My latest structure, located in the Mistlands, is titled ‘Safety Cave’.

The cave has no decorations, no personality, and was carved out in an act of pure survival.

Progression in the freshly-released Mistlands biome, however, felt like running into a brick wall.

Valheim Mistlands update - a player looks out from a ledge over the misty landscape

As the sixth biome in Valheim’s progression system, the Mistlands was always supposed to be challenging.

To everyone’s collective surprise, the reality turned out to be rather different.

It’s an environment designed to entice players in: an other-worldly wonderland of magic.

Cover image for YouTube video

But in combination with other systems in the Mistlands, the combat became somewhat unmanageable.

Rather than providing a fair challenge, the combat became a matter of luck.

The (still significant) problems with the Mistlands' near-vertical terrain didn’t exactly help matters.

Valheim Mistlands update - a monkey in a lush grassy area

The Mistlands' sheer rock faces require constant jumping, which drains your stamina pretty quickly.

A single crafting bench needs five: in our first two dungeons, we found a total of one.

I suspect that in trying to spread progression across the biome, they overdid it a bit.

Valheim Mistlands update - unusual objects in a grassy biome

In terms of exploration, the fog and enemy numbers made walking a slow-going and painful process.

The Mistlands expected you to keep throwing yourself at it until you unlocked all its gear.

But the biome feels a lot emptier than before, and the feeling of threat is almost totally gone.

Valheim Mistlands update - grassy biome with a blue light and distant jagged rocks

Valheim Mistlands update - a player works their way along a narrow stone bridge to jagged rocks amid rain and purple lightning

Valheim Mistlands update - a large crossbow ballista at night

Valheim Mistlands update - a large rocky structure in dark purple and blue haze

Valheim Mistlands update - a dwarf holding a lantern in a brown rocky biome