Valheim is a game that's full of interlocking systems, from crafting and construction to combat and the ability to tame the local wildlife. One industrious player decided to pit two of these systems against each other in an attempt to answer a simple question: how would Yagluth, the final boss of Valheim, fare against a pack of 50 bloodthirsty wolves?
Yagluth, for the uninitiated, is a giant skeleton who you can summon as the final boss of the game. He's a tough nut to crack, even with the right tips and preparation for the fight, especially if you're playing solo. Calling in some friends for the battle can certainly make it easier, but if that isn't an option, Redditor WoodDivision5 discovered a workaround: tame a bunch of two star wolves, and send them in to do the dirty work.
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This particular strategy proved remarkably effective. The normally-intimidating Yagluth starts taking damage the moment he appears, and even though he raises one massive fist, ready to slam it down and cause some havoc, he doesn't even manage to get a single attack in. All in all it takes a paltry 11 seconds for the storied and powerful final boss of Valheim to go down, and WoodDivision5 barely needed to lift a finger.
That's not to say the wolves' proud owner didn't put in any effort though. According a previous post, WoodDivision5 managed to raise such a formidable lupine army by creating a 'breeder tower', one of the myriad complex and player-created constructions, this one involving putting two happy and well-fed wolves in a room at the top of a tower, with a hole in the floor through which any cubs born will fall, eventually landing in a pen at the bottom. Pretty soon the pen was all but overrun with furry friends, and WoodDivision5 decided to put their plan into action, despite a massive drop in frame rate and the self-confessed "slow insanity I was being pushed into with the howls."
Valheim remains immensely popular, still sitting comfortably at the top of Steam's best-seller list. Part of its appeal is certainly down to the unique and effective confluence of its numerous complex systems and the ability to construct almost anything, all of which serves to inspire a ton of emergent gameplay and add to its longevity. Alongside the core gameplay of survival and battling monsters and wildlife, the devs have created a world where a player can breed 50 wolves to take down an ancient demon, or craft Viking beer pong tables, or build Sauron's tower from The Lord of the Rings.