Thread by @delaneykingrox

So Valheim was a great experience, but I would strongly disagree with anyone saying the game is finely balanced... or balanced at all.
Progression comes more from item purchase than skill, and enemies either are hopelessly easy or one shot you.

Don't get me wrong, it is fun on so many fronts and I give it two thumbs up. But balanced? I can't say that.

A lot of the shades of growth and variety needed to feel progress just aren't there yet, and the values often seem arbitrary.

I look forward to seeing it grow and develop, but watching my fam hit the constant walls of new biome death loops and get put off adventuring saddens me. There is so much here that is great.

Fingers crossed the devs get a handle on it over the coming year.

Failing that, I am sure modders will fill in the gaps.

My advice to gamedevs is look for that constant progression feel, look to make the players always feel like the next step is only a discovery away.
Grinding for hours to get equipment only to get one shotted and atuck in a death loop of trying to retrieve your gear aint it.

I would be looking at adjusting the biomes to have distance settings... the deeper you go, the tougher the challenges.

Right now you can get a blob, four skeletons, two draughr, an archer and four leeches all fucking you up a few meters in.

So, for me, I would look at breaking up biomes by using fixed points like sub biomes.

Spreading out the damage amounts would also help. Making all weapons have star levels from 1 to 4, with much more variation early in the game would help spread out the progress.

Unlocking secondry attacks or number of strikes in combo by gaining skill and strength would give a visceral progression. No good with swords? Do 1 swing. Good? 2? Amazing? 5, with the second attack an aoe swing.

Likewise, follow through. Stopping a swing anim dead on impact of a tougher enemy than your strength, but cutting though them when stronger so the single swing can hit another.

That will make you feel like you are growing.

That stopping the anim on contact works with trees too.

Making jams, cooked meats, clothing all have star ratings based on your skill means you feel special among folk.

"Oh, you make the best carrot soup!"

Being able to craft items with customisations makes you feel individual and special.

So, I feel the issue is the mid game.

There is an assumed biome and boss order, and it is unforgiving.

At least for the mid game, you should be able to make decisions about which biome or boss you wanna do first. Whichever you choose, the next one gets a star higher.

Rather than aiming to kill the player in a few seconds, I would look to massage the numbers so they last a while longer. You freeze slower, you poison slower, you take more hits, but so too do the enemies. Nobody likes being one shotted. Even the biggest of the big bads.

But all that said, the game has HUGE scope for such a small team and I have had hours and hours of fun. Love it.

Another thing I would try is multiple gravestones within a distance secretly push mob AI to circle away some distance. This would, rather invisibly, give multiple attempts at corpse recovery a better chance on third or fourth attempt.