Iron Gate has just released Title Update 0.217.4 for Valheim on its PTS, and shared its complete changelog. This update adds a new NPC, Hildir the merchant, new locations and world modifiers. Moreover, it brings a number of quality-of-life improvements, as well as some bug fixes.

Players can also expect two new crafting extensions, new hair and beard styles, as well as new items. Furthermore, patch 0.217.4 adds manual snapping for building, a quick-stack button, and makes hair and beards visible when equipping helmets.

To gain access to the Public Test branch on Steam, you’ll have to right-click Valheim in your Steam library, and then select ‘Properties’. In the new window, select ‘Betas’ and type in the code “yesimadebackups”. The Public Test branch should now be available for you to choose from.

Lastly, you can find below the complete changelog of this latest update. Do note, though, that these release notes may contain some spoilers. Here are also all the Best Valheim Mods that you can download right now.

Valheim Title Update 0.217.4 Release Notes

New Content:

• New NPC: Hildir the merchant
• New location: Hildir’s camp
• New location: Smouldering tomb (classic dungeon)
• New location: Howling cavern (classic dungeon)
• New location: Sealed tower (open dungeon)
• 3 new mini bosses
• World modifiers button added to start game screen with many customization/difficulty options (select a preset or design your own)
• 8 different Fireworks added (Including Thunderstone and Black Core thrown in the fire)
• New item: Sparkler
• New clothing: 10 hats & headscarves
• New clothing: 14 dresses and tunics
• Black forge extension: Vice Grip
• Magetable extension: Unfading Candle
• New material: Barber kit
• New furniture: Barber station
• New material: Iron pit
• New furniture: Firepit
• 8 new hairstyles
• 5 new beard styles
• 4 new music tracks

Fixes & Improvements:

• Hair and beards are now visible when equipping helmets
• Haldor animations updated
• All fire effects have been overhauled
• Smoke balls created by fires now have random rotation and no longer pop in when spawned
• Added Hugin hints informing the player that traders can be found in the game
• Spawn command can now specify fields
• Fixed a bug which caused level up algorithm to be a bit off depending on when you die
• Reduced lag spike when selecting worlds in the Select World menu by reusing existing world list elements, rather than destroying all and instancing all new ones
• Widened the Manage Saves Menu and show the time of the timestamp
• Retrieve timestamp from file name rather than file metadata if present in the file name. This means moving a file to/from cloud no longer affects the sorting order of files with timestamps in their names
• Fixed oversight that saved unnecessary characters (such as spaces) in an IP address to the server list if the IP address could be parsed successfully
• Chat doesn’t open on Ping anymore
• Resolved chat blocking input for other UI (such as map)
• Fixed issue where minimap pin input field for PC version was getting invisible
• Join code is now hidden when HUD’s visibility is toggled off
• Fixed a bug that had water in caves be affected by wind
• Fixed a bug that could cause the server list to stop working
• Fixed a bug on Xbox where ticks wouldn’t attach correctly
• Opening console now blocks hotbar navigation
• Offline players can now send map pings on Xbox and MS store version
• Fixed missing special characters on signs
• Fixed Xbox bug which could cause the player to jump while selecting a building piece
• Menu usage is now blocked when HUD is hidden

Quality of Life:

• Quick stack button and Shift-E to quickly place all items already in a container from your inventory
• You can now manually choose snapping point with Q & E for precision building
• Intro sequence can now be skipped from the pause menu and the game can be paused while in the intro
• Workbench and Forge now get slightly increased build range when upgraded
• Crafting benches’ build range is now cylindrical instead of spherical
• Added another controller scheme, and the ability to hide HUD when using a controller and on Xbox

Misc:

• God mode will now allow damage down to 1 health rather than taking no damage
• New console command “tombstone” which create tombstones
• New itemset ‘base’ and command can specify a number to override all items with that level (i.e. “itemset meadows 4” will give level 4 meadows items)
• New console commands: (tombstone – creates tombstones; resetworldkeys – Resets all world modifiers to default; setworldpreset – Sets world modifiers to a named preset; setworldmodifier – Sets a world modifier value