I feel like we are kind of stalling out on Valheim once more. More than “kind of” really. Conan Exiles showed up and ate into our play time in a big way, and now WoW Classic Cataclysm is approaching and it feels like the group will pick up with that once it lands. Plus, of the four of us, only Potshot and I really invested much time in either of those first two titles.
And that is fine. Our passions ebb and flow. We can always return to Valheim and the world we have. I mean, we never do return to our old world, always opting to start fresh… but it could happen.
But part of me is all “we just made it to the Mistlands and I kind of want to figure that out before we depart once more!”
As I noted, however, the Mistlands are a bit challenging. This is part of Iron Gate’s reaction to people getting through to the plains biome so quickly, the decision to ramp up the difficulty in the Mistlands rather dramatically.
So everything hits harder and moves faster, the terrain is rocky and tends to restrict and channel your movement, resources are sparse and some are hidden in difficult to find dungeons, and the whole thing is enshrouded in a layer of mist that, even when you are wearing that damn wisp light on your hear, limits your view to a 1-3 meter diameter bubble around you so that you’re constantly lost and stumbling into hostiles or steep cliffs.
A thick mist at high noon
And yes, if you sit still and the light is right and the RNG is feeling generous, you can get a peek into the middle distance.
I can see a ways from up here, but not the path to get there
Then you take a couple of steps and the sphere of mist surrounding you shrinks again and you’re bumping into walls and being surprised by the local menace mobs.
There it is, in the mist!… and I am standing in another biome at that point…
Basically, it is a pain in the ass. But the purist in me wanted to take it on as it was, to deal with the challenge and figure out how to overcome it.
Then, after a couple of weeks of my nibbling into the mists and running in terror or dying, never once finding an infested mine from which critical resources must be obtained in order to get to the next tier of gear upgrades, I was starting to get frustrated.
And that made me think of mods. After all, we’ve already committed to some mods that change how the game is played, including increasing item stack sizes and decreasing item weight. (Where there was an issue at one point.) I was sure there must be a mod out there that would remove the mist.
Me in the Thunderstore mod list…
So I found a mod in the store called MistBeGone which only required a client end install, so no need to taint the server with my indiscretion, and got that loaded up and…wow, the Mistlands are beautiful when you can see more than two meters in front of you.
Rosy dawn shaded Mistlands
Yes, there is still some mist around in the distance at times, enough to still remind you that you are in the Mistlands. But the view is unlocked, which changes the feel of the place dramatically.
Things viable at range now
And, without the mist, the whole biome is suddenly a much nicer place simply to look at. There are details which you see up close in the mist, but which tell more of a tale of what might have happened at some past time.
A giant rusted sword sticks up from the landscape
Really, the landscape in the Mistlands can be quite striking and less claustrophobic when you can see a ways.
A Dvergr structure spotted before I ran face first into it!
Of course, the clear air grants you some advantage as you are now able to see the bads before they are gnawing on your leg or raining down fire on you.
Doesn’t Gjall look good framed by the scenery?
That does let you at least engage with your bow at range so you can whittle it down a bit before it gets into tick throwing and fire spewing range.
Still, things will eventually close with you.
Well crap… time for the pain
That guy had finished off two Dvergr while I shot arrows at him before he came for me. I survived, but they still hit hard.
It also makes navigation easier, though perhaps not as easy as previous biomes. You are still hemmed in by steep rocky peaks that often channel you away from the direction you are trying to go. But at least you get a better view of things.
Water between me and my destination
All in all, removing the mist does take the difficulty down a bit and give you a greater sense of where you are. I do not feel lost quite as much. And, as noted above, seeing the bads at a distance does let you bring ranged weapons to bear. But stuff is still out there ready to mess you up.
Watching some Dvergr get firebombed… I put some arrows in to help
Finally, while it has opened up my ability to find things, I still haven’t found an infested mine yet, so I am still wandering the landscape in my plains gear, the only upgrade available to me being some slightly better food. You need the stamina a salad brings if you’re going to try to scale the sheer rocks in the Mistland.
So I am torn. I feel like I both copped out and went easy mode AND YET didn’t end up with things getting much easier. I kind of like my “I win” buttons to deliver a little harder. Oh well, back to Northrend I suppose, where I have draw distance issues of another sort.
Also, Iron Gate is saying that the Ashlands are close, the next biome on the list, which is supposed to be even harder than the Mistlands.
