The publishing house Legend, founded and managed by John Peel, had previously published titles under the Microl label which financed the development of Valhalla. If the player drops an object in an area where the limit has been reached, a character called Klepto appears to steal the item, removing it from the game. The game engine has a limit of eight objects to be left in any one location, whether on the ground, in a chest, or in a cupboard. Mary can be found in El Vinos and even if killed, she returns within a minute. Typing in a swear word causes a dwarf to dash onto the screen to punch the player while generating the message 'Mary is not amused.'. If the player does nothing, the game 'plays' itself, with the characters moving about while the player decides what to do. The characters move and interact independent of any action by the player. Characters include gods, goddesses, dwarves, dragons, wolves, a snake, and a raven. The more the player helps good characters, the more other good characters will help the player in their quest. The character has an alignment (between good and evil) that changes depending on which of the other characters are helped. These objects are required to access otherwise unreachable parts of the game, such as Valhalla, however carrying any of the items saps the player's strength. If the player dies while holding any of the six items, it will be lost and moved to a new location.

To obtain all the items, the player receives help from various characters from Norse mythology.

The aim is to collect six mythical objects: Ofnir (key), Drapnir (ring), Skornir (shield), Skalir (sword), Felstrong (axe), and Grimnir (helmet).

Listing the accepted words was not seen in most similar titles of the time. The game's text parser understands most multi-part sentences, as long as they are written using the words listed in the manual. It is set mainly in Asgard and Midgard, though when the character dies, it reappears in Hell ( Niflheim under another name) and is able to walk out. In Valhalla the characters move through various Nordic locations with accompanying text at the bottom of the screen detailing all character actions.

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