mead...

I don't know about your worlds, but most of mine have at least some inland lakes...

What to we drink? Our enemies blood
How do we drink it? From a boot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mySMw3VkEBE

Actually its more like Viking purgatory. You are alive again but doomed to be reliving your past mistakes, You can die again and if you do you are revived again in purgatory. You are tormented until you make up for having been a bad Viking in life.

Originally posted by knighttemplar1960:

Actually its more like Viking purgatory. You are alive again but doomed to be reliving your past mistakes, You can die again and if you do you are revived again in purgatory. You are tormented until you make up for having been a bad Viking in life.

It's like Muslim Hell, where if you get killed by a Woman, you relive that shame for eternity. (Hence why ISIS fighters would flee from the all female Kudish units)

Originally posted by Codester:

We physically do not need to drink or eat to survive.

That's a good thing to keep in mind as well... But then again, we're still not immune to becoming poisoned, even from something as (in)significant as bees. :p

Originally posted by Codester:

Just remember something really important here OP.

WE ARE DEAD.
We are not humans, we are literally undead in the inbetween. We physically do not need to drink or eat to survive. Food and drinks give combat buffs. That's why we can not die due to lack of food or water. Because we are essentially zombies.

You're kind of right. I wouldn't say we're anything like zombies though. More like spirits, or whatever entities existing in another plain of existence after death.

The reason I mentioned fresh water is just one observation of how this world differs from our own, just like the fact it's flat... (Making Valheim the favorite game for Flat Earth Society members I assume :D )

Originally posted by Rhapsody:

"The open surface waters of the Baltic Sea "proper" generally have a salinity of 0.3 to 0.9%, which is border-line freshwater." from Wikipedia, so it's pretty good. Don't know how it affects brewing chemistry, but as I said, rainfall also exists in the game.

Yeast are single cell eukaryotic micro organisms. Salt kills them. A high salt content will kill them all. A low salt content kills some of them and slows down the fermenting process. That's why you have to add salt to bread, to slow down the yeast growth. There has to be some fresh water in game or you couldn't make bread from barley flour. You would only be able to make flat bread or pan bread that you would use for something like Fish wraps.

That said any civilization that can ferment and can smelt metals can make a still which will not only distill spirits but can make fresh water out of salt water.

There is rain and snow in game so there has to be fresh water and the technology for cisterns and aqueducts existed back in the Viking age. My personal view is that there is no salt water in Valheim. Its all fresh water. Yggdrasill is fed by 3 wells which have to be fresh water wells to support an ash tree. The other supporting point is swamps. All the swamps in Valheim have to be fresh water swamps because the trees in the swamp have fresh water root systems and not the tangled mess of the root systems of mangrove trees that are found in salt water swamps.

Another clue that it is all fresh water is the tin deposits in game. They are all secondary deposits found on the coast and river channels. These deposits are colluvial deposits caused by fresh water flowing over primary deposits and causing the cassiterite to form residual concentrations that become secondary deposits.

Another potential clue is that salt isn't a food in game. There are no salt deposits to mine. None of the foods are preserved with salt. They are cooked/smoked. If the oceans were salty there would be salt deposits all over the place. What little salt that exists in game is from other food sources. Our Vikings are likely getting all the salt they require from the carrots, turnips, onions, boar, wolf, and lox meat in their diets.

Some of the fish found in Valheim's oceans are exclusively fresh water fish (pike, perch, tetra) that can't survive in salt water. Most of Valheim's salt water fish (Angler fish, tuna, some species of cod, some species of grouper, some species of puffer fish, herring, and salmon) can live in fresh water and some have to return to fresh water to spawn. Made up fish like the trollfish and magmafish can be what ever the devs want them to be. This could mean that all of the fish in Valheim are fresh water fish. Even eels (and therefore sea serpents) and turtles (and therefore leviathans) can survive in fresh water.

The only thing that I can think of that requires a salt water biome to survive in game is a barnacle. Perhaps only the deep waters in Valheim are salty or the fictitious abyssal barnacle is an unknown species of fresh water barnacle.

That's an amazing explanation and thoroughly comprehensive answer.

Originally posted by knighttemplar1960:

The only thing that I can think of that requires a salt water biome to survive in game is a barnacle. Perhaps only the deep waters in Valheim are salty or the fictitious abyssal barnacle is an unknown species of fresh water barnacle.

I don't know about barnacles, but that's close to how the Baltic works. It's saltier deeper down since saltwater is more dense than fresh water.

Originally posted by knighttemplar1960:

Originally posted by Rhapsody:

"The open surface waters of the Baltic Sea "proper" generally have a salinity of 0.3 to 0.9%, which is border-line freshwater." from Wikipedia, so it's pretty good. Don't know how it affects brewing chemistry, but as I said, rainfall also exists in the game.

Yeast are single cell eukaryotic micro organisms. Salt kills them. A high salt content will kill them all. A low salt content kills some of them and slows down the fermenting process. That's why you have to add salt to bread, to slow down the yeast growth. There has to be some fresh water in game or you couldn't make bread from barley flour. You would only be able to make flat bread or pan bread that you would use for something like Fish wraps.

That said any civilization that can ferment and can smelt metals can make a still which will not only distill spirits but can make fresh water out of salt water.

There is rain and snow in game so there has to be fresh water and the technology for cisterns and aqueducts existed back in the Viking age. My personal view is that there is no salt water in Valheim. Its all fresh water. Yggdrasill is fed by 3 wells which have to be fresh water wells to support an ash tree. The other supporting point is swamps. All the swamps in Valheim have to be fresh water swamps because the trees in the swamp have fresh water root systems and not the tangled mess of the root systems of mangrove trees that are found in salt water swamps.

Another clue that it is all fresh water is the tin deposits in game. They are all secondary deposits found on the coast and river channels. These deposits are colluvial deposits caused by fresh water flowing over primary deposits and causing the cassiterite to form residual concentrations that become secondary deposits.

Another potential clue is that salt isn't a food in game. There are no salt deposits to mine. None of the foods are preserved with salt. They are cooked/smoked. If the oceans were salty there would be salt deposits all over the place. What little salt that exists in game is from other food sources. Our Vikings are likely getting all the salt they require from the carrots, turnips, onions, boar, wolf, and lox meat in their diets.

Some of the fish found in Valheim's oceans are exclusively fresh water fish (pike, perch, tetra) that can't survive in salt water. Most of Valheim's salt water fish (Angler fish, tuna, some species of cod, some species of grouper, some species of puffer fish, herring, and salmon) can live in fresh water and some have to return to fresh water to spawn. Made up fish like the trollfish and magmafish can be what ever the devs want them to be. This could mean that all of the fish in Valheim are fresh water fish. Even eels (and therefore sea serpents) and turtles (and therefore leviathans) can survive in fresh water.

The only thing that I can think of that requires a salt water biome to survive in game is a barnacle. Perhaps only the deep waters in Valheim are salty or the fictitious abyssal barnacle is an unknown species of fresh water barnacle.

Great response, thanks ^_^

Just remember something really important here OP.

WE ARE DEAD.
We are not humans, we are literally undead in the inbetween. We physically do not need to drink or eat to survive. Food and drinks give combat buffs. That's why we can not die due to lack of food or water. Because we are essentially zombies.

Well, there are mountains, rainfall and snow.

The Baltic Sea's coastal waters are actually brackish enough to drink, especially in modern times when there's less salinity buildup flowing in from the Danish straits. Wouldn't recommend due to pollution of course.

As for drinks, there's mead, wine and muckshake.

That means that our beers are made of brackish water i guess.
Hmm.... maybee i just look at my stylish horn from now on....

"The open surface waters of the Baltic Sea "proper" generally have a salinity of 0.3 to 0.9%, which is border-line freshwater." from Wikipedia, so it's pretty good. Don't know how it affects brewing chemistry, but as I said, rainfall also exists in the game.

Lets hope they tok the water from the E side of Scandinavia and not the W...:D

Originally posted by nefilim_:

Lets hope they tok the water from the E side of Scandinavia and not the W...:D

That sounds like a basis for a good old joke about us finns, swedes and norwegians doing something together (or danes, if you prefer) and one of us ending up as the butt of the joke.