Iron Gate’s survival game Valheim has been available in early access since February. Hundreds of thousands of Valheim players have explored its vast and dangerous fantasy world inspired by Norse mythology.
While the game’s attracted an impressive fanbase despite its unfinished state, new updates are always welcome. Iron Gate released Valheim's 0.204.4 patch earlier today. The update includes a bevy of bug fixes, improvements to tooltips and optimization, and atmospheric upgrades for the game’s Black Forest biome.
Iron Gate announced the update on Twitter Monday morning, with the full patch notes available on Steam. Fixes include resolving a bug with Valheim’s Jack-o-turnip decoration and another affecting the spawn location of tar pits. The patch also made it so that the “Wet” status effect no longer impacts spirit damage. It additionally solves a problem with enemies regenerating health more quickly than the developers intended.
In terms of new features, Valheim’s Black Forest biome now has discovery music at some locations. Iron Gate plans to add more to the Black Forest in the future and says the new music still needs work. However, it remains a clear upgrade. Developers have also adjusted the Mistlands biome, removing much of the clutter. Otherwise, the latter area is still a work in progress with minimal content.
As for general improvements, a Unity engine update fixed the random crash some players were experiencing due to pathfinding errors. Furthermore, the studio optimized Valheim’s Comfort calculations, which determine benefits players get from resting in their character’s home. Developers have also updated the localizations and added missing localization strings. Finally, Iron Gate updated the tooltips on Mead Bases to show status effects.
While Patch 0.204.4 contains several quality-of-life improvements, Valheim is still far from the eventual 1.0 release. The last major update, “Hearth and Home,” was released on September 16. The update greatly expanded Valheim's building and cooking options, overhauled the food system and added a new mount for players to tame. The next major update will finally see the Mistlands expanded into a fully functional biome, with the planned “Cult of the Wolf” and “Ships and the Sea” updates being pushed back possibly into next year.
Valheim is a long way from being a completed game, though the recent patch does cross a few things off Iron Gate’s development checklist. Other miscellaneous goals include improvements to the combat engine, human NPCs, and an increased number of unique locations. Hopefully, players will see these new features implemented very soon.
Valheim is available in early access on PC.