11k views?! Genuinely didn't expect that for a first video, thank you all so much for watching, commenting and subscribing. 🥰

I had a ton of fun making this video and I hope to make more like it in the future that focus on the 'why' we play games and the psychological experience. (already working on the next one...)

I've been enjoying reading everyones experiences with Valheim, and it's clear I'm not the only one who's had a complicated relationship with it.😅

I've seen alot of you saying I should've used world modifiers or played multiplayer, and those are valid suggestions. It could be an interesting idea to discuss the 'playing as intended' psyche in a future video, but I won't get too ahead of myself just yet...

For now, keep sharing your Valheim stories :)
-Gabemod ♥

I have the impression that the devs focused on the multiplayer. The bigger the party, the easier it gets. I watched a streamer end the game so fast because he played with his community. That's why the game feels stupid hard as you progress... and the boat rides aren't that bad when you have a good laughter with friends. But guess what, not everyone has friends that like this type of game!

"Me, and this hut, were stronger than we looked."

After 1500+ hours, I've only beat Fader once. The fun of the game comes from the journey of adventuring out. I love the slower moments of the game, like foraging for resources and sailing on long voyages. The soundtrack and world design make this game feel wholesome and relaxed.

I couldn't imagine being done with this game after only 300 hours. I think I'm at 1000 hours at this point. But this is a really well done video, and your gripes are quite valid.

That Moder boss fight is what made me realize that playing this game solo on normal mode isn't fun for me. Now I play on easy, I stopped caring about the combat and enjoy other parts of the game.

You can usually find 3 eggs in whatever mountain Moder spawns in because it's usually a big one.
If you only find 2, you can wait for them to respawn which takes a while but you can use that time to start exploring plains.

Anyway, it's nice to hear different perspectives to the game.

If you like building then getting through the Mist into the Ashlands is an absolute must. I play solo too and the grind was a bit much coming back after  years so I put the setting on 1.5x which is a nice balance playing solo, but the building materials in the Ashlands are super strong, look fantastic and are extremely easy to amass quatities of the materials.

Last time I played was right before mistlands dropped. Didnt even fight bonemass yet, and one of the best memories in gaming ive ever had was when i finally made a ship and learned to sail. This is the only game ive played where it actually felt like I was never going to return home again after I sailed off, it was magical for me exploring so many far off lands. I cant wait for 1.0 so I can play again after so many years!

I CAN RELATE SO MUCH TO YOU! I have over 400h of gameplay, I started right when the game was announced! But I have never even gotten to the mist lands. I barely explored mountains!! Still this is one of the greatest games I ever played and I will definetly come back, once again, for 1.0

I remember when I first played Valheim and absolutely refusing to do any of the bosses, content to just make terrible huts in the meadows forever. Then I had a four year break, came back, defeated Eikthyr and have put over 400 hours in over the past year. Before work, after work, days off, an hour here or there and long sessions on days I could. I'm in the ashlands now and am having fun, sort of. Great video friend. You captured the things we love and hate about this game. Maybe one day you'll jump back on it.

for me progressing as much as possible is already worth it for the new building materials

I’ve really struggled to finish the game with no modifiers or mods, mainly due to the compounding grindfest it becomes each biome. For me the meadows and Black Forest have the most rewarding and fun experiences imo, swamp is frustrating and annoying, and the others very similar. I understand the fun for some is conquering the biomes but it gets a little grading for me personally after a few biomes, I think a big part to that too is the lack of any automation in the game when it comes to resource collection

Fascinating to see many different perspectives, including yours. I’ve only done one save so far, 205 hours. We just beat Fader, and have still a lot more to explore and build. I play with one friend who started with me, I think that helped. We made it to Mistlands vanilla, only after that with so many resource stuff we decided to expand inventory and mod farming/fishing, and remove xp loss on death. I don’t think some QoL stuff hollows the game, it helps that both of us talk about what we should do and how to make sure we don’t get crazy with it.

That Moder fight you showed was easily the longest I have ever seen, and I've got over 3k hours in this game. Kudos to you for making it through that crazy long fight with half the mountain population joining in without dying! There are a couple tricks which make finding - and especially fighting - Moder a lot easier, and yeah, you didn't use the right items ;) For every enemy in the game, there are weapons they are weak to or resistant. Using the right equipment makes a huge deal of difference for every boss, as well as for exploration. To that end, I always carry multiple weapons.

Now Yag does require a fair deal of exploration to find, unless you get super lucky and happen to sail past one of his altars early on. There are occasionally stonehenge-like structures in the plains where you may find a marker, but these are about as rare as the altars themselves. He is easily the hardest boss to find - out of the ones we know so far. The next one, the Queen, is actually a lot easier as you usually come across at last one marker to her lair kinda naturally while progressing, and the same for the boss after that.

And yes, Valheim is one of the 'best' games ever to distract you in multiple ways from whatever it was you just intended to do. I love that about the game, at it always feels there is so much to do. Granted, these days I know a lot of shortcuts, but still. If you play with one eye on the clock to track how much time you have 'wasted', this game will give you a hard time, no doubt. For me, losing myself in that vast world is a great part of its appeal.

That said, I am already greatly looking forward to replay the game again come full release. These days I play on a community server, where every so often they start a new so-called progression server, where everyone has to start from zero. There are a fair number of modifications on that server, to make it all work better for a bunch of people greater than the max 10 envisioned by the devs, like regrowing trees from stumps, re-spawning resources and dungeons and such. Yet because we play in small teams, the experience is I think pretty close to what the devs intended for this game, namely that you play with some friends.

I hope you won't give up one this gem of a game - for me it is one of my all-time favourites, right alongside the likes of BG3, The Witcher 3, Kingdom Come and then some.

Anyhow, thank you for a nice video, which helped to increase my excitement to soon dive back into this game for its full release 🙂

By the way, congrats on getting 44k views on the first ever video on your channel! It is very enjoyable to watch, and your voice rather pleasant to listen to. Hope you'll make more content!

I have 1500 hours in Valheim, each biome can be harder than the last, but more rewarding as you progress.  I wish it had double the amount of biomes and content, I would never stop playing.  I can't imagine getting into the plains and not continuing into Mistlands or Ashlands beyond that.

such a well made video, just earned a subscriber

bro this is fire. you've got a knack for this. keen to see more vids

Love the video and I completely understand the struggles you have gone through. After years of playing, barely leaving my base/ farm, I understand it so very much. Instead of fighting bosses and progressing, I rather build bases all across meadows. It did not mean I hated the game, I just played it differently. A couple years ago I started doing Valheim science ( to find better ways to spawn proof my farm ) and I started to learn so much more about the game.
I took my time, and am glad I did, so dont force yourself, enjoy the game at your pace :)!

22:12 this sequence reminds me so much of like an old disney movie from the 90s or 2000s. Hits unexpectedly hard emotionally for a video game montage