Valheim's Huge New Update Makes The Game Worth Revisiting In More Than One Way

's massive new Ashlands update adds so much content that it is worth revisiting for multiple reasons. The indie Viking survival game first launched in 2021 and was an instant success. Eight days after the initial release, the game had already sold over eight million copies, ensuring a future for the standout title. Since then, has had one other large update at the end of 2022 with the Mistlands, but this new update appears to add even more — and will change the survival game forever.

earned its popularity not just through fun gameplay, but for its unique stance on the survival genre. Survival games generally follow the trend of requiring players to eat and drink to survive. mostly avoids this issue and instead makes food and drink buff items that increase player health and stats, but not outright killing them by going without eating. Another tedious survival mechanic avoided was tool repair. This usually requires some of the items' original resources, but this Nordic survival spin-off allows free repairs.

The next new biome, and last in order to visit in , for players to exploreisthe fiery hellscape known as the Ashlands. The new environment is the most hostile in the game and alone makes the Ashlands a challenge. Lava will cover many parts and fire will rain from the sky. The only way to avoid this destroying buildings is by using stone, or covering a wooden house with the new shield generator item. These generators will keep out all fire and range damage, but enemies can walk inside of them. Enemies are sprinkled across the land similar to other endgame biomes, but are at their most dense around spawners.

The Ashlands are a separate island biome that can only be reached by crossing boiling seas. However, normal ships cannot cross these seas, so players must build a new ship called the Drakkar, which can only be built after conquering the Mistlands. Since traveling back and forth can be tedious, is also introducing the Stone Portal. The key difference between