A co-op survival game where trolls aren’t just there to be killed? ‘We don’t talk about them as enemies, but rather as neighbors’
Trollheim: Gnomes is a co-op PvE survival game where players take on the role of Sprýg Gnomes—creatures only three inches tall—who have been driven from their home in Midgård and must find refuge in a dense forest. The game combines traditional survival mechanics including foraging, exploration, home building, and management of systems like cold and hunger.
What distinguishes Trollheim from typical survival games is its treatment of the forest’s supernatural inhabitants, known as väsen—faeries, sirens, and other beings. Rather than portraying these creatures as enemies to be eliminated, the developers explicitly refer to them as “neighbors,” suggesting a fundamentally different approach to player-creature interactions. This philosophy hints at gameplay focused on coexistence and negotiation rather than pure combat-focused elimination, offering a fresh perspective on the co-op survival genre that emphasizes community dynamics and environmental storytelling alongside resource management.