After half a year, the survival hit Valheim finally receives its first content update. With Hearth & Home, new features are introduced and many existing contents are revised. MeinMMO tells you everything you need to know.
What kind of update is this? After many smaller updates and patches, Hearth & Home is the first major step in the developers’ content plan. Since the early access launch on Steam in February 2021, fans have been waiting for more content.
Originally, Hearth & Home was supposed to be released much earlier, but the success of Valheim surprised the developers. They expanded their studio (from previously 4 employees) and wanted to first polish the base game sufficiently. This has now apparently happened.
When is the release of the update? On September 16, Hearth & Home will be released as a free update. To announce this, the developers published a short but fancy Viking anime.
The animated clip already showcases some of the new features.
Contents of Hearth & Home – New Features and Changes
What does Hearth & Home include? The update mainly revolves around innovations related to the building and cooking system of the game. New building components as well as recipes for cooking will be introduced, along with a revision of the buffs obtained from food. There will also be some changes to the combat system.
New Food and Recipes
What new recipes are there? So far, only some of the total 10 new recipes from Hearth & Home are known. We will update this list as more recipes are released:
- ‘Eyescream’
- ‘Shocklate smoothies’
- Wolf meat in various variations
We already know that food can be categorized into three groups with Hearth & Home: health (red), stamina (yellow), and balanced (white). This makes it easier to see exactly what a corresponding buff provides. You can also find some guides to the systems here on MeinMMO:
What else changes regarding food? In Valheim, you can eat three types of food simultaneously to benefit from their buffs. However, once you have consumed something, you are full for a while and must wait until you can eat again.
With Hearth & Home, new Bukeperries allow you to regurgitate food. This lets you empty your stomach and utilize new buffs before a battle, for instance. Additionally, the remaining time on the buffs will be displayed instead of just an unlabeled bar.
Furthermore, the cauldron can now be upgraded with tools, just like other workbenches in the game. This increases the cauldron’s level, which you will likely need for new recipes.
New Building Components and Farming Opportunities
What new building components are coming? As a new material, Hearth & Home introduces dark wood (‘Darkwood’). With this, you can build roofs and hatches. Further components have not yet been revealed.
However, the developers have announced that you will also receive additional decoration pieces. For instance, you can stack collected gold coins and display them in treasure rooms. There will also be treasure chests. Additionally, new upgrades for the cooking station will be included. Specifically:
- a spice rack
- a slaughter table
- Pots and pans
What changes are happening in the garden? In addition to the new building components, it will be possible to grow new items such as onions. Many players will be pleased with this, as the community has long wanted to grow berries instead of fighting.
Revised Combat System
What changes are there in fighting? Valheim works with attacks, blocks, and parries. Their strength is primarily determined by your skill and the weapon’s stats. However, with Hearth & Home, stamina and health points will also become significant factors.
- Stamina still determines how often you can strike
- The strength of your blocks (and presumably parries) depends on your health points
Since your food influences how many stamina and health points you have, you should carefully consider what you consume in what situation with Hearth & Home.
Additionally, there is a new orange bar next to your character. This indicates when you are staggering. When blocking, the bar fills up, and when it is full, you are briefly stunned.
What changes are there in weapons? Along with the overhaul of the combat system, all weapons will also receive adjustments. The most important ones are outlined here:
- Tower shields have a stronger knockback effect – making them useful for fighting multiple enemies
- Fist shields can be used to parry enemy attacks
- Round shields remain a middle ground for all-round fighters
- Two-handed axes charge more quickly and can stagger opponents better. They also hit multiple targets
- Bows are drawn more slowly, but it costs less stamina to hold the string taut. This allows for easier aiming
What’s next? New Biomes and Bosses
After Hearth & Home, there will be further updates, which the developers have already published in a roadmap shortly after release. Accordingly, a subsequent update titled “Cult of the Wolf” will follow Hearth & Home. When exactly that will be is not yet known.
From the name, it can be inferred that wolves will likely play a role as pets, in the pet system generally, or even werewolves. In the ensuing update “Ships and the Sea,” seafaring will likely be further expanded.
The fourth update on the roadmap will be the first new biome, the mistlands. These are already in the game and suggest that the new biome will be truly nasty. The developers have also confirmed that each new biome will receive at least one new boss. There are three currently unused biomes in the game:
- mistlands
- ashlands
- deep north
However, it is still unclear when they will be populated. What are you most looking forward to? What would you like to see? Let us know in the comments.
By the way, Valheim is an excellent starter game for newcomers to the survival genre: The 5 best survival games for beginners in survival games
