4Game

Hey Reddit. I really wanted to share some of my thoughts and see what others think. Decided to write a post.

I've been playing Valheim for a while – got back once again since Mistlands came out and I really wanted to see what devs got in store. Got my bros, started the grind, got to Mistlands and… Yeah, there are some things I want to share. System by system, zone by zone.

Zones

1.Meadows

Meadows are great as a starter zone and provide a really nice tutorial for the game – thanks for the help, Raven! It's a great zone overall, with some progression to be made – and a good tutorial boss to top it off. Learn to dodge, parry, move – it's all there. Plus there are some buildings left to either use as a starter for a base or as a resource source. Love it.

1. Black Forest

A great follow-up in my opinion – a bit harder, with more dangerous foes but with even greater rewards. I absolutely love fighting trolls, parrying them is probably the best thing one might feel this early in the game. Plus you actually get some great resources from them and the forest – core wood, blackberries that allow you to cook some awesome food – it's really really good. Plus you get the portals, dungeons and a pretty fun boss that needs coordination.

Where the zone fails, however, is with it's resource grind. Mining copper and tin isn't fun at all – it's a chore no matter how you look at it. You need a cart to properly get large quantities of it around, which is fine, but simply mining isn't interesting. Every time I mine copper and tin I can feel the time fleeting away. Plus the conversion rate of 10 copper to 5 bronze isn't helping. It's an alloy, I get it. But you need so much that it makes you want to skip entire bronze age after crafting an axe (and a cultivator), making a bow and making a run for the Swamp to actually get some Iron.

1. Swamp

Well, if you didn't come here after grinding the whole bronze set – you either believe in yourself too much or want to die over and over. The swamp's design is the real gatekeeper, if you brave it you will be able to get the rest of the game done. Still, there is some bs to be met here. Mostly it's the movement that kills you, swamp water really is the boss of the location, Bonemass is just a good little boi compared to it. And leeches are the real boss ads that you can't reliably hit because of targeting axis limitation. Oozes can be a problem, but once you craft the mead you are set to go. Besides, you need it for Bonemass, who is a decent boss, too monotonous for my liking tho.

The dungeons are pretty cool, you get lots of iron, the biggest problem is it's transportation out of the swamp to your main base. And the actual amount of Iron you need (for the rest of the game). Swamp is the love/hate relationship for me.

1. Mountains

You know what? I like them. Steep combat SUCKS, but the enemies (other than 5 wolves attacking you at the same time) are great to play against. Silver is an ass to drag but a beauty to mine, plus you make great armor out of it, great weapons and overall feel really powerful once you get to silver.

The dungeons are fine, I love that you actually need stealth to gain advantage in them, visually and soundwise they are really great. 3 dragon eggs aren't really fun to drag since they weigh too much, but you usually get lots of them in one mountain, so finding them on boss location wouldn't be a problem. The boss itself loves to lag too much on land tho, so there is room for improvement. Neither like it nor hate it, it's just there. Overall – I really loved the location. My biggest complaint other than steep combat would be 2-star wolf taming.

1. Plains

Hands down best location in the game. No more mining, just goblin slaying, wheat farming and moskito parrying. It's where the game shines – good food, good enemies (love the goblin camps), good weapons (blackmetal sword yeeeeeah), great amount of arrows (thanks to moskitos) and a really great boss to top it off – he needs a meele attack tho. Other than that a great Dark Souls boss vibe. And lox are really cute. This is how the game should be.

1. Mistlands

I was really excited to see friendly NPC's and it felt like I was in the MMO – the feel that I had when I first stumbled upon a dvergr camp that was fighting ants was something out of an AAA game. The music, the feeling, the hares – it was good! Plus the exploration. But after 5 or so hours of trying to find more dungeons to farm cores (dungeons spawn from 0 to 6-7 cores per dungeon) it became apparent, that the devs made an okay location for an RPG, but not for a survival game.

The list of problems as follows

• Wisp loves to lag and provides too little vision. I spend most of my time there looking at the minimap, just to outline where am I going.
• The terrain is too steep to move. Considering stamina and how much time you spend on traversing rather than exploring makes the experience…lackluster.
• Lack of movement options – for some reason there isn't a levitation spell, grappling hooks or anything – you have to rely on a weird mount-hugging mechanic.
• All of that creates the problem of finding the dungeons – you basically have to STUMBLE upon then. Relying on a faint blue light and sound of ants isn't reliable. You can just hug the shore, sure, but this kills the thrill of exploration.
• Same for farming ores and other things – you just stumble upon corpses or giants or their old weapons.
• Corpse runs are a chore. Period.

All of that kills the joy of playing Mistlands IMHO. A great, magical place that isn't fun.

1. Ocean

It exists. And there is sometimes an occasional serpent there. An update is welcome.

Now for mechanics.

1.Stamina

Too much reliance on it. Some of the peaceful deeds, like tree chopping and farming could have been better without it. Leaving it for combat and movement would've been ideal.

2. Skills

They should be either farmed faster or never lost.

3. Weapons

Hit axis should be adjusted according to you crosshair position. Hill combat is absurd when you can't hit your opponent because he's an inch lower than you. Plus some of weapons, like spears, should be more beneficial to the user, as spears simply aren't long enough and don't provide any range advantage. What's the point? Just the damage type?

1. Magic

Ties to the the weapon and skills at the same time. It should be introduced much earlier, in the Black Forest at least, for the hero to farm the skill and spice up the combat.

1. Armor

Ties to the combat. It's really weird how different class sets exist in different armor tiers (swamps for bow users, mountain for swift dex boys, mistlands for magic). There should be an option to be whoever you want to be in the party each zone, instead it just feels like you are forced to give up a certain playstyle if you want to survive in the next location).

1. Teleporting

There should be an option to teleport ores with upgrades. For example – if you make an iron upgrade to a portal you should be able to TP copper and tin, but not Iron. You make silver upgrade – TP iron, but not the silver. Black iron upgrade – silver TP. You get the gist.

1. Corpse runs

Controversial idea but to my mind they should be changed. Since the combat is flawed losing your stuff in the middle of swamp isn't the best thing.

To my mind, the game should be less about spending time moving or doing something that artificially prolongs the game. The combat should be engaging, one should look forward to exploring the next location. That is why I honestly want all game to feel like plains. More action, more bulding and crafting , more combat options – this all should make the game much more pleasant to play and should give it more replayability.

1. Moving

There should be more options for movement, such as charges, mounts, spells etc.

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Feel free to express your opinion, guys. I know lots of the things I suggested are already available with mods, but to my mind vanilla should be like that.