Some meals are being reworked by Hearth and Home Update.
One of the most innovative things Valheim did for its survival systems was to make food optional. This means that you don’t have to eat, and you won’t starve to death. However, it is still vital because the best Valheim food increases your HP and stamina so eating is as important as wearing armor.
Iron Gate Studios, a Valheim developer, released a video to explain some of the changes that are happening in the food system. It’s available here:
Although the food choices in Valheim are varied, they all have one thing in common: They increase your max hit points, multiplied your healing rate and increased your maximum stamina. The new system will allow foods to be classified into three different categories. While there will be foods that provide both nutrition and energy for balanced meals, many food items will favor one over another.
For example, cooking lox meat can increase your health by 70 percent and your stamina to 40 percent. The video shows that these numbers will increase to 50 health and 10 stamina in the Hearth and Home Update. This is a nerf on both health as well asstamina. The change will mean that cooked lox meat will become a stamina-based meal, since the revised health boost is so minimal it’s barely noticeable.
The health/stamina split for blood pudding will be changed from 90/50 to 14/70. Turnip stew will go from 50/60 down to 11/55. These are significant changes in foods that provide a huge benefit to both stats. The update will essentially focus on increasing your stamina.
For completely new foods, I saw black soup (health 50, stamina 10, and boar jerky (20/20) and wolf jerky (25-25) in the video.
The UI design will also change. The red fork symbol denotes food that is primarily healthy, while the yellow fork indicates food that provides stamina. A white fork refers to balanced foods that provide both health and nutrition. Timers are replacing the food status bar. They show how long each type of food takes to cook.
The changes sound great, I think. Valheim is a great place to cook, but I ended up cooking only three types of food after I found the one that was best for me. Although we don’t know what the future holds for most foods, a change in the food system which allows me to cook more than three different types of food might improve my cooking experience. I am open to new food options and new sources of farm and harvest resources.
Foods that are focused on one attribute may mean that you will end up with more food when adventuring. My tiny inventory is already full when I set out for a mission. It is possible that players might stick to the original recipes if they have three delicious balanced meals left.
We will soon learn more. Iron Gate Studios claims that this video is the first in a series of videos showing the Hearth and Home update, which will be available later in the year.
