The surprise sandbox hit Valheim offers up plenty of crafting and customization opportunities, but a Reddit player has discovered a whole new way to pass the time - beer pong. Or more specifically, barleywine pong or mead pong.
In the nearly four weeks since Valheim popped up on Early Access, the Viking-themed survival game by Swedish developer Iron Gate Studio has taken the world by storm, beating out other pop culture titans like Among Us in downloads and concurrent player count. Players take up the helm of a battle-slain Viking ferried by the Valkyries to the tenth Norse realm of Valheim and are tasked with building shelters, battling monsters, and bringing order back into the battle-sieged world. With a variety of biomes to explore and more and more valuable materials to mine for weapons and tools, the game brings the flavors of Minecraft into a Viking feast.
With so much versatility to be found in Valheim, it's only natural that players find new and interesting ways to utilize the vast library of crafted goodies for their own entertainment. One such player, Redditor JaplesPie isn't the first one to come up with the idea, but they were the first to document their build in a video and post it. In their setup, they used horizontal item stands and steins of home-brewed mead or barleywine if it's been unlocked, to create a truly mighty game of Viking beer pong. So players (of legal drinking age) who miss the traditional games of beer pong that have dried up in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic can make do with a digital version, inside their hallowed Viking halls.
Anyone who wants to emulate JaplesPie's setup will need a bronze axe to cut fine wood. Then assemble them into tables, horizontal item stands with bronze nails, and mugs. Mead is more readily available, and there's a variety of recipes for crafting it, but if barleywine has been unlocked, bonus points for authenticity. Players can toss amber pearls in lieu of ping pong balls, which will land on top of the cups when thrown right. It's also a great way to settle disputes for anyone too squeamish to pick up an axe and hack things out man to man.
With COVID-19 still going, it's not surprising that people are looking to recreate their favorite pre-pandemic pastimes in sandbox games like Valheim. That may be a contributing factor to the game's unexpected success, considering that as far as anyone else knows, no one has managed to create a working beer pong table in Minecraft.
Source: JaplesPie