Valheim | Ep. 1 – Ravenheim Server Launch, Odin Is Already Judging Us
A brand-new adventure begins as the Ravenheim server officially launches. I have played little chunks of Valheim before, possibly most recently last year, but I never really got into it properly. About six months ago I fancied another attempt, then saw the 1.0 release was coming, so I decided to wait and start again once it left early access.
With spare hardware sitting in the server cabinet downstairs, we have also set up our own private Valheim server. I deleted my old early-access characters, started completely fresh and went in expecting the usual death loops while we gathered enough basic supplies to survive.
The plan is simple enough: gather resources, build somewhere to live, explore the wilderness, fight whatever decides we are lunch and attempt to convince Odin that leaving us unsupervised was a good idea.
🌲 About the Game
Valheim is a Viking survival game set across a large procedurally generated world. You begin with very little, gather resources, craft tools and equipment, build settlements and gradually push farther into dangerous areas filled with creatures and bosses.
Ravenheim is our private world where friends can build and explore alongside me. Eventually that should mean larger settlements, better equipment, sailing across dangerous seas and plenty of exploration as we find out what is waiting beyond the relatively safe starting areas.
🧭 Where We Are in the Journey
This is the real beginning of the playthrough. My previous characters were not especially advanced, so deleting them was no great loss, and I specifically wanted to start again without anybody handing me equipment or skipping progression for me.
That matters because some of the others know Valheim considerably better than I do. Gary and his brother have around a thousand hours each, while I only have a handful. They had also already spent roughly thirty hours on the server before I properly got started, so for this first episode I was concentrating on learning the early game at my own pace.
🔥 What Happens in This Episode
The warning signs appeared before survival had even started. I managed to spell my own name wrong during character creation, then spent far too long cycling through hairstyles because I could not remember which one I actually liked. Eventually we settled on a red-haired, beardless Viking and finally dropped into the world, where the tutorial raven was promptly renamed “Steve” and Odin was described as being “most perturbed.” It felt like a suitably organised beginning to a brand-new server.
This was very much a fresh start. I had deleted my old early-access characters, none of which had progressed especially far anyway, and I wanted to begin properly from nothing. I was also very clear that I did not want people handing me advanced equipment or dragging me through progression faster than I could understand it. Gary and his brother have around a thousand hours in Valheim each, whereas I have only played small chunks here and there, so there is quite a substantial experience gap. Mr Smith initially started following me around as well, but after I explained that I wanted to learn at least the opening stages for myself, he headed off to do his own thing.
From the starting stones, I headed north-east along the edge of the island looking for somewhere to establish a temporary base. I was fully expecting the usual early-game death loop because Valheim has never been especially kind to me before I get some basic equipment together. The first priority was therefore collecting branches and stone so I could make a club and stop feeling quite so defenceless.
For a brief moment, things were going surprisingly well. We found food, picked up loose resources and eventually reached an open patch near the water that looked suitable for a little starter shack. Then I spotted some boars and immediately identified them as “bacon sandwiches waiting to happen.” Trying to turn one of those bacon sandwiches into dinner produced the first corpse of the evening, followed by the traditional journey back to recover everything while the local wildlife helpfully remained near the body.
That brought the first #Deathloop of Ravenheim, although thankfully it never became quite as catastrophic as I had expected. Gary helped me get the other players showing properly on the map, while TheOriginal_JesusCrysis explained how the numbered equipment slots and R key worked. PapaSoup60 also supplied the extremely relevant survival advice that if anybody from Red Dead Redemption suddenly came riding through the meadow, I should run.
Once I had everything back, the evening settled into what quickly became “lumberjack simulator.” The little patch beside the water became home, at least temporarily, and most of my existence revolved around finding wood, using all of the wood, realising I needed more wood and heading straight back into the trees. Stone somehow became the irritating resource despite flint appearing to be absolutely everywhere along the shoreline.
The building controls took some adjustment as well. I kept trying to use the scroll wheel to change equipment because my brain was apparently still playing some other survival game, and I repeatedly confused the button for leaving the construction menu with the one for demolishing whatever I was looking at. This led to several moments of “don’t demolish it, don’t demolish it” while trying not to remove parts of the house I had only just finished building.
Slowly, however, the wooden box began turning into something that could reasonably be described as temporary accommodation. We got walls and stairs into place, added a workbench and bed, built a fire and eventually installed somewhere to cook the meat I had been collecting. I deliberately left a gap to let the smoke escape because otherwise the new Viking lifestyle looked likely to end in a fairly embarrassing choking incident. A chest followed for all the bits and pieces I was accumulating, along with what became the beginnings of a downstairs “guest room.”
Of course, with an entire procedurally generated world available, Mr V joined the server and decided that the exact same area was where he wanted to establish himself as well. His evening was arguably even more troublesome than mine. He struggled with crafting and workbench placement, disappeared into his own death loops and eventually reported that hypothermia had killed him. Before long I was finding Mr V’s tombstones dotted around the landscape often enough that they were becoming useful navigation markers.
A good part of the night became a mixture of exploration and community troubleshooting. Gary, TheOriginal_JesusCrysis and others helped explain workbenches, beds, food, stamina and skills, including the unpleasant discovery that dying costs you a percentage of your progress. At one point I could not understand why items on the ground were refusing to enter my inventory despite having plenty of room. Gary eventually worked out that I had somehow pressed V and disabled auto-pickup. Half of learning Valheim apparently involves discovering what the game does; the other half involves discovering which button somebody accidentally pressed.
The shelter also brought back memories of Sons of the Forest after Happy_Cat_Lady compared all the logging to our unfinished cabin on the frozen lake. That particular project had required a ridiculous quantity of timber, so Ravenheim was beginning to feel worryingly familiar as trees continued disappearing around the new settlement.
Chat was busy creating its own chaos alongside the survival game. ASmith501 raided in early in the evening after Motor Town: Behind the Wheel, while various channel games continued running in the background as we chopped trees and tried not to freeze. Happy_Cat_Lady ended up taking on a Pokémon contract involving a Poliwhirl, PapaSoup60 received a shipment of inflatable bananas and quite reasonably decided that nothing says “mission accomplished” like inflatable fruit, and JesseFrancis triggered the familiar dysentery routine, much to ASmith501’s displeasure.
The biggest distraction came when EntertainJD launched a Hunger Games. Raven, Gary, ASmith501, PapaSoup60, Mr V and others all volunteered as tributes while the actual Valheim survival continued in the background. Somehow I emerged as the winner, prompting Mr V to accuse me of killing him and bribing the judge again, while PapaSoup60 requested that his body be buried down by the river. Apparently conquering the Hunger Games was easier than getting a deer to stand still long enough to shoot it.
Back in Valheim, improving the basic equipment became the main objective. I made a flint axe, upgraded what I could and started working towards a bow. That meant hunting boars for leather scraps, although keeping track of exactly how many scraps I had — and occasionally remembering why I wanted them in the first place — became an adventure of its own. The “bacon sandwiches” were suddenly an essential source of crafting materials as well as food.
A skeleton later introduced me to another corpse run, while various smaller creatures continued turning up around the area and refusing to leave us alone. Even so, I was genuinely surprised that I had not died more often. Compared with the catastrophe I had been expecting at the start of the night, Ravenheim was being almost restrained.
Eventually the leather grind paid off and I reached the eight scraps needed for the bow. That felt like the first major equipment milestone of the evening, but making the bow was only half the challenge. I still had to find a deer, get close enough to use it and deal with the stamina bar repeatedly disappearing at exactly the moment I needed it.
After several attempts, the shot finally landed. “We did the thing. We killed the deer.” Better still, it turned out to be a one-star deer and gave us four deer hide, so for the first time it felt as though we were beginning to move beyond the absolute opening stages rather than simply surviving with sticks, cooked boar and an alarming quantity of flint.
One final discovery revealed that I had also been making life harder for myself for absolutely no reason. I had assumed repairing damaged tools at the workbench would consume materials, so I had been crafting replacements whenever things broke. Gary then confirmed that repairs are free. Several duplicate tools suddenly became evidence of an entirely unnecessary manufacturing programme, but at least that was one more lesson learned for next time.
By the end of the stream, the little coastal shack was functional, we had somewhere to sleep and cook, storage for the growing collection of random materials, improved tools and finally a bow. It was not a huge progression night, and it was never supposed to be. This was about establishing ourselves, working out the controls and learning the earliest parts of Valheim without skipping past them.
There is, however, a bigger question hanging over Ravenheim. Gary and his brother had already spent roughly thirty hours on the server before I could properly get started, levelling up, discovering locations and opening more of the map. I do not want the rest of us feeling as though we have to rush just to catch up, or reaching things after somebody else has already completed all of the discovery and progression around them.
So the evening ended with me genuinely unsure whether Valheim will immediately become the new regular Tuesday series. I think it needs another week to air, and next Tuesday probably will not be Ravenheim while I decide how best to handle the server and progression. We wrapped things up by raiding into OurChickenLife, leaving the first expedition with a shack still standing, a bow finally crafted and considerably fewer corpses than I had expected.
🎥 Watch the Episode
You can watch the complete first Ravenheim stream here: Valheim Episode 1.
You can also visit Dr Ravenholm on YouTube and follow the Valheim Series Playlist. If you enjoy the episode, leave a like, let me know what you think in the comments and subscribe so you do not miss whatever happens next.
🔴 Join the Adventure Live
Ravenheim is much more entertaining when everybody is there at the same time, whether they are offering useful advice, reporting another death loop or deciding to build directly beside me despite having an entire world available.
Come and join us live on Twitch or YouTube and become part of the chaos as it happens. We finished this particular stream by raiding into OurChickenLife, carrying the community on after Ravenheim closed for the night.
🏕️ Community & Links
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🏹 We Did the Thing
For a first night, we ended in a considerably better position than we started. The shack was still standing, we had somewhere to sleep and cook, the bow finally existed and one unfortunate one-star deer had provided our first proper batch of hide.
Whether Ravenheim becomes the regular Tuesday series is still undecided. I want it to be something we can actually experience together rather than a race to catch people who are already far ahead, so we will give it a little time and see what happens next.
— Dr Ravenholm
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