If you've been eagerly awaiting the next phase of Valheim's Early Access roadmap, it's finally almost over. On September 16, Iron Gate Studios will launch the Hearth and Home update, adding new cooking mechanics, cooking accessories, food items, building pieces, and a whole new blocking and combat mechanic to get your head around.
Valheim was launched into Early Access in the first months of the year and saw monumental success, netting millions of players in short order and forcing the small dev team behind it to quickly reogranise their plans. While initially set to debut four content updates throughout the year, it's now rejigged it to just two and took over six months to release this first one. It's been updating the game in spits and spurts since then, refining the core experience, improving the performance, looks, and play style of the game, and now it's set to release its biggest content patch yet.
Hearth and Home will introduce a major overhaul of the current cooking and food systems. Along with a number of new items to make, and new cooking accessories to make them with, you'll also need to prioritize the food you eat, not just aim for the best overall stats. Health focused foods will provide extra blocking ability for tanky characters, including extending the new stagger bar, which will cause you to stagger once depleted. Stamina foods will let you do more damage, but your health will be far lower, placing a greater priority on dodging and parrying.
Iron Gate is also introducing a number of new building materials, including new dark tiles for rooves -- just think of how good they will be for bigger and faster boat slides! -- as well as some other unique items which have only been teased so far.
Are you excited for the first big Valheim update since release?