Valheim has received a small content patch, as part of which it's also shared a few sneak peeks at the next major expansion: Mistlands. The update adds some new enemy types to the Swamps region, which drop materials allowing hardy vikings to craft a new item: This patch also adds a new armour type, which is probably said item.
The image above is from another, yet untitled, future update, which will add caves to the Mountain biome, which will apparently have "lupine inhabitants." There's also the below glimpse at the Mistlands update: "The landscape is starting to take shape and the mist itself has begun to roll in, but what hides there still remains unknown…"
Iron Gate Studios has also been busy answering fan questions about the game, one of which was about the Mistlands release date. "I know you're all very excited about the Mistlands, and so are we," writes the developer. "But we're still too early in development to be able to say for sure when the biome will be released. It unfortunately won't be in 2021 though."
Other snippets from that Q&A include a question about whether the game will see harder modes added: "We have talked about this actually! It likely won't be until after the game is in 1.0, but it's possible that the game will get different difficulty modes." So that looks likely. Sadly the same can't be said for adding oars, so that vikings can row together like good vikings should: "Sorry, we have discussed adding oars but will not do so since we feel it is too multiplayer-focused and could lead to difficulties balancing boats in the future."
Finally: Yggdrasil, the world tree you can see from everywhere. What's the plan there, will we ever conquer that tree? "There are indeed plans for Yggdrasil, though maybe not in the way that you expect."
Oh well, at least we got hot tubs. The patch is out now and full notes are here.
