A group of dedicated Valheim users have founded the Body Recovery Squad, a crew aimed at helping other players recover their items after dying. The sting of death is undoubtedly familiar to many a Viking in Valheim. One minute, you stand victorious over the body of a previously intimidating boss creature, the next you succumb to a deathblow by none other than an overly aggressive deathsquito.
What follows after such failure is nothing short of soul-crushing in some cases. When the player-character dies, their body vanishes and all that they were instantly devolves into a tombstone, which stores every piece of gear and item in their possession. Players either wake up at the starting point or respawn in their bed, left to make the trek back to their body with the help of a skull and bones indicator on the map. Without the necessary gear and weapons, some areas are simply too brutal to return to, even in a quest to retrieve what's been lost. Since the death penalty in Valheim can hinder in-game progress, one group decided to lend a hand to fellow Vikings in their time of need.
A Valheim player named Lucas, aka Rim Jaynor, once found himself lucky enough to make use of a friend's portal to quickly retrieve dropped items after his character died. Upon learning that other players have rage quit after being unable to recover their body, Lucas considered the benefit of offering users a "lifeline." It's a thought that encouraged him to share ideas with fellow fans on Reddit and soon thereafter become a founding member of Valheim's Body Recovery Squad, Lucas told Eurogamer. Anyone in need can hop into the BRS Discord server, join the #assistance-application channel, and select "SOS" for assistance. Members known as Operators will then reach out to the hapless Viking before joining their server, and embarking on the recovery mission. Over a dozen Operators have committed to the community effort since it began two weeks ago, while the BRS continues to take applications via Google Form.
It's clear the Valheim community's creativity knows no bounds. That such creativity has extended to helping fellow players is certainly worthy of applause, especially when considering that Valheim remains a relatively new experience in terms of how long it's been on the market.
The game may have only launched a little over four weeks ago, but already counts among one of the year's top-selling titles. Within just a month or so of its Steam Early Access release, Valheim managed to shift more than five million units. And given the positive word-of-mouth, the survival title may very well continue to reign on the Steam Charts for some time to come.
