This Week in Valheim: Spirited Away, Big Boats, and Heavy Metal!

This week in Valheim, a Redditor has recreated an iconic location from Spirited Away, we learn why going AFK can be a bad idea, and some modders might have lost their minds.

This Week in Valheim News

Things have been pretty light in terms of Valheim news for the last few weeks, but Iron Gate has finally come through with a small patch that makes some interesting changes. This patch was first teased late last month; now, the patch has finally arrived.

The Troll as well as the bosses The Elder and Bonemass have gotten a new look — check it out!

Of course, this visual overhaul of some iconic creatures wasn't the only change in the game. Draugr Archers got their 1-star and 2-star versions fixed; apparently, there was an issue with visuals getting mixed up.

A number of other changes have also arrived in this update including a warning about loading an older save, an overhaul to Harpoon mechanics to "make it less rubberband-y and more rope-y," and more; you can read the full Valheim 0.153.2 Update patch notes for all the fine details.

This Week in Valheim Community Creations

The Valheim community has really outdone itself this week—one of this week's highlights made it to Reddit's /r/gaming and rocketed to the front page! Quite a few other people in the community have come up with cool stuff, too.

Yubaba's Bath House from Spirited Away

There's no clever, cutesy title for this one—I'm simply blown away by this build. /u/ronchon shared his take on Yubaba's Bath House from Spirited Away, a classic Studio Ghibli movie that's beloved around the world. (By the by, you can currently buy the Spirited Away BlueRay/DVD combo on sale right now!)

The exterior certainly looks nice, but /u/ronchon also created the interior of the building. This doesn't just look cool—it's also a fully functional base! And he even managed to build it in the heart of the Plains, a place that is currently the deadliest biome in the game.

For Those About to Rock

Building in Valheim doesn't always have to be about making something functional or making a massive castle! /u/Arreksis showed off a cool rockstar skeleton that he says we created by VIXTOR on the Valheimrus #1 server. On the smaller side of things, /u/OhhhBoyyy showed off a pretty cool drumkit.

Size Doesn't Matter

We've shown off plenty of big builds in this series, but smaller buildings can have their fair share of charm, too! /u/Go-By-Z created a pretty cozy mountaintop base that does a lot without taking up too much space. On the flip side of the coin, /u/Traveren has created an absolutely massive building that shows just how big you can build in the game.

Praise Iron Gate!

Plenty of people have been complaining about Valheim. Whether it's the slow update schedule, the lack of optimization, or something else entirely, there will always be someone who can find a problem. Not everyone is a Debbie Downer, though—one player went as far as to build a delightfully punny in-game shrine to Valheim developer Iron Gate. I think I might do the same in my own world!

This Week in Valheim Mods

There are one or two big mods this week and quite a few smaller mods that add some useful features—and some of these mods get downright weird.

BetterLadders, AutoSave Timers, and AutoFeed Make Your Life Easier

Rather than give each of these mods their own section, we're going to highlight them very briefly as they're all pretty useful.

• BetterLadders (Thunderstore, Nexus) makes it easier to go up ladders.
• AutoSave Timer (Thunderstore, Nexus) lets you adjust when the game does an autosave.
• Auto Feed (Thunderstore, Nexus) lets your tamed creatures eat out of a container, saving you the trouble of having to constantly drop food for them.

Throw Bees or... Ferrets?

Have you ever wanted to throw bees in Valheim? No? That's an insane proposition, you say? Well, hop aboard the crazy train and install the AngryBeez mod on Thunderstore—it lets you chuck Bee Hives at a distance. And apparently, the FerretStick mod... well, it's a stick that lets you throw Ferrets. Modders are weird.

Combat Targeting System Makes Valheim Play More Like The Witcher 3

Hitting your target in melee can be a little challenging, but worry not! The Combat Targeting System mod on Nexus and Thunderstore makes combat a bit more like The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. This will cause the camera to auto-target a nearby enemy; alternatively, you can set up a key to target the bad guys manually.

Giving the Ashlands and Deep North Some Love

Finally, the same guy who created the Autosave Timer mod has launched Forgotten Biomes (Nexus, Thunderstore) which adds a bit of variety to the Ashlands and Deep North biomes. This mod enables a good chunk of hidden content from the game's code and makes it work with these unfinished biomes!

There is, however, one downside: You can only change unexplored areas in your world with this mod. If you've already been all over the map, you might have to generate a new world to take advantage of these features.

Valheim Must-See Moments: May 8–15, 2021

Let's close things out as we always do—by showing off some of the cooler videos we've recently seen pop up in the community. Here are the must-see moments for the week!

Slides Aren't Just Fun—They're Practical

We've shown off a fair few videos of people launching boats down a slide for fun, but you shouldn't forget that they can have a practical use, too! (After all, you can't take ore through a Portal!) /u/Vinyl_DjPon3 showed off how to quickly get a ton of Silver down from the Mountain using a pretty big boat—and going by how /u/stan-dard decided to do things, you might not need a boat at all.

Why Going AFK in Valheim is a Bad Idea

I've built a pretty nice base for myself that's protected by Wards and is made of Stone, the most durable material in the game. However, some of the enemies outside of the Meadows can smash up wooden structures in short order. /u/binokary on Reddit shows us why it's a very bad idea to go AFK in Valheim if you're not certain you're safe.

The Power of Modding

Valheim has Rafts for new players and Karves & Longboats for more experienced players, but what if you could take things a step further? The ValheimRaft mod made its debut a couple of weeks ago, and /u/Hudefluff on Reddit shows us how impressive it is in motion. If you'd like to grab the mod for yourself, you can download it on Nexus.

We're all done for this week! A nice little patch and a bunch of cool stuff from the community is always great to see; hopefully, we don't have to wait too much longer for the Hearth and Home update. In the meantime, go ahead and check out our Valheim guides to learn some awesome tips and tricks!

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