Now that Valheim’s big Mistlands update is out and is already receiving follow-up patches itself, developer Iron Gate Studios is ready to talk about what’s coming next. Some insights into those plans were shared this week with Iron Gate revealing that the next biome the game gets will be the “Ashlands,” a fiery “land of the dead,” the studio said. What’s more, Iron Gate has also said it’ll be more communicative during the development of this biome and has hinted at some new additions planned between now and the time that the Ashlands release.
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Iron Gate is already in the pre-production phase of the Ashlands, the developer revealed this week in a blog post discussing the future of Valheim. Two different creatures – “The Charred” and “Morgen” – were revealed in the post, too, and can be seen below. Iron Gate also confirmed suspicions that players might’ve held after seeing these by describing the nature of the Ashlands.
“As you might be able to guess from these images, our current design vision for the Ashlands is that it’s a land of the dead, as well as a place with quite a volcanic nature,” Iron Gate said. “We’re really looking forward to exploring the concept and finding out where it will lead us, and we’re excited to have you along for this journey!”
Iron Gate was reasonably forthcoming throughout the development of the Mistlands biome by showing off weapons, creatures, structures, and more over time, though the developer feels it could do more with the Ashlands. As such, players can expect to be more in the loop as work on the Ashlands continues. The early reveal of the enemies players will encounter is the start of that commitment.
“Therefore, our ambition with the development of the Ashlands is to show you a lot more of the process,” Iron Gate said. “This will mean you will see things in their early stages, and maybe even things that won’t end up making it into the game at all, but you will also hopefully have a better understanding of how far along the development has gotten. We’ll be trying this out for the Ashlands development period and see how it goes, and we’d like to start off right away by showing you some enemy concepts.”
Between now and the release of the Ashlands, Iron Gate reminded players that that Xbox release is coming and will support crossplay. Things like “Hildir’s Quest” are in the works, too, and Iron Gate floated the idea of different difficulty options.
Valheim’s Ashlands content does not yet have a release date.
