This is still the most hilarious Valheim tree kill we've ever seen

Valheim
(Image credit: itsjareds / Iron Gate Studio)

You should never underestimate falling timber in Valheim, and this video proves the lengths it will go to enact instant karma on would-be lumberjacks.

Hello, HR? I'd like to file for worker's compensation from r/valheim

The video posted to Reddit's Valheim subforum by user itsjareds starts off like any other foresting trip as they square up to a handsome birch with their flint axe in hand. A few whacks send it tumbling down and away to safety… or so it seems at first. The log slowly pivots over a fork in a neighboring tree, then starts picking up speed - and in a final display of some truly Looney Tunes worthy physics, it whips around in a perfect arc that leads right back onto the Viking's head, killing them a split second after they realize they messed up.

If you haven't played Valheim, you'd be forgiven for thinking this player may have chopped down a vengeful tree monster or something. But unless you buy into the conspiracy theory that Valheim logs are slightly heat-seeking (which, I mean, maybe) this entire thing was one massive comedy of errors.

Either way, when you finally get that one perfect cut which sends an entire stack of trees falling into each other in a cascading domino effect that ends with several stacks of wood in your inventory, it makes it all worth it. Just watch out for those forks.

The developers have shared a teaser image for the first big Valheim update since it launched into early access.

Valheim tips | Valheim workbench | Valheim repair | Valheim seeds | Valheim merchant | Valheim biomes | Valheim roadmap | Best Valheim weapons | Valheim Game Pass | Valheim Elder summon | Valheim cheats and spawn item list | Best Valheim armor | Valheim Bonemass | Valheim flint | Valheim crafting progression | How to plant seeds in Valheim | How to tame boars in Valheim | Valheim barley and flax | Valheim Black Metal | Valheim silver | Valheim Ymir Flesh | Valheim Moder | Valheim Yagluth 

Connor Sheridan

I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and now I'm a staff writer here at GamesRadar.