Rasmus R. 
Valheim is a survival-sandbox game developed by Iron Gate AB and published by Coffee Stain Studios. The game features a Viking-themed world bustling with creatures inspired by Nordic legends where you craft and fight your way through a set of bosses.
I’ll be covering my own experience in At First Glance from my first few sessions, but will provide a link to a detailed summary here.
Iron Gate Studio recently released their new update for Valheim called Hearth & Home. I had been longing for new content for Valheim for quite a while, so I was excited to jump back in. For those of you who haven’t played Valheim before: The aim of the game is to best five different bosses in different biomes. Each biome brings their own set of materials to collect and use for crafting, which in turn increases the damage you dish out and can take.
In my time spent with Valheim, I found progression from biome to biome very satisfying. It feels natural in a sense, as if you are transitioning from one time period to another. The increasing pressure from both the enemies and the environment keeps you in your toes at every turn. And not to worry about getting lost, Hugin appears now and then at the start to help you out.
But enough about the main game, what about Hearth & Home?
Hearth & Home expands your viking experience by quite a bit. The developers suggest you start a new run, so we did just that. As my friend and I build our first base to conquer Eikthyr (a giant, chained-up stag with thunder-infused antlers, I’m still amazed.), we made good use of the new cartography features which now shares map info between players in the same world.
We traveled the forests for leather scraps and deer hides where we were ambushed by necks and greylings. During the fight I got staggered when a meter to the right of my character filled up. This is your poise meter. The food rebalancing done in Hearth & Home gives meaning to what you eat. For example, eating more health focused items makes you less prone to being staggered.
In addition to food rebalancing, Iron Gate has also rehauled most of the weapons to make them more viable. I have not yet gotten my hands on any upgraded weapons, so I sadly cannot share my insight on them. However, with the friendly fire option we also have the butcher’s knife that completely disregards friendly fire. It is mostly used for, well, butchering but we found it useful to get rid of any pesky greylings coming our way.
Later on in the game you can also fiddle with the new building pieces to create wonderful constructions, but I was mostly excited about the fact you can now craft your gold into STACKS. You can establish monetary dominance over your friends by swinging your hard-earned moolah in their face! Exciting!
All in all, these first sessions have been quite a nice dive back into Valheim. I can strongly recommend this title, but I also recommend grabbing a friend with you to experience all Hearth & Home has to offer!
Cinematic trailer for Hearth & Home:
