by 404 ● September 13, 2021
As one of the biggest updates in the game’s history, Hearth and Home will refine a lot of the Viking survival sandbox title's mechanics and systems, changing the game for Valheim players (pun intended), especially in terms of settlement building and customizing spaces at home, with a few changes on weapons and combat.
As millions of people fell in love with the Viking life in the Norse cosmos, many wanted game tweaks and updates to enhance their playing experience on Valheim. Iron Gate Studios listened.
For some time now, developers have promised significant changes to house-building and cooking (the major appeals) in the Valheim Hearth and Home update. But with the unanticipated virality of Valheim, the team experienced many delays.
Finally, after a long wait and endless rumors, the greatly anticipated update has a set release date of September 16 of 2021. As one of the biggest updates in the game’s history, Hearth and Home will refine a lot of the Viking survival sandbox title's mechanics and systems, changing the game for Valheim players (pun intended), especially in terms of settlement building and customizing spaces at home, with a few changes on weapons and combat.
So without further ado, let’s cover the exciting news and major feature updates:
Success starts at home. That isn’t just some cliche quote in a parenting 101 book. It’s a fundamental truth in Valheim. The nicer your home, the higher your “comfort level,” which translates into a longer-lasting buff that regenerates your health and stamina faster when you leave the house to fight monsters.
The Hearth and Home update will add new building materials (like dark wood roof pieces and window hatches) and more activities around the house. There’s already a sub-community passionate about building impressive structures on Valheim; this update with more building pieces will encourage more creative player creations.
With ValheimServerHosting, you can build large-scale structures with no limitations on our mod-friendly servers using custom building modifications. Worried about messing up or losing progress on your construction? We also have auto-save and backup features that ensure you never lose progress and preserve previous versions of your world.
The Iron Gate Studio will implement a reworked food system that enables players to hone their different playstyles by making different food choices. Essentially, different foods will now serve distinct advantages in the new food system.
Previously, the food roughly provided the same amount of stamina and strength. In this update, food has been split into three categories:
For example, eating “stamina” foods may be better suited for players that want to keep building. Whereas eating “health” food will help boost health, allowing for more effective attack blocks and damage mitigation–designed for more tanky, defensive players.
The food bar has also been removed and replaced with timers showing how much time you have left before you get “hungry”.
As Valheim is also a multiplayer survival game, this update will further enhance cooperative experiences as each team member can serve a different purpose in-game and synergize to ultimate victory.
Hearth and Home also bring us new foods like Eyescream, Shocklate smoothie, various wolf meats, and the ability to plant and harvest onions. Iron Gate Co has also mentioned new cooking station extensions like the butcher table, spice rack, and pots and pans.
The nature of fights against monsters will also change. The effectiveness of your block power against monster attacks will now be dependent on your character’s maximum health rather than a stamina system. So, the lower your health, the less effective your blocks are–leaving you increasingly vulnerable to death.
A new stagger meter is also being embedded within the in-game user interface. If the meter ever reaches full capacity, your blows have the potential to knock an enemy off balance.
In particular, tower shields get a significant buff, with a lot more knockback than other shields in the game. While safe and slow, these new tweaks now render the tower shield a great choice for playing defensively, especially against many enemies at once, as a tank.
On the opposite end, the lighter buckler may offer fewer blocking capabilities, but it now also allows you to parry incoming strikes.
The regular round shields will remain a balanced choice for the standard fighter.
You’ve heard that right. But some weapons have been tweaked more than others, including:
The Hearth and Home update let us pretentiously show off our treasure chest of riches to other players. You can create coin stacks and fill your soon-to-be-added treasure vault. To ensure that no soul pilfers your loot, the update will include an “iron gate,” allowing you to hoard treasure under the safety of lock and key.
While you keep your in-game riches safe, we’ll make sure that your gaming experience on our Valheim servers is safe and secure for an uninterrupted and worry-free playing session.
With all these exciting new features, users will continue to amass and have a blast playing with friends in their own world. Many easily clock more than 20 hours a week on the game. But to experience smooth gameplay in Valheim, you will need a powerful gaming server that can handle the demanding workload.
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The major upcoming update by Iron Gate is, undoubtedly, a major cause for excitement as we all want to be a part of the new Valheim coming September 16. We hope for a fantastic experience playing the game to the year-end, after which more updates will continue to improve the game.
No matter what changes happen in-game, our Valheim servers remain steadfast in their mission to deliver the best playing experience possible. If you’re still a little nervous about hosting with us, then try our 24-hour FREE server trial before paying for a long-term option. We guarantee that you’ll love it.