Something that newbies should be aware of

This is a topic where someone might be tempted to reply that I am mentioning something which everyone knows, but it isn't as obvious as you might think. I've been playing this game for a while now myself, and it only really sunk in for me tonight.

Valheim mechanically is very similar to classic (as in pre-Burning Crusade, not whatever else Microsoft's marketing psychopaths have carelessly slapped the word on these days) World of Warcraft, in one key respect; it is buff-based, and pretty much every percentage point seems to matter.

I only play Valheim solo, but ever since getting to the mountain biome, I've been dying constantly. This was mostly from wolves, due to the fact that when they bit initially and I blocked it with my tower shield, I would then try and counter with a mace when they came back in to bite again, and even though my attack hit, their bite did as well. The other three major issues were thinking that trollhide armour would be enough as long as I had the iron tower and a wolf cape, not eating the highest level food I could produce, and not sitting at a fire before going outside, in order to get the rested bonus.

I have taken four major steps to remedy the situation, and they seem to be helping.

a} I made myself another suit of fully upgraded iron armour.

b} My current food loadout is a Muckshake, Sausages, and either Black Soup or Deer Stew. I have been finding even in the swamp that I need my hitpoints above 100 in order to be able to survive poison dots without poison resistance mead.

c} I have put Frostner and the iron tower away, and made myself an iron atgeir, for the aoe secondary stun attack. I haven't actually tried this against wolves yet, but I was practicing with a skeleton spawner and it seems to work very well. I can use the stun first, then hit the spear's primary for double damage.

d} I've started caring about the rested bonus, and making sure that I have 8-10 minutes of it every time I go outside. That normally covers a full day, which means I will get it again the next time I sleep.

My central point here is, you need to get all your numbers up as high as possible. Hitpoints, health and stamina recovery, armour, and damage. Stam recovery comes from the rested bonus, and getting max hitpoints comes from eating the highest level food I can get. I have been amazed by the level of difference that it has made.