Valheim - Valhallall, Meadhallall, Shieldwallall

Sounds like a heck of a fun time, Malor! Nice write up!

Yeah, thanks for the write up. Those freaking goblin/fulings are not easy to snipe for me, especially with bits of tower I was on blocking my view. Thankfully, several decided to stand in the doorway of one of their buildings, so I unloaded on the doorway.

This experience definitely reinforced my "just got silver" going to the plains plan on my solo world of building a series of forts, each with a flat roof with a good view, that i can easily retreat to/snipe from. Maybe some wood spikes and campfires at the bottom, assuming I can situate them so that *I* don't run into my own defenses when running like hell to get back to my own forts...

When I explore plains this is what I do - I built overlapping portal bases. So the 1st base has a portal to the community base along with a 2nd portal. I explore a bit - either I find one of the plains towers or maybe hit the island's edge - but before too long I create another walled in base. In this 2nd base I create a portal that connects to the portal in the 1st base and then a 2nd unused portal. Continue on. It really helps if you have to run away due to nighttime goblins running around or that time you see a 2 star goblin (which can 2 shot you in full padded gear if it catches you in water or flanks you).

You can clear goblin plains towns by yourself if you are careful. I usually stand past the outskirts - not near the edge at all. I start using my bow on the one closest to me, I can usually kill it before it gets to me or it only needs one hit. If you aren't fully geared you can always build a small walled base at this position, just so you can be safe if you pull to many. If you do this I would even put a portal in it to one of you other bases - that way the goblins will eventually leave before destroying the whole base if you aren't around.

I have been living in the plains lately. I moved my main house there which includes the main long house, a cook house, workshop (with smelters and kilns) and a boat house. From this experience, I have learned that relying on the bow is probably going to make the plains the hard. The bow is good when dealing with one furling (no star only) and it is surprised. I can usually one shot these (the poison damage of the draugr bow finishes them off) but if there are more then one furling or it wasn't a surprise, they usually can get to you before you can kill them. Sure you can build elaborate high spots to game the AI, but I feel that makes the encounter kind of boring. By forcing myself to use different weapon combinations I have started to learn the power behind them.

I mentioned the atgeir before because it is useful if you get swarmed by 2+ furlings. It's secondary attack is a 360 degree spin attack which knocks back and stuns. Once they are stunned, I usually target the furlings that are throwing spears since they hurt like hell and you don't have a good block with the atgeir. If you are using the right foods (serpent stew, lox meat pie, blood pudding if possible) you will have enough stamina that will let you run this attack until even a 2 star is dead.

The other combination that is effective is a one handed weapon and round shield. If you get good at parrying, even a 2 star furling won't be able to damage you. (Get to the black metal round shield as soon as you can as it can absorb all incoming damage from furlings). The stun effect will also let you kill most furlings in 2-3 shots. I have used knives, swords, maces (porcupine and frostner) and even the axe with the round shield and all are very effective. For a while I enjoyed stunning a furling with a parry and using the secondary attack of a knife to leap and stab it in the chest.

I think I am going into the mountains for more silver, so I can make Frostner (Love that cold/slow effect it has), though my black metal shield, Draugr and Porcupine has served me really well as I solo in the plains. I also finally mined enough iron to make out my fully kitted padded armor. Now to make some more sausages/lox meat pies, so I can keep on trucking.

I am around on weekends primarily, so if anyone needs help in the plains, or elsewhere, then I am game. (Until next week, when Evil Genius 2 drops)

I’m supposed to go into the swamps after the second boss, right? I just started playing a week ago and got two-shotted by an archer draugr while wearing fully upgraded bronze gear and my health buffed to around 120-ish. I managed to get one hit on him with a fully upgraded bronze sword and it did almost no damage. Am I missing something or are draugrs just bastards?

ruhk wrote:

I’m supposed to go into the swamps after the second boss, right? I just started playing a week ago and got two-shotted by an archer draugr while wearing fully upgraded bronze gear and my health buffed to around 120-ish. I managed to get one hit on him with a fully upgraded bronze sword and it did almost no damage. Am I missing something or are draugrs just bastards?

They're bastards. Block their shots with a shield (it can parry if you time it right), and try using blunt damage to stagger them so they won't get attacks in. If the mob has stars on it, it's going to be very difficult until you get swamp gear.

Starting at the swamp, it also gets more important to sneak and take the area on slowly when you first go into the next biome. Get surprise shots in with your bow when possible.

Well, I’m not going to be able to head back anytime soon because the gravestone with all my leveled gear and the swamp key is sitting at the bottom of the ocean. As soon as I realized I was outmatched I kited him away around a clump of trees and then ran back to my karve to sail away, only to get shot in the back when I was almost out of range. I came back to retrieve my stuff just in time to see him destroy the ship and drop everything into the bay.

kazar wrote:

I have been living in the plains lately. I moved my main house there which includes the main long house, a cook house, workshop (with smelters and kilns) and a boat house. From this experience, I have learned that relying on the bow is probably going to make the plains the hard. The bow is good when dealing with one furling (no star only) and it is surprised. I can usually one shot these (the poison damage of the draugr bow finishes them off) but if there are more then one furling or it wasn't a surprise, they usually can get to you before you can kill them. Sure you can build elaborate high spots to game the AI, but I feel that makes the encounter kind of boring. By forcing myself to use different weapon combinations I have started to learn the power behind them.

I mentioned the atgeir before because it is useful if you get swarmed by 2+ furlings. It's secondary attack is a 360 degree spin attack which knocks back and stuns. Once they are stunned, I usually target the furlings that are throwing spears since they hurt like hell and you don't have a good block with the atgeir. If you are using the right foods (serpent stew, lox meat pie, blood pudding if possible) you will have enough stamina that will let you run this attack until even a 2 star is dead.

The other combination that is effective is a one handed weapon and round shield. If you get good at parrying, even a 2 star furling won't be able to damage you. (Get to the black metal round shield as soon as you can as it can absorb all incoming damage from furlings). The stun effect will also let you kill most furlings in 2-3 shots. I have used knives, swords, maces (porcupine and frostner) and even the axe with the round shield and all are very effective. For a while I enjoyed stunning a furling with a parry and using the secondary attack of a knife to leap and stab it in the chest.

All of this sounds awesome once I have *any* of the gear you're talking about, including food. In my "fresh from the mountains mode" I will be embracing sneaky sniping on top of my towers while trying not to pee my pants strategy.

But, this honestly sounds exactly like my "learning/adventuring curve" in the swamps. My first time in the swamps, I died to poison, and draugr scared the crap out of me. Now, I've raided a draugr village with 2-3 draugr per house, with just sword and shield and regular iron age farm food, and no fear whatsoever. Similar for the crypts.

So I imagine I will eventually transition to the same thing in the plains. Just not quite yet.

You know, for an early access game, this really makes each biome's balance with enemies/gear/food seem really, really good.

Fully upgraded silver armor is the same as low level padded. There are iron atgeir and Frostner or a silver sword is just as effective. It isn't about gear quality but technique. You can practice on greydwarves to learn how to time perries and then use it in the plains. For food, even today I typically use turnip stew, serpent stew and honey and used it to get the ingredients for the better foods.

ruhk wrote:

Well, I’m not going to be able to head back anytime soon because the gravestone with all my leveled gear and the swamp key is sitting at the bottom of the ocean. As soon as I realized I was outmatched I kited him away around a clump of trees and then ran back to my karve to sail away, only to get shot in the back when I was almost out of range. I came back to retrieve my stuff just in time to see him destroy the ship and drop everything into the bay.

Death totems float. On server 1 my death totem from the first week is still floating there today. Items stored in the ship float in a box too, though the parts that made up the boat may sink.

kazar wrote:
ruhk wrote:

Well, I’m not going to be able to head back anytime soon because the gravestone with all my leveled gear and the swamp key is sitting at the bottom of the ocean. As soon as I realized I was outmatched I kited him away around a clump of trees and then ran back to my karve to sail away, only to get shot in the back when I was almost out of range. I came back to retrieve my stuff just in time to see him destroy the ship and drop everything into the bay.

Death totems float. On server 1 my death totem from the first week is still floating there today. Items stored in the ship float in a box too, though the parts that made up the boat may sink.

I knew that ship wreckage floats because this was like the third karve I lost but I didn’t know that gravestones float. I tried not to get close enough to agro the draugr again. This was the first time I died that didn’t involve a falling tree or falling off a roof. Even the bosses have been a pushover so far, this encounter didn’t really feel like a difficulty curve so much as a difficulty brick wall.

When I was on a quest for finding a swamp I made the mistake of thinking a plains biome was a swamp. They can have some shorelines that look very similar to swamps, with the same creepy trees. Be sure it's not a swamp-looking plains biome, instead of an actual swamp biome. I got one shotted instantly by a Drauger elite, right off the shoreline, and it destroyed a few boats on corpse returns. Sounds very similar.

The biomes build on each other a lot but the Black Forest is a bit too forgiving IMO. As with the rest, once you've cleared an area of its initial spawns during the day or night, randoms won't be as frequent during those times though. The things the swamp forces a player to learn will carry forward.

ruhk wrote:
kazar wrote:
ruhk wrote:

Well, I’m not going to be able to head back anytime soon because the gravestone with all my leveled gear and the swamp key is sitting at the bottom of the ocean. As soon as I realized I was outmatched I kited him away around a clump of trees and then ran back to my karve to sail away, only to get shot in the back when I was almost out of range. I came back to retrieve my stuff just in time to see him destroy the ship and drop everything into the bay.

Death totems float. On server 1 my death totem from the first week is still floating there today. Items stored in the ship float in a box too, though the parts that made up the boat may sink.

I knew that ship wreckage floats because this was like the third karve I lost but I didn’t know that gravestones float. I tried not to get close enough to agro the draugr again. This was the first time I died that didn’t involve a falling tree or falling off a roof. Even the bosses have been a pushover so far, this encounter didn’t really feel like a difficulty curve so much as a difficulty brick wall.

They all feel like that - it is quite easy to get one shot in each biome shift until you start getting geared up. You are gonna think you are tough when you are clearing the swamp then go to the mountain and a few wolves will tear you to shreds very quickly.

If you need help getting your corpse back you can always ask for help!

karmajay wrote:

They all feel like that - it is quite easy to get one shot in each biome shift until you start getting geared up. You are gonna think you are tough when you are clearing the swamp then go to the mountain and a few wolves will tear you to shreds very quickly.

If you need help getting your corpse back you can always ask for help!

Funny thing is that my starting island was about 1/3 mountain biome and while I had a couple close calls with wolves, they were never really an issue. I even managed to take out a couple with leather gear and a flint spear.

I gave up on my gravestone for the time being- I can’t get close enough to loot it without coming in range of the archer and I just don’t have the gear to deal with him. Plus it’s surrounded by several empty rafts and fresh graves now which just makes it physically hard to get to. I did explore into the swamps from a different direction last night, though. Oddly enough the other draugrs haven’t been as much of an issue as the one sitting on the shore.

ruhk wrote:

I gave up on my gravestone for the time being- I can’t get close enough to loot it without coming in range of the archer and I just don’t have the gear to deal with him.

I hear that GWJ has a rescue squad that's available to kick ass and drink milk, and they just finished their milk.

ruhk wrote:

Oddly enough the other draugrs haven’t been as much of an issue as the one sitting on the shore.

Is the archer a 2 star?

ruhk wrote:
karmajay wrote:

They all feel like that - it is quite easy to get one shot in each biome shift until you start getting geared up. You are gonna think you are tough when you are clearing the swamp then go to the mountain and a few wolves will tear you to shreds very quickly.

If you need help getting your corpse back you can always ask for help!

Funny thing is that my starting island was about 1/3 mountain biome and while I had a couple close calls with wolves, they were never really an issue. I even managed to take out a couple with leather gear and a flint spear.

I gave up on my gravestone for the time being- I can’t get close enough to loot it without coming in range of the archer and I just don’t have the gear to deal with him. Plus it’s surrounded by several empty rafts and fresh graves now which just makes it physically hard to get to. I did explore into the swamps from a different direction last night, though. Oddly enough the other draugrs haven’t been as much of an issue as the one sitting on the shore.

I'll gladly jump into your solo world and clear an area so you can get your corpse. If it is area you plan on going to often, I would land a bit away from the area and drop a portal and wall so you won't have to raft to it so much.

The two times I died like that I just cheated :p I was not about to remake enough armor and weapons to go get my stuff back, so I just turned on ghost mode got my stuff and turned it back off.

I figure mining a ton of copper and tin or iron again will ruin the game for me more than a little light cheating will.

Ranged mobs are actually easy to lure away from your corpse. If you hide behind a tree they will move towards you. Then run to the next tree and repeat. Once it is far enough from your body, loop back and collect your corpse.

So ready for Hearth and Home to drop!

I love building!

ruhk wrote:

Well, I’m not going to be able to head back anytime soon because the gravestone with all my leveled gear and the swamp key is sitting at the bottom of the ocean. As soon as I realized I was outmatched I kited him away around a clump of trees and then ran back to my karve to sail away, only to get shot in the back when I was almost out of range. I came back to retrieve my stuff just in time to see him destroy the ship and drop everything into the bay.

Even if you're on a local world, remember you can host it as a server, and we can visit and help out. Discord's probably the best place to recruit someone.

Don't forget to open the port on your firewall, or nobody will be able to connect. And set a password so you don't get random people.

cartoonin wrote:

So ready for Hearth and Home to drop!

I love building!

Wow that article took 3 vague developer quotes that have been around for weeks and their own suggestion to be able to plant berry bushes and turned it into a thousand words article.

Also 'mark it on your calendar' when they admit to having no more info on a release date than anyone.

I was at the point that I needed to take on Moder to progress further last night, so I jumped on Rag2 to give it a go. There is a handy portal not too far from the spawn point (although I did discover a Stone Golem on the way). I eventually got all my eggs to the summit, and had a shot at the boss. It wasn't too difficult a fight - you just need to dodge out of the way when she's flying, and just stand back and lob poison arrows when she's landed. It seems that she is too big to figure out how to path around, so when she's on the ground she barely moves. I was plinking away with my arrows for a while and got her down to about 10%.

At this point it started turning to night, and I got surprised and killed by a wolf.

I went back with my old iron gear to try and get her down that last 10%. As I'm getting closer in my climb back up the mountain, she spots me and engages combat. I can cope with this, I think, I just need to dodge her and keep peppering her with arrows. But it's still nighttime, and there's a couple of night spawned enemies. Suddenly there's these two creatures that I've never seen before, zerging towards me. They must be werewolves or something? I just nope'd out, and literally quit out of the game.

My character was still alive at this point, just disconnected from the server, But it's still night, so I logged into a new character on the server to wait around until it's daytime again before switching back to that character. By this time, night mobs had despawned by this point, and it's just me and the boss (and a wolf and a drake that I needed to quickly switch weapons for). I managed to keep plinking away at her and slowly made my way back up the mountaintop to my better gear. I switched to a couple of pieces of armor and my draugr bow during one of her landed phases, and finished the fight.

It's a little cheaty, but unfortunately I play when most of the GWJ crew are asleep (I'm in New Zealand), so I couldn't bring in any backup.

(I partially copied this from discord, but it was a fun story so I duplicated it here)

Buzzrick wrote:

(I partially copied this from discord, but it was a fun story so I duplicated it here)

I thought the story was familiar.

Not sure if it was a secret change in the last patch or I am just unlucky, but today I was shooting arrows at furlings to agro one at a time, but the whole group would agro (including two one star furlings). Happened a few times making me think that this is how it works now.

I kill a small group (the gang of 3) today from behind, with arrows (one shot kill), and they didn't react on the kills.

Improved enemy projectile reaction system is in the patch notes. They don't seem to react to instant kills, but when it's damage they all get riled up.

Edit: It's not just Fulings either. There used to be a range outside of which nothing would target you after being hit. Mobs would just run around. Now they and any nearby will seek you out.

I took on a Fuling village last night. I set up a base of attack on a nearby large rock, about 100m away from the camp.

Literally a base: a small building on top of the rock with windows to shoot out of, a repair table, wooden spikes around the base of the stairs that you had to jump on to, and a portal home. It was just a bit too far away to be useful. I could shoot a couple of the Fulings on this side of the village, which would pull one or two more to come running, and I could shoot at them safely from the balcony.

I managed to take out the guards at the top of the two guard towers on my side of the village, and a few others on the ground, but it was taking too long, picking them off one by one.

So I stealthed up to a rock that was literally touching the base and tried to make another base of attack on top of that with at least a few short walls to defend me. I didn't think that they would be able to path up the rock but they proved me wrong pretty quickly. Luckily I'd placed my crafting table so that it at least funneled them all up on a single side. I could knock them back off the top of the rock with my Frostner and they'd have to find their way back up again.

By this time the whole village had decided to come and see what was going on. Including a big ol' Fuling Berserker, those giant sized goblins with a massive club. He couldn't find a path up so he tried hitting the rock to get at me. I cracked up laughing because he smashed the path that the rest of the Fulings were trying to climb up to me with, and smashed a chunk out of it.

Now the whole village was swarming around the rock but couldn't reach me. I took out the spear throwers as fast as I could. Then the Berserker, who by this time had smashed the whole way into the rock, creating a literal cave underneath me.

While this was happening there was a couple of purple explosions that hit me. I was aware that the Fuling Shaman would cast shields on their friends, but I did not know that they could cast some sort of fireball. I kept ducking down below the rise of the rock while I primed my bow, and popping up to shoot them. That took them out pretty quickly. Now I could take out the rest of them villagers at leisure, well, at least when I could see them. They kept running in and out of the cave underneath me, and I couldn't always target them too well. I made sure to focus down the couple of one and two star Fulings before I jumped down and lay into the rest of them with the Frostner.

And that is how I came into ownership of my own brand new Plains farmstead. It now has walls all the way around, a handy portal in the middle, and a couple of large farming plots with flax and barley growing nicely.