The tutorial is ongoing, you will find some rocks with text on them that help a little, and the bird will visit you about 10-15 times with key points. Or you can take the captain obvious approach: if you can pick something up, pick it up. If you can make one, do so. After about 5 min of that you should have found rocks and sticks and food, made a hammer, and that should spawn the bird telling you to go make a home... and from there the world opens up fast.

The graphics ... character creation is a little weird, as you can't see the character in the world at that point and don't really get how it will blend in. Its minimal, but once in game, you will match everything else. Armor covers up most of your choices anyway, and you mostly are looking at the back of your character's armor the rest of the game.

I would play through the dark forest (kill second boss) at least before giving up. If you still hate it at that point, you probably always will.

Graphics are fine. Once you start playing you will see the beauty in ot.
Turn the gamma up on your monitor...
There is bird that tells you what to do. Have you ever played a survival game before?

You're given a torch whose primary function is to... you know. Also make a hammer in the crafting menu and you can make a bed that lets you sleep the night away if you like.

Once you found shelter, you will be able to create a bed, which you will use to sleep through the night (if you choose to do so). Some people are adventurous at night and go out hunting special beasts you only encounter at night.

Right now, I would advise you to stay safe and stay put (if you still think in continuing this game).

Here are some survival tips for you in case you want to continue your quest in Valheim:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/892970/discussions/0/5144805327259514367/

And yes, if you don't like learning from your failures (and you will fail a lot in the beginning), this game might be not for you. Valheim will punish you hard (by temporarily losing all that you carry with you, including armor and weapons) when you die. You have to go to the place you died and pick you back up.

And having to fight whatever killed you the last time you died there.

There are tons of guides here on Steam and a Wiki at the Valheim website.

Welcome to Valheim.

I'm not a graphics snob, either, which is why I don't really mind the models, heh.

As for the lighting, I really do agree that the lighting for dark areas is horrendously dark. You can use a Torch (and later, a special helmet that gives you a headlamp), but that's not very useful. I can't help but agree here, and it's why I use a game mod to adjust the gamma.

As for tutorial, I never found Hugin terribly useful, either. I started playing with friends who were able to guide me, but yeah, I'll have to agree that if you're going it solo and don't want to get spoiled, you're going to find most of his hints terribly un-useful.

Are you missing something? Well, yeah, a lot actually. I would really recommend that you search "valheim gameplay basics" on YouTube and you will find a plethora of "newbie guides" that will really help you out a lot. I will say that, yes, suffering and punishment WILL indeed teach you a lot in this game--making sure that you always have food going even when doing simple tasks like chopping trees, for example, lest one falls on your head and sends you back to the spawn point or your bed. Those guides I mentioned will help you a lot in that arena.

I can't really change your mind, only you can. I've found it to be a fun game, but I only play with friends for the most part. (Well, I still play some solo, but mostly home-base tasks waiting for friends to get on.) Maybe that's what you should do; check out the Looking for Group forum, and either join in with someone looking for people to play on their server, or make a thread saying that you're new and would like to join a newbie-friendly server. Or hell, just convince your own friends to come experience Valheim with you.

I hope you enjoy! Skal!

Originally posted by sarteck:

I'm not a graphics snob, either, which is why I don't really mind the models, heh.

As for the lighting, I really do agree that the lighting for dark areas is horrendously dark. You can use a Torch (and later, a special helmet that gives you a headlamp), but that's not very useful. I can't help but agree here, and it's why I use a game mod to adjust the gamma.

As for tutorial, I never found Hugin terribly useful, either. I started playing with friends who were able to guide me, but yeah, I'll have to agree that if you're going it solo and don't want to get spoiled, you're going to find most of his hints terribly un-useful.

Are you missing something? Well, yeah, a lot actually. I would really recommend that you search "valheim gameplay basics" on YouTube and you will find a plethora of "newbie guides" that will really help you out a lot. I will say that, yes, suffering and punishment WILL indeed teach you a lot in this game--making sure that you always have food going even when doing simple tasks like chopping trees, for example, lest one falls on your head and sends you back to the spawn point or your bed. Those guides I mentioned will help you a lot in that arena.

I can't really change your mind, only you can. I've found it to be a fun game, but I only play with friends for the most part. (Well, I still play some solo, but mostly home-base tasks waiting for friends to get on.) Maybe that's what you should do; check out the Looking for Group forum, and either join in with someone looking for people to play on their server, or make a thread saying that you're new and would like to join a newbie-friendly server. Or hell, just convince your own friends to come experience Valheim with you.

I hope you enjoy! Skal!

How are Hugins tips not useful? I have only played solo, first time I didn't look anything up. If you actually read what he says he walks you through the first two biomes. Only thing I missed in my first play through was the green guk on the trees.

Originally posted by Abbydog:

Imma bout to refund my money on this one but I think I wanna like it. Change my mind.

refund your monitor...jk.
Turn up your brightness or use reshade, there's plenty of ways to do that.

If you really want to like Valheim go for it, it's "beautiful" not ugly.
and for character models you can use any VRM model you want in any quality.

Only in Valheim I wish for that I forget everything about this game and start again without any knowledge, There is no tutorial besides the Hugin with the basics, because progress is very simple(unless you add tons of mods), go watch a few gameplays but you will eventually get into this game.

and it is not a really survival game, you dont have to drink and eat to survive...

What @wizard_of_woz says... I never used tutorials and I learned almost everything about the game in-game. Just later (much later) I read some tips in the forums.

I had the same problem when i started the game since i never played any survival before.
I wanted to play without any spoilers so I took my time instead and the game grow on me.

And since there is no mission in the game pointing me where to go I could play freely wich I like.

I started to love the atmosphere such as the weather and powerful thunderstorms in the game and the beuty of the sunset by the ocean even though the graphics is pixely.

Today I have over 1 k hour and the game still gives me some satisfaction even though it is not as fun as it use to be.
I guess 150-300 hours is kind of a normal rate to finish the game at the current state.

Originally posted by wizard_of_woz:

How are Hugins tips not useful? I have only played solo, first time I didn't look anything up. If you actually read what he says he walks you through the first two biomes. Only thing I missed in my first play through was the green guk on the trees.

Originally posted by electricdawn:

What @wizard_of_woz says... I never used tutorials and I learned almost everything about the game in-game. Just later (much later) I read some tips in the forums.

I mean, hey, if you guys found his tips useful, great. They were far too vague for me, and I doubt I'd have learned much without friends helping me along the way. Besides, I'm here to help the OP, who seems to feel similarly. You think that "no, you're wrong, Hugin tells you everything" will help 'em? ;)

I guess 150-300 hours is kind of a normal rate to finish the game at the current state.

My main is now at over 1400 hours and still hasn't found Yagluth. ;)

I mean, I AM trying... :D

@sarteck: Where am I telling that to the OP? Hugins tips ARE useful. That's all we say. We obviously learned the basics from him. So, where do I say that you're wrong? And I did gave the OP tips I linked to.

Originally posted by sarteck:

As for the lighting, I really do agree that the lighting for dark areas is horrendously dark.

Last time I went out my front door at night, it looked pretty dark without a moon. So I believe it's reasonable to have it that dark. But yeah just turn up the gamma for a simple fix, albeit temporary.

Originally posted by Abbydog:

I am by no means a graphics snob...

...these models are worse than 20 year old MMOs.

Seems rather contradictory. And no, they aren't.
It just seems to fit the game, similar to The Long Dark.

Originally posted by electricdawn:

I guess 150-300 hours is kind of a normal rate to finish the game at the current state.

My main is now at over 1400 hours and still hasn't found Yagluth. ;)

I mean, I AM trying... :D

lol that what i call real bad luck. I guess i was more lucky then because i stumble over Yagluth in both my world. :)

Graphics are down to tastes i guess. The minecraft-y style never bothered me personally. If you can get over it you'll sometimes find yourself awestruck by how beautiful this game can look (not to mention sound).

even if it's not explained step by step, the crafting/building system is as basic and intuitive as it can get. Press Tab, craft a hammer, equip it, press mouse right and dig in.

if it's too dark you can build a torch anywhere with 1 wood and 1 resin. Also press tab. You can also build standing fires for your base.


All that said, i promise this game more than deserves another attempt by you.

I agree with some aspects of this post. The lack of any basic instruction manual makes early game on your first play-through difficult. They should get someone to create a pdf that can be downloaded. That would help with most of the issues people tend to have when starting out. For now, you just need to power through that first play-through and figure things out the hard way. It will get better.

I appreciate your thoughts, Sarteck.

Hmm lets see, 7 Days to Die, Subnautica (1&2), State of Decay, Breathedge, Satisfactory. That enough of a pedigree for you? Go tell your momma how to suck eggs. I been playing video games since before you were born, wizard_of_woz.

I hear what many of you are saying: Most of your complaints can be addressed from outside the game, i.e. Youtube vidoes, changing monitor settings, or mods. I suppose that I should be more considerate of the fact the game is in Early Access but I just prefer going into new games blind and getting everything I need to enjoy the game from inside the game itself.....ok well at least to start lol.

Is Hugin more helpful than the two interactions I have had with him thus far? Perhaps, but since I started the game in the middle of the night I dont see him around after those first two chats. Did see him after I died but I dunno maybe starting the game in daylight would be more user friendly and less atmospheric. I have a torch to start with? If so, I dunno, maybe some little pop up window telling you how to access your inventory and how to use said torch would be helpful. I know, I can go into settings and find out how to open my inventory but some barebones pop ups just seems more organic these days.

Also, I play on a 70in OLED TV so monkeying with the settings to play one video game is a non starter for me.