Valheim no longer lets you level up by hitting rocks and trees

(Image credit: itsjareds / Iron Gate Studio)

Valheim developer Iron Gate has removed a convenien♎t feature that let players level up🎃 weapon skills by bashing away at trees and rocks.

Smacking rocks andꦉ trees has been by far the easiest way to level up 𒁃weapon skills in Valheim, and it's been particularly handy for recouping the experience lost from dying. But following the big Hearth and Home update, Valheim players are finding that they now need to use their chosen weapon against an actual enemy to level up that particular combat skill. So, good news for trees and rocks, but bad news for Greylings and Greydwarfs.

, but you can see it in effect in this video shared by Redditor OldGuyWhoSitsInFront (thanks, )

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Browsing the comments on the above video, there's a lively discussion about whether Iron Gate was right to remov𝓀e this little trick. Some users argue that the game's intended progression system, i.e. killing whatever aggressive creatures cross your path, is proportional to the challenge, while others say the experience penalty for dying is too harsh and calls for just such a hack as a counterbalance. Others still have taken to using consolꦚe commands to gain back lost experience and bypass the system altogether, but whether that's necessary is another argument altogether.