After an incredible breakout success at launch, Iron Gate recently released Valheim's first official update expansion: Hearth and Home. The expansion focuses around making in-game player creations more homely with added food, building mechanics, and furniture available for players to dig into. It’s a much-anticipated update to the game, dropping six months after the original release. This has allowed Iron Gate to examine player feedback extensively, and perhaps also look to the game’s modding community for inspiration.
The new expansion changes a lot more than just house-building mechanics. While the new construction pieces are undoubtedly welcome after six months, Valheim’s players seem much more excited by some basic quality-of-life improvements and new interactions with the game’s pets. There is some discord within the fanbase, though. Some are against Iron Gate’s update to the health and stamina provided by food, which has in-turn massively impacted which weapons and playstyles are the most effective.
Making a House a Home
One of the most prominent additions in the Hearth and Home update is new building pieces and options for home decor. As the best player builds in Valheim demonstrate, its fans are incredibly creative. One of the great joys of Valheim's endgame is having an array of building options, and the new update plays directly into this aspect of the game.
The trailer features wholesome scenes of vikings sitting down for dinner (enjoying the plentiful food options) at new styles of table, exploring together (presumably using the new map-sharing feature), and slipping into a bubbling bath tub, Geralt-style.
Several new domestic items of note released with Hearth and Home. Firstly, Darkwood can now be used for a variety of decorative purposes, including shingled roofing, beams, and other fancy furnishings. Alongside Darkwood items in Valheim, heaps of new furniture have also been added, including the aforementioned hot tub and an imposing stone throne for more dire war councils.
A cartographer's table can also be crafted, allowing players to share map data. Cauldrons (and associated culinary activities) have also been beefed up thanks to a butcher's table and spice rack. There is also a range of new pots and pans in game, alongside an iron cooking station and oven - meaning a player can easily spec their Valheim build to be the resident chef.
Revised Viking Violence in Valheim
The new update reflects an old Norse work-life balanace by providing a huge overhaul to combat as well. Nearly every weapon has received a significant remix, ensuring all combat builds are viable in different ways. This involves updating the playstyles and attacks possible with even the best Valheim weapons. As such, knives and spears are more usuable in combat situations, and certain types of weapon are not quite as dominant as they used to be. Hopefully this will mean the two new weapons in the update, the crystal battleaxe and the silver knife, will be valuable to returing Valheim players.
Not only are weapons reworked, so is blocking. The block/stagger mechanics are essential to the ebb and flow of Valheim's combat, and Iron Gate has modified it massively. A player’s ability to block an attack is now directly connected to their current maximum HP, meaning a kind of constitution score has been implemented that impacts how much a character can block. A stagger bar has been added to the UI as well, making Valheim’s gameplay even more like Dark Souls’.
Unfortunately, not all of these changes have been well-received, especially regarding combat. The main problem players have found relates to consumable changes. Food items in Valheim now tend to give players either stamina or health, whereas a lot of snacks in the previous version would restore both.
While this does make choosing Valheim’s best food more dynamic and involved, it also robs players of inventory slots, and makes stamina management more difficult. This, in turn, has made combat a lot more fraught, with stamina drain being a perilous problem. Blocking, bow-wielding, and retreating have all been made significantly harder as a result.
Getting Lox on Lock: Hearth and Home’s Most Exciting Updates
Another great addition in Hearth and Home is that tamed Lox (the game’s giant oxen equivalents) can now become mounts. Saddles are available for the creatures, and they can become powerful steeds if needed. Taming Valheim’s Lox might not be easy, but it’s certainly worth it.
The game has also added a thunderstone. This is primarily used in Valheim’s new Obliterator, which destroys unwanted items. However, a certain Norse god’s hammer might end up using the item. Thor’s appearance in God of War: Ragnarok has certainly struck a chord, so seeing Mjolnir in action in Valheim would not be a huge surprise.
Valheim is available now on PC via Steam Early Access.