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The tenth Norse world sure is busy as Valheim hits 5 million sold

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Fully expected of course, Valheim continues pulling in masses of new users with the announcement that it's now sold 5 million copies over the first month. What is it? For those living under a rock: a brutal exploration and survival game for 1-10 players, set in a procedurally-generated purgatory inspired by Viking culture.

Across this time more than 15 thousand years have been spent playing Valheim based on a combined player time count, over 35 million hours of Valheim was watched on Twitch, it continues rising up as one of the best reviewed games on Steam (#39) and this is all still from a five-person team. The actual player-count seems to have now settled though from the 502,387 peak 10 days ago to it seeing a more regular player count of around 350,000.

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This truly is now a complete runaway success. Iron Gate mentioned how they "struggle to find the right words to express our gratitude to you, the community" and there's plenty more to look forward to as this is only the beginning of the journey for the game. Some big updates are planned which we're excited to see land in the game, are you?

Note: they also recently released a fresh patch on March 2, here's the notes:

* Localization updates
* Made Haldor head-turn smoother
* Object network interpolation is skipped if object was far away, solved issue with network players flying through the air when entering dungeons & exiting portals etc
* Added -public 1/0 flag to dedicated server again, Allows players to host local lan only servers
* Join IP-button updated to allow for lan-connections (dedicated servers only) & added DNS support
* Dedicated servers use directIP connection instead of SDR, solves issues with slow steam relays in some areas of the world
* Bonemass puke-effect network fix
* Updated Dedicated-server PDF manual
* Prevent pickup items when entering portals
* Lowered wolf procreation slightly
* Lowered chance of boss trophy talking

Just like we did before we took a look back at the charts from LinuxGSM, which is a command-line tool for quick, simple deployment and management of Linux dedicated game servers. Since adding Valheim support, the number of servers has rocketed upwards and there's now over 2,300 servers running Valheim thanks to LinuxGSM (source).

With full Linux support you can buy Valheim on Steam.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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23 comments
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Anza Mar 3, 2021
Soon they have sold more copies that there are people in Finland...
Nezchan Mar 3, 2021
My question for those who have and play the game is, how is it as a single-player experience?

A lot of what I see from people is multiplayer, but I'm not all that interested in getting a group together, fitting their schedule, not being able to wander off and read something at my leisure, etc. So is there enough to keep someone like me engaged with the world?

Going to add a caveat that I do expect the next year or two to bring a LOT more content to the game, so it's obviously going to improve. But that said, in your experience so far what do you think its appeal is as a solo adventure? Particularly for someone who's just fine playing Minetest alone and loves stuff like Subnautica which is exploration and base building heavy.
rcrit Mar 3, 2021
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I play exclusively single-player for similar scheduling reasons and it's fine. You have to do all the grunt work yourself (resource collection) so for me anyway it's slower going than those in the valheim channel on Discord but I'm still enjoying it after many hours.
Ehvis Mar 3, 2021
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Quoting: NezchanSo is there enough to keep someone like me engaged with the world?

It is still a survival game, so there is the part of grinding for resources that just takes more time when you do it alone. However, the game progression is actually quite suitable for solo play (which is what I've done so far) because it needs you to achieve goals to get new things and you can do that at your own pace. Haven't felt a specific need for additional hands yet.
Anza Mar 3, 2021
I agree that there is more work to be done if you play single player. Good thing is while you get somewhat punished for not doing some menial tasks. If you don't like chopping wood, build only essentials. If you don't like farming, you can try to survive with less available stamina and health (there's plenty of unprocessed food available in the wild, some of it just might be hard to catch). If you don't like mining, build only essential weapons and tools.

It's up to you when to go explore and how much you want to prepare for that. Starting biome meadows is quite safe, especially during the day, so you can explore it whenever you want, just remember to get back before night falls. Though if you don't home early enough, you can be careful and sneak quietly around the enemies.

With some experience you start to figure out where to find the resource that seemed to be ultra rare at first. Just remember to mark spots with resources (double click on map and write something descriptive), so you can later run around and gather quite lot of the resource you need for something. Quite lot of them respawn at same places, it might just take few days.

In short I guess I wanted to say that it's still fun as single player. Doing multiplayer now and then should feel like fresh experience as nothing is in same place, so can have fun of exploring all over again. Also you might be able to find some biome that you haven't been able to yet find on your own map and get some resources back to your single player game that might help you progress bit faster.I haven't played the multiplayer myself so I can't tell much more about it.
Drakker Mar 3, 2021
Played it quite a bit now, coming from Vintage Story. My overall impression is positive.... But... In single player it has some really rough edges. Battles are a chore if you are not well rested, you will always be out of stamina and be at a great disadvantage because monsters don't have limited stamina like you do, and there's no one else to help you. When well rested and fed though, combat is really, really fun.

The main problem I see right now is the amount of grinding required to craft stuff past the stone age. I'm used to things taking a long time, as I said earlier, coming from Vintage Story, but mining in Valheim is just not fun at all. It's a huge hassle, and you will spend hours doing it. It takes way too much material to upgrade your items and armors. I'm pretty sure that they will change that before the release, as the feedback from everyone seems to be the same.

If you are not in a hurry to try the game, and don't plan to do multiplayer, I would recommend waiting until the game is closer to release and the game balance is improved.
Interknet Mar 3, 2021
Quoting: DrakkerThe main problem I see right now is the amount of grinding required to craft stuff past the stone age. I'm used to things taking a long time, as I said earlier, coming from Vintage Story, but mining in Valheim is just not fun at all. It's a huge hassle, and you will spend hours doing it. It takes way too much material to upgrade your items and armors. I'm pretty sure that they will change that before the release, as the feedback from everyone seems to be the same.

Bronze is a horrendous waste of time. At most, pickaxe armor sword and a shield, but do not upgrade it. The next tier will quickly replace it. Trust me. I made every bronze item and upgraded them to the max, even after 300 copper ore it was barely enough. You'll end up regretting it if you do what I did.

Upgrading every tier to max is also a waste of time (except end-game materials really). Depends on how fast you want to get through content, but a lot of grinding is needed to max everything, and can really bum you out at the end. I didn't even have much desire to build stuff after I reached the last tier, despite having a few ideas.

Anyway, bronze is by far the worst tier in the game and needs a heavy rethink imo.


Last edited by Interknet on 3 March 2021 at 6:17 pm UTC
Drakker Mar 3, 2021
Yeah, I have a level 3 axe, a level 2 pick axe and a level 3 helmet and that's it, I'm done with bronze. I wish I didn't upgrade them except for the axe, the increased durability comes in handy. Oh, I made a few nails too. Troll hide armor should get me through to the iron age and is much much easier acquire and craft than bronze.
Anza Mar 3, 2021
Quoting: DrakkerPlayed it quite a bit now, coming from Vintage Story. My overall impression is positive.... But... In single player it has some really rough edges. Battles are a chore if you are not well rested, you will always be out of stamina and be at a great disadvantage because monsters don't have limited stamina like you do, and there's no one else to help you. When well rested and fed though, combat is really, really fun.

The main problem I see right now is the amount of grinding required to craft stuff past the stone age. I'm used to things taking a long time, as I said earlier, coming from Vintage Story, but mining in Valheim is just not fun at all. It's a huge hassle, and you will spend hours doing it. It takes way too much material to upgrade your items and armors. I'm pretty sure that they will change that before the release, as the feedback from everyone seems to be the same.

If you are not in a hurry to try the game, and don't plan to do multiplayer, I would recommend waiting until the game is closer to release and the game balance is improved.

I think for the stamina there's several things that help. First is that most common enemies in the beginning run around bit aimlessly which gives some time to recover stamina, especially if you get bit more distance by walking away. Bigger groups are a problem though. Tactic is to try to reserve some stamina as you might need it,
Spoiler, click me
especially when trying to avoid being hit by a troll.

Shield helps a lot too as if enemies don't come in too overwhelming numbers, you can actually recover stamina just by keep blocking the hits with the shield. Some of the harder enemies hit so hard and often that staying behind the shield is not viable as the only tactic.

Food is important stamina source, especially once you are able to farm carrots, carrot soup gives you lot of stamina. If you are able to cook some meat on top of that, you'll get lot of health and some stamina even on top of that. Just remember to keep stack of it with you. It helps to save good stuff just for the time when you actually need it.

As for mining, cart helps a lot if able to find route to the ore that you're able to drag the cart through (you can clear the route for the cart, but that can be also lot of work). You can always clean the route, though that's lot of work. If you are are able to get the cart next to the ore, it will double your inventory and doesn't count towards maximum weight. With the cart I might be able to empty one copper source totally if I throw all the rocks away.

I haven't utilized ships for mining, but anything bigger than raft has cargo hold, so you can transfer stuff with that. Should be even more helpful if you have your base next to place that you can access with the ship. You can create rivers by just digging with pickaxe from closest shore. Sometimes might be easier though just to move your base.
Anza Mar 3, 2021
Quoting: DrakkerYeah, I have a level 3 axe, a level 2 pick axe and a level 3 helmet and that's it, I'm done with bronze. I wish I didn't upgrade them except for the axe, the increased durability comes in handy. Oh, I made a few nails too. Troll hide armor should get me through to the iron age and is much much easier acquire and craft than bronze.

I actually already have extra troll hide that I don't know what to use for (I don't have high enough level workbench yet). Bronze is still somewhat short supply, but I have been doing upgrades to weapons and shields. I guess I'm more than adequately equipped for swamp once I find it.
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