Valheim Developer Shuts Down Rumor Birds Are Flying Away With Boats

Iron Gate Studio’s single-player and co-op survival game Valheim has proven to be a major success in the month since its release in early access. According to Steam’s sales charts, Valheim has reached the milestone of five million sales in just four weeks and currently boasts an Overwhelmingly Positive review rating on the site.

The world of Valheim is vast, with a variety of biomes to traverse, each with its own unique flora, fauna, enemies, and dungeons to explore. But the game also contains a few enigmas, such as the mysterious shadowy figure in Valheim who occasionally appears when players least expect it. The man stands motionless for a moment, staff in hand, and then vanishes. Many players have attributed the wraith-like apparition to Odin, the Norse god of war.

Recently, another puzzling mystery has made an appearance in Valheim, this time with a less foreboding aura. A player has reported that birds have begun inexplicably flying off with their boats in the game. A recording was shared on Reddit that showed a Valheim ship called the karve, a medium-sized sailing craft, flying into the air in a decidedly humorous fashion. One theory is that birds in the game are landing on the boats and accidentally having ownership transferred to them, thereby causing the vessel to take off when the bird does.

A PR representative at Iron Gate responded to this rumor, stating that the company has received a few inquiries about the issue but that birds aren’t actually flying off with ships in Valheim, despite appearances. However, the representative did not proffer a potential explanation for the phenomenon either, and a bird can indeed be seen on the flying ship in the posted video.

Perhaps this is simply a rare bug that Valheim’s developer has been unable to reproduce and therefore has no opinion to share on the matter. Another potential explanation could be that the Redditor who shared the video of his flying ship is using mods just to have a little fun with the gaming community. Because it is a PC game, there are a variety of mods already available for the title, as well as a debug mode that allows players in Valheim to fly around themselves.

Valheim, with its robust base building mechanics, has allowed players to freely express their creativity. Inventive gamers have recreated Star Wars’ Millennium Falcon, Old Tristam from Diablo, Sauron’s Tower from The Lord of the Rings, and a group of players are even in the process of building the entire town of Whiterun from The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

There are a lot of Viking-themed shenanigans to get up to in Valheim. Developer Iron Gate has created an open world survival game full of crafting and slaying mythical beasts. However, for the more passive players out there, taming wild animals is also an option in Valheim.

With the title breaking a milestone of 5 million Steam sales, there are plenty of fans enjoying the game. Some of those playing will want to collect various beasts and add them to their settlements. Of these are the Lox, which are large and fluffy animals similar to a buffalo or rhinoceros. While there is no real benefit to taming these creatures, they will no doubt add flair to a player's town.