How to get more out of Valheim
Since its Early Access release on February 3, 2021, Valheim has continuously exploded in popularity, breaking the one million copies sold barrier after its very first week, and as we are writing this; five weeks after its release, Valheim is already close to six million copies sold.
With this in mind, we here at Ent.place have decided to release a tips-and-tricks guide that aims to be relevant for any Valheim player, be it new, or seasoned, to help navigate your adventures in a more prosperous manner.
Take your time – enjoy the journey!
Let’s kick-start the guide with this simple, yet surprisingly vital tip.
There’s this saying, that presumably most people know; “Sometimes the journey is more important than the end goal itself”.
This saying is very much applicable to the world of Valheim. Considering it’s an Early Access-release, the game still has certain limits, per se, when it comes to the amount of available content.
We highly recommend any and all players to pace themselves. At Ent.place we have already cleared the game’s natural progression several times over, and its end-game now consists of building and making up weird rulesets or competitions on how to run through the game again.
An example of this is to clear the game using limited armor, weapons, food, etc.
A crazy, and seemingly impossible example, include defeating all five bosses in Valheim with nothing at all. Only your fists, no armor, no food, no buffs, no nothing – possibly even with Hardcore rulesets including zero deaths – recreating the character if you were to ever die.
These creative solutions to the game’s current limits are fun and all, but it is nothing compared to the immense joy we all had during our very first playthrough – similar to what you’d experience in any other game.
So learn from our mistakes, don’t rush the game, take your time – and enjoy the journey!
Valheim is best enjoyed in the company of others!
Playing Valheim solo is a lot of fun, there is no denying that. However, we believe most players of Valheim would agree that playing the game in the company of your friends, or even random people – making new friends, is the best way to enjoy the world of Valheim.
There are also several encounters in the game that become way more joyful in the company of others, even simple chores such as chopping down trees for wood can easily be turned into hilarious moments with friends screaming, cursing, and laughing over each other.
Naturally, not everyone is able to play with others for various reasons, which is completely understandable.
But if you have the opportunity to play with others, we highly suggest you take the opportunity!
Repair everything – all the time
Unlike most games we’ve played, repairs in Valheim cost absolutely nothing but stamina. With this in mind, we recommend you repair everything – all the time!
This applies to your armor, weapons, and tools, but it also applies to your base(s) and other structures, as well as your ships or carts.
Consider getting a pet
There are currently three types of creatures that can be tamed and used as a pet in Valheim; the boar, the wolf, and the lox.
The boar might not be as great a fighter as the wolf, or even the lox, but it certainly makes for some easy access to food once you start breeding them. It also kicks a fair decent punch in the early game, and can actually be a worthwhile companion in the early stages of the game.
However, if a pack of killing machines is what you’re after, we recommend the wolf. They can deliver fatal bites, and they feel smooth and comfortable to bring along on your journey most of the time.
The lox might actually be the strongest fighter of the lot, but it’s big, and it feels clunky having them follow you around; taming them can also be harder than you might imagine.
Switching between servers to transfer loot
Some might find this tip debatable, especially in regard to moral reasoning, but considering every player of Valheim plays the game differently, some with more time on their hands than others, and some wanting a harder and more realistic journey than others, this tip is highly situational and depends solely on the individual player.
As most players of Valheim know by now, there are ways to cheat in the game, notably using console commands. Personally, we don’t fancy using these, and therefore won’t cover them in this guide.
However, there are certain tricks, or flaws in the game, that makes it possible to save time using cheeky tricks such as switching between servers.
If you play on the same character, its last location of log-out on any server, be it a community server, or a single-player world, will always be the location you log into whenever you enter that world.
This means that you can log out on one world, log onto another, and you will end up at a completely different location – while still having the same gear and inventory as you had on the former server.
So, how can this be useful?
First off, it allows for players to transfer resources such as iron, or silver, from one place to another, bypassing the no-portal rule for certain resources.
Let’s say you want to transfer iron from the Swamp where you just mined them, but your main base is 30 minutes away by traveling by ship:
You can simply log out while in the swamp; carrying these resources, log onto another world and temporarily store them; log back and travel home through a portal instead, and then relog and retrieve your temporary stash on the other server and bring them back to your base.
Second, it can make farming trips a lot less time-consuming.
Let’s say you are collecting silver, stone, wood, or even copper, these trips tend to take some time, as they sometimes require you to travel far from your home.
You’re also forced to bring a cart, or make a multitude of trips back to your base to drop off any newly gathered resources.
Instead, you can gather any desired resources until full, swap servers and stash it; then retrieve said stash when you finally decide to return to base.
Keep in mind, many players would directly compare the exploitation of these loopholes to straight-up using console commands, ergo cheats. So use at your own accord, and if you play with a group that doesn’t stand for this playstyle, perhaps consider adapting to playing with them without using it.
For us, this isn’t considered cheating per se, but it is definitely in a very grey area.
We wanted to include it however as it offers an alternative for saving a lot of time while traveling for any player that might only have a very limited time to enjoy the game of Valheim; and would rather not spend it all running back and forth with resources all day – while also avoiding blatantly cheating using console commands, and rather play the game.
In the end, this is ultimately up to each and every player how they choose to play Valheim.
