It depends on what you consider cheating for yourself. Only you can know that. If you really want to explore everything and not meta game then you are cheating yourself but other than that I wouldn´t worry too much about it. Your game. Your rules. Have fun, that is all that counts.

I was just wondering what other people think. I only do it for finding certain biomes but I don’t like using it for finding specific structures, spawners, and items.

In single player its only cheating if you consider it cheating. In multiplayer it depends on what your team has decided for house rules.

Some people have little time to play Valheim because of work, kids, etc.. People in these situations may want to reduce time spent on things that aren't resource gathering/fighting.

Its not the dev intended way to play, that is default settings, but the game added sliders so you can consider those official.

Mods are not a dev intended way to play but many people use mods.

You have to decide if using the map generator app is cheating for your own experience or not.

For me personally I always play through a game on default settings the first time after that I'll make a few changes. I play mostly teamed with my wife. She finds sailing difficult and tedious so I'm always at the tiller. She likes hunting boar, deer, neck, birds etc. but finds chopping wood and picking berries tedious. When I team with her the resource slider is always set to 2x.

We both use mistbegone. I use it because I'm visually impaired. She uses it because she finds the mist in mistlands annoying and unfun. Prior to mistbegone being available she refused to do the mistlands content.

The answer is a complicated answer because it all depends on your tolerance of spoilers really.

What I did in the past was when I had issues with the map (ie unable to find the trader) I would send the seed code to a friend and have them peek at the map the give me a general direction to go explore. Most my friends lost interest in the game around Mistlands so I stopped asking them.

Eventually the "newness" wears off exploration and you find yourself peeking and using filters to see biomes. For example my current game I looked for a large landmass with a plains/mistlands border to build my second main base (a plains/mistland base.)

I think it's similar to searching for a game walk-through. All external resources to enhance your gaming experience. Just make sure everyone is on the same page when you are in a multiplayer setting.

It's your game. Do what you want. I, personally, would consider it cheating, but that's me.

Using external tools to circumvent the intended course of gameplay is always cheating, no if's or but's about it.

Unless it's a MP server where you agreed to not cheat nobody cares though.

Well, if we gone check the term for cheating is using 3rd part software, then yes, it is. lol

If you want to replay the game , the world map generator is a great way to check if a seed is fun to play.

I don't think it's cheating. I call it being crazy prepared like Batman would.

Meaning, the more you know, the less you walk into an opportunity to get yourself killed by a mob.

According to Sun Tzu, "the more you know about the land, the better prepared you are for battle."

And besides, only you can answer the question of whether or not it's considered cheating. It's not like you aren't moving your character around to uncover the map as you explored, even though some website plotted for you what the world looks like, that's my opinion.

I'm tempted to use resources to help me see the map of my seed as well.

Originally posted by Joe Coffee:

I don't think it's cheating. I call it being crazy prepared like Batman would.

Meaning, the more you know, the less you walk into an opportunity to get yourself killed by a mob.

According to Sun Tzu, "the more you know about the land, the better prepared you are for battle."

And besides, only you can answer the question of whether or not it's considered cheating. It's not like you aren't moving your character around to uncover the map as you explored, even though some website plotted for you what the world looks like, that's my opinion.

I'm tempted to use resources to help me see the map of my seed as well.

exploration is part of the game, if you die it's just skill issue hehe, - i used valheim generator to get a island seed to enjoy, but similiar how some think (me) its cheating to use diffrent characters to transfer loot or relog to change wind directions

To me, cheating would be any of the following:
- Using console commands to get infinite health or stamina
- Using console commands to bypass having to collect resources and build like in creative mode (hammer mode)
- Using console commands to bypass the crafting and upgrading of weapons and equipment
- Using console commands to ignore fundamental game mechanics, like height restrictions for any given material, or weight restrictions for carrying resources

I use valheim-map.world as well; It's a time saving mechanism more than it is cheating in my opinion. Yes, you can use it to learn the location of a lot of things prior to discovering them yourself in-game, but you still have to get wherever you want to go unscathed. You still have to manage your inventory, equipment, health, stamina, and recovery items, and you still need to defeat foes in your path, and collect the materials you need to progress.

If I hadn't used valheim-map.world then I would've spent who knows how much more time in the Mistlands, screwing about looking for the fragments of the Sealbreaker. The map didn't tell me where they were, just the locations of Infested Mines, so I still had to go through a process of trial and error to acquire the specific items in question (alongside workbench upgrade items like the black cores).

I'll just say that I play solo, and since I have the responsibility of doing everything in the world myself, I take any time saving mechanism I can get that is short of violating the game's natural rules (i.e. Survival is important; There are stamina requirements and weight and height restrictions; Equipment has durability values; There are buffs and debuffs at play, etc). Looking at an external map is a violation of the in-game map's "discover as you go" design, but I'm not such a purist that it bothers me personally to violate this one principle (And really, it's mostly because I think there should be a better way to discover the map; Something like "Ubisoft towers" or at least the ability to buy maps piecemeal from merchants).

In conclusion, while I don't consider it cheating, I can see how others might consider it cheating, but it depends on the context. For instance, if you and your friends are running a hardcore server, and everyone is expected to abide by the rules of "no teleporting" and "no map" then you are violating those rules by using mods/hacks to teleport yourself or, in this case, by using an external map to navigate the world.

It depends. Do you enjoy exploring a lot to find what you need? Then using the world gen would be silly. Do you want to see what seed you got and whether it is what you want or find a seed that you will enjoy playing? Then world gen is a must. I don't consider it cheating unless you are playing a MP game and everyone agreed upfront that not knowing the terrain or "no-map" was part of the agreement. If you play solo, hey, you paid for the game, do what is more enjoyable for you.

looking at your map is a giant time saver. You can spend months looking for a few specific things, like the fish in the mountain caves that are so rare you may not have known they existed, or the instances in the mistlands which you could have walked 20 yards to the side of and never known, or trying to find a boss like moder when RNG refuses to let you have a map marker....

its up to you whether you feel that bypassing the aimless wandering around looking for stuff is cheating or if you really get some satisfaction or enjoyment or sense of accomplishment or something from it.

Of all the possible ways to cheat, this is one of the least. YOU still have to fight your way to an from everything, gather everything, build everything. All you got was a compass direction to go in, and that does not help you fight, survive, or produce anything. With all the exploits, easy server settings, console commands, and mods, ... in the grand scale of cheating, this is a 0.1 from 1 to 10.

Originally posted by jonnin:

looking at your map is a giant time saver. You can spend months looking for a few specific things, like the fish in the mountain caves that are so rare you may not have known they existed, or the instances in the mistlands which you could have walked 20 yards to the side of and never known, or trying to find a boss like moder when RNG refuses to let you have a map marker....

its up to you whether you feel that bypassing the aimless wandering around looking for stuff is cheating or if you really get some satisfaction or enjoyment or sense of accomplishment or something from it.

Of all the possible ways to cheat, this is one of the least. YOU still have to fight your way to a from everything, gather everything, build everything. All you got was a compass direction to go in, and that does not help you fight, survive, or produce anything. With all the exploits, easy server settings, console commands, and mods, ... in the grand scale of cheating, this is a 0.1 from 1 to 10.

I 100% agree.