Grind Valley

Hunt, haul, smoke, sell — build an Arctic trading post

Play Grind Valley — free, in your browser

Build a run-down Arctic trading post into a chartered company. Stalk caribou and musk oxen into the wind, fish through the ice, trap foxes and haul it all home by sled, then smoke, tan, cook and sew it into goods worth far more. Every building grows as you upgrade it, and the cold sets how far you can go.

Controls

• WASD / Arrows — Move
• Hold SHIFT — Sneak
• Hold LEFT MOUSE or SPACE — Raise the rifle; release to fire (RIGHT MOUSE aims without firing)
• E — Use: harvest, chop, fish, trade, build, ride the sled
• C — Light a campfire (3 firewood)
• TAB — Ledger · M — Map · ESC — Menu
• Left stick — Move
• Hold AIM, release to FIRE (aim assist picks the animal you face)
• USE — Harvest, chop, fish, trade, build, ride
• SNEAK — Toggle a crouch · FIRE — Campfire when you are cold and carrying wood

How to Play Grind Valley

You start at Grind Valley Post with an old .22, a pack that holds six things and $40. The card at the top of the screen always names the next thing to do and the gold arrow points at where to do it. The goal is the Company Charter: build the Charter Hall and deliver its manifest of parkas, scarves, pemmican, chowder and carvings.

The smokehouse, tannery, workshop and cookhouse only use what is in the storehouse — not what is in your pack. Unload by walking into the loading bay in front of the storehouse, pressing E at its door, or with the button in any station’s panel. They then take their inputs and put the finished goods back by themselves. The smokehouse smokes raw meat and char (firewood is its fuel); pelts and hides go to the tannery. Sell at the trading post, where the price of each good sags as you sell more of it and recovers overnight, or fill the contracts on its board for well over market.

Hunting is stalking. Animals see, hear and smell you: a white ? means one has noticed something and a gold ! means it is looking right at you, so freeze. Sneaking, willow cover and keeping the wind blowing from the animal to you all help. Hold still with the rifle raised and the aiming circle shrinks; when it turns green the shot will drop the animal cleanly. A wounded animal runs, tires and beds down, and its darker tracks lead you to it.

The valley opens in steps. The Caribou Tundra is across the river and needs a bridge; the Blackspruce Taiga to the north has deep snow that snowshoes beat; the Musk Ox Highlands are up a drifted pass and bitterly cold. A hand sled, then a dog team from the kennel, let you haul more and travel faster.

Your warmth drains away from the post, faster at night, in wind and higher up. Any fire warms you: the post, the warming hut, the hot spring, or a campfire you build from three firewood. Run out of warmth and a passing trapper drags you home, but half of what you were carrying stays on the trail.

Grind Valley Strategy Guide

1. Build the smokehouse first. Raw meat sells for about $4 and smoked meat for about $10, and the smokehouse does the work while you are out hunting. Keep firewood in the storehouse — one log keeps a rack smoking for forty seconds.
2. Get the bridge and a hunting rifle early. A caribou herd is the best money in the early game: five meat, two hides and sometimes an antler each, and the rifle drops one with a single clean shot where the .22 only wounds.
3. Approach a herd from downwind. The wind arrow in the corner shows which way it blows; if it is blowing from you toward them they will smell you from twice as far away as they can see you.
4. Do not flood the market with one thing. Each unit sells for a little less than the last, so spread your sales and check which good the trader wants today — it pays half as much again.
5. Set traps on the orange-ribboned fox runs in the taiga as soon as you have them. The old trapper’s cabin north of the post has three hanging on the wall.
6. Late in the game the money is in the chains: a musk ox barn fed on greenhouse barley grows qiviut, and two qiviut become a scarf worth $150. Jade from the highlands becomes the most valuable carving in the valley. A woodcutter and a trapper from the bunkhouse keep the post running while you hunt.

Questions & Answers

What is Grind Valley?

Grind Valley is a free browser tycoon game set in the Arctic. You take over a run-down trading post with an old rifle and forty dollars and build it into a chartered company: hunting, fishing through the ice, trapping, hauling it all home by sled, and turning it into smoked meat, leather, parkas, pemmican and carvings in buildings you put up and upgrade yourself.

Is Grind Valley free to play?

Yes. It runs in your browser with no download or account, and it saves your post automatically so you can come back to it later.

How do you win Grind Valley?

By delivering the Company Charter. Build the Charter Hall and fill its manifest: three fur parkas, two qiviut scarves, eight pemmican, six char chowder, a jade carving and three antler carvings. Every production chain in the valley feeds it, so you cannot finish by making one thing. Your score is mostly how quickly you get there, plus what the post is worth.

How does hunting work in Grind Valley?

It is stalking rather than clicking. Each animal can see, hear and smell you, so sneaking, standing in willow cover and approaching with the wind in your face all matter. Raise the rifle and hold still and the aiming circle tightens; when it turns green the shot is clean. A lighter gun or a poor shot only wounds a large animal, which runs, tires and beds down, and you follow its darker tracks to finish it.

Why does the trader pay less each time I sell the same thing?

Because the market saturates. Each unit of the same good you sell pushes its price down a little, and prices recover by half each night. Spreading your sales, processing raw goods into something worth more, filling contracts and selling whatever the trader wants that day are all ways round it.

What happens if I get too cold?

Your warmth drains whenever you are away from a fire, faster at night, in a wind or a blizzard, and up in the highlands. If it runs out you collapse and are carried back to the post, losing half of what you were carrying. A better coat, a campfire built from three firewood, the warming hut and the hot spring all keep you going further out.

Does Grind Valley work on a phone?

Yes. There is a virtual stick for moving and buttons for aiming, using things and sneaking. On a touchscreen, holding AIM picks the animal you are facing and releasing it fires, so the skill is in the stalk and in holding steady rather than in fine pointing.

What happened to the old Grind Valley levels?

They were replaced. Grind Valley used to be five separate farm maps with coin quotas; it is now one Arctic valley you build up over a whole game. Saves from the old version cannot be carried over, because the world they describe no longer exists.

If you like Grind Valley

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