“We never could have imagined that Valheim would get as big as it did, and it’s all thanks to you players,” Valheim devs Iron Gate said in yesterday’s blogblast. It really has grown big. Sure, player numbers are down from the Valheim craze a year ago during the winter ‘rona lockdowns, but it’s settled comfortably with a very respectable average of about 30,000 concurrent players—around the middle of Steam’s most-played games. But, what’s next? First, the Steam Deck, the Switch-like portable PC Valve are launching on the 25th of February. “We would of course like to have Valheim running smoothly on it from the start, so that’s something we’re working on at the moment,” Iron Gate say. Next, newness. Following a few glimpses last year, Iron Gate continued to tease two of the big updates in the pipeline: adding caves to the Mountains biome and finishing the Mistlands biome. Iron Gate say they “are putting the finishing touches to the Mountain update” and shared two pictures, that torchlight tunnel ↑ up top and these here mysterious stalagmites and mysterious crystals: They added that they are “ramping up work on Mistlands” too, the biome which currently is just a placeholder. “The phase of nailing down the core concept is done, and we know what kind of inhabitants we want the biome to have,” Iron Gate say. “This means we’re now working on a bunch of new build pieces and enemies, as well as defining more of the new mechanics we will be introducing (though we’d like to keep those secret for a while longer).” But here’s a concept for one Mistlands critter, some manner of… armoured moth or beetle with an anglerfish lure? Valheim has a 25% discount in the Steam Lunar New Year Sale until 6pm GMT today (10am Pacific), bringing it down to £11.61/€12.59/$14.99. We declared Valheim one of our favourite games of 2021. Ed was particularly taken with it during the early days, returning from the afterlife with reports on his carrot farming struggles and triumphs, his naked boat adventures, his fondness for bees, his beloved boar, and more. Alice Bee was a fan of its looks, too. And Alex Wiltshire talked with the developers about Why Valheim wants to stop you using portals.
