Valheim players have established themselves as one of the most creative fanbases in modern gaming. As each architectural achievement gets more complex, many players have resorted to the use of mods in order to meet their goals. However, there are some that still manage to create fascinating builds using only the base game, such as Reddit user ButterscotchPure4043 who created a working airship using only tools available in vanilla Valheim.
The secret behind this build is a floating rock glitch in Valheim's Plains biome. In order to achieve this, players must use the hoe to elevate the ground around a mass of rock. After they've raised the ground, players mine around the rock, in effect sculpting it into the desired shape, and then remove the elevated ground. The result is a floating piece of rock that can be used in a variety of interesting builds.
For their part, ButterscotchPure4043 elected to go full steampunk and build an airship, not unlike the Airship map in Among Us or those in the Final Fantasy franchise. The centerpiece of the design is a windmill the Redditor has refashioned to appear as a sort of turbine engine, but the entire ship is a has a great building design that is shown off in a YouTube video tutorial.
Meet My First Airship in Valheim. Have to say it upfront that this is halfway done in creative mode to save me time from gathering resources. No mod is added. The windmills do spin, the engines work, but well, it cannot fly...so sad... fromvalheim
Though the ship is levitating off the ground, it cannot actually fly in the truest sense of the word. In order to do that, players will have to use console commands or hitch a ride on the back of a Deathsquito. While they did not make the airship using mods, ButterscotchPure4043 did admit to using creative mode to fly during the building process, but this is standard across nearly all elaborate Valheim builds. To make the airship without creative mode would not necessarily require more skill, just more time.
If the fact that this is a flying airship wasn't enough, the rest of the ship is detailed and aesthetically pleasing. For instance, the cockpit uses a mixture of all the colored mushrooms in order to mimic control panel buttons. In an imaginative move, ButterscotchPure4043 also developed a system for creating textured walls. First, a player stacks stools, places item stands on those stools, and positions poison resistance mead on each item stand. The overall effect is a latticed wall that glows at night, with yellow spheres in each crevice.
Valheim is available in Early Access for PC.