Viking afterlife open-world survival game Valheim 1.0 is finally here

9 Sep 2026 at 1:46 pm UTC | Last updated: 9 Sep 2026 at 3:37 pm UTC
By Liam Squires-Hand

After ~5 years in Early Access, the viking inspired open-world survival game Valheim has now officially launched with the new Deep North biome to finish it up.

With the final biome in - you're going to want to set aside some extra time for it as they said it's "approximately 2.5 times bigger than any of the previous Valheim biomes, and not just in size" - including plenty of new armour and tools along with new enemies. They also worked with Brikk Animation on a fancy new cinematic to introduce new players to the world of Valheim. On top of that - there's also new cinematics for when you slay bosses throughout the game and a secret extra cinematic to somehow find.

See the 1.0 trailer below:

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Accept Cookies & Show Direct Link Key Features

• Massive procedurally-generated world where every biome is immersive and distinct, with unique enemies, resources and crafting recipes to discover.
• Play alone or with up to 10 players on player-hosted dedicated servers and experience unlimited world creation and enemies that scale in difficulty.
• Stamina-based combat that rewards preparation and skill. Utilize weapon types with unique attacks, different blocking styles, ranged combat, dodges and parries to fight your enemies.
• Rewarding food system where you cannot starve and are not punished for not eating, instead you gain health, stamina and regeneration buffs depending on what foods you consume.
• Intuitive crafting where recipes are discovered as you explore the world, and pick up new resources and ingredients.
• Flexible building system that takes structural integrity and ventilation into account. Build a small shelter or an entire village, make outposts or claim abandoned buildings as your own. Then customize to your liking.
• Sail boats and ships to reach distant lands and explore the sea that offers riches to claim and monsters to fight.
• Epic boss fights that will test even the best prepared vikings and offer rewards that help you on your journey.

Spoiler-free 1.0 patch notes

New Content:

• New Biome – Deep North.
• 40+ New weapons.
• New bombs and ammunition.
• 4 New armour sets.
• 2 New capes.
• 2 New trinkets.
• New tools.
• 10+ New creatures.
• 80+ New buildable pieces.
• 5 New crafting related build pieces.
• 30+ New crafting materials.
• 20+ New food items.
• New locations.
• New music.
• New events.
• New mechanics.
• Upgradeable pockets.
• Achievements.

Fixes & Improvements:

• New graphic setting for draw distance.
• Menu overhaul for hammer and serving tray.
• Magica cloth system added.
• Overhauled descriptions.
• Rebalanced enemy spawn chance in Ashlands.
• All hair and beard styles now available from start.
• Unity engine upgrade.
• Various fixes and improvements.

GamingOnLinux was offered a code to access the 1.0 to review it, but being honest - I had to decline. It would have simply taken far too long to go through it all to review it thoroughly. I do have a lot of hours in it already as it is, and I can say anyway with confidence that it is an excellent (but brutal at times) survival game with actual dedicated Linux support which is nice to see.

This is a game that you truly need 100s of hours in to fully appreciate and get through it. It's definitely a big time investment.

A great choice overall though with cross-play across PC and console for 1-10 players, along with it being a surprisingly small file-size at only 3.8GB installed so you can keep it alongside some of those ridiculously large AAA titles.

Existing saves will also still work in the 1.0 release but you'll want to start a new world to see everything.

Steam Deck ✅ VerifiedRelease Date: 📅 2nd February 2021Platform: 🐧 Native LinuxDevs:Iron Gate ABOfficial links:Humble StoreSteamBluesky Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com. Tags: Native Linux, Indie Game, Open World, Steam, Survival, Unity | Apps: Valheim 8 Likes Some you may have missed, popular articles from the last month:OpenTS is a new open-source reconstruction of Command & Conquer: Tiberian SunMake sure your Flatpak is up to date due to security issuesHand of Fate: Hordes is a bullet heaven survivor-like filled with story-telling and games of chance"Yes, no AI is now a feature" - LibreOffice / The Document Foundation All posts need to follow our rules. Please hit the Report Flag icon on any post that breaks the rules or contains illegal / harmful content. Readers can also email us for any issues or concerns.