The survival game Valheim is still in the Early Access phase on Steam. This means that it is not yet in a release state and the developers plan to add more content through updates.
In online games, however, Early Access also means that you have to expect so-called “wipes” or Deletion of what you have achieved so far. The developers of the Steam hit have now commented on this sensitive topic.
Don’t fall in love too much with your Valheim world
What are wipes? A wipe is the deletion of everything that a player has achieved in a certain period of time. The survival game Rust, for example, repeatedly wipes. The fans then always have to start over. All progress was recently reset in DayZ as well.
Why are there wipes? Wipes are usually associated with major updates to the game, which involve such extensive changes that the previous game status becomes incompatible and can no longer be used. This is annoying, but just something that players of a title that has not yet been officially released will have to expect.
How does it look at Valheim? The question of wipes keeps coming up on Steam. There are now also statements from the developers about this. Henrik Törnqvist, co-founder of Iron Gate Studios, says in an interview.
“We’re just discussing how we want to do. From a technical point of view. I can’t really give you a straight answer right now.”
However, there is a more specific statement on Steam. There managing director and Valheim inventor Richard Svensson writes:
“In most cases we will try not to force you to start a new world. In some cases, however, this may be inevitable. When we make a big change to world terrain generation, such as a new biome -Add type. Then you will most likely have to start a new world to experience this new content. In most cases, however, new game content is simply added to areas that you have not yet explored and areas already explored remain unchanged.”
We also did an interview with Iron Gate and raised this issue. The developers also reveal more about the planned features and patches.
What exactly does that mean? Iron Gate cannot guarantee that at some point a wipe will not come and you will then lose your game world and have to start a new one. Update 4, which should appear later this year, for example, adds the new biome ‘Mistlands’ according to the roadmap. Then it could possibly happen that players have to start new worlds.