Valheim patch ends popular hoe exploit

A new Valheim patch gets rid of a popular hoe exploit that players have been using to quickly and efficiently raise ground.

As spotted by PC Gamer, some folks aren't too happy about the change. Redditor thesunsseas is bummed that their island base is going to take a lot more time and stone to complete, and cptAjax says the patch is stopping them from finishing their build altogether.

You can check out the exploit in action in this video by CohhCarnage, but essentially, before the most recent patch you could strike your hoe right at the edge of existing land to raise new ground to the same level with a single strike, thereby saving serious time and stone. It's an open debate whether the method was an exploit or not, but its removal suggests Iron Gate didn't intentionally design the hoe to be used that way.

As we highlight in our reporting of the latest Valheim patch notes, hoeing costs have been significantly reduced, possibly in an effort to compensate for the exploit being removed. Even so, that's unlikely to satisfy Vikings who were used to making impenetrable earth barriers and entire islands in a matter of minutes. But as PC Gamer notes, the Valheim modding community is alive and well, so there's a good chance we'll see a mod that replicates, or even improves upon, the hoe exploit.