Valheim News

Time for another patch, and it’s a chunky one! This patch should fix a lot of various bugs and issues, and we hope there’s something in here for everyone. For example, the ballista now has two modes: one where it will still shoot at anything in its range, but also a new mode where you set a specific target by presenting it with a trophy of your choice.

We have also added two new items for you! One is a buildable version of the hexagonal gate you have seen at the various Dvergr strongholds in the Mistlands, and the other is a very stylish hat for all you master fishers out there. You may be in Valheim to prove your worth to Odin, but sometimes you simply have to prove yourself worthy of a cool hat as well.


[h2]Abbreviated Patch Notes:[/h2]

[h3]New Content:[/h3]
* New build piece: Hexagonal gate
* New item: Fishing hat

[h3]Fixes & Improvements:[/h3]
* Players can now “use” a trophy on ballistas to limit what it will shoot at
* Balance tweaks to various Mistlands enemies
* Mist torches are no longer a primary target for enemies
* Fixes to Mistlands dungeons and boss room entrances
* Various other bug fixes
* Various fishing fixes
* Various networking fixes



[h2]Detailed Patch Notes:[/h2]

[h3]New Content:[/h3]
* New build piece: Hexagonal gate
* New item: Fishing hat (needs a super secret recipe)

[h3]Balance & Tweaks:[/h3]
* Players can now “use” a trophy on ballistas to limit what it will shoot at
* Seeker circling tweaks (They should now feel a bit more aggressive again)
* Gjall spit attack tweaks (They now shoot 2 projectiles again, but the burst interval is increased. Should now be more visible and somewhat easier to avoid instead. More fire damage, less blunt damage)
* Added post-Queen nightspawns of Seekers, Broods and Ticks in Meadows, Black Forest, Mountain and Plains biomes
* Mistlands boss now tries to flee if unable to reach the player
* Mobs inside Mistlands Dungeons can now respawn
* Royal jelly piles inside Mistlands Dungeons are now respawning (Added hanging Royal Jelly piles as an indicator in big dungeon rooms)
* Wolves can now eat Chicken meat (Yum!)
* Mist torches are no longer a primary target for enemies
* Tweaked portal size to Mistlands boss room (The entrance “box” was a bit too big. Players should no longer be able to mine the top of the entrance and be able to press “E” to enter through the wall/stones)
* Tweaked portal size on Mistlands dungeon exits (The exit “box” was a bit too big. Players should no longer be able to exit the dungeon while being on the floor right above the entrance)
* Eitr regen is no longer affected by swimming or when encumbered
* Ymir Flesh is now purchasable from Haldor after Elder is dead, instead of after Bonemass
* Health and resistance tweaks on some Dvergr pieces
* Ballista ammo capacity increased from 20 to 40


[h3]Bug fixes:[/h3]
* Obliterator now converts Mistlands trophies/wood/arrows/bolts properly
* Mistlands biome music no longer stops playing if players use the dev command “env Clear” while being in Mistlands
* Carapace bolt collider fixed (The offset was a bit off previously when you tried to pick ‘em up)
* Depth of Field fix (Stars in the sky no longer blurry)
* Using the console command ‘save’ will now also save your local character file when playing on a multiplayer server
* Cleaned up unused locations and dungeon rooms to lower RAM usage
* Fixed a bug where players could craft an infinite amount of Raw fish
* Hens now lay eggs closer to their bodies
* Skeleton spawners can now spawn skeletons again even if there are summoned friendly skeletons nearby
* Troll trap and Dvergr stake wall no longer take rain damage
* Periodic lag spike fix (Resource unloading will now run while sleeping or pausing afk for 5 seconds if it hasn't been run for a 20 minutes, or when calling "cr" from console, or if none of those things, every 60 minutes)
* Seeker flying sound no longer plays if it dies mid air
* Marble column build pieces: Tweaked snap points (They were previously not 100% aligned with other build pieces)
* Additional damage for Bolt descriptions are now based on Crossbow skill instead of Bow skill
* JotunPuffs, Magecap and a number of other pickables no longer leave invisible dead objects in the world when they are picked, and old dead objects are cleared when loaded in to increase performance and decrease save-file size.
* Pickable DvergrStein no longer fall through objects


[h3]Fishing tweaks & fixes:[/h3]
* New item: Fishing hat
* Fish no longer despawn when far away
* Fish found in Ice Caves now respawn correctly
* Higher tier fish now give slightly more Raw fish and there’s now a small chance for fish to give players some extra materials when they are successfully reeled in
* Fishing bait is now returned if pulled in without fish or when recasting
* Fishing bait recipes now take basic fishing bait instead of previous biome fish
* Fishing bait recipes, and the fishing bait sold from Haldor is now 20 instead of 40 (This change was made due to the fishing bait return change mentioned above)
* Fish will now try to escape when hooked. (Fish will wobble and splash in the water when they try to escape, which increases the stamina usage when pulling in. When they’re not trying to escape, the stamina usage for pulling in is reduced)
* Tetra can now spawn at higher levels correctly
* Tuna now only spawn in the Ocean biome
* Higher-level fish only jump in the Ocean biome
* Slightly increased skill gain when fishing


[h3]Networking fixes:[/h3]
* Fixed a bug where players received the “Fail to connect” message instead of “Server full” when trying to join a full PlayFab server
* Fixed a bug where PlayFab accidentally signed in twice
* Major improvements in how the game handles multiplayer sessions when going offline/disconnect. (It now tries more often to succeed with creating lobbies/relog compared to previously)
* Added a pop-up message when players are trying to start a server when they’re not signed in correctly (i.e. being offline in some way)
* Added support for non-crossplay PlayFab servers, and Xbox network users without the “Crossplay privilege” can only host and join non-crossplay supported servers
* Added new server parameter that server owners can use if they want to run multiple dedicated servers using the same MAC-address in order to get unique PlayFab IDs for every server
* Improved error handling of privilege manager
* New “DNS Lookup failed” message when a server with an URL can’t be added to the server list due to DNS lookup failure
* Improved performance and behaviour of local server lists
* Fixed 2 soft lock cases that could happen when using PlayFab
* Fixed a bug that paused matchmaking-timers when the game was paused


[h3]Misc:[/h3]
* Reduce lighting flashes accessibility option added, reduces flashes for thunder, monster & player elemental effects, Galdr table, Obliterator and Portal
* Raven hints can be toggled in settings (and console command removed)
* New console commands added: catch (simulates catching a fish), printnetobj (lists number of network objects by name surrounding player) & cr (runs the periodic unloads unused assets routine manually and resets the timer)
* Improvements made for the “Manage Saves” menu, should now be a lot less laggy to use
* Localization updated

Iron Gate Studio has unveiled its future plans for Valheim, and they’re looking very exciting. As part of a new developer update blog, the team details a major update coming to Valheim, which will introduce the Ashlands biome.

Following a heartfelt thanks to its fans after the launch of the Mistlands update, Iron Gate jumps straight into what’s next for the game. The Ashlands biome is currently in pre-production, and “will be quite different from what we’re all used to, given that the Ashlands is a large chunk of land at the far south of the map.”

Iron Gate then goes on to detail how secretive it was regarding previous update, Mistlands, and says that it wishes to be more transparent with the next update. More of the process of developing this update will be shown off, to help players have a better understanding of how far development has come.

Read more

The mists of the Mistlands have settled, so viking survive 'em up Valheim developers Iron Gate have decided it's time to start cracking on their next biome update. They're now chiselling away at the Ashlands, a volcanic "land of the dead" packed with skeletal horrors.

It'll be a while before all the horrors are ready, but a smaller update with clothes and haircuts is on the way soon.

Read more

Happy new year, vikings!

We opted out of writing these regular development blogs for the last part of 2022, figuring there wasn’t much more we could tell you that wasn’t about announcing the Mistlands update itself! But now we have passed that particular milestone, and it’s time to look towards the future.

First though, we want to say a most heartfelt thank you to all of you who played the Mistlands during the Public Test phase, and to all of you who have played the update since it was released properly. Thank you for your feedback, for your thoughts and for your time! With Mistlands being such a large and long-expected update, it was quite scary to finally reveal it to all of you, and it was such a relief to see how much you liked it!

But now to the future, for real.

Our next big biome update is going to be the Ashlands, and we have begun with the pre-production of that biome by creating some concept art and trying to work out the feeling we want the biome to have. It will be quite different from what we’re all used to, given that the Ashlands is a large chunk of land at the far south of the map, rather than small islands spread out over the world.

When it comes to development itself, there is something we would like to do very differently this time. With the Mistlands, we were very secretive. This is great for those who want to discover as much as possible for themselves (which is the main reason why we kept so much hidden), but it’s also not very transparent. Therefore, our ambition with the development of the Ashlands is to show you a lot more of the process. This will mean you will see things in their early stages, and maybe even things that won’t end up making it into the game at all, but you will also hopefully have a better understanding of how far along the development has gotten. We’ll be trying this out for the Ashlands development period and see how it goes, and we’d like to start off right away by showing you some enemy concepts:





As you might be able to guess from these images, our current design vision for the Ashlands is that it’s a land of the dead, as well as a place with quite a volcanic nature. We’re really looking forward to exploring the concept and finding out where it will lead us, and we’re excited to have you along for this journey!

If you’re concerned about the Ashlands taking a long time to develop, you can rest assured that we have some fun things planned for you between then and now. Something you already know is that Valheim will get an Xbox release early this year, and with the crossplay support you will be able to play with your console-bound friends. We have also talked about adding some new difficulty settings, and we are working on something which we’re currently calling Hildir’s Quest! While the programming and QA folks were busy working out the final bugs of the Mistlands, our artists got creative and designed some brand new clothes for your characters, which became the start of this little update. The clothes might still get further changes, but we think they’re looking pretty nice so far!



Hildir’s Quest will also have some other fun things, like an additional NPC (the eponymous Hildir herself) and a way for you to re-style your existing characters’ hair! Don’t worry though, an update like this won’t be taking any significant time away from the development of the Ashlands. Due to the nature of game development, not everyone can work on the same thing at the same time, and working on something like Hildir’s Quest will ensure that the Ashlands pre-production can proceed while the team works as efficiently as possible.

Another thing we want to do in the future is to improve the accessibility of the game. This is long overdue, but we want to finally add some options so that more people can enjoy Valheim. If you have a disability or any other factor that affects your gaming, you are more than welcome to send us an email and tell us a bit about it and about any solutions you can think of that would improve your experience.


Since it’s been a while without announcing a Build of the Month, we want to highlight more than one creation this time! Check out the cosy cottage by HelloHellie, MythicBuildV’s epic dragon temple, and the proud Mistlands keep by TBasicBuilder. If you want your creation to be featured, use the hashtag #ValheimBotM on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook. You can view previous builds in this thread on Steam.







Thank you for joining us on the Valheim journey thus far, and let’s head into 2023 together!
/The Iron Gate team

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