In Valheim, players are expected to build various boats to explore the world. From the simple and slow Valheim raft to the massive speedy Longboat, players can scour the oceans for wildlife and new lands. But sailing can be difficult with the wind being so important.
The wind is key to the experience given the massive map of Valheim. It changes the trajectory of arrows, decides which direction a tree will fall, and more. Both passive and aggressive NPCs in the world can smell players, and wind blowing the scent of the player in their direction can alert them to a Viking's presence. The wind is also incredibly important to sailing. Windmills require the wind to be blowing in the correct direction in order to process barley.
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While each of the boats in Valheim have a paddling option both for moving forward and backward, moving with the wind is much faster. Thankfully, there is a way to tell which way the wind is blowing without an effort on the player's part.
Player's can look for the white lines that indicate the direction of the wind while out in the world, but wind direction is always indicated by the white arrow in the corner of the mini map. When looking at the mini map, the white arrow sits in the bottom left-hand corner of it. The direction it points indicates which way the wind is blowing currently, and it updates in real time to show the changes in wind directions. This can be absolutely necessary for sailing to find new Valheim biomes, to figure out how to fire an arrow properly, or even to fell a tree without being killed by the falling trunk.
For those looking to always have the wind at their backs, it is absolutely possible. Each of the bosses grant players something called a Forsaken Power. For example, players can get fasting wood chopping from the Elder, better stamina from Eikthyr, and the agility to control the wind from Moder. Once Valheim's fourth boss Moder is defeated, players get the Power to always have the wind at their backs when sailing.
While Moder is not an easy boss to battle, she is certainly worth the effort to get both her Dragon Tears and the ability to direct the wind to make long sailing adventures faster and possibly much more fun.
Valheim is currently in Early Access for PC.