The studio makes it clear that, while it is happy to see mods being made, the lack of official support for modding Valheim means that players creating or using mods are doing so at their own risk. “We can’t guarantee that mods will be compatible with newer versions of the game,” said the studio.

The primary topic of the statement, however, is on the nature of mods that cost money. While the studio remains sympathetic to mod creators that spend a lot of their own time and resources on creating their mods, and understands that these creators might want some sort of compensation for their work, Iron Gate does not condone putting mods behind a paywall.

“We feel that charging money for a mod is against the creative and open spirit of modding itself, and therefore we urge all mod authors to make their mods freely available to all who want to play them,” said the studio in the statement. “This should include the whole mod, and not just have part of the mod available for free while another part of it costs money.”

The studio does, however, think it’s fine for a mod author to request support from the playerbase through voluntary donations, such as through a link where players can donate some money or seek funding through Patreon. Locking mods behind a paywall, however, is strictly disallowed.

Iron Gate has also requested that mod authors make it clear that their mods are unofficial at places where mods are available. This is largely to avoid player confusion when they join a server and mods are automatically being downloaded for the game.

Casual mode is slated to be the easiest difficulty mode for the core Valheim gameplay. While there will still be elements of survival and crafting, monsters will not attack players unless provoked. Players also won’t have their bases raided, and resources will be easier to find.

Hammer mode, on the other hand, will remove all restrictions in the game’s building options, allowing players to create just about anything for free. Much like Casual mode, monsters in Hammer mode will not attack unless provoked, and players won’t be raided.

A new Immersive mode also seems to be in the works, taking away the player’s map as well as their ability to use portals. This means that players will have to use their own navigational abilities to be able to keep track of where they are in the world.

New Easy and Hard modes are coming to Valheim as well. Both of these modes essentially effects the difficultry of combat, and how frequently players will find their bases being raided by monsters.

The hardest mode coming to the game, aptly titled Hardcore mode, features the hardest difficulty in combat as well as the highest frequency of raids. If a player dies, they will also lose all items they are carrying and skills forever. Much like Immersive mode, Hardcore mode will also not allow players to use a map or portals.

Are your ready for hardcore mode in #Valheim? ☠️
..or do you prefer something more chill?

Note: Actual settings are not final! @valheimgame #gamedev #indiedev #gamedevelopment pic.twitter.com/9OtOxDpkAo

— Jonathan Smårs (@jsmars) April 17, 2023

Iron Gate recently pushed out a new update for Valheim with patch 0.214.300, which adds Balanced Mode on Xbox Series X/S. On Xbox Series X, it sees the game running at 1440p and 40 FPS, while on Xbox Series S, it runs at 900p and 40 FPS. Several other tweaks have also been made for the game’s controls and its quality-of-life side of things. You can check out the full patch notes below.

In our review of Valheim’s early access version on Xbox Series X, we awarded it a score of 8/10, saying, “Players looking for a hardcore crafting/survival game on consoles likely won’t be able to find much better than Valheim, and its inclusion in Game Pass further makes it an easy choice despite a handful of issues.” Read the full review through here.

Valheim is available in early access on PC, Xbox Series X/S, and Xbox One. Iron Gate Studio recently said it has no current plays for PlayStation and Switch versions, but the game’s Xbox exclusivity period lasts only six months, so you never know what might happen in the near future.

PATCH 0.214.300

Fixes & Improvements

• Manual save no longer causes you to respawn where you saved and can be called to a dedicated server if you are on the admin list
• Left handed mouse should now work correctly again
• Added “Swap Triggers” to control options, to be able to fix a potential issue for PlayStation controllers
• Fixed performance issues in main menu
• Fixed some special characters appearing as squares and symbols should look more like they did before
• Hovertext and text input on signs should now be displayed correctly and can use \t and \n symbols
• Text on signs should now be lit correctly and no lower glow
• Various UI & text fixes that were being displayed incorrectly
• Fixed an issue where the scrolling was slow and inverted on linux
• Engine updated to unity version 2020.03.45
• Settings for keybindings should now be saved correctly

Console

• Added graphic setting “Balanced Mode” with 40 FPS and 1440p on Series X and 900p on Series S (this will only display as an option of you have a screen which supports 40 FPS)
• Right stick now only controls the character rotation in character screen
• Right analog stick no longer has double functionality in the character creation menu
• Heightmap differences between Xbox and PC have now been almost entirely eliminated (this means some areas in Xbox worlds will have a significant terrain change, and if you have built in these areas the buildings may unfortunately collapse)

And now, just over two years since Valheim made its Early Access debut on PC, it can now be enjoyed by Xbox players across the entire range of Xbox consoles. Porting a game of this scale with mechanics that were inherently designed for PC is a tricky process, but not necessarily one that we haven’t seen before to varying degrees of success. Thankfully, Valheim makes the jump mostly intact, with only a handful of issues.

"Valheim makes the jump to consoles mostly intact, with only a handful of issues."

This review covers the Xbox Series X version of the game, which to me appears to be the full Valheim experience. The gameplay mechanics people have spent so much time with and the graphics that either put you off completely or captured your imagination are still there in all their glory. With this information alone, it is safe to say that if you didn’t like Valheim on PC, you won’t like it on consoles either.

The same arduous, slog of an intro is still present, and without any way to transfer saves from PC to console you’re stuck dealing with it all over again no matter how much time you’ve already put into the game. It’s an unorthodox thing to wish for, but a Witcher 3-style cloud cross-save system would have really helped Valheim’s value proposition. It was like pulling teeth going back to zero after spending dozens of hours building up my character, and I realize that’s much less time than others have spent in the game. I can’t even imagine what that experience would be like for veteran players.

While there is unfortunately no cross-save, Valheim does fully support crossplay between all platforms the game is currently available on. This is always a welcome feature, and even more so for Valheim if you have PC player friends who can help you through the first few hours.

In translating Valheim from PC to console, you would think Iron Gate Studios would have made some changes to the interface and menus to be navigated more efficiently with a controller. What we have in the current version of the game is not necessarily bad, but does take some getting used to and is definitely not as fast or easy as using a mouse and keyboard.

The interface is essentially unchanged, but now there are button prompts floating in the corner of many menu options to allow for quicker navigation. Or at least it’s supposed to in theory, anyway. I defaulted to flicking the analog stick or pressing the directional buttons most of the time. I’m not a fan of the analog stick-controlled mouse cursor many console games have adopted, but I see their value now and I wish Valheim had just used that system instead.

"In translating Valheim from PC to console, you would think Iron Gate Studios would have made some changes to the interface and menus to be navigated more efficiently with a controller. What we have in the current version of the game is not necessarily bad, but does take some getting used to and is definitely not as fast or easy as using a mouse and keyboard."

In-game, the Y button brings up your inventory and crafting menus, but you need to use the right and left bumpers to switch between panes and interact with different options on different menus. When you’re in a quiet meadow, this is usually fine. But when you’re suddenly under attack from boars, dwarves, and necks all at the same time, the simple act of trying to craft a club can result in a gravestone with your character’s name on it.

I played the PC version of Valheim for some time on a Steam Deck, and this is the same solution the game had at the time. So seemingly nothing was done to make menu navigation better for its big console debut. This is a shame given how much of the game’s creative processes revolve around sifting through menus. Also, using an analog stick to aim and build structures feels kind of rough and not as smooth as it probably should be, but you could probably dial in the analog’s sensitivity to suit you better.

Thankfully, everything outside of the crafting controls feels fine. Switching between tools and items and then equipping them is handled by the D-pad, your light and heavy attacks are bound to the right bumper and trigger, and sprinting and sneaking are toggled by clicking in the left and right analog sticks. All of these are logical layouts and work just fine in practice and once the tedious inventory and crafting navigation clicks, playing the game is the same delight it was on PC.

You’ll notice pretty immediately that Valheim looks gorgeous on Series X. The lighting and depth of field effects are just as impressive as they ever were, and the framerate seems pretty stable by default even though it seems to be visually on par with the higher PC settings. A quick scanning of the settings menu revealed that the Xbox version of Valheim has two graphic mode settings: Quality and Performance.

"You’ll notice pretty immediately that Valheim looks gorgeous on Series X."

Quality is the default setting which seemed to run fine and looked great, but testing out Performance mode made it the clear winner in my eyes. The game becomes instantly smoother, with little if any loss of graphical quality. It wasn’t clear to me what actually changed to allow for the buttery smooth framerate, but I would guess it was probably some Level of Detail settings or foliage complexity. Whatever is lost in turning on Performance mode is worth it though.

While Valheim looks great in either graphic mode setting, there were still a few issues I noticed in terms of presentation. The most noticeable of which was the graphical pop-in. There was a point where I walked up to the water’s edge from a few dozen feet away, and textures and details continued to pop into existence up until I hit the water. It’s not something that affects gameplay and I hate to nitpick things like that, but it’s worth mentioning if that kind of thing bothers you.

As I stated before, if you didn’t like Valheim on PC, the Xbox console port is unlikely to change your mind. However, if you’ve never experienced the game and you have access to an Xbox but not a PC, this version of Valheim is definitely worth checking out. It has feature and content parity with the PC version, crossplay support, and the unparalleled sense of adventure and discovery that the original game has. Both versions are also still in Early Access, so they will benefit from ongoing updates, improvements, and expansions. If you’re also an Xbox Game Pass subscriber, Valheim is available through that subscription on console just as it is on PC, which makes it a no-brainer for users of that service.

This game was reviewed on the Xbox Series X.

In a recent email from Microsoft that celebrated the game’s addition to Game Pass (via Twisted Voxel and verified by GameSpot), Xbox console exclusivity will “extend for a limited time of six months.” This doesn’t mean other platforms will receive it immediately after the exclusivity window ends. However, there’s at least the possibility of it happening sometime after timed exclusivity ends.

Stay tuned for an official announcement from the developer and Coffee Stain Publishing. Valheim is still in early access, with its next major update, Ashlands, currently in development. Head here to check out our review of the game in its current state (spoiler: If survival crafting games are your thing, it’s amazing).

Speaking recently to Xbox Wire, developer Iron Gate Studio’s co-founder Henrik Törnqvist revealed that Valheim features two modes on Xbox Series X/S- a Quality Mode that runs at higher fidelity and 30 FPS, and a Performance Mode that knocks down the resolution while running at 60 FPS. Interestingly, the developer is also working on a Balanced Mode that will run at 40 FPS.

“It’s been rather easy to port to Xbox,” Törnqvist said. “The biggest challenge has been to make sure the network backend works and finding the right balance of visual settings. On Xbox Series X|S there will be different fidelity modes. On release it will be Quality (aiming at high fidelity at 30 FPS) and Performance (aiming at 60 FPS). We also aim to add the Balanced mode in one of the upcoming patches (aiming at 40 FPS, but higher Fidelity than Performance).”

In our early access review of Valheim in PC, we awarded it a score of 9/10, saying, “You don’t need to be as strong as a Viking to enjoy Valheim. However, having that strength and a few friends by your side might help you survive and navigate this fascinating yet unforgiving world.” Read the full review through here.

Valheim is available in early access on Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and PC. Iron Gate Studio has said it currently has no plans to bring the game to PlayStation or the Nintendo Switch.

“Currently, we’re only looking at the Xbox, but you never know,” said Smårs. While this means that the studio isn’t currently working on bringing Valheim to more platforms, it doesn’t mean that the game will never be playable on PlayStation.

Valheim was released on Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S, alongside PC and Xbox Game Pass earlier this week. The console release of Valheim also got a launch trailer. The Xbox release of Valheim features the same core gameplay as its original PC version. It also features cross-platform multiplayer with the PC release.

The last major update for Valheim brought with it the Mistlands biome, nine new creatures, a new boss, and over 20 new crafting materials and 24 new items to craft. The next major update for Valheim is slated to bring with it the Ashlands biome. For more details about Valheim, check out our review of the PC release.

Since its release, Valheim has been a smash hit for its developer, selling over 10 million copies by April 2022. Its latest update, Mistlands, added a new biome, nine new creatures, a boss, over 20 crafting materials, 15 new food items, over 24 new items to craft, a new dungeon type, and much more.

Head here for our review of the PC version. The Xbox version supports cross-play, allowing console players can match with those on PC. It’s also worth noting that more content is coming to Valheim in the future. The next biome is the Ashlands, a volcanic region with two new enemies. Stay tuned for more details in the coming months.

SETTING AND STORY

As its name suggests, Valheim is set in a world inspired by Norse mythology. The titular world of Valheim is a place between life and the afterlife, where dead Vikings go to prove their worth as warriors before they can pass on into the halls of Valhalla. Players step into the shoes of one such Viking, and have to rid the world of Valheim of their evils to prove their mettle.

PROCEDURALLY GENERATED WORLD

Valheim takes place in an open world setting, though each world is procedurally generated. Certain elements – like the biomes that you’ll be exploring (more on this in a bit) and the bosses that you’ll fight – will remain constant, but how the game arranges them varies from world to world. The game also lets players load into different worlds using seeds, which you can do while carrying over all of your unlocked skills and your full inventory.

BIOMES

Valheim’s world is divided up into multiple different biomes, each coming with different enemies and bosses, unique resources to find, and different challenges to overcome, and depending on which biome you find yourself in, you’ll find yourself prioritizing different things as you play through the game. Interestingly, all nine of Valheim’s planned biomes have been present in the game since day one, though at launch, only five of them had any meaningful content to engage with. As it stands right now, two of the nine biomes – the Ashlands and the Deep North – are unfinished and still in development, though the former will be fleshed out with the game’s next big update, which doesn’t yet have a release date.

MORE DETAILS ON BIOMES

So what are the seven biomes that the game does have fully fleshed out? The five that it launched with were: the Meadows, which will be the starting biome for all players; the Black Forest, which is crawling with Greydwarves and skeletons, and is currently the only biome in the game where you can find Haldor the Merchant; the Swamps, where you’ll find Draugr, wraiths, abominations, and more; the Mountains, which are covered in ice and snow; the Plains, which are a vast stretch of grasslands; the Ocean, where you’ll find no shortage of aquatic beasts to fight; and the Mistlands, which were added to the game with an update in December.

SAILING

Speaking of the Ocean, the only way to traverse it is with a boat, with sailing with a full-featured mechanic in the game. Currently, Valheim lets players operate three different kinds of boats, each sturdier and more difficult to build than the last, with rafts, karves, and longships. Interestingly, sailing in Valheim isn’t as easy as just floating out into the water either, since players have to contend with the wind, manage the sail, and more.

BOSSES

Your main goal in Valheim is to take down the big boss in every biome (barring the Ocean). Known as the Forsaken, these are unique, deadly foes that put up a stiff challenge, and there’s a different one of these in each biome. For those who haven’t played the game, they’re best discovered on your own, so we’re not going to go into too much detail abut what to expect from them, but the game does an excellent job with their design and how varied they are from each other.

MULTIPLAYER

Multiplayer gameplay is the heart and soul of playing Valheim. You can play the game solo if you really want to, but at the end of the day, it’s an experience that’s best enjoyed with other players. Not only is it a bit too difficult when you play it alone, it also loses a lot of the interactivity and co-op-centric design that makes its mechanics sing. Valheim can be played by up to ten players together in a single world, and having a group of at least three of four is really the best way to play it.

PVP

Above all else, Valheim puts the bulk of its emphasis on co-op play, and while that is definitely that the game is primarily built around, those looking for PvP gameplay will find that option in here as well. PvP is restricted to specific servers in Valheim, and it isn’t as fleshed out as the rest of the game is, but players who want to duke it out with each other, attack each other’s bases, and steal each other’s resources have the option to do so.

STAMINA

One area where Valheim differs quite a bit from most survival games is managing meters- in that there’s only one to manage. Other than health, stamina is your main currency in Valheim, dictating actions such as sprinting and attacking. Eating food is one of the primary ways of restoring your stamina, and the quality of the food you eat also determines how much of it you restore.

CRAFTING

Like any survival game worth its salt, crafting is a massive part of Valheim’s core gameplay loop. Players need forage, hunt, and mine to collect resources with which to build new tools, weapon, armour, and equipment. All of that is used to progress further and deeper into the world, where you can find better and more resources with which to build even better and stronger things. It’s the sort of loop you’d expect to find in most survival games, and Valheim implements it to great effect.

WEAPONS

There’s a vast variety of weapons that can be crafted and used in Valheim, and depending on whether they’re one-handed, two-handed, dual wielding, or ranged weapons, they all have unique attributes. Weapons available in the game include the likes of axes, clubs, swords, spears, knives, magic staffs, bombs, bows, crossbows, shields, and more.

BUILDING

Alongside crafting, building is something else that survival games often tend to place a great amount of emphasis on, and Valheim is no different in that regard. Using resources that you find in the world, you’ll be building all manner of buildings and structures, starting out with simple and modest huts and slowly making progress to the point where you are building entire settlements with their own defenses and what have you. Building is a crucial part of the gameplay loop, and Valheim makes it a ton of fun.

PROGRESSION

The cycle of collecting resources to craft better equipment and build better structures is what drives your progress first and foremost in Valheim, but there are other, more traditional forms of progression in the game as well. There are a variety of different skills in the game that players progress through by earning experience. Each skill has a maximum of 100 levels, and each determines how effective specific actions are or, depending on the skill, how much stamina they consume. These include the likes of blocking, sprinting, uses different kinds of weapons, using stealth, swimming, cutting wood, and more.

Last year, it was announced that Valheim would launch for Xbox consoles in Spring 2023, and now, a specific release date has been confirmed as well. Courtesy of a new trailer debuted at the ongoing IGN Fan Fest, it’s been announced that Valheim will launch in Game Preview – which is Xbox’s version of early access – for Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One in less than a month’s time, on March 14. It will also be available via Xbox Game Pass.

In our review of the game’s early access version, we awarded it a score of 9/10, saying, “You don’t need to be as strong as a Viking to enjoy Valheim. However, having that strength and a few friends by your side might help you survive and navigate this fascinating yet unforgiving world.” Read the full review through here.

Developer Iron Gate Studio is currently also working on Valheim’s next major update, which will add the new Ashlands biome.