Last week we looked at exploration and why it’s a vital component of survival games. Today we’ll look at crafting and building and why these are important.
Crafting and building are core features of survival games, as well as the ability to gather and manage materials used for both. Valheim has well-balanced systems in place for players who enjoy some, or all, of these activities.
In order to start crafting the first bench or tool, the player has to gather the materials necessary. Valheim has made this initial gathering simple, easing the player into the world and helping them to get ready faster. Various small stones and sticks are scattered across the ground, ready to be picked up. Mushrooms and raspberries can also be found and eaten to improve health and stamina.
Once players have collected the basic resources they can carry without tools, they can find a spot to set up a small base. They start by building a workbench. With that, they can use the wood and stone to start making their own tools and weapons. An axe for chopping down beech trees, a club to deal with those pesky greylings, neck, and boar.
From the greylings players will get resin useful for making torches for their base. From the trees, they’ll gather wood, and occasionally resin and feathers. And from the boar, meat and hide scraps. Now the player can create armor, a bow and arrows, and cook meat for a better food source.
As the player progresses further into the game, they’ll find themselves unlocking more crafting, allowing them to gather unique materials in each biome. Killing the first boss gives them antlers that can be used to craft their first pickaxe. Find tin and copper in the black forest and bring it back to base to smelt into ingots, and then into bronze. Craft a better axe to gather fine wood and core wood. Craft better armor to survive further.
By now, you get the idea. Crafting advances gathering which, in turn, advances crafting. It’s a balancing act, one which Valheim does fairly well. Resources, aside from those at the beginning, are initially challenging to acquire, yet not so rare as to bottleneck the progression of the game. This gives players the satisfaction of collecting them and discovering what they can make with them.
As an extension of crafting, the player will grow and cook a variety of foods. They’ll want to keep fed at all times as it increases their health and stamina. Higher-quality food boosts the player’s health and stamina even more.
Hunting boar, deer, and neck, and fishing provides the meat early on. Gathering mushrooms and raspberries also provide food, as does shooting down beehives and gathering their honey. Venturing into the black forest, the player may find carrot seeds, the first of several seed crops they can plant and grow for a continued stream of vegetables to roast or cook into soups. And, like all materials, the foods vary by biome. This makes even the chore of cooking interesting and rewarding.
On top of crafting is Valheim’s building system. Similar to crafting, the building system evolves as players discover new materials. But more than that, Valheim allows for building anywhere in the world. This grants the player unlimited opportunities to choose the location of their base. They could have one huge, sprawling base in the middle of the meadow. Or, if they choose, they could have a chain of small bases in different zones to take advantage of that biome’s resources.
Building itself is very generous, allowing for a variety of structures to be built. Build a basic house, a fortress, a treehouse far up in the trees, a castle in the mountains. The only limits to building are the player’s imagination and a few physics rules thrown in.
Walls need to be anchored to the ground in some way. Interestingly, building a treehouse still counts as being anchored to the ground in Valheim. As the materials grow heavier, the player must plan their layout carefully. A large stone castle will need a lot more supports than a wood house of similar size. It allows for the freedom of building while also feeling grounded in some level of reality.
There’s much more that I could go over in crafting, but these are the general highlights. Did I miss anything vital? Let everyone know in the comments.
Next time we’ll talk about combat, mobs, and the boss fights that make Valheim challenging and exciting.
Until next time, bye for now!
Ms. Bella's World 