The first major update for Valheim is here with the arrival of Hearth & Home. With the popular and critically acclaimed co-op survival game getting a suite of updates all about housing and food and living their best Viking afterlife.

Focusing on enhancing the core base building and survival mechanics of the critically-acclaimed hardcore co-op survival game, the Hearth & Home update gives players even more tools to create the longhouse of their dreams and cook up a feast fit for an Aesir.

Builders and architects will surely toast the gods, as a slew of new Darkwood and stone building pieces will be available to players at launch. Whether it be Darkwood beams and poles decorated with intricate viking embellishments, a new Darkwood roof type and ornaments, or a stone throne for those who rule with an iron fist, Valheim’s building system will now offer an expanded selection of pieces to spark players’ imaginations as they build their settlements.

Requested by the community, there are also some new features for our Lox friends, while players can name their pets to their liking to strike fear in the hearts of their foes! More highly-requested features have also been added, including map sharing between players, planting of additional tree types as well as a brand-new obliterator extension that can destroy items and finally tackle Valheim’s ocean pollution!

On the cooking front spice racks and butcher tables and pots and pans and new recipes have also been added -- so you can whip up your best jerky or onion-based soup. Which plays into the reworked health and stamina system. And there's new weapns too -- from a crystal battle axe to a bone shiel made of, err, bone.

“As the first major update, we wanted Hearth & Home to truly expand the Valheim experience and make the core gameplay richer and more complex while still adding new content for players to return to and explore.” said Henrik Törnqvist, co-founder of Iron Gate. “While it’s taken a little longer than anticipated to make sure it’s the quality people have come to expect, we’ve listened to our community every step of the way and with some much-requested features added we’re glad that they can finally get their hands on it.”

The full list of Patch Notes can be found here.