Valheim players are killing bosses too quickly, so today's patch makes them tougher

Valheim boss
(Image credit: Iron Gate Studios)

Millions of players have swarmed into Early Access survival game Valheim over the past few weeks, and many have already conquered the Viking afterlife by taking down Valheim's five big bosses.

But it sounds like developer Iron Gate Studios would like to put the brakes on players steamrolling some of their boss monsters at such a rapid pace. A patch released today (0.146.8) makes some difficulty tweaks to bosses 3, 4, and 5. Swamp blob Bonemass, ice dragon Moder, and skeletal head honcho Yagluth are now harder to beat.

"u guys are killing them too fast," the developer says in the patch notes. Iron Gate CEO Richard Svensson elaborated on the boss changes on Twitter, saying Bonemass now has a quicker cooldown on his melee attacks, Moder's hit points have been increased by 2,500, and Yagluth has had some "resistance tweaks" and has been given "double the HP" because players were taking him down within a few short minutes of summoning him.

The patch also includes various bug fixes and tweaks. The world corruption bug that could occasionally happen when players quit the game with Alt-F4 sounds like it's been squashed, which is great news, though I imagine it's still a good idea to regularly make backups of your Valheim world and character files. Also, the game will now remember your preference for showing your in-game location while in co-op, so you won't have to tick that box on your map every time you join your favorite server.

Another literal bug fix: the buzzing of deathsquitos is now detectable at a greater distance, which should hopefully cut down a bit on surprise attacks and backstabs by those surprisingly vicious winged menaces.

Conquer Viking purgatory with these Valheim guides

Valheim Stagbreaker war hammer

(Image credit: Iron Gate Studios)

Valheim workbench: How to build and upgrade it
Valheim dedicated server: How to get one working
Valheim copper: How to get it
Valheim map: The best world seeds
Valheim seeds: How to plant them
Valheim iron: How to get it
Valheim Elder: Summon and beat the second boss
Valheim boar: How to tame one
Valheim armor: The best sets
Valheim commands: Handy cheat codes

If you're having issues connecting to a server hosting Valheim, or experiencing a black screen when you're trying to connect, Iron Gate suggests making sure the server has been updated to the new version and restarted.

Here are the full patch notes:

  • Crafting item-dupe bug fix
  • Harpooned player & ship bug fix
  • Fixed player ragdoll
  • Bonemass, Moder, Yagluth difficulty tweaks
  • Moder music updated
  • Tombstone bugfix (probably wont fix disappearing tombstones though)
  • Fixed world corruption caused by pressing ALT+F4 while logging out
  • Deathsquitos have slightly longer audio range
  • Tweaked audio on blast-furnace & spinning wheel
  • Shared map position setting is saved per world
  • Updated network stats (F2)
  • Building destruction drop-fix
  • Vulkan support in windows builds
  • Network disconnection bugfix
  • Updated socket-backend
Christopher Livingston
Senior Editor

Chris started playing PC games in the 1980s, started writing about them in the early 2000s, and (finally) started getting paid to write about them in the late 2000s. Following a few years as a regular freelancer, PC Gamer hired him in 2014, probably so he'd stop emailing them asking for more work. Chris has a love-hate relationship with survival games and an unhealthy fascination with the inner lives of NPCs. He's also a fan of offbeat simulation games, mods, and ignoring storylines in RPGs so he can make up his own.