Valheim teases Mistlands biome and new caverns in the mountains

Valheim concept art — (Image credit: Iron Gate Studios)

With the Hearth and Home update out, Valheim developer Iron Gate Studios is now focusing on another upcoming addition to the co-op Viking survival game. The Mistlands is the next biome that will be added to the world—Valheim currently has five biomes, and this would be the sixth of a planned nine in total—and there's been the slightest of teases today in the form of a single screenshot.

The Mistlands do exist in Valheim at the moment, though very sparsely. If you explore deep enough into the world you may find small, unfinished Mistland zones, which are spooky, heavily webbed areas full of looming dead trees and skeletal remains. The vibe the Mistlands currently give? Here there be giant spiders.

The new screenshot shows some green grass and wet rocks rather than the massive webs and dead trees we're used to seeing, and it's clear the studio is still playing with a few different ideas for the new biome. In the Valheim development blog, Iron Gate says "the landscape will likely change quite a bit before we figure out just exactly what the Mistlands will look like." So, they're not even sure yet.

More interesting, to me at least, is a smaller update planned for the Mountains biome. I like exploring the snowy peaks of Valheim, especially after the gloomy, soggy monotony of mining iron scrap in the Swamp, but there's honestly not all that much to find up there besides wolves, ruined bits of castles, silver mines, and Valheim's fourth boss, Moder. Iron Gate is looking for some ways to spice the mountain ranges up, and two pieces of concept art show that spice might come in the form of caverns, caves, or some other sort of underground areas.

Color me interested. Getting out of the blizzard and away from those Drake pests sounds like just the ticket, especially if the caves are hiding something interesting, such as more Valheim lore and history. Since one image shows a statue or shrine in the cave, maybe we'll learn more about the world when we go spelunking under the mountains. These caves could also tie into the Cult of the Wolf update planned, which is supposed to provide players with a focus on "exploration and combat."

We don't know exactly when the Mistlands update or the Mountains update will arrive. Hearth and Home was delayed from its original arrival date, which has shuffled everything else on the roadmap further into the future. A Reddit AMA is planned (but not yet scheduled) so maybe we'll find out more soon.

Chris started playing PC games in the 1980s, started writing about them in the early 2000s, and (finally) started getting paid to write about them in the late 2000s. Following a few years as a regular freelancer, PC Gamer hired him in 2014, probably so he'd stop emailing them asking for more work. Chris has a love-hate relationship with survival games and an unhealthy fascination with the inner lives of NPCs. He's also a fan of offbeat simulation games, mods, and ignoring storylines in RPGs so he can make up his own.