Exploring Valheim's Newest Update: Patch 0.219.13 - The Bog Witch

Valheim server and client has an exciting new update—Patch 0.219.13, known as "The Bog Witch." This update introduces fresh content, including new gameplay mechanics, items, and quality-of-life improvements. Here’s a breakdown of what’s new, how it impacts gameplay, and how players can make the most of these additions.

A New Swamp Resident: The Bog Witch Trader

The most notable addition in this patch is the Bog Witch herself, a new trader found deep within the Swamps. Previously, Valheim players seeking special goods had to seek out Haldor in the Black Forest, but the Bog Witch brings a unique selection of items, ingredients, and materials specifically designed for the swamp environment.

The Bog Witch’s offerings are vital for creating new potions and materials that open up more complex cooking and brewing options. Players can now access exclusive items for feasts and recipes, enhancing their survivability and exploration potential.

The Feast Mechanic: Satisfying Viking Hunger

A major gameplay mechanic introduced in this update is the ability to host feasts. In a world as unforgiving as Valheim’s, food is crucial for survival, providing health, stamina, and resistances. The new feast mechanic takes this to the next level, allowing players to combine ingredients into elaborate meals that provide substantial buffs.

Here’s a quick look at what feasts bring to the table:

• Enhanced Buffs: Feasts offer longer-lasting and more powerful buffs than standard foods, boosting health and stamina regeneration and adding temporary resistances.
• Greater Customization: With the addition of 16 new crafting materials, players can experiment with recipes to match their playstyle, whether they’re focused on combat, building, or exploration.
• Potions and Special Effects: Feasts incorporate new potions that give unique effects, allowing for strategic planning before heading into dangerous biomes.

The feast mechanic not only encourages players to gather a wider variety of ingredients but also promotes cooperation among clans, as hosting a feast can be a communal activity.

New Potions: Expanding Survival Options

Accompanying the feast mechanic are eight new potions, each crafted using ingredients from the Bog Witch’s shop. These potions serve a range of purposes, from bolstering defenses in swampy terrain to improving stamina or even boosting resistance to poison, a hazard commonly found in the Swamps.

Stylish Survival: New Clothing and Skills

Patch 0.219.13 also introduces three new clothing items, which give players a chance to customize their Viking’s look while offering practical benefits. Although the specifics of these items are still being discovered, they’re rumored to provide stat boosts or resistances, making them valuable in certain biomes.

Alongside these clothing items, the update adds three new skills. Players can now level up these skills to gain advantages in specific tasks, such as foraging for rare ingredients or improving their crafting efficiency. This expansion of skills allows for even deeper character development, catering to various playstyles and strategies.

Building and Crafting Additions: Expanded Creative Freedom

The patch also adds four new build pieces and two tools, allowing players to further personalize their bases and explore new designs. These additions will give players more flexibility when constructing homes or fortresses, especially useful for those who prefer to play defensively or create safe havens in hostile areas.

One of the most exciting new tools allows for more intricate crafting and base upgrades, ensuring that buildings not only look Viking-tough but are reinforced for additional protection against enemy raids and the elements.

New Emotes and Social Features

Three new emotes have been added, enhancing player interaction and roleplaying. Now, Vikings can express themselves in new ways, making social interactions more engaging and entertaining. The emotes range from celebratory gestures (perfect for a feast) to serious rallying gestures before a big adventure.

The Swamp Event: A Fresh Challenge for Veterans

In addition to these features, Valheim has introduced a new Swamp event, which will occasionally trigger when players linger in the Swamps. This event ramps up the challenge by sending waves of tougher enemies, providing an intense survival experience and a chance to earn valuable loot. The Swamp event is designed to keep players on their toes, even those who have mastered the game’s earlier content.

Bug Fixes and Performance Enhancements

As with any Valheim update, Patch 0.219.13 comes with a host of bug fixes and performance improvements. Players can expect smoother gameplay, fewer glitches, and improved stability across different platforms. These fixes are aimed at enhancing the overall user experience, allowing for a more immersive and uninterrupted adventure.

Final Thoughts: The New Depths of Valheim

The Bog Witch update breathes new life into Valheim, giving players reasons to revisit the Swamps and experiment with the game’s expanded mechanics. Whether you’re drawn to hosting feasts, crafting new potions, or facing off against challenging Swamp events, Patch 0.219.13 offers content for everyone.

With so many new features to explore, players will likely find themselves rediscovering Valheim’s world in fresh, exciting ways. This update not only expands what’s possible in the game but also reinforces the immersive, Viking survival experience that fans have come to love.

FULL PATCH NOTES (SPOILERS)

NEW CONTENT:

New Mechanics:
* Feasts: Large meals that last longer and can be shared among several people
* New Skill: Cooking - Reduces the time it takes to craft food, chance to gain +1 food while crafting
* New skill: Farming - Reduces the stamina cost of using the Cultivator and increases the durability of farming items. Chance to gain bonus yield while harvesting crops.
* New skill: Crafting - Reduces the time it takes to craft items and increases the durability of crafting items. Reduces the stamina cost of placing build pieces.

Crafting:
* Tool: Serving Tray - Allows you to place any consumable item, like a build piece
* Tool: Scythe - Allows you to speed up the harvesting of your crops
* Material: Barrel Rings (purchasable)
* Material: Candle Wick (purchasable)
* Material: Scythe Handle (purchasable)
* Material: Cured Squirrel Hamstring (purchasable)
* Material: Powdered Dragon Eggshells (purchasable)
* Material: Fresh Seaweed (purchasable)
* Material: Pungent Pebbles (purchasable)
* Material: Fragrant Bundle (purchasable)
* Material: Toadstool (purchasable)
* Material: Ivy Seeds (purchasable)
* Material: Woodland Herb Blend (purchasable)
* Material: Mountain Peak Pepper Powder (purchasable)
* Material: Grasslands Herbalist Harvest (purchasable)
* Material: Herbs of the Hidden Hills (purchasable)
* Material: Fiery Spice Powder (purchasable)
* Material: Seafarer’s Herbs (purchasable)

Build Pieces & Furniture:
* Barrel (storage)
* Resin Candle
* Workbench: Food Preparation Table
* Workbench: Mead Ketill

Clothing:
* Clothing: Harvest Tunic (purchasable)
* Clothing: Harvest Dress (purchasable)
* Hat: Straw Hat (purchasable)

Creatures:
* NPC: The Witch (trader)
* NPC/Enemy: Kvastur

Foods & Potions:
* Feast: Whole Roasted Meadows Boar
* Feast: Black Forest Buffet Platter
* Feast: Swamp Dweller’s Delight
* Feast: Hearty Mountain Logger’s Stew
* Feast: Plains Pie Picnic
* Feast: Mushrooms Galore á la Mistlands
* Feast: Ashlands Gourmet Bowl
* Feast: Sailor’s Bounty
* Potion: Berserkir Mead
* Potion: Tonic of Ratatosk
* Potion: Lightfoot Mead
* Potion: Draught of Vananidir
* Potion: Mead of Troll Endurance
* Potion: Brew of Animal Whispers
* Potion: Anti-Sting Concoction
* Potion: Love Potion (purchasable)

Misc:
* New Location: Witch’s hut in the Swamps
* New Event: Ghosts
* New Emotes: Relax, Rest & Toast
* Mead bases are crafted with the Mead Ketill instead of with the Cauldron
* Uncooked food items are crafted with the Food Preparation Table instead of with the Cauldron
* Food placed with the Serving Tray is steaming of deliciousness

Fixes & Improvements:

* Various visual updates to Hildir’s camp
* Optimised Greydwarf Eye
* Added the ability to craft x5 at once when holding down shift or left stick
* Some old hardcoded strings have been fixed and are now properly localised
* Updated names and descriptions for some of the items in Hildir’s shop
* Food is now visible in the player’s hand during eating animation
* Player built pots now return charcoal resin on destruction
* Console command added: ‘sortcraft’ to be able to sort crafting lists by name, type, weight, count or original
* Reduce radius of burn area on fire pits
* Fixed visual bug with Asksvin Rug and Straw
* ResetSkill console command can now also take ”all”
* Various optimizations to make the game run a bit smoother
* Framerates should become a bit more consistent when around a lot of buildings
* Fixed input loss that occured when running the game at lower framerates
* Fixed the slope-knockback bug that could occur when hitting enemies with some attacks while on a steep slope
* Fixed issue where if menu was opened during the generation of a new world, the join code would not be displayed
* Updated Unity version to 2022.3.50
* Improved smoke rendering performance and visuals
* Mead bases now have individual icons
* Active status effects are now shown in rows of 7
* Valuables now show ”Item value (total value)”
* Trollstav & Staff of the Wild no longer refers to "Dead Raiser" when you reach max summon capacity
* Barley Flour max stack increased to 50
* Black Marble Bench now shows correct text when hovered
* Feather cape no longer has a boost to player jump height (this has been moved to the new Lightfoot Mead)
* Berserkir axe secondary attack stamina cost increased to 32 from 28
* Recipes for meads has been moved from the Cauldron to the Mead Ketill
* Recipes for uncooked food has been moved from the Cauldron to the Food Preparation Table

Xbox:
* Game no longer crashes when blocking/unblocking other player and exiting player list too fast
* Now if you suspend game after having joined online game, you can once again join another online game upon resuming without having to restart the whole game
* Fixed a bug where you could infinitely get stuck on ”logging in to backend service” if you had deleted your playfab account and subsequently lost internet

PC Platforms:
* Made sure resolution dropdown in graphics settings can be scrolled with a gamepad
* Fixed Chat/NPC text not clamping correctly to screen borders on resolutions other than 1080p.
* Fixed bug with resolution confirmation popup not showing up if you switch to other settings tab and click OK
* Fixed so that the framerate slider movement speeds up if held down when using a gamepad
* Now filters out local IP addresses when searching for online servers

Linux:
* Main audio device should no longer swap upon game launch
* Keys that don’t have a QWERTY counterpart can now be bound

Mac:
* Bepinex will work on Steam versions of Mac again
* Dedicated servers now put save files in the correct location when no ApplicationSupport folder exists already
* Dragging the window around no longer triggers left mouse button clicks
* Valheim cursor is now re-enabled after moving mouse outside of game window
* Forward and backward mouse buttons are no longer incorrectly recognized as middle mouse button
* Valheim is now downloadable on App Store even if Steam installation already exists
* Fixed Steam overlay not being openable via shortcut