This update is for the Public Test version of Valheim, and may therefore be unstable. Before we launch this update to the Default version of the game, we want to make sure to have a chance to discover bugs and adjust the balancing, to give you the best game experience possible.

Access the Public Test branch on Steam by right clicking Valheim in your Steam library, and then select ‘Properties’. In the new window, select ‘Betas’ and type in the code “yesimadebackups”. The Public Test branch should now be available for you to choose from.

To access with Microsoft / PC Game Pass, launch the Xbox Insider Hub app. Navigate to ‘Previews’, and then find ‘Valheim Public Test’. Select ‘Join’. Wait for the registration to be complete to be directed to the Store and then install ‘Valheim Public Test’.

Be aware that there might be some minor offsets between the PC and console versions, but that we are aiming to keep the two as consistent as possible.

Please leave any feedback you may have in the appropriate channel in our Discord, or in the subforum on Steam.

As always, remember to be considerate towards players not partaking in the Public Test, in case they want to avoid spoilers.

Please make sure to make backups of your save files before playing.

Haldor is not the only merchant in the family – and his sister Hildir has made her way to Valheim at last. But she has had some trouble on the way, and it appears most of her stock has gone missing. When you find her, she might request some help!

This update also brings some long awaited server modifiers; select a lower difficulty for a more casual experience, ramp it up for a hardcore playthrough, or come up with a mix of your own!



New Content:
* New NPC: Hildir the merchant
* New locations
* World modifiers added
* 2 new crafting extensions
* New hair and beard styles
* New items

Misc:
* Hair and beards are now visible when equipping helmets
* Various visual improvements
* Quick-stack button added
* Manual snapping for building added



New Content:
* New NPC: Hildir the merchant
* New location: Hildir’s camp
* New location: Smouldering tomb (classic dungeon)
* New location: Howling cavern (classic dungeon)
* New location: Sealed tower (open dungeon)
* 3 new mini bosses
* World modifiers button added to start game screen with many customization/difficulty options (select a preset or design your own)
* 8 different Fireworks added (Including Thunderstone and Black Core thrown in the fire)
* New item: Sparkler
* New clothing: 10 hats & headscarves
* New clothing: 14 dresses and tunics
* Black forge extension: Vice Grip
* Magetable extension: Unfading Candle
* New material: Barber kit
* New furniture: Barber station
* New material: Iron pit
* New furniture: Firepit
* 8 new hairstyles
* 5 new beard styles
* 4 new music tracks

Fixes & Improvements:
* Hair and beards are now visible when equipping helmets
* Haldor animations updated
* All fire effects have been overhauled
* Smoke balls created by fires now have random rotation and no longer pop in when spawned
* Added Hugin hints informing the player that traders can be found in the game
* Spawn command can now specify fields
* Fixed a bug which caused level up algorithm to be a bit off depending on when you die
* Reduced lag spike when selecting worlds in the Select World menu by reusing existing world list elements, rather than destroying all and instancing all new ones
* Widened the Manage Saves Menu and show the time of the timestamp
* Retrieve timestamp from file name rather than file metadata if present in the file name. This means moving a file to/from cloud no longer affects the sorting order of files with timestamps in their names
* Fixed oversight that saved unnecessary characters (such as spaces) in an IP address to the server list if the IP address could be parsed successfully
* Chat doesn’t open on Ping anymore
* Resolved chat blocking input for other UI (such as map)
* Fixed issue where minimap pin input field for PC version was getting invisible
* Join code is now hidden when HUD’s visibility is toggled off
* Fixed a bug that had water in caves be affected by wind
* Fixed a bug that could cause the server list to stop working
* Fixed a bug on Xbox where ticks wouldn’t attach correctly
* Opening console now blocks hotbar navigation
* Offline players can now send map pings on Xbox and MS store version
* Fixed missing special characters on signs
* Fixed Xbox bug which could cause the player to jump while selecting a building piece
* Menu usage is now blocked when HUD is hidden

Quality of Life:
* Quick stack button and Shift-E to quickly place all items already in a container from your inventory
* You can now manually choose snapping point with Q & E for precision building
* Intro sequence can now be skipped from the pause menu and the game can be paused while in the intro
* Workbench and Forge now get slightly increased build range when upgraded
* Crafting benches’ build range is now cylindrical instead of spherical
* Added another controller scheme, and the ability to hide HUD when using a controller and on Xbox

Misc:
* God mode will now allow damage down to 1 health rather than taking no damage
* New console command "tombstone" which create tombstones
* New itemset ‘base’ and command can specify a number to override all items with that level (i.e. “itemset meadows 4” will give level 4 meadows items)
* New console commands: (tombstone - creates tombstones; resetworldkeys - Resets all world modifiers to default; setworldpreset - Sets world modifiers to a named preset; setworldmodifier - Sets a world modifier value)

This patch includes a lot of optimisations for many underlying systems of the game – this to improve in-game performance for both small and large worlds, network performance, load times and to drastically decrease save file sizes. We hope that these changes will be a significant improvement for some of you!

You’ll also find the midsummer items enabled again, so place down a maypole and go dancing!



* Midsummer items enabled (Maypole & Midsummer crown)
* Many performance, memory and networking improvements for both new/unexplored and old/explored worlds
* World save file size greatly reduced
* Fixed endless loading of save manager when switching tabs too fast
* World save files that are corrupt, have load errors or have missing meta files can now be restored from the most recent backup directly from within the Select World menu by pressing the "Start" button.
* Save file stability & issues fixed
* Decreased load times in the Manage Saves menu.
* Fixed a bug that would cause the GUI to not update when deleting the bottommost backup in the Manage Saves menu.
* An automatic backup is made when starting a world in a new version, and a permanent backup is created when loading into a new world version
* Fixed a world load issue between versions. (You can no longer load into a world from a game version that is newer than your current game version)
* Fixed hitbox issue for close combat and spear throwing issue
* Added "UI scaling" to settings on Xbox
* Minimap pin input fixed on steam deck & big picture mode
* Minimap text input fix for certain Asian languages

Further problem solving in today's patch!

Like last time, this patch makes your saves significantly less backwards compatible than other patches, so make sure you really do make extra backups this time. As always, we will do our best so that you will be able to continue with your save files when this goes live, but there is always a risk that you might have to restore your backups when playing on the public test.


* Fixed issue with some worlds not showing up correctly
* Fixed an issue with creating a character with the same name as a previous one
* A permanent backup is now created when loading into a new world version in case you want to revert back
* Bed issues fixed
* Issue with monsters moving before finished being staggered fixed
* Fixed issue where monsters could have the wrong weapon after exiting and re-entering an area
* Fixed issue with loading worlds on dedicated server
* Worlds with underscores in their names fixed

Hello vikings!

Lately we have been getting a lot of questions regarding mods, and what we as a company approve of – as well as what we don’t approve of. Therefore we thought we’d try and clear things up a little bit.

First of all, while we don’t have any official mod support, we are definitely happy to see that people are engaging with our game and creating their own mods for it. It’s definitely flattering that you want to be creative and add your own ideas! Iron Gate not having any official mod support essentially means that any creating and using of mods is done at your own risk, and that we can’t guarantee that mods will be compatible with newer versions of the game.

The thing that we’ve been getting the most questions about, however, is the phenomenon where mods cost money. We definitely understand that you spend a lot of your time on creating a mod, and that you might want financial compensation for that, but Iron Gate does not condone locking modded content behind a paywall.

We feel that charging money for a mod is against the creative and open spirit of modding itself, and therefore we urge all mod authors to make their mods freely available to all who want to play them. This should include the whole mod, and not just have part of the mod available for free while another part of it costs money. If you want to show your appreciation for a mod author you can of course still support them with a voluntary donation, but we do not want payment to be a requirement to access a mod.

Additionally, we would also greatly appreciate it if mods made it clear that they are unofficial mods, both in game and on any website where the mod is available. Sometimes joining a modded dedicated server will automatically trigger a download of a mod, and we simply want to avoid confusion for players so that they can know whether or not they are playing a modded game. Valheim already has a feature for this, where you can simply have your mod trigger a popup in game, which will inform the player that their game is running with a mod.

Thank you all for taking our wishes into consideration!

Best regards,
The Iron Gate team

Just some minor fixes before the weekend! Please remember to read the disclaimers on the previous two PTB patches (0.216.5 and 0.216.6)

* A backup is made when starting a world in a new version
* Fixed a world load issue between versions

Some additional fixes to the current Public Test Branch patch! We have fixed all the known issues from before, but please do report any new issues you come across.

Finally we’re able to release this patch to Xbox as well, complete with all the changes that were added in 0.216.5.

Like last time, this patch makes your saves significantly less backwards compatible than other patches, so make sure you really do make extra backups this time. As always, we will do our best so that you will be able to continue with your save files when this goes live, but there is always a risk that you might have to restore your backups when playing on the public test.

Should this patch not be problem free, we will roll it back for the time being, and return to it at a later date. Therefore it is extra important that you make your backups this time.

* Animation & attack issues when at low framerate fixed
* Exp gain/loss correct again
* Duplicate world/character name fix and file handling fixes
* Memory leak fixed
* Minimap text input fix for certain Asian languages

Greetings vikings, and welcome to this month’s status report!

All things Valheim are continuing to move forward over here, though they have been happening a bit more behind the scenes. Piktiv and Fishlabs are still hard at work with solving Xbox issues, and we’re currently testing the most recent patch on our Public Test Branch. Please test it if you haven’t already, but also please note that it’s extra important to make backups this time! If we discover any issues with this patch, we will roll it back for the time being, and return to it at a later date.

This potential rollback would be so that we can get the Hildir’s Quest update out to you as soon as possible. That particular update might also get a slight name change upon its release, as Hildir’s Quest was mainly intended as a working title, but rest assured that the name change doesn’t change what the patch actually contains. If everything works out the way we hope it will, this should be the last blog post before the update is released for testing, so we want to give you one last teaser image before then:



We’re of course continuing to work away on the Ashlands as well! We’re currently trying to nail down some story aspects with the help of our lore writer Lee. If you want to do a more deep dive into the Valheim lore, we can recommend that you check out the podcast episode he was a guest on the other week!

Last time we mentioned that we’ve been making some drops for the Ashlands enemies, and now we thought we’d show some of them off. Here we have a feather, a tooth, and a heart – looks almost like we’re setting up for some sort of ritual sacrifice! What they’ll actually be used for though, you’ll have to wait and see:



As hostile as the Ashlands biome might look, however, it’s not only going to be filled with fearsome enemies. Some creatures will still be more afraid of you than you are of them, like this little fellow for example! We’re currently calling it “cadaver-Bengt”, but that’s most likely going to change…




For the chosen build this month, we want to highlight this island fortress by Karakasnik – nicely done! If you want your creation to be featured, use the hashtag #ValheimBotM on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook. You can view previous builds in this thread on Steam.



Until next time!

/The Iron Gate team

If you’d like to discuss the content of this post, please visit our Discord, or our forums on Reddit and Steam, or make a comment on social media!

This update is for the Public Test branch of Valheim, and may therefore be unstable. Before we launch this update to the Default version of the game, we want to make sure to have a chance to discover bugs and adjust the balancing, to give you the best game experience possible.
Access the Public Test branch by right clicking Valheim in your Steam library, and then select ‘Properties’. In the new window, select ‘Betas’ and type in the code “yesimadebackups”. The Public Test branch should now be available for you to choose from.
As always, remember to be considerate towards players not partaking in the Public Test, in case they want to avoid spoilers.
As the password indicates, please make sure to make backups of your save files before playing.

This patch includes a lot of optimisations for many underlying systems of the game – this to improve in-game performance for both small and large worlds, network performance, load times and to drastically decrease save file sizes. We hope that these changes will be a significant improvement for some of you.

This does mean, however, that this patch is extra prone to have introduced some new and obscure bugs that we have yet to find, so any additional testing and bug reporting on this is greatly appreciated! Be sure to report them in our Discord in the public test channel or by filling out this form.

On a very important note, this patch makes your saves significantly less backwards compatible than other patches, so make sure you really do make extra backups this time. As always, we will do our best so that you will be able to continue with your save files when this goes live, but there is always a risk that you might have to restore your backups when playing on the public test.

Should this patch not be problem free, we will roll it back for the time being, and return to it at a later date. Therefore it is extra important that you make your backups this time.


* Many performance, memory and networking improvements for both small and large worlds
* World save file size greatly reduced
* Fixed hitbox issue for close combat and spear throwing issue
* Minimap pin input fixed on steam deck & big picture mode
* Added "UI scaling" to settings on Xbox
* Fixed endless loading of save manager when switching tabs too fast
* World save files that are corrupt, have load errors or have missing meta files can now be restored from the most recent backup directly from within the Select World menu by pressing the "Start" button.
* Save file stability & issues fixed
* Decreased load times in the Manage Saves menu.
* Fixed a bug that would cause the GUI to not update when deleting the bottommost backup in the Manage Saves menu.

Welcome to another peek behind the Valheim scenes!

First things first: Xbox players will likely (unfortunately) be aware of some issues that are still persisting with the console version, but you can rest assured that our Xbox teams at Piktiv and Fishlabs are working as hard and fast as they can to solve these issues. Keep an eye out on our website and our social media channels for updates and patch notes!

On a more fun note, we of course have some new content to tease you with this month as well! The Ashlands are continuing to develop, both art-wise and mechanics-wise. Last time we mentioned that something called “Fortress time!” would be an important aspect of the biome, and you might have seen something relating to that on social media recently. Here’s another look at that particular something, because you can’t have Fortress time! without some sturdy siege engines, right?



Of course, it won’t be just the fortresses themselves that are challenging, but also the creatures who guard them. We’ve already shown you some concept art of the Charred a while ago, as well as some earlier models of the Fallen Valkyrie, but now we want to show you their current state:





And though it won’t be guarding the fortresses, we also want to give you a new look at what shape the Bonemaw Serpent is taking, though it’s still a work in progress! As you can tell, the Ashlands creatures have been getting quite a bit of attention lately, and we’re also working out what their drops will be. And then later comes the question of what those drops will be used for…



When it comes to Hildir’s Quest, things are starting to really fall into place! There will be mini-bosses, new clothing, a wide range of server modifications, and more! With mostly testing left to do, we hope to be able to bring it out to the Public Test Branch and Flight in the next month or two. For now, we want to show you one more sneak peek of the clothes you’ll be able to add to your viking’s wardrobe – though they will not be all that easy to obtain:




This month we have our eyes on this longhouse that Versaugh1 built! If you want your creation to be featured, use the hashtag #ValheimBotM on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook. You can view previous builds in this thread on Steam.



Skål!
/The Iron Gate team

If you’d like to discuss the content of this post, please visit our Discord, or our forums on Reddit and Steam, or make a comment on social media!

Today’s patch includes some further fixes for Xbox issues, among other things! There will be a few more patches before all the Xbox issues have been fully resolved, but this is at the very least a step in the right direction.




* Backups are no longer deleted after being restored, so the same backup can now be restored multiple times.
* World saves with missing .fwl files now show up in the Manage Saves menu so that they can be deleted.
* Fixed a bug where backups couldn't be restored if the main save file was missing its .fwl file.
* Fixed a bug that made world saves in cloud storage create a blank .old file when saving, instead of no .old file.
* Player & ship markers are now shown correctly above map pins on the minimap
* Lighting effects reduced when using “reduce flashing lights” setting for Eikthyr antlers, all boss spawning, guardian power and boss stone activation
* Network compatibility version is now displayed separately in the console and log file and each non-pc platform has a platform prefix in the version text

* Improved stability and performance of world saving to decrease chance of saves being corrupted on microsoft store and xbox
* Save files that were corrupted as a result of incomplete file operations in cloud storage are detected and can no longer be started as empty worlds
* Fixed a bug where the time stamps of cloud saves were retrieved as UTC instead of local time.