As October comes to a close, it’s time for a new Valheim Ashlands update from the development team over at Iron Gate. Following on from some teases of the team running a playtest of the next Valheim biome, which were shared to social platform Twitter/X on Friday October 13, the team gives us a look at a “small selection” of the weapons we’ll be able to craft after visiting the lava-strewn, ash-swept region.
Before getting into these, however, Iron Gate makes a clarification. Typically, it’s recommended that Valheim players start a new world when a major biome update is released (as we saw most recently with the Mistlands). That appears to be the case once again, as Iron Gate reiterates, “It won’t be strictly necessary to get the new content, but it will be something we strongly recommend.” Sounds like a good enough excuse to replay one of the best survival games on PC to me.
As for the weapons, we get a look at four (well, technically five). The first is a towering greatsword, the second a regular sword, the third a studded mace, and the last two a pair of axes that can be dual wielded. It appears that there’s two axe designs – one with a slightly longer front blade, and the other with a flat top and a pointed pick at the back.
Personally I’m very much here for the dual-wielding, as I always love to leap into the fray in a bold (if somewhat foolhardy) fashion in Valheim – it just feels right for that Viking vibe, you know? I’m actually rather taken by the design on the mace as well, however, as it looks to have even more heft than our current offerings and I can only imagine it’ll be perfect for taking those skeletal Charred found roaming the Ashlands to task.
We also get a look at another mysterious, glowing contraption. “It looks a bit like the Obliterator,” Iron Gate teases, “but it does something quite different.” We also get a look at a more inland section of the Ashlands than we’ve previously been shown, and it looks like a much more pleasant place to be.
Actually, no, it doesn’t at all – the roiling, bubbling lava is certainly pretty, and those glowing crystals add a nice pop of color to the blackened, burnt-out landscape, but actually trying to navigate this place seems quite frankly hellish. “The lava can dominate pretty large areas,” Iron Gate admits, “Crossing these lakes of molten rock will be a challenge of its own, we assure you.”
I’m already fascinated to find out how we’ll go about this – perhaps with some sort of heat-resistant boat or raft? As a long-time Terraria player, I certainly have a whole host of possible ideas on the go, but I’m not entirely sure those will work here.
While we wait for more news on when we’ll be able to visit the Ashlands for ourselves, have a look through the best Valheim mods for numerous cool ways to tweak the current game. If you’re looking to better organize your vanilla experience, meanwhile, we’ve listed all Valheim console commands to help you keep things in order with ease.