Depends what you consider "grind." You can beat the game in 40 hours if you want to. You don't need to slay the same mobs for days on end to get xp for next level. Sure, if you want to build big houses or have lots of some item, you will need to gather materials to build it. But the amount of materials available in a single player world are vast, you won't be hard pressed to find what you need.

The game really isn't that grindy, especially for a survival game. In my personal experience, the difference between this as most survival games is that the collection aspect doesn't really get lessened with advancement.

Say in another survival game once you've progressed a fair bit in tech, you might have some ridiculously easy way to collect tons of resources in one go and get them back to base super fast. In Valheim you're still going to be spending a lot of time chopping tress and smashing rocks if you want to do a lot of building. You also can't quick teleport ores back to base without a form of cheating (you can log off on one world with things on you, then relog to another and still have them).

But the threshold to advance is actually pretty low. So if you want to build compact and advance quickly, you can. If you want to build big, it's going to take time.

The worst grind in this game is bronze, otherwise, everything else is fine. I would guess most people saying it's super grindy is because you need to transport ores via boat or by a cart instead of just teleporting them back home, requiring more effort.

Thanks for your confirmations!

It's the usual grind for a survival game, but it's nothing out of the ordinary. Playing WoW during the Burning Crusade expansion was a MUCH, MUCH more severe grind experience than Valheim.

This is really not that bad. I suggest sticking with pure action titles.

Not everyone has the same definition of fun as you do

The grind in this game is NOTHING compared to the grind of Wurm Online.

I feel like this game is less grindy solo. If you are playing with friends thats that much ore you need to seek out for weapons armors and tools

Originally posted by put dispenser here:

The grind in this game is NOTHING compared to the grind of Wurm Online.

Judging from the game's name, is that not an MMO ? And aren't MMOs designed to be as grindy as possible ? I just find comparing this game to an MMO to be quite strange.

The point of Valheim is to explore and enjoy the open world, building bases and taking as much or as little time as you like. Gathering raw materials is just the excuse. It's not even about vanquishing the Vanir.

Anyone who is unable or unwilling to appreciate the scenery, or thinks the only thing that matters is killing all of the bosses is playing the wrong game. If you really hate scenery, you can cut the time you are forced to endure it by good planning. Better still, there are games like Monster Hunter

Which said, the obvious long range goal has to be to load every biome with as great a variety of plants and beasties and poi as possible. For those who can appreciate it. The rest will only ever see the grind.

Originally posted by Polonius Ulf:

The point of Valheim is to explore and enjoy the open world, building bases and taking as much or as little time as you like. Gathering raw materials is just the excuse. It's not even about vanquishing the Vanir.

Anyone who is unable or unwilling to appreciate the scenery, or thinks the only thing that matters is killing all of the bosses is playing the wrong game. If you really hate scenery, you can cut the time you are forced to endure it by good planning. Better still, there are games like Monster Hunter

Which said, the obvious long range goal has to be to load every biome with as great a variety of plants and beasties and poi as possible. For those who can appreciate it. The rest will only ever see the grind.

Bro what? What game exactly is everyone else playing, because the one I'm playing is really very basic. Each biome has like 3 things in it. They're really quite shallow and the world is incredibly similar. Once you've seen twenty feet of most biomes, you've seen the entire thing, and the only thing left is to grind endlessly for the resources to make the gear you just built obsolete so you can move to a new area and grind again to make that gear obsolete.

It's objectively not "fun" on any level. The fanboys in this game are insane given how mediocre and, yes, how very grindy it actually is. I guess we just don't have a lot of good games anymore so basic titles like this one with nostalgic PS1 graphics can attract a cult following of the 20,000 hour MMO grinders that think clicking on a rock for a week is fun.

It's an ALRIGHT game that has its' moments. Sure there are some cool things, but there's a lot of irritating things, a lot of unfinished things, and a massive mind-destroying grind to get past certain spots. The most innovative thing about this game is that you need to build a fireplace in your house or else you'll choke on the smoke. Everything else has been done a thousand times better in other games.

I saw gameplay of 7 days to die and that looks waaaay grindy compared to this. The only difference is that you can get random gear drops in that game. Comparitevly I've never been into mining, gathering, building and cooking games but this game gets my approval for sure, I think the grind is somewhat acceptable but it can feel like too much if you try to get everything which I have never seen why ije would do so

Originally posted by Fzanco:

I saw gameplay of 7 days to die and that looks waaaay grindy compared to this. The only difference is that you can get random gear drops in that game. Comparitevly I've never been into mining, gathering, building and cooking games but this game gets my approval for sure, I think the grind is somewhat acceptable but it can feel like too much if you try to get everything which I have never seen why ije would do so

7 Days to Die has entire CITIES of unique locations to explore. This game has five terrain types copied and pasted over a thousand miles and a thousand hours of mind-melting grinding repetative content.

Originally posted by Cemetary Crow:

Originally posted by Fzanco:

I saw gameplay of 7 days to die and that looks waaaay grindy compared to this. The only difference is that you can get random gear drops in that game. Comparitevly I've never been into mining, gathering, building and cooking games but this game gets my approval for sure, I think the grind is somewhat acceptable but it can feel like too much if you try to get everything which I have never seen why ije would do so

7 Days to Die has entire CITIES of unique locations to explore. This game has five terrain types copied and pasted over a thousand miles and a thousand hours of mind-melting grinding repetative content.

7dtd is so much worse when it comes to the grind and every building is pretty much a copy and paste from the others.

Originally posted by Cemetary Crow:

It's objectively not "fun" on any level. The fanboys in this game are insane given how mediocre and, yes, how very grindy it actually is. I guess we just don't have a lot of good games anymore so basic titles like this one with nostalgic PS1 graphics can attract a cult following of the 20,000 hour MMO grinders that think clicking on a rock for a week is fun.

It's still on 95% overwhelmingly positive and as far as early access games go - extremely well liked.
Could it be that it's not a cult of the 20000 hour MMO grinders who enjoy the game, but the normal gamer, without any nostalgia needed..?
Fun is a very subjective thing, but 'objectively not fun'.... Given it all, it seems this has nothing to do with fanboys, but rather a very small minority which just doesn't like the game. Is the game grindy at times? Sure, at times when you want to build a big structure and don't use cheats, but for the actual game loop - not imo. Playing with at least one friend is ofc recommended, again imo.

Try to get some perspective on things. ...a cult following of 95% happy consumers in the millions... lol