The Valheim Hearth and Home update has at last stormed the Viking game’s shores, and now we’ve got the full rundown from developer Iron Gate on all that’s new. We already know the update reworks axes and bows, changes shields, tweaks blocking and staggering, and adjusts how you use food – but, as the devs say, “not even Odin has spied some of the new features being added”.
In the Hearth and Home update patch notes, Iron Gate teases that these brand-new, previously unannounced features include “something dark and mysterious that seems to spread across the plains”, which the devs suggest “brave Vikings should go and find out for themselves!” Hmmm. Among the new content the devs have discussed in more detail, we’ve got a rebalance across all of Valheim’s weapons to make them “more viable” as main weapons and to offer “more unique” playstyles.
There’s also a heap of new base building pieces and furniture to adorn your, well, hearths and homes. These include Darkwood pieces like shingle roofs, beams, and decorations, crystal walls, an iron cooking station, and, er, a “steamy Viking hot tub”. There’s additionally a new ‘obliterator’ tool that lets you – as its name suggests – smash your unwanted items into oblivion, and 12 new food items, complete with reworked GUI to function better with the food rebalances. Yum.
New weapons include a crystal battleaxe, silver knife, and butcher knife – a special weapon for butchering the animals you’ve tamed – while new shields are the bone tower and iron buckler variants. Plus, the devs have folded in some fan-requested features like sharing map data with other Vikings in your world (via a cartography table) and seeds to let you grow more varieties of plants (birch and oak trees, and onions).
One small but very sweet new update also lets you give your tamed critters the respect they deserve – you can now name your Viking’s favourite pets. A related change also means “tamed Lox now have a purpose”. Lovely stuff.
Here’s the full rundown from Iron Gate (via the notes on Steam):
General improvements
- Weapons rebalanced (All weapons have been rebalanced to be more viable as main weapon and also have more unique playstyles)
- Blocking system overhauled (Current maximum HP now greatly affects your ability to block attacks, stagger bar GUI added)
- Naming tamed creatures
- Gamepad sensitivity settings
- Auto-pickup toggle button added
- Graphics settings (Active point lights & Active point light shadows)
- Tamed creatures affected by friendly fire setting (i.e. you can’t hurt a tamed creature unless you enable friendly fire or use the new Butcher knife item)
- Various other improvements and bugfixes
Food
- Food rebalance (Most food items now give mainly stamina or mainly health to make food choices more interesting)
- Food GUI overhauled to work better with the rebalanced food
- Over ten new things to eat (Actually 12)
World
- Tamed Lox now have a purpose
- Slimy locations and creatures added to plains
- New plantable seeds: birch, oak, and onions
Items
- New weapons: Crystal battleaxe, Silver knife
- New shields: Bone tower shield, Iron buckler
- Butcher knife (Special weapon for butchering tamed animals)
- Thunder stone (Sold by trader)
- Lox accessory
Building
- New Darkwood building pieces like shingle roofs, beams, decorations, and more
- New types of furniture, including but not limited to a mighty stone throne and a steamy Viking hot tub
- Crystal walls
- New types of stacks to show off your treasure and resources
- Cauldron improvements: Spice rack, Butcher’s table, Pots and pans
- Cartography table (For sharing map-data with other players)
- Oven added (For baking bread and pie)
- Obliterator added (Items be gone)
- Iron cooking station (Required to cook some types of meat)
Be sure to check out our Valheim updates roadmap guide if you’re keen to get an idea of what’s in store for the game next.