquito ever created 😳

So, after “learning” from the 15 or so deaths I endured by Deathsquitos we now go around and down a hill the long way to get to the Swamp and reach it alive (hallelujah). I am loving this game despite how difficult the ramp up between biomes is. It’s all just fun from crafting to exploring to combat - it all clicks in a way few games do. It sounds weird too but, the tutorials being more obscure and having to learn stuff on your own works to the games benefit, not against it. There is so much about this game that, if I were reading it would sound bad to me but, from playing it, it really does all gel together beautifully

Edit: Oh and Wolves are still bitey-fuckers who can still outrun me and kill me almost instantly.

[Magness]

And in case you haven’t seen these yet:

 

https://www.pcgamer.com/the-valheim-community-is-trying-to-yeet-themselves-into-orbit/

 

[Magness]

My friend and I fought Bonemass (3rd boss) tonight. He was tough as hell but we kept to opposite sides of the swamp area he spawns in so we could pull aggro and attack him on one side while the other healed and regen’d stamina, then we’d repeat for the other side. He still took a solid 30min or so to kill and I died once and had to do a harrowing corpse run 😳👻 but we did it and it didn’t feel cheap or anything.
 

The game was patched yesterday and it looks like mostly balance changes so nothing too major. This game is remarkably well balanced for early access already so it’s kinda cool that they are still tweaking things like this. Honestly other than some wonky pathfinding and baddie AI it’s in really good shape and I’m loving it. Oh, my friend did have to reinstall the dedicated server instance after this update (just FYI) but, no probs loading our world seed or anything.

[Magness]

So we’ve moved to the Mountain biome now and fought tons of wolves and they are easy now 😊 fluffy little rascals... This game is brilliant with the progression system and how you are “prepared” for the next biome thanks to the previous biome. We’ve got wolf cloaks and Draugr bows and a fair amount of silver now so will be upgrading weapons, etc and we can now cook foods to put health around 150 which feels much safer for when we eventually head to the Plains or Ocean. But before that we will be finding Modor the dragon and *maybe the merchant - still no sign of him though. 

[Magness]

My friend and I have explored more of the word now (maybe 10%) and found Modor’s location so setup a small base there with a portal. We grabbed potions, large health food, special arrows, etc so we’re very prepared and beat him without too much of a problem. It was another fun boss fight but, we were ready for him and the mechanics of the battle were more straightforward than Bonemass (he’s the toughest we’ve fought). We are now building an outpost near the Plains biome and starting to smelt black metal ore and stuff to make the next tier of gear/weapons. We’ve just started on the build and mining and stuff but, the Plains aren’t so scary anymore which is good. It still gets sketchy with any 2 star baddies or larger groups but, we can handle most everything else and once the outpost is built it will be that much easier. Still loving the game and I think by the time we’re ready for the 5th boss the game will likely be updated again and have the next boss and biome added - cant wait 😊

[Magness]

Still playing this daily and still love it  I’ve been focusing on upgrading armor, weapons, food recipes and the home bases we have and I’ve got almost everything as tough as it can get. The main home base is stone now with defenses, etc and very tough, all weapons are fully upgraded and do 80+ dmg on first hit, around 200 dmg if I get the 3 hot combo in. All my armor is upgraded now too, the shield, even potions and food is a combo of Lox pie + Lox meat + blood pudding and puts me around 250 health so most baddies are ok to deal with now but, if in large groups or a few 2 stars are there with a Shaman it can still be rough. 
 

Next on the agenda is to upgrade and build out the other main bases and create a centralized portal room (right now they are scattered between the bases). Oh, and while bitching about hunting red mushrooms for my recipes my wife made this:

 

Love it 😊 

[Magness]

So we fought Yugluth the 5th boss and he was pretty tough. We both died multiple times and had to leave the fight and regroup. We did not have fire resistance potions made and had just decided to “try” him. In Valheim, that is a bad idea. Once we had health potions, large health foods and our new fire resistance potions we worked on Yugluth as a team on opposite sides so, as he attacked one of us the other moved in close to get in as many melee attacks as they could, then switch to the other player as he aggro’d. We still needed all our food and both had to use health potions during the fight but we beat him so woot  

 

The next area is the Mistlands and it’s in the game already but, the baddies and resources aren’t in-game yet so we’ll have to wait for that and the next boss (I think it’s being added later this month). So, in the meantime we are starting to explore the Oceans and filling in our world map. We are maybe at 17% explored now and the world seed is still SO massive and uncharted it’s kinda cool but daunting. The boats and sailing is pretty cool so far and it’s fun (and a little frantic) to find the turtles and mine Chitin off them before they go under water. I also completed my portal hub and it’s awesome:

 

 

[Magness]

Ok I just realized my only screen cap of the portal hub is at night  duh... so I’ll get a new screen cap tomorrow during daylight.

[Magness]

Better portal hub pic 😊 And... I’ve already changed it heh. 

 

[Magness]

I’m still playing this one but, no new content or bosses have been added so I’ve been upgrading our bases and making new foods and other things. I just love the atmosphere and feel of this game. We did sail all the way north to the Deep North biome and it’s cool to look at and map out but, there’s no in-game content there yet. We also sailed all the way south to the Ashland’s biome and I think it’s even cooler looking - very desolate and unforgiving. There are surtlings everywhere and in large groups so it’s a Quite dangerous area but, we were able to fight off some large groups and mine a Burning Metal sphere to get molten metal ore. It can be refined into bars but, there aren't any recipes in the game for the new metal yet. Per the devs answering questions on reddit, etc I think we will need a new world seed once the Mistlands are completed anyway so we will probably start holding onto metals and other materials to be ready to start over in a new world seed. It may sound weird but I’m really looking forward to it 😊