In August, Iron Gate unveiled the Trial of Tyr, a contest to see who might full the quickest solo speedrun by means of Valheim’s punishing new arduous mode. Two months later, the duty is full, with the winner, a Chinese language participant named Zhengyuan, blowing by means of the entire thing in below eight hours.
Zhengyuan, identified locally as Time Traveller, mentioned he is been enjoying Valheim shortly after it launched into early entry in February 2021. He is obtained roughly 4,500 hours into the sport at this level, and mentioned virtually all of his spare time is devoted to it. He is additionally energetic locally, identified for making guides and movies concerning the sport, and mentioned that he is believed to be the primary participant in China to finish the sport with a single life—which led him to begin speedrunning even earlier than the competitors was introduced.
To make sure all gamers have been on equal footing, the Trial of Tyr map was “seeded,” that means it wasn’t randomized, which Zhengyuan mentioned really simplified the method considerably as a result of “each contestant can scout the fastened world upfront.” That made it simpler to plan out issues like methods, routes, and weapons that will allow essentially the most “environment friendly” run attainable.
“For the reason that map is seeded, the route of development could be nicely decided, like the place to sail [and] which dungeons to sneak into,” Zhengyuan mentioned. “For instance, I already know the places of the Moder and the silver veins, so I can end the Moder and the silver mining on the Mountain in lower than an hour. And that is why 6 anti-frost mead [a craftable food item that protects against movement debuffs caused by cold] for me is sufficient, and I do not essentially want anti-frost capes after I’m on the Mountain.”
Even so, he mentioned the Mountain biome was a very difficult space—and fairly pretty. “The tough terrain (just like however not simpler than the Mistlands), the blizzards to disrupt the participant’s imaginative and prescient and listening to, the starred wolves at evening… It’s at all times the hardest half,” Zhengyuan mentioned. “One single wolf chew is usually deadly in arduous or hardcore mode, to not point out that they’re fast sufficient to have one other. Furthermore, I personally do not use bows, so I principally should not fail to retrieve my spear every time I aimed to the drakes. Each mistake generally is a level of no return.
“Though the Mountain is difficult, additionally it is lovely, solemn, stuffed with risks, which is very immersive.”
Zhengyuan’s profitable time of seven hours, 54 minutes, 22 seconds was three hours higher than the second-place finisher, ThreadMenace, who completed the run in 10 hours, 52 minutes, 1 second. However Zhengyuan really submitted three runs for the Trial of Tyr—gamers have been allowed to submit as many as they favored, to be able to guarantee their finest time was within the operating—and even his second-slowest time, of 8 hours, 7 minutes, would have simply gained the competition. His third-best time was a top-three finisher too: Third place went to Mr. Adel, who accomplished the Trial of Tyr in 13 hours, 4 minutes, 7 seconds. (Which, let’s be sincere, continues to be a hell of an accomplishment.)