Valheim opens up its new frost caves to the Viking public

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Adds Steam Deck optimisation and full controller support to boot.

A Valheim viking admires a peaceful landscape.
(Image credit: Iron Gate Studios)

Valheim was PC Gamer's game of the year 2021, and with good reason: It came out of nowhere to prove itself the Vi-king of co-op and boshing mythical Norse creatures. A year on from launch the game's had regular updates, the biggest of which was Hearth and Home, and now it's adding frost caves to its world.

The frost caves update is live on Valheim's Steam public test branch. Any player can opt-in by right-clicking the game in their library, selecting ‘Properties’, then 'Betas', and entering the code "yesimadebackups". The public test branch will then be accessible: As the password suggests, making a backup of your regular saves is a good idea. If this all sounds like too much hassle, chances are it will be live in the regular game very soon.

The update will cause a fresh location generation in players' worlds, and the frost caves biome will appear in previously unexplored areas. The frost caves are basically chilly dungeons with three new types of enemy (Ulvs, cultists and bats), new building and crafting loot, and a new event called rather ominously 'You stirred the cauldron'. Maybe you just make some nice warming soup?

The patch also optimises the game for Steam Deck, adds full controller support, and adds a pause feature to singleplayer.  In terms of quality of life fixes, the "Building marker is more subtle and indicates piece rotation", it's easier to close chat, and I have absolutely no idea what this means: "Corpse run gives carry weight bonus to compensate for unequipped belt."

Here are the full patch notes. If frost caves aren't your bag well, heck, why not just turn the whole thing into Springfield.

Rich Stanton
Rich Stanton
Senior Editor

Rich is a games journalist with 15 years' experience, beginning his career on Edge magazine before working for a wide range of outlets, including Ars Technica, Eurogamer, GamesRadar+, Gamespot, the Guardian, IGN, the New Statesman, Polygon, and Vice. He was the editor of Kotaku UK, the UK arm of Kotaku, for three years before joining PC Gamer. He is the author of a Brief History of Video Games, a full history of the medium, which the Midwest Book Review described as "[a] must-read for serious minded game historians and curious video game connoisseurs alike."