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.