Valheim

A fantasy sandbox with survival elements. You can play alone or with others, exploring the world and gathering resources, finding and raiding tombs, building bases, crafting increasingly powerful weapons and armor, and defeating a variety of enemies, monsters, and bosses. The early medieval Scandinavian setting became one of the project’s greatest strengths .

According to Norse mythology, mortals and divine beings inhabit nine worlds. Humans live in Midgard, while gods such as Odin live in Asgard. Valheim is a wild tenth realm that even the gods fear.

The main character is a Viking who was wounded in battle but did not earn a place in Valhalla. He would have rotted in Helheim, but on Odin’s orders, Valkyries carry dying warriors to Valheim. There, they must work hard and defeat terrifying monsters, Odin’s enemies, to earn a place in Valhalla. They must also turn Valheim into a welcoming place.

Unlike Minecraft, Valheim has a story, divided into a main storyline and side quests. The player receives instructions and specific goals, and completing them moves the story forward. From time to time, the raven Huginn visits the player and delivers instructions from Odin.

You can’t just focus on survival or building and ignore the story. New gameplay options and areas of the world only become available after you defeat certain bosses or complete quests.

When Valheim first launched in Early Access, it didn’t have a long, substantial story. One was added closer to the game’s full release.

Following Viking mythology, Valheim appears as a flat, round, watery world with many islands. Around its edge is the end of the land, in the form of an endless waterfall. At the start of each new game, procedural generation creates a unique map filled with islands of different shapes and sizes scattered across the ocean.

The islands are divided into biomes —forests and meadows, swamps, plains, mountains, northern lands, and more. There are 10 in total. Each biome offers a unique mix of nature, climate, resources, enemies, and useful loot.

Some places have poisonous air or extreme cold. Visiting them requires preparation and crafting protective items. The ocean is its own biome, filled with dangerous aquatic creatures. The world is so vast that fully exploring it can take several hundred hours.

During Early Access, Valheim had almost no unique content, and all points of interest (altars, runes, dungeons, fortresses, etc.) were generated procedurally. Its bestiary included familiar animals (wolves, deer, and boars) as well as fantasy monsters—trolls, goblins, skeletons, walking trees, dragons, giant sea krakens, and more.

Valheim’s improved physics takes into account the weight of objects, the strength of buildings, collision angles, and airflow. Felled trees can crush the player, destroying their base in the process, or knock down a couple of other trees. A house built without the necessary supports will collapse. A fire lit inside a house without a chimney will quickly fill it with smoke, and the character will start to suffocate.

Like in other games of this genre, in Valheim the hero finds themselves in a hostile world with nothing but their bare hands. At first, they survive in the most primitive way: gathering berries, running around with a club, and living in a shack.

Later, the player explores the world, finds new resources, starts hunting wildlife, and can craft a bow, arrows, an axe, and armor. Over time, stone and bone tools give way to bronze, and then to items made of iron and precious metals.

Most items are made at a workbench, a key part of the gameplay. Only within its range can you build proper structures, and enemies stop spawning. There are other crafting stations too: for example, metal can be smelted in a smelter, while weapons and armor can be made at a forge.

Crafting stations can also be upgraded, unlocking new crafting options. However, you can’t make advanced weapons and tools without rare materials, which must be obtained from difficult enemies and bosses.

The character also levels up. Valheim’s progression works a bit like Skyrim: the more often the player performs an action, such as running or fighting with a spear, the higher that skill level becomes. This means they can run faster and for longer, or deal more damage with a spear. Even running around a hut or hitting a rock counts as practice.

One unusual feature of Valheim is that you can go hungry all the time without dying. Food increases health and stamina, the character’s two main stats. It also speeds up healing and enables health regeneration. But you can’t eat the same thing all the time—you need variety.

Valheim offers both single-player and co-op modes. The difficulty increases with the number of players. Surviving alone is easy; playing co-op with a friend is moderately difficult, while three or more players makes it hard. A server can host up to 10 players.

All co-op players have the same objectives and quests, but they can divide up the work: one tames and breeds animals, another works in the garden, a third fishes, a fourth mines ore, and a fifth transports it back to the base.

While the sun is up, you need to hunt, gather resources, craft the items you need, and reinforce your base. When night falls, you have to defend yourself: wild animals and enemies become more aggressive, there are more of them, and their behavior changes. Wolves, for example, start gathering in huge packs, making them difficult to defeat alone.

Without a fortified base, neither a lone player nor a team can manage. It’s a safe place to store all your gathered resources, crafted tools, weapons, and armor. Building is an important part of Valheim. Even in Early Access, players could build outposts and full-fledged fortresses throughout the tenth world.

Valheim also has a “Player versus Player” mode, which you can enable when setting up the server. However, the balance and mechanics were only fine-tuned in the full release, since players fighting each other is a secondary feature compared to the game’s other activities.