Northgard has been satisfying all our viking settlement construction desires since hitting Early Access at the start of the year, and regular content updates have kept things going strong as the game heads towards its final release. The latest update adds a bunch of noteworthy new stuff, but the thing I can’t get over is the addition of a big bird.
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Not the Sesame Street kind of big bird, mind you – this is Vedrfolnir, the mystical hawk. A victim of Draugar attacks, the massive avian has a chance of appearing somewhere in Northgard. If you nurse him back to full health you’ll be rewarded with 100 lore, while Vedrfolnir will rise to wander the land and discover six new areas for you. That’s a grateful bird!
The update also adds a new neutral faction in the form of Kobolds, who’ll line up to occupy resource tiles at various points on the map. You can either trade with them or wipe them out entirely to get those resources for yourself, but then you’ll have a whole mess of angry Kobolds to deal with.
There are also a handful of new tiles like Thor’s Wrath, where colonizing the mark of the thunder god will get you bonus fame and attack power. New lake and geyser tiles confer their own unique bonuses. You can check full details on all the changes in the official patch notes.
Northgard released in Early Access with an estimated stay of four to 12 months before its final release. Even near its original release we found it to be a totally addictive strategy title, and the new content that’s come since has only improved the game.