Originally posted by Nerevar:

play other games till an update arrives. even valheim comes to an "end" of sorts depending on personal interrests. there is a point where your base either has everything and more than it ever needs and its just plain done for now. or your base got so big it starts to kill your fps aka instance limits reached.

game progression is over even faster than that.

so yeah. all good things come to an end like the saying goes. thankfully there is more to come for valheim. i also didnt want elden ring to end. yet it did... eventually.

but aslong as more content is comeing players return in a timely manner sooner or later. and valheim still has 2 biomes and 1 minor biome update to arrive yet. and then the 1.0 polish release. so players will return for another 2 years from now regularly probaly.

3,000 hours? Duuude, that's, like, Factorio territory! ;-)

1490 hours (all solo). Absolutely love the procedural map, exploration, and the gameplay loop in general.

Will play through last boss (was Yagluth, now the Queen) then end up starting a new game. As said earlier:

Originally posted by Nerevar:

... there is a point where your base either has everything and more than it ever needs ...

While I absolutely love the exploration, once the "final" boss is complete I don't see the point in exploring/accumulating anymore with no purpose/goal. Thus, I start a new game.

Sometimes I only play a game until I defeat Bonemass and then start a new game. I find the biomes after the swamp decidedly less fun ... partly because of difficulty, partly because I get tired of searching mountain after mountain or plains after plains looking for a vegvísir (multiple times have found Moder's or Yagluth's altar by chance before finding one), and partly because I get tired of ferrying ore back to base.

I'm hoping that "Hildir’s Quest" and the promised difficulty settings will breathe some new life into the later biomes for me. But if not, I'm perfectly content to continue to play through Bonemass over-and-over ... I can easily enjoy 100 hours doing just that. Once upon a time, that in itself would be considered a "9/10 great game" ... 100 hours, three major bosses to defeat, and only $20!

>1500h since 2021-04-02 (not exactly sure because the time was split over at least two Steam accounts (Family sharing)).

Plenty with and without friends on a dedicated server.
Til ~2023-02 basically only on one world.

Spent a lot of time discovering our world, building quite a few bases, a lot of different towers and even more portal destinations (~100).
But now since a second playthrough (which went by a lot quicker - imagine that ) I lost quite a bit of interest.

But there are still some building ideas I have in mind (the round tower holes in the mountains are giant dips in the landscape -> you can get ~double or even triple the height between underground/basement floor and ground floor compared to normal flat land with digging).

And I'll probably return with the future updates.

Originally posted by Maelstrom:

I always start a new game with each major update so I don't miss any of the new stuff.

We/I always just used UpgradeWorld to do what the name implies....

Originally posted by Maelstrom:

I can't tolerate what the gaming community has evolved into over the last 25ish years. Everything is ultra competitive, there's a handful of 'correct' ways to play and everything else is provably wrong,

Dunno much about the general gaming community but from the looks of the L4G subforum there are plenty of other players with similar feelings (I think).

2,750 hrs

I play until I defeat The Elder and then start again. I've done this over 30 times. I just love the Black Forest.

3000+ hrs. in. I like exploring and I don't have the creativity to build fancy bases (although I like looking at bases others have created). I do tend to play a lot then back off for a few days. I play solo and vanilla. Sometimes I'll start a world with a new character, other times with an old.

This game is a great time waster (and an excuse for me to avoid doing things around the house ).

I envy those who are playing through for the first time. Oh! The things you'll see and do!

I'm one of these returning on a regular bases.
I can't stick with the game the entire time, because a lot of its mechanics are a bit annoying and the grind is too harsh IMHO.

But I like the atmosphere of the game, as well as exploring new maps, or buikding up an infrastructure connecting my different bases via roads, bridges etc.
So I'm returning on a regular basis and start spending a couple of weeks in the game till the next break.

And they're the updates of course und therefore the curiosity about what changed.

1186 hours, most played solo since my mates only play when there is a major update.

Mostly just exploring new places, building, making more food and skill up my char.

I always start a new game with each major update so I don't miss any of the new stuff.

I don't play MP games anymore because, quite frankly, I can't tolerate what the gaming community has evolved into over the last 25ish years. Everything is ultra competitive, there's a handful of 'correct' ways to play and everything else is provably wrong, and the community is slightly less toxic than a vat of Ebola. Valheim is pretty chill once you know what you're doing but it's challenging enough to keep you on your toes.

So for me, Valheim is a solo game that's mostly about basebuilding and is just hard enough to keep it from getting boring (like No Man's Sky and Factorio eventually did). I craft all the things, I build a fancy base or two, eventually I get to the end and put the game away and wait for the next big update.

2400 hours solo play but that is because

1. I'm a slow learner and
2. I'm a slow person

I had two play-throughs since Mistlands release and each needed 700+ in-game days to defeat The Queen. That won't be setting any speedrun records by any stretch but I'm probably not alone in finding these 2400 or more hours of immersive content vastly entertaining.

one immense project that could take me the rest of my life.

That's immense, but well done. I am closing in on 1000. I love to build but mostly only play when there's friends around. :)

1836.6 hours.

To me, the game simply has infinite replay value, even though it's not even finished yet. The worlds are so huge that there is an insane amount of exploration possible, building stuff is always fun, and there are so many other things to do as well.

At the rate I'm going, Ashlands will probably be released before I am through Mistlands. I have never really been there yet -- and I haven't even defeated Yagluth a single time. So, there is still plenty for me to discover and experience for the first time.

Originally posted by Foxglovez:

Oof dah. So what keeps other long term players in the game, or returning on a regular basis? And share your time in game if you feel like it. Cheers!

Mostly friends.
And a great game ofc.

I'm at 3300 hours.
I played a few solo worlds before I decided to try multiplayer. Then I met some nice people and continued playing with them for a long time.
We kept switching between modded and vanilla, playing as a small group of 3-5 vikings or joining other communities together. We played together through more than 10 worlds. And still playing.

BTW, congrats on 3000 hours!

Originally posted by Nerevar:

play other games till an update arrives. even valheim comes to an "end" of sorts depending on personal interrests. there is a point where your base either has everything and more than it ever needs and its just plain done for now...

Same here, although since 2021 I've only played a couple of hundred hours. It doesn't take long to get a nice, well-stocked base and then I lose interest until an update arrives. I'm the same with most games actually.

play other games till an update arrives. even valheim comes to an "end" of sorts depending on personal interrests. there is a point where your base either has everything and more than it ever needs and its just plain done for now. or your base got so big it starts to kill your fps aka instance limits reached.

game progression is over even faster than that.

so yeah. all good things come to an end like the saying goes. thankfully there is more to come for valheim. i also didnt want elden ring to end. yet it did... eventually.

but aslong as more content is comeing players return in a timely manner sooner or later. and valheim still has 2 biomes and 1 minor biome update to arrive yet. and then the 1.0 polish release. so players will return for another 2 years from now regularly probaly.