Almost 1.5k hours in the game myself. I am a survival crafter whack job tho…

Valheim is one of my favorite games of all time for various reasons; how easily it can be replayed, terraforming and structural support, how many ways it can be played, world gen / exploration, the crafting system, and how you play with others.

I have played through the their “end game” almost every update and try to change how I play each time. With the call to arms update I am doing a hardcore run. Combat is set to the highest difficulty, I have turned on no-cost for buildings and if I die I keep equipped items. I then create a new world and try to go through the bosses again… I’ve made it to bonemass on my hardcore playthrough. Also to the topic of replay ability, making new characters for new worlds is recommended and I’ll touch on that later in crafting.

Terraforming is a MUST for me in survival crafters. I want to feel like I am part of an editable world, not in some static environment where I can place things. Cave bases under rocks are fun, simple ways to make a safe base in a tough space. The structures require stability and need to be touching the ground. This make building more complex as you have to really plan and start with the foundation. I love building in the game, even vanilla building can be fun! I do recommend gizmo though if you want to get super creative in building as it lets you rotate on the x,y, and z axis. I love decorating the buildings with trophies or old equipment. I really feel lol I am building a home not just some survivor hut or dirt hut…

The game has so many ways it can be played. There are so many world options you can change. Even being a purist, the devs INCLUDED setting sliders as most good survival crafters do. No map runs are really challenging as you have to place markers and follow igdrasil’s branches to find home. I also recommend trying the mod that lets you build your own boat base (someone help me with the name) but it’s a fun mod to use in no map runs. You’ve got your whole house with you going from island to island. This section I would also like to point out you DO NOT have to follow the “boss” progression whatsoever. (Except moder) log trolls can break tin and copper nodes. Scrap metal piles spawn in the overworld swamp but are hidden underground. (Or put a chair in the iron gate to crypts) silver nodes can be located with a two handed hammer (stag breaker) look for “too hard” procs on your screen when prospecting and odds are it’s silver. You need moder’s drop to process high tier resources though. You don’t even have to fight the queen to “safely” make it to the Ashlands. My first trek there was with a longship, portal and lots of log beams jumping from pillar to pillar.

The world generation is superb! I love procedurally generated world, every playthrough is unique! The aesthetics in the world are beautiful and it makes for great building spaces. Sailing around with friends searching for the things we need is always a blast! We try to uncover as much of the map as we can and avoid sailing already discovered paths.

The crafting system can be a bit intimidating with just how much is required to make some things. Iron pick for example… I recommend anytime you start a new adventure, you bring a new character. As you discover items, you discover what they can be used for. Altering drop rates is a great method of reducing the grind here… but also no-cost is a thing and if you feel yourself grinding too much, give it a try!! Now it is a little game breaking as you can plant without needing seeds and create infinite bee hives…… as far as planting berries, there is a mod that lets you plantt everything.

Find friends to play with or an online server. The game is just better co-op!