By Valheim just hit its 1.0 release with the Deep North update, and it’s already pulled in over 160,000 concurrent players, a new all-time peak for the game. I’ve been testing how the full release holds up on the Steam Deck, and the short version is that it plays a lot better than it used to, both compared to launch and compared to earlier updates.
The Performance preset holds a solid 60fps
Running the Performance preset with motion blur switched off, I’m getting a pretty solid 60 frames per second for most of my time running around and fighting. It’s not perfect: there are still some big loading spikes, and whenever the world autosaves, everything stutters for about a second. It’s short, but it’s noticeable, especially on input latency mid-combat. I was testing solo with a small world and no other players or bases nearby, so I’d expect a busier world with lots of buildings and other people to pull those numbers down a bit further.
Bumping the resolution to 800p
The Performance preset actually renders at 600p on the 3D resolution slider, and you can see some fuzziness because of it. Pushing that up to 800p cleans the image up noticeably without giving up much of that 60fps performance. At night, when there’s less to render and you’re mostly relying on torches and firelight, the frame rate holds up well through combat and exploring, just the occasional dip here and there. Back in daytime, moving between areas or catching an autosave can still knock things down into the 40s for a moment, and on longer runs across the map those stutters get a bit more noticeable and a little annoying.
Worth knowing before you dive back in
Combat is unforgiving, especially against enemies you haven’t fought before, and going off exploring alone means a real risk of losing everything and having to hike back to recover it. If you haven’t played Valheim before, it’s one of the grindier, harder survival crafters out there, so go in with some patience. Overall though, 1.0 on Steam Deck is in a good place: a stable 60fps at the default preset, and a genuinely nicer-looking 800p option that barely costs you anything in performance.