Valheim 1.0 Is Finally The Game It Was Always Meant To Be

Published Sep 8, 2026, 9:00 AM EDT If you still haven’t played Valheim, now’s the time to do so Image: Coffee Stain After nearly six years, Valheim has finally exited early access with its big 1.0 update. I personally remember developer Iron Gate’s survival game best as a COVID-19 pandemic fad. In early 2021, you couldn’t escape Valheim’s reach, and it seemed like everyone I knew was playing it. It has influenced many genre competitors in the years since, with elements of Valheim present in more recent breakout hits like Enshrouded and Windrose. Despite its undeniable years-long popularity and influence, Valheim has only now technically exited early access. Revisiting the game for the first time since its Xbox launch in 2023, where it was released as part of the console’s early-access Game Preview program, I was curious about how monumental and substantially different it would feel after three years of continued growth. To my surprise, Valheim very much feels like the game that it was in 2021, only now with even more depth than ever. Even though Valheim’s 1.0 update doesn’t substantially transform or redefine the game, I’d recommend checking this game out again if you haven’t played it since 2021 or even if you’ve been holding off for half a decade. Do so, and you’ll find yourself playing one of the best survival games ever made that’s not named Minecraft. Valheim 1.0 is one of the best survival games around Unlike some other survival games, there is a narrative backbone to Valheim’s grind. Players are surviving and crafting because Odin got worried about the growing evil forces on the titular tenth world, which he had split from Ygdrassil, the World Tree. Odin casts a spell so Vikings are reborn in Valheim when they die in battle, so players slowly build up resources to become powerful enough to take down the bosses residing in all of Valheim’s different biomes. While there are more cutscenes to flesh out the story now, you can completely ignore the story if you want to and simply embrace Valheim as a Norse-mythology-themed survival game. Its boss fights give you a north star if you’re ever looking for a reason to make progress or a battle to prepare for, but you can still lose dozens of hours exploring its procedurally generated world. This core was already present in Valheim in 2021, and it holds up today. The low-fi retro graphical aesthetic has a timeless feel, the soundtrack never gets annoying even though you’re hearing the same songs ad nauseam, and your physics-driven building capabilities as a player are still some of the best in any survival game. None of this feels that different now that the game is leaving early access; we, as players, just have more options at our disposal. Image: Coffee Stain Most of Valheim 1.0’s additions are late-game focused and flesh out the Deep North biome. You’ll find lots of new weapons, armors, trinkets, food, crafting and building items, as well as a grappling hook that makes traversal a little more fun. While it will be a long time before you encounter these if you restart the game with a fresh save file or server, it’s reassuring to know that every biome of Valheim is now a complete experience from tip to tail. Free sign-up Get Polygon’s Wishlister newsletter A weekly cheat sheet to what you’ll eventually love to play. No buying, no commitment — just saving for later. Sign up free Free. Unsubscribe anytime. I’m particularly envious of those who get to pick up and experience the game for the first time on PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch 2. While I played 1.0 early on Windows PC, they get access to the most content-filled, bug-free version of one of the best survival games ever and can cross-play with experienced friends on Windows PC or Xbox Series X. Even though it’s not that different a game all these years later, I wouldn’t be surprised if Valheim has a bit of a moment online again. Image: Coffee Stain While Valheim does not feel radically different from what it was on offer in 2021, what made it great back then still holds strong today. The Deep North biome is now just up to snuff with the rest of the game, and a grappling hook makes traversal a little more interesting. If Valheim wasn’t for you before, it still won’t be, but it’s a very hard game to be put off by. Iron Gate may even still update Valheim in the future too, so it’s not even like the game’s journey ends here. It’s just a signifier that Iron Gate Studios is pleased with where Valheim is now and has made it widely available and as polished as possible across its available platforms. I was more than happy to affirm that this is a truly great survival game at its 1.0 launch, not something that simply became popular because we were locked inside and had nothing else to do but play it.