What Engine Does Valheim Use?

Since its release in 2021, Valheim players have battled to prove themself worthy of the halls of Valhalla.

Even as an early access game, Valheim has proven to be one of the most successful adventure games within the survival genre in recent years.

With its high-end graphics, stylized art style, brutal melee weapon types, engaging gameplay, and many tools and creatures, this popular game has a lot going on under its hood.

So what game engine the game developers used to create Valheim?

The developers of Valheim used the Unity engine to create the game instead of the equally popular engine Unreal Engine 4. Keep reading and see why they used Unity, how that affects the game and other great tidbits of information!

I’ll cover a lot more about Valheim than just the game engine in this blog post, and – as a Scandinavian myself – I thought it would be fun to compare the biomes of Valheim to those of real-life Scandinavia.

Valheim and Unity

When Iron Gate Studios revealed that Valheim was using the Unity game engine, many gamers were surprised by that decision, and plenty vocally voiced their opinions. 

But why would the game engine make much of a difference? Well, in truth, it does not always make as huge of a difference as some people like to claim. 

While gaming engines have limitations, it ultimately depends on the dev team’s abilities that decide how the game turns out and functions.

Since Unity was one of the first free game engines made available to the public and received regular patches, it has gained a less-than-perfect reputation. 

However, that is not because the engine itself is bad but because anyone could make a game on the engine, leading developers to create hundreds of low-quality games.

People began to associate the problems of those games with Unity, which is why many assume that if a game is made in Unity, it will be terrible. 

Valheim, Rust, Escape from Tarkov, and more of the top games in the market have all been created in Unity. 

So while it is easy to think Unity = goofy, low-quality games, it is important to remember that some of the best games in current times were created on that same game engine. 

Besides the simplicity of Unity, in an interview with Gaisioch Magazine, Richard Svensson, the head of the dev team on Valhiem, said,

“Before I started working on Valheim I worked on a game called Tolroko for a few years. Tolroko was a John Carter / Dark sun inspired sci-fi survival game with some similarities to Valheim.

With Tolroko I also wrote the game engine from the ground up, there was always a balance between working on improving the engine versus working on the actual game […] I eventually gave up.

[For Valheim] I chose to use Unity instead of my own engine since I didn’t wanna get distracted by working other engine features.”

Unity gives developers what they need to work on the games they want to do without bogging them down or distracting them with a bunch of fancy additions like Unreal Engine can do. 

Benefits of Using Unity Instead of Unreal Engine

What benefits come with using Unity (by Unity Technologies) instead of Unreal Engine (by Epic Games) in game development, and is one better?

Firstly, Unity uses C# (C-sharp) for game development, while Unreal Engine uses C++ (combined with visual scripting called Blueprints). Both are solid game programming languages, but some notable differences exist. 

Beginners prefer Unity because C# has a much lower learning curve, as it is a high-level programming language with code that’s easy to read. This makes it perfect for indie developers and newer programmers in the game development field.

C++, on the other hand, C++ is a mid-level programming language, meaning it is closer to machine code and is thus more difficult to learn and master. 

However, since C++ is closer to machine code, it is faster, making it great for games and applications, with speed as one of their top priorities. 

Even still, C# will work at a solid speed and thus is often chosen as the computing language of many indie games.

Since Iron Gate Studio is still a small studio that lacks the huge number of employees that Triple-A studios have, Unity is a great option to create the world of Valheim.

While Unity does lack the ultra photo-realistic graphics Unreal Engine boasts, and the compiling speed provided by C++, the easy 3D graphical system of Unity, the low learning curve of C3, and the multi-platform ability, it is exactly what an indie team of developers like Iron Gate needs.

What Other Tools Have Been Used to Create Valheim?

Alongside building many of the game’s systems on Unity 3d, Richard Svensson also used Blender to create the animations and models and then used Krita for the texturing aspects.

He also does all of his programming and game development on a Linux system instead of Windows or macOS because of the benefits and ease of open-source software. 

While he does create assets in Unity for Valheim, he prefers purchasing assets from the Unity store to help save time, as he still has to do a lot of customizing after buying the asset before it can be used in the game. 

Conclusion

Valheim is an amazing survival game built on Unity with tons of great features that will keep you immersed for days. playing for days as a single-player campaign or with close friends. 

If you enjoyed this article, check out How to Show FPS in Elden Ring. Until next time, happy gaming! 

---

FAQ

Here you can read more about Valheim.

What is Valheim?

If you love Norse Mythology, the Vikings, and survival games, then you will love Valheim, as that is the entire point of this game.

In Valheim, you can explore, build, fight, and gather valuable materials in a world based on Norse Mythology and enjoy the brutal Viking culture.

You need a small shelter with a fire, a bed, and a workbench to get your base off from a good start. If you’re playing Valheim for the first time, a quick tip is to find an abandoned house to use as your first shelter.

You can do all this alone or play with up to 10 players in a single world, so get your gaming crew to check it out. 

While you begin in a peaceful part of the world, as you move out and explore the different biomes, you will face dangerous enemies and unforgiving landscapes, but if you survive, you can carve out a piece of the world for yourself. 

Of course, during your brutal exploration of the neighboring villages, you get to play with popular weapons of the Viking era, such as axes, knives, swords, and bows.

Once you have reached the height of your power, it’s time to put that timber to use and build sail boats to traverse the dangerous oceans.

The crown, of course, is the mighty longship, which will surely make an entire village scramble for their weapons when it appears on the horizon.

For the Vikings believed in horrors far out in the sea, worms that could eat through the hulls of your ships, and an edge to the world, so be careful, for sailing too far could lead to your demise.

Key Features of Valheim

Valheim has many great features that have helped it become the most popular survival game on the market. 

• Play by yourself, or bring along up to ten of your friends to conquer the unforgiving landscape of Valheim.
• Do you enjoy having to pay attention to Stamina when fighting like Dark Souls? Valheim has that, so prioritizing strategy is more important than swinging an ax like a maniac.
• Explore a massive world filled with procedurally generated biomes that are all unique and different from one another, so you never get bored exploring.
• Tired of dying from starvation in games because you got distracted running from a murderous creature? No worrying about that in Valheim, as you can not starve, and food simply increases stamina and provides buffs.
• As you explore and find new resources, recipes are unlocked automatically, so there is no overly complicated crafting system like in some other games.
• Sail the seas to distant lands and battle ferocious sea monsters whose only goal is to make you their dinner.
• Are the basic monsters of Valheim no longer a challenge for you? Then, take on the mighty bosses of this savage land who will give even the strongest fighter a run for their money.
• Enjoy a building system that allows you to create anything you want, so build a village to rule the local coast, create massive cities and empires, or live on a humble farm. The only limit is your creativity.

The biomes in Valheim compared to Scandinavia

Valheim is based on the hard work of game developer Richard Svensson before getting the full treatment from the Iron gate team and developer and publisher Coffee Stain Studios based in Skövde, Sweden. [ publisher coffee stain ]

Valheim features a massive procedurally-generated world with biomes similar to Scandinavia’s.

As a Scandinavian, I can see where the inspiration comes from, so I thought comparing this huge fantasy world to the real deal would be fun.

At the heart of Valheim is the Meadows biome. The relatively peaceful center of Valheim consists of meadows and Birch, Beech, and Oak trees.

I’d say that the center of Valheim is similar to the land in Denmark and the Southern parts of Sweden.

Next to the center are the Black Forest, Swamp, and Plains biome.

I’d say these resemble Sweden, although you can find similarities in Norway. Fx, the Muddus National Park (Black Forest), the Central Swedish lowland or the Muddus plain in Northern Sweden (plains), Mästermyr, and Stordalen Mire (swamps).

The Mountain biome is similar to Norway and the northern parts of Sweden.

The Ocean biome is similar to most of Scandinavia since we have a lot of shorelines.

The Mistlands biomes are similar to the misty rocks of the Fararoes Islands, and the Deep North is similar to Finland and the most Northern parts of Sweden and Norway (fx Troms, Finnmark, and Nordland).

And finally, we have Ashlands, which I would compare to Iceland due to its black beaches and volcanic activity.

What are the System Requirements for Valheim?

If you’re a PC gamer, here are the system requirements:

Here are the system requirements:

	Minimum	Recommended
OS	Windows 7 or later	Windows 10 or later
Processor	2.6 GHz Quad Core	i5 3GHz or Ryzen 5 3GHz
Memory	8 GB	16 GB
Graphics	GeForce GTX 950 or Radeon HD 7970	GeForce GTX 1060 or Radeon RX 580
DirectX	Version 11	Version 11
Storage	1 GB	1 GB

What Platforms is Valheim Available On?

You can play Valheim on Windows, Linux, Xbox 1, Xbox X, and Xbox Series S, but it is not currently available on macOS or Playstation. 

There is no sign that Valheim will ever become available on those platforms, but perhaps future versions of the game, if they are created, will be on those systems as well. 

Is Valheim Better to Play With Friends or By Yourself?

While Valheim can be played completely by yourself, certain bosses and obstacles in the game would be made much easier by having friends to help when facing them. 

Although you can play Valheim as a single player, if you want to get the full experience out of the game, having additional people can make the experience much better.

Do my skills transfer if I switch to another Valheim server?

Yes, your skill levels will transfer to other servers.