Bog Witch update improves in-game quality of life for Valheim players
Valheim is a new take on the open-world survival genre from the developers at Iron Gate studios, releasing back in February of 2020. The game released to critical acclaim selling five million copies in the first week with a 9/10 score on Steam. Valheim would continue on to become a 2021 nominee for Best Indie Game and Best Multiplayer Game at the game awards.
The Bog Witch update is just a small update or a "quality of life update,” as the vibrant update juxtaposes brilliantly to other mediocre updates Valheim has seen: “Cult of the Wolf”, “Hearth and Home”, and “Hildir’s Request.” Despite a distinct disparity in names, the “Bog Witch” and “Hearth and Home” are very similar updates for their innovative additions to the game.
“Hearth and Home” was implemented on September 16th, 2021, earning the title as one of the first named updates to release, affecting the game going forward monumentally. The “Hearth and Home” update made a splash when entering the scene of Valheim, adding things such as hot tubs, log benches, tar roofs, and the fabled round table, though this update was more notable for its overhaul of the food system.
In the old food system, food would give far more health and stamina, meaning that food was much stronger. After the “Hearth and Home” update, food was clearly divided into stamina food (giving primarily stamina) health food (giving primarily health), and equal where the food would give an equal value of stamina and health. Overall, food was much weaker but also much more balanced. The update would also add bukeperries, a consumable allowing players to reset all their food in the case they ate something they didn't mean to.
Overall, a majority of the “Bog Witch” update is an expansion on the food overhaul of the hearth and home update more than 3 years later. The “Bog Witch” update adds the feasts, a new variety of food that lasts almost double what the best foods in the game currently do. These feasts, while not necessarily more powerful than the current food, offer new strategies with long activation times and high stakes. A huge downside of the new feast is that to consume a feast you must place it down, preventing the players from carrying the feasts in their inventory like other food. To balance this out, the feasts will last up to 10 uses making them a great new addition for those looking to snack up before setting out on their adventures.
The newest update comes with much more than just the feasts for the fans, it also comes with the fabled new merchant, the Bog Witch, who will sell you all the ingredients for the feasts along with the new serving tray for placing food, and the new quality of life scythe item for harvesting crops. Furthermore, the Bog Witch also sells all the items for the new potions added with this merchant.
Additionally, the new love potion is completely and utterly useless, serving as a literal troll item added by the developers as it increases the odds of troll spawns by 20% and raises the chance that these trolls spawn with stars. Additionally, it causes all trolls to start off alert, so no surprising trolls while you're under this potion's effects.
Keeping on the subject of useless potions, we have the new light foot mead, a potion causing massive controversy in the Valheim community as it is blamed for causing the developers to remove the +20 jump height limit from the feather cape. This is a completely useless potion as what once was a passive ability most useful for building has been swapped out for an item that requires you to waste an inventory slot for a potion that makes you jump better.
On a brighter note, the update also added the potion of troll endurance, a concoction that will increase your carry capacity by 250 for 5 minutes. This item has been a long time coming and shows the game is working towards allowing players to increase their carry capacity with the Fader ability added in the ashlands increasing your carrying capacity significantly.
Grade: A
Bog Witch’s update comes with significant additions fans have pleaded for since Valheim’s debut, as Iron Gates completely overhauled cooking, brewing, crafting, and farming which leaves followers invested for the future direction of the game.
by Ian Miller
Published December 2nd, 2024
Oshkosh West Index Volume 121 Issue III