Why don’t you come on over, valkyrie?

You have been warned!

Yet somewhat alarmingly, the dangers of the Ashlands begin before you’ve even set foot on dry land.

A Viking in full armour holds two glowing red hatchets. In the background is a lake of lava.

“It’s going to be a really difficult, challenging place to go,” Smars admits.

“It’s going to be endgame.”

But there are bigger and more dangerous monsters in the Ashlands than these.

Cover image for YouTube video

“You’ll see a bigger diversity in enemy abilities and what they do.

“It’s going to be much more tactical,” he adds.

“In that sense, be careful, tread carefully and give a shot to win ground slowly.

A large Viking vessel is in the foreground, it has a decorative dragon head on the bow. The sky is red and stormy, lightning flashes overhead, and a Viking can be seen on the ship.

These create temporary platforms which you could stand on for about 50 seconds.

The new stone portal therefore marks a pretty major change in Valheim’s overall rhythm.

I think we’re being fair by giving you as many options as we can.”

A corrupt-looking bird enemy called a Fallen Valkyrie flies in the centre of the picture. On the right, a Viking in full armour attempts to strike the bird with a two-handed glowing blue sword.

Here you will find lava pools, arches of igneous rock, and ominous dark structures called fortresses.

So you oughta bring everything you’ve got to the battlefield.”

Time to build a vineyard in the Plains.

An enemy made of bones, it resembles a crab with legs. It is striking the player-character with its fist.

Along with the biome and a final boss, Deep North will likely feature a few extra surprises.

“But hopefully, it will still have a long lifecycle…

I mean, we will probably be doing updates for post-1.0 as well.”

In the foreground, a skeleton with a glowing chest rushes towards the camera, arms outstretched. In the background is a ruined colosseum filled with other skeletal enemies.

“We haven’t even got started on Underheim yet,” jokes Eyre.

Maybe we get to go to Underheim, or Sundheim, or to other places.

I think there’s a lot of things that we can go and explore.

A stone portal with runes inscribed on it, surrounded by crates, barrels and piles of gold.

And of course, this is all aided by another brilliant biome soundtrack that establishes a suitably menacing tone.

And if you’rereallystruggling to fish your items out from the lava… there’s always theBody Recovery Squad.

I imagine they’re about to be in hot demand.

A mage holds a glowing green staff, with tall Gothic towers looming in the background behind her.

A trebuchet-style weapon fires a glowing ball towards a fortified base.

The player-character heroically attacks a vulture enemy with a glowing green spear.

The player-character squats atop a building, looking down at the ruins below.