Iron Gate marked Valheim’s five-year anniversary on February 2, 2026 by publishing patch 0.221.10. The update is live now and delivers a mix of new cosmetics, consumables, and emotes alongside an engine upgrade and a series of performance and graphics changes across platforms. The update adds a set of anniversary items and social features meant for short celebrations in-game. New cosmetic items include a Celebratory Cap, three new hairstyles, and two buildable garlands. Players also get new emotes and a radial emote menu to access them more quickly.
Combat and crafting additions include new Early Axes and two new materials: Mysterious Axe Head and Curious Axe Head. A new consumable, Frosted Sweetbread, is also part of the patch. Under the hood, Valheim moves to an updated Unity build, listed as Unity 6000.0.61f1, and receives several reworked graphics settings aimed at clearer performance targets. The update introduces a new “3D resolution limit” dropdown, a new “Upscaling method” option with a “Pixelated” choice, and a new low SSAO quality setting that reduces performance cost while keeping a similar visual profile to the previous high setting.
Optimization work in the patch focuses on CPU and GPU overhead reductions. Notable items include massively reduced CPU usage for armor stands, skipping unnecessary texture copies for certain image effects, excluding grass vegetation from environment reflections, lower minimap memory usage, and platform-specific memory and preset improvements. The anniversary message also invited players to tune into a livestreamed concert by the Munich Radio Orchestra later in the week on Twitch, which will feature music from multiple video games including Valheim.
PATCH NOTES
Abbreviated Patch Notes:
- A celebratory hat!
- Early Axes
- Frosted Sweetbread
- Added a radial menu for emotes
- New emotes
- New hairstyles
- 2 new buildable garlands
- Engine Upgrade
- Multiple bug fixes and improvements
Detailed Patch Notes:
New Content: * New Emote: Vibe * New Emote: LoveYou * New Buildpiece: Flower Garland * New Buildpiece: Fey Lights * New Consumable: Frosted Sweetbread * New Weapon: Early Axes * New Hat: Celebratory Cap * 2 New Materials: Mysterious Axe Head, Curious Axe Head * 3 New Hairstyles (Champion, Chronicler, Sunbringer) * Added radial menu for emotes Fixes & Improvements: * Tweaks to multiple hairstyles (Castellan, Painter Curls, Pulled Back Curls, Tidy Curls) * Tweaks to berserker armour * Carapace Buckler now provides 5 adrenaline instead of 10 on perfect block, just like other shields * Updated Game Engine to Unity 6000.0.61f1 * Added localization string for tombstone container Reworked graphics settings: * Replaced "Render scale" percentage slider with "3D resolution limit" dropdown with fixed resolutions – improves use case as performance target * Added new "Upscaling method" setting with new "Pixelated" option * Added new "Low" SSAO quality option, which achieves a similar look to the existing SSAO quality (now named "High") with a significantly lower performance impact * The frame rate limiter can now be used together with v-sync (chooses the lowest submultiple of the monitor refresh rate that is greater than or equal to the selected value) * The frame rate limiter setting is now applied during the splash/loading screen * The resolution dropdown setting now sorts resolutions from highest to lowest, instead of the other way around Optimizations: * Change engine settings to improve performance in areas with many instances * Massively reduced CPU usage of armor stands * Skip texture copy for image effects (shield dome and heat distortion) when those effects aren't being used, which should reduce GPU overhead in most areas * Grass vegetation is no longer included in environment reflections, improving performance * Ensure one-shot sound effects are started the same frame they're created, reducing their latency by up to one frame * Reduced memory usage of minimap * Only load graphics presets for the current platform, rather than all platforms, reducing memory usage * Removed a duplicated matchmaking manager that wasted performance in the start menu Bug fixes: * Fixed "Generating" progress bar not always being shown during world generation * Fixed server list sometimes failing to save when quitting from the start menu * Fixed crash that could occur in multiplayer when a T.W.I.G. throws a rock at a player who is at the edge of a shield dome * Fixed crash that happened when hovering the cursor over a bee hive without being the network owner of that bee hive * Fixed audio stutter that occurred when a lot of sounds were playing simultaneously * Fixed Yggdrasil not being visible in environment reflections Mac App Store: * Improved error message shown when trying to play online without being logged in to Game Center Steam: * Player list now successfully shows profile pictures of non-friends too Xbox: * All settings are now stored per-user and synchronized to the cloud, rather than being shared between all users on the console * UI is now rendered at native resolution (up to 4K) on Xbox Series S|X and Xbox One X * Improved graphics: * Xbox One and Xbox One S: Added SSAO and increased number of point lights * Xbox One X: Increased number of point lights * Xbox Series S: Increased number of point lights and enabled point light shadows * Xbox Series X: Increased number of point lights, enabled point light shadows and adjusted resolutions * Reduce power draw even more when the game is running in the background Windows, Linux, MacOS: * Reworked graphics presets and unified them across the three platforms * Fixed automatic render scale sometimes being set incorrectly in windowed mode Steam Deck: * Improved graphics presets: * Performance mode now reaches 60 fps * Optimized preset settings for battery life * Native resolution is now used on first start, instead of 1366x768 For modders: * Sprite atlases are now included in the extended manifest file for Asset Bundles
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Valheim
Developed by Iron Gate Studios
Valheim is a brutal exploration and survival game for 1-10 players set in a procedurally-generated world inspired by Norse mythology. Craft powerful weapons, construct longhouses, and slay mighty foes to prove yourself to Odin!
- Genre: Role-playing (RPG), Adventure, Indie
- Platforms: Xbox Series X|S, Linux, PC (Microsoft Windows), PlayStation 5, Mac, Xbox One
- Modes: Single player, Multiplayer, Co-operative
- Release: 2021-02-02
- Publisher: Coffee Stain Publishing
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Age Rating:
ESRB T / GRAC 15+ / PEGI 12 / ACB M
- IGDB Rating: 84.3/100
