Valheim got a big patch with performance upgrades and controller improvements

Valheim continues to get improvements and it's easily one of my favourite survival games, it's just fantastic with a couple of friends. This new update should make it even better.

The latest update doesn't have any major changes but it's quite an important one, as it fixes up quite a few problematic parts of it and there's some nice quality of life improvements like:

• Added alternative controller layout and changed layout to be more readable. Build snapping is a toggle in the alternative layout, and has an icon when active.
• Added manual save button to the pause menu that displays last save time.
• Crafting menus and quick use bar now have cycling navigation when using gamepad.
• You can now use the sticks to move to and from a container inventory from the player inventory directly rather than changing menu focus.
• Crafting station is now focused when opening a crafting station.
• Language can now be changed without restarting the game.
• If a server is unjoinable for version mismatch or other restriction this will shown when attempting to join a game from the server list immediately rather than having to wait for the game to load.

Thanks to the above, playing with a gamepad or on Steam Deck should feel a fair bit better and easier.

Performance can be something of an issue at times, especially for those on lower-powered devices like the Steam Deck. The good news is that they focused a bit more on it with this update:

• Performance of distant mountain shadows greatly increased, and added a setting to turn off distant shadows completely. (This may increase performance significantly for players with older graphic cards).
• Performance increased while in dungeons.
• Performance improved when using many map pins.
• Performance improved while using the inventory with many items.
• Network stability and performance improvements for crossplay.
• Memory optimizations for textures and fonts.

Testing it out once again on Steam Deck, with distance shadows turn off because honestly they're really not needed at all here and running around for a while showed a pretty nice improvement in the performance overall. 

A whole bunch of other fixes too:

• Added Munin to Ribcage locations in Mistlands.
• Added saving icon to HUD and delayed the "bad connection icon" when saving.
• All game texts have been optimised for better clarity and performance.
• Reworked button prompts to a new visual style, added some missing buttons, etc.
• Key hints are now displayed in a horizontal line rather than vertical list and visible in all needed contexts.
• Kicked players get a proper message.
• Menu selection markers should now be displayed correctly in all languages.
• Fixed several focus loss scenarios when using a gamepad.
• Haldor’s lines are now translated correctly.
• Build menu has been widened to avoid overlapping other interface items.
• D-Pad should now be usable in all menus.
• Controller and keyboard usage of menus improved.
• Skills menu should now work correctly with gamepad and show tooltips correctly.
• Mistlands boss should no longer escape her room during rare occasions (changes have been made to how ownership of objects work when transferred to another player; specifically checking the positions).
• Fixed a bug that caused projectiles to sometimes miss even though it obviously should have connected.
• Durability bar on item in the inventory and action bar is now only visible if the item has been damaged.
• Fixed a visual bug that showed servers that were being pinged as offline.
• Thatch roof i-corner 45o can now support itself and will protect underlying beams from rain properly.
• Thatch & darkwood roof top 26o middle beam point fixed.

Valheim is available to buy on Humble Store or Steam. It has Native Linux support and it is Steam Deck Verified.