Do Patches Apply To Old Saves?

[McZero]

My group haven't played Valheim in several months and there has been a lot of patches since then (which is great).

Will the new content be available in our existing save/world/etc or do we need to start over?

[GunsForBucks]

So far yes.

They try to do that but make no promises.

Any explored areas will not be updated, only areas you have not been on the map.

[TrueFisherKing]

You should be fine. Some of the build pieces have changed a little - like the hearth. So, you may notice some cosmetic changes. If anyone used any funky build techniques - like floating wood iron beams - those parts of your builds will break when one of you goes near it.

[Cap'n Bells]

The update process to your world does take quite a while so let it run "Don't Panic" it updates your world btw then your saves update as per your settings (edit: they are adjustable now)

[caroraim]

One thing I did that was a blast is start a new island seed where I could build on the island I spawned on. Because I had already squeezed everything out of the game on my original seed without mods or admin, I just used free build to build out a cool base without exploring off the island. When the game is finished, I have an awesome base and an untainted world to conquer. Of course, I kept my "main" world for normal play. Great way to have a blast while waiting for the game to be finished!

[Cooperal]

New world objects will not generate in areas that were generated pre-patch.

The only new things you might see in old areas are mobs, so long as their spawn conditions don't have dependencies to any other structure/object.

E.g You can find abominations in old areas because they can spawn anywhere that is Swamp. But you wouldn't see growths spawning in Plains without a tar pit.

Since the game first launched on Steam they have made old maps forward compatible, as in they will still load on a new patch. However the devs have been careful to avoid any assurances that this will always be the case.

[McZero]

Some time has passed - How about now?

[Sunny]

patches do not break worlds (or haven't, so far)

explored worlds do not get the new content; new content only gets added to areas on a map that aren't explored. this remains the same.

if you want new stuff, you need a new map. so it's not broken, but you're gonna need to move anyway