Though hype for Valheim has died down since its heyday in the early months of 2021, there are still a ton of players enjoying it. Like other survival sandbox games before it, Valheim has inspired players to dive deep into its building/crafting systems and experiment with fan mods to create unique structures or entire areas like the Hunter's Dream hub from Bloodborne. Of course, Valheim also supports players just trying to survive, and developer Iron Gate Studios looks to expand upon this area of gameplay in the upcoming Hearth and Home update.
While there is no firm release date as of yet, Valheim's Hearth and Home update is supposed to arrive sometime this fall and will be the first major content update to the game. Several changes for players to look forward to have already been teased in earlier announcements, such as new building components and upgrades to cooking stations. Food system combinations are also being tweaked to change how players approach eating in Valheim, and a recent video has revealed some specifics on how this process will be implemented.
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Iron Gate Studios' appetizer video gives fans a taste of a new system that will split food in Valheim into three categories. Food items will either favor boosting health, favor boosting stamina, or provide a balanced meal to equally affect both attributes. Different colored forks will indicate the focus of different foods (red for health, yellow for stamina, white for balanced) as well as the obvious number values in food description boxes. The idea with the new system is to encourage players to specialize their diets toward the task they are attempting, whether that's a marathon build session or fighting one of Valheim's many bosses.
Valheim's food bar will also change in the Hearth and Home update. Iron Gate is replacing it with timers for each food item. The timers will count down in minutes and blink when they are halfway done to cue the player in to when they might want to eat again. Some players have already noted that the new food system may lead to more inventory space taken up with food and less space for other things. Others think that the changes won't majorly affect how players interact with food and will still see players using the same few food combos in Valheim over and over that work for them.
It also looks like a few popular foods in Valheim have had their effects nerfed. Blood Pudding has gone from a 90/50 health/stamina split to 14/70, and Turnip Stew is changing from 50/60 to 11/55. How these nerfs will play out with the rest of the food system in the Hearth and Home update isn't clear yet, but more videos from Iron Gate are on the way that will hopefully flesh out more about Valheim's food freedoms.
Valheim is available now on PC.