I love Valheim, this game is excellent, especially for the cheap price. Coffee Stain studios has not missed yet, and I look forward to future updates to this amazing experience. For context, three of my friends and I started a server earlier this year, and we have put a huge amount of hours into the game since, establishing large bases and portal rooms, upgrading all of the equipment, and interacting with every system on a pretty deep level. Just about a week ago, we defeated the final boss, and have let the server go offline since. I have let this game turn over in my mind for a while, and I have thought a lot about how much I enjoyed this game, but also some problems with it.

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The final picture before shutting off the server; two of our friends could not make it to the momentous event

Heads up, after this, there are spoilers for the entire game, just in case you care about that sort of thing.

Magic

The magic system in this game is a ton of fun to play with, but introducing it all the way in the mistlands is, in my opinion, a huge blunder. It would be fun to have the "three main classes" become more distinct way earlier in the game. I, for my playthrough, took the role of Tank, parrying and blocking most close-range attacks and eating damage for my team, however, the rest of my party then were on bows, or sometimes other longer-range weapons. Introducing the magic system into this mix earlier in the game would go really far for engagement, teamwork, and making each resource feel more special. Further, having Etir as a "stamina bar" first, and then show up as an actual resource would feel pretty special. There is plenty of content here that others have posted, so ill just leave it at that

General Combat

The combat system in Valheim is, for lack of a better word, janky. While the close-range combat style feels very distinct and has an almost souls-like play, there is a lot of sore spots for the game to improve with.

• Combat with different heights is incredibly annoying, and while I understand this might simulate some tactical advantage, not being able to attack creatures on a slight slope is incredibly infuriating, and when they miss me completely because of some stairs, it feels unrewarding
• Blocking/Parrying is confused and inconsistent. There should be some sort of indicator which blocks I can attack or parry, and which I cannot (not, however, when I need to parry. I like the learning and judgment part of this system, and the creature attacks are all extremely well telegraphed)
  • Furthermore, when blocking/parrying takes a fairly large amount of stamina, fills up your block bar, AND doesnt parry/block all creatures in a radius, group combat is unfun, even with multiple players. Either make blocking fill up the block bar, or take stamina, or parry all creatures in a radius. This needs to be balanced ASAP to make parrying/blocking attacks worth it without making 1v1 fights against weaker creatures trivial
• Some weapon hitboxes are inaccurate, which makes using them annoying. I noticed this especially with the crystal battleax, and not hitting that leech that was CLEARLY in my swing path when I expend that much stamina is incredibly infuriating, and led to a few more deaths than I would like to admit.

Skills and Boss Powers

Lets face it, most boss powers are so situational and not very useful. Sure, during the Yag fight, I enjoyed a damage reduction from Bonemass, but sacrificing almost infinite running for that ability was always worse. I think I used the Elder power once, when I first got it and was testing it out. For about 90% of the game, I had Eikthyr equipped only, and the rest of the time I had Moder. Either these flat stat increases need to feel more impactful, have a longer duration/shorter cooldown time, not expire on death, or need to be reworked into more interesting abilities. Sure, activating four abilities at the same time right before a boss fight (if you could get that many friends on at once) felt really fun, but there's a really huge missed opportunity here for some interesting mechanics and impactful choices.

The skill system felt fine, mostly, but leveling up skills always took way too long for the benefit you get from them, and made dying feel not very punishing but just frustrating. The only time where I felt like dying would actually impact my gameplay significantly was when I was exploring a new area very far from a teleporter, but that was pretty easily mitigated by just carrying teleporter materials on me. Furthermore, some of the skills felt too niche and would be better combined, especially for how late you get access to the skills. Why are "crossbows" and "bows" two different skills? Why are "Blood Magic" and "Elemental magic" two separate things? Should "Polearms" and "Spears" be two different skills? Either make leveling up these skills easier, make us able to level up these skills earlier in the game, or combine some skills.

Taming, Farming, and Fishing

These systems had a huge impact on the game, and the food system that Valheim has is, in my opinion, one of the absolute best I have seen in a videogame. That being said, the farming and taming aspects of these systems needs some work.

Taming animals was a fun way to get food and pets, and I thought the time and resources spent taming these animals was very well balanced, but that's where my enjoyment of the system ends. If taming is going to be expanded, a few changes HAVE to happen to make it easier to use.

• Firstly, LET TAMED ANIMALS GO THROUGH TELEPORTERS. Transporting them on my boat was as infuriating as it was painful, especially after already going through all of the effort of trapping and taming them in the first place. For creatures like boars and wolves, this could be as simple as just having them follow you (or have some sort of leash/lead) through the portal. For larger creatures like Lox, perhaps some sort of large teleporter could be made out of more resources, like Etir, blackmetal, silver, anything. Just let me move my fluffy friends in a way that doesn't make me want to rip my ears off
  • In the same vein, maybe the larger teleporters could move boats or carts (that don't have metal on them), so I don't have to destroy my Karve when I want to go exploring. The normal destroy/teleport/build process is doing the same thing, might as well incorporate it in an intended way.
• Please give us feeding troughs. There is no greater annoyance than walking through your animal pen and having to throw your food back on the ground. A feeding trough would be so nice, especially one that animals wont attack/can't damage. Obviously feeding trough walls would be problematic, so maybe have special ones for each tamable animal, like a trough for pigs, a meathook for wolves, some sort of like itch post or lick mat for lox, and then make it immune to specifically that creature's damage. Maybe the feeding trough gives them the equivalent of the resting buff? So many possibilities.
• As previously mentioned, some sort of leash or lead would be nice. I understand there is already the harpoon, but even just the stamina cost makes using it infeasible, not even accounting for the fact that I don't want to spear my walking shag carpet just to get him to move.
• Give tamed animals more utility, or the chance for their offspring to gain stars by feeding them certain foods. Wolves are decent for defending areas, and lox are alright for traveling, but honestly the tamed animals felt a bit boring after a while, especially when I can’t make them better. If the certain foods are expensive or the chances are low enough, it makes capturing one or two-star creatures worth it.
  • This might be a use for chicken or eggs outside of another food for the player. Wolf/Lox/Boar kibble would be an interesting concept.

Farming, as a system, feels pretty good. I only have a few small suggestions that would make it a lot smoother.

• This one is the MOST IMPORTANT, WE NEED AN UPGRADE TO THE CULTIVATOR. This SINGLE CHANGE would fix so many problems with farming as I see it.
  • I think this is where more animal utility could come in. I would love to attach some sort of blackmetal sowing machine to my lox, fill it up with seeds, and pull it behind me, planting three or four rows of well-spaced crops as we go. Not only would this make taming creatures way more interesting, but would make farming a lot easier and rewarding, and not take a bajillion stamina and four cultivators an hour to plant a field.
  • Attaching some sort of harvesting machine to a lox could make harvesting a lot less boring
  • Lox are a huge possibility for utility in general, I would love some sort of lox cart to move larger loads than the player cart, while being useful on land like a boat. Even a lox-mounted traveling base or ballista would be neat, or maybe save it for an even larger creature (Gjall airships?)
    • Lox armor and jousting would give polearms/spears a better use, and maybe even a wolf saddle for a faster/lighter riding companion
• I think collecting things like thistle, blueberries, raspberries, dandelions, etc. is a good mechanic and keeps older areas relevant, I would like to plant bushes/flowers in pots or planting beds just for the aesthetic benefit, so some sort of bush-planting mechanic would be super cool, and maybe a way to get small amounts of those biome-specific resources or even new plants like beans.

Fishing, in general, feels pretty lackluster. The amount of stamina it takes to fish, the inconsistent fishing difficulty, and the boring rewards (yaaaayyyy a new food or two) made fishing feel bland, difficult, and not really worth the time and resources. Honestly, another pass on the fishing system is needed, and maybe rod upgrades or a fishing armor set is needed, too, just to be able to keep the system feeling fresh and worthwhile throughout the game.

Other Thoughts

• The special armor sets per biome are neat, but don’t feel as relevant as the game progresses. Perhaps there should be more consistent classes throughout the game, like with troll/root armor being used for ranged attacks, the “main set” being used by a tank or melee role, a mage set, etc. If special armor/classes are introduced, their utility needs to be consistent and their progression parallel to the main progression, such as:
  • Troll → Root → Fenris → Deathsquito → Gjall armor being consistently useful for a ranged build, instead of having a weird menagerie of skills.
  • Greydwarf → Wraith → Crystal → Lox → Etir armor sets being consistently useful armor sets for a mage class.
• A new distinct plantable tree type for every biome would be cool. No wood would even need to be introduced, just something to keep forestry relevant, aesthetics varied, and low-level-resource collection from being tedious. Some Ideas might be:
  • Weeping willows for the swamps that give way more fine wood than oak or birch
  • Lodgepole pine for the mountains gives core wood only
  • Aspen trees for the plains that give a few fine wood and normal, but break completely under 1 hit
  • Redwoods for the mistlands that give no Yggdrasil wood but a massive amount of normal wood
  • Burntrees for the ashlands that can be harvested for coal and stone
• Leviathans are interesting, but just using their resources for a harpoon and a knife seems like a waste, and I would like to maybe see a few more interesting items or a decorative piece or two

Anyways, I’m tired of writing, let me know your thoughts on the matter, and any opinions on anything I've brought up!