Prepare so you do not die.
upgrade your stuff, eat good foods, pay attention to your surroundings, carry a bow. Don't be afraid to run around to split up a group of enemy or escape them or kite and shoot. Dying is harsh.

if you want to make a fancy home and protect it, you will probably want to use terrain manipulation. Normal defenses won't stop later enemy from smashing everything.

Keep one stack of everything you find. Rocks and wood are used at alarming rates later on...

To piggyback on jonnin's solid advice, ample preparation will absolutely help you not die, but if you DO die, don't stress on it. It happens, especially at first. Make your way back, pick yourself up, and figure out how to prevent it next time.

Also, don't be afraid to utilize the terrain to your advantage. Trees provide cover and large rocks can be jumped-on to keep monsters off of you since they can't always path up to you. If nothing else it gives you time to let your health and stamina come back so you can keep fighting. If things are looking iffy, don't hesitate to run away from a fight if you aren't ready to face it. The monsters won't hold it against you. :)

Lastly, don't feel like you need to build a massive base right off the bat. Try for functionality and defense at first. Once you've unlocked more building options later on and have some better gear you can worry about building something amazing.

Happy hunting!

Originally posted by ReaperBetch:

I'm semi new to this game. I've only played a couple hours all with friends. What are tips you could give someone starting solo plays?

Without knowing your play style or survival game skill capabilities, best starting advice to impart is to be patient and be conservative with your progression.

Transitioning from each biome(ie after killing that biome's boss) can be a challenge for some until they have prepared up the weapons armor and resources to be fully ready for the boss of that next biome, then it starts all over again with the next transition.

Beyond that, choosing to know details about the game(your specific seed/map, boss strats, items and abilities and to get resources of different biomes etc from web sources or the forums just depends on you.

The difficulty jumps when you go from one biome to the next. Going slow in a new area is better than rushing in. Listen carefully because each mob makes a distinctive sound. That will help you find trouble before it finds you. Food and gear are very important. Skills are not as important. Harder mobs spawn at night, so don't wander around at night until you're completely comfortable with your current biome.

Biome progression goes meadows>black forest>swamp>mountain>plains. Enter the wrong zone at your own risk. The further you go from the center the more likely you are to run into danger. It is possible for a tiny section of a hard biome to hide within an easier one, like a single dot of plains in a forest or swamp. That's how you can get an overpowered mob in a place you didn't expect. It doesn't happen often, but it is possible. The map is randomly generated, but follows a few basic rules.

You will get portals eventually, so don't worry too much about leaving a base behind or having more than one base. Raw ore and ingots can't go through portals though, so you might have a few forge outposts going on. Or you may be making boat trips with a full hold.

Beginner's hint: the skeletons are guarding the things you need to progress after killing the first boss. Get your armor up to 10 before going down there and be careful. That's the first real difficulty jump in the game.

The second difficulty jump is the swamp. Drink your potion before you get poisoned, not after.

- Don't rush it.
- Expect to die, it's part of the game for most, and don't stress it
- Expect to die so maybe don't carry more than you need when out exploring so you don't feel the need to retrieve your body/possessions if that's going to be a hassle.
- When you hit the Bronze Age, I would just skip bronze armour pieces and just go for a bronze mace. It is relatively straightforward to get iron (if you don't rush).
- Build you base by the water's edge to make transporting things by boat simpler
- Collect and store spare mushrooms, berries, etc when ever you find them (and perhaps mark on the map) for future recipe use

Read my tips. They should help you getting situated in the game.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/892970/discussions/0/5144805327259514367/

- In Valheim, there is NO clock against you (except when you have a limited time to retrieve your corpse after dying, or the fact that days last for 21 minutes and nights last fot 9 minutes). So, you can take all your tiiiime.

- I'd like to also inform you that there's a possible alternate play "through", when you don't want, or don't dare, to kill bosses at first, at once. You can spend hundreds of in game days in exploring first three biomes, training and rising skills, and building things, I think. But only if this suits your playstyle. You'll have to be violent, and experience violence, but you don't need to kill bosses.
Advantage of not killing bosses (at the moment) is that your only adverse raid is the hunting party, that is almost worth a hunting morning, and you don't have to build defenses around most of your houses.

Actually, even a simple wood hut can mostly survive even a "A foul smell raise from the swamps" event. You need to repair it from the inside until the two minutes are over, and then go out and waste them. I've done it several times.

Thanks for the tip, I guess that it may be handy first time I invest some villages in the meadows.

Don't rush for the first boss. The danger in the game world progresses each time you defeat one. Instead, take your time and build up. Establish a homestead and fortify it. Hunt the deer, boars, and necks and stockpile a food supply. Craft and upgrade gear. Practice your archery and blocking until you can reliably hit moving targets and you can reliably parry melee attacks.

Also, grab anything that isn't nailed down. Mushrooms, berries, stone, resin, wood, etc. all have their uses later on in the game and you'll need a lot of all. Building a storage shed or something and organizing your stockpile into chests isn't a terrible idea.

The black forest is super dangerous when you're first starting out, so just keep that in mind if you come across one.

Get the best foods you can, but skip queen's jam. The jam is a waste of blueberries that will be useful later with meads. Make a cauldron asap and farm the best roots (carrot, turnip, onion) you can get.

Build up slowly but surely. Unlock the items. Build the armory sets and weapons

Don’t let me catch you on here tomorrow moaning about how you keep dying in (spoiler) region or are locked on a corpse run in the (spoiler) region because you don’t have any (spoiler) mead

Beware of trees.
They lull you into a false sense of security by acting all woody and then gang up on you, it can get ugly.

Sleep at night

Stay rested

Stay fed

Pick up everything at least once to unlock crafting items.
Flint is found by water

Accomplish all you can before you beat a boss, slow and safer way to play.

Oh yes, definitely. Beware of the trees. They seek viking blood and often get it.

(I've found that wind direction does make a difference here. But so do slopes. Either way I'm always prepared to run.)

Yes, you have to prepare before lumberjacking: rested, fed, and wearing upgraded "blue" armor. They can't one-shot you this way. But they still can two-shot you.