Valheim’s Hearth & Home update will turn players into picky eaters
Food for the food gods
Nordic survival sim Valheim’s next update, Hearth & Home, will be arriving in a couple of months. The latest look at it shows how developers Iron Gate will be tackling the game’s food system, by creating a broader range of food types that’ll target specific player stats.
Currently, Valheim’s dinners bring a combined boost to your hit points, your stamina, and your healing rate. The new system splits things up a little, and will let you craft foods that heavily favour health or stamina, while still providing a small buff to the other category. A final food option will provide a balanced boost to both.
They're claiming this will give players targetted options when dealing with tasks. Building up your base? Grab a snack that boosts your stamina. Out on a raid? Depending on how you play, it might be worth boosting your health, or grabbing a meal that balances everything. To help track these effects, the food bar is now gone. They’re replacing it with timers that countdown to when you’ll need to eat again.
New cooking stations addons are coming to support this. As Lauren discovered, you'll be able to craft spice racks, butcher table, pots and pans, and more.
They’re being a bit coy in the video, but the next trailer will go into detail about how specific food will influence your combat style. A sneaky Steam update explains a little bit about what they're planning: "We've also made some changes to how stamina/health affects your poise in combat. If you want to play a tanky, defensive viking you should now stock up on health, since this will boost your ability to deflect incoming hits and mitigate damage."
Hearth & Home is going to be released this quarter, which gives them until the end of September to serve it up to us.