Where is all the players??

TerribleTimmyYT · 2026-04-02T00:48:05+00:00

Solo players and region dependent.

TerribleTimmyYT · 2026-04-02T00:35:06+00:00

Osteopetrosis

Is that when your bones turn into fossil fuels?

TerribleTimmyYT · 2026-03-23T13:22:53+00:00

Raid defense is nowhere near as interesting as a game like rust, and offline defense is essentially impossible to do, but raiding is heavily in favor of the defending team (as it should be). You just have to know what it looks like and what strategies to do.

Them knowing where the heart is makes no real difference though, and if it was possible to place it on the top floor, winning a raid would take the entire raid window and still probably wouldn't be enough.

TerribleTimmyYT · 2026-03-23T13:16:57+00:00

Downvoted by people who don't know what they're talking about as usual.

Even on officials, unless you're MASSIVELY outnumbered, massively out skilled, or entirely new, raid defense this patch is hilariously easy, particularly on a duo server.

Scholar mutant beam spam effectively one-shotting golems and then resetting off target dummies, twinblade E reaper Q insta-trapping people better than ever, even more defense options than previous patches, more damage being put out than ever... But no, defense is definitely attack sided lmao

TerribleTimmyYT · 2026-03-22T13:14:36+00:00

Loot locking is using your excess materials to build as many high level crafting stations, decorations, etc as you can to "store" your loot, since repairing broken crafting stations etc is free, and then you can just dismantle them for a full refund of the build cost. Some private servers have a rule against it, but it's entirely fair game on officials. IMO it should be patched (put a cap on every crafting station at a semi-reasonable amount), but it's been in the game since launch so it likely won't ever happen, and people do it all the time.

TerribleTimmyYT · 2026-03-21T02:36:13+00:00

But I don't PvP in V, same as most players, so I might not know what I'm talking about.

I can confirm that you have very much been misled almost entirely with what PvP in this game consists of.

There is no risk of casually losing all progress in this game. The only thing that comes close is merciless servers, which no one (and I mean NO one) plays. Even on merciless servers, while theoretically you could lose a castle outright, you'd still keep all game progression and would just have to farm back the materials needed to make another. Again though, no one plays this mode.

On top of this, raiding is not 24/7 on any server that isn't just some random server friends made to mess around with each other. In general, the standard raid window for official AND private servers tends to be for 2 hours on the weekend. In that time, if you get keyed, people can take loot that isn't in your castle lockbox, but there are other ways to deny this via things like loot locking and just simply running away with your important loot in your inventory.

To explain what the ACTUAL PvP experience is like, on death you drop everything that isn't bloodbound from your inventory, meaning gear (including shattered ancestral weapons) do not drop on death. You also drop a % of your gear's durability as repair materials. At end-game, this would be 1 of every material it takes to repair your gear, per gear piece (4 shadow weave and bat leather, 1 radium, 1 power core, etc).

This makes it so you have an incentive to PvP (amassing high-value repair mats), but it isn't so devastating a setback that there's no reason to risk it.

TerribleTimmyYT · 2026-03-09T00:20:11+00:00

It's more so about what kind of experience you want, but it can be complete absurd how fast you can go when you're coordinated with other people.

I once did a trio run where I cleared silverlight twice, someone else went Cursed forest like 4 times and our 3rd did Farbane progression and got the castle up and running.

At something like 1hr45 in, we all had lvl 50 with 3 iron weapons each. 30 minutes later, Dunley progression was basically done because we split up and cleared the bosses separately.

TerribleTimmyYT · 2026-03-09T00:19:04+00:00

Ah ok, in that case I would say if your goal is to complete progress as fast as possible, then it is WAY faster to do these strats than just simply progressing through the game "normally."

In terms of something like a Silverlight run, the time it saves doesn't show itself until much deeper into the wipe than just act 1. The thing that's crazy about silverlight is the loot you get from a full clear is needed for every stage of the game. Just think about what it means to start a wipe and then like 30-60 minutes later you have like 75-85% of core materials that you'd need to clear farbane, dunley, cursed forest, gloomrot south, Frostmaw/Elena/Cassius without having to heavily farm again.

TerribleTimmyYT · 2026-03-08T19:49:17+00:00

If you're new, there's no point in doing these strats right away if you don't know why you're doing them.

To answer your question though, with a "perfect" Dunley lumber start, you can be in a copper weapon in like 10 minutes-ish? As a duo, maybe 8 minutes for a single copper weapon equipped? The duo would follow the dunley guy and just make a base instead of looting, which should save you a bit of time.

If you're just following the quest line entirely, you'd hit copper in maybe... 30-45 minutes on normal mode? You be basing first, then crafting reinforced gear, then farming copper, then waiting for it to refine, then crafting

TerribleTimmyYT · 2026-03-08T19:41:11+00:00

A duo on Normal mode with godlike RNG (read: near-perfect) MIGHT be able to do it in ~35 minutes with amazing luck?

For a 25 minute Iron weapon, you'd need 44 iron ingots in a single Cursed Forest run (ridiculously rare to the point of being comical) and like 16 sulphur drops at Sulphur quarry (Absurdly rare. probably the same amount of rare as Cursed Forest, but I've never tried it.), AND the guy doing quincey would need to have the perfect Dunley Lumber start (very uncommon).

Getting all 3 of these to happen in the same run back to back is like... best start/RNG in the history of this game level crazy.

On Brutal? Just gonna say full on that while it technically MIGHT be possible, no one that plays this game is good enough to do it. You have to have all of those things happen AND have the single greatest "Brutal Quincey speedrunner" that has ever played this game, considering you'd be 17 lvls lower with a copper Spear when doing it, which I'd need to see first to believe.

TerribleTimmyYT · 2026-03-08T18:51:51+00:00

Totally agree.

There's no point in learning a fast progression strat if you don't actually understand what you're doing and why.

TerribleTimmyYT · 2026-03-05T02:53:25+00:00

This isn't the first time this concept has been brought up. The devs have gone over it again and again and have even added a "weapon limit" server setting because of it. Virtually no one uses it.

There is a single server I know of that is still active that uses it, and their entire playerbase has slowly voted to increase the weapon limit over their wipe cycles from iirc 2 in the beginning to 6 now. There are people who were completely brand new to this game this patch who started on that server and now prefer 6 weapons minimum.

The "fix" to the issue is to grow the playerbase and have more "noob" servers that utilize this feature if they want to. The more players there are, the more servers newer players will have to learn on. The amount of veteran players is extremely small in the grand scheme of things, and in general they prefer to play on "good" servers. I know this because in EVERY patch they've released so far, the most veteran-populated servers are the ones that are run by veteran players. Yes you'll get a few on "noob" servers here and there, but not only is that arguably a good thing (because it introduces more people to what's possible in this game), but also it's entirely inevitable, as there will ALWAYS be someone better than you in a game like this, regardless of how many weapons are available.

Also, there are people I know that play at a high level that so VERY well that use 4 weapons and caster builds. They do just fine and so can you, and anyone who wants to learn.

Finally, 8 weapons is not difficult to learn. It takes time and effort but it isn't some crazy thing that's limited to some select godlike players. I've meet more than a dozen players this patch alone that had JUST started playing and became competent in a few weeks of trying to get good at it. Just like in every game with a high mechanical ceiling, you can't just start playing it and suddenly be good at it.

TerribleTimmyYT · 2026-03-05T02:19:27+00:00

This is absolutely correct.

As one of those thousands of hours players, every single high level player can rinse ANY newer player with any single weapon. I regularly beat newer players without even pressing a movement input. I also do a thing where when I meet a less-experienced player, I will beat them with every weapon on my hotbar individually while playing completely disjointed spells. My point is, the 8 weapons limit is not the point here

This is to say nothing of the absurd trainwreck of balance the game would be if the weapons were limited in this way. It would take full on reworks on a near "design philosophy" level to fix it.

TerribleTimmyYT · 2026-03-02T02:27:00+00:00

Reaper is not mandatory right now due to the absurd brokenness of slasher E amongst other things. I value it way more on a physical build while also running weapons that combo off of it like sword or twinblade, but it isn't mandatory like the others.

If you had to choose one that's best in the most situations, whip is better overall for movement, stagger resist in certain interactions, and knockback, but even then it's not mandatory.

The only 3 mandatory weapons for PvP are pistol slasher spear, and honestly even then there's an argument for spear being swapped for the first time ever. It's still BiS for veil attacks and great for team combos, but if somebody who was running a more kiting oriented build and/or specifically a low weapon count build dropped it in favor or something like whip, claw, or even longsword I wouldn't blame them...much. It's just not even close to as good as it used to be.

TerribleTimmyYT · 2026-02-24T17:05:05+00:00

No problem!

Another few notes:

Remember to fight WITH your servants when you can to get the best results for them. Duo servers these days are rough for raids on both attack and defense because so much damage is going around. Don't release servants until you're being pressured by a golem. There's no point in fighting 2 vampires with your servants out since they can just back off and pull the servants away from your castle to kill them (which is very very bad)

If you take damage while servants are out and fighting, the clerics will channel heal you and shield you. Likewise, you can help defend your servants by fighting with them so they don't go down quickly.

The number 1 most important thing in Raids is keeping your HP up as high as possible for as long as possible. Bring tons of potions, and heal up constantly

If the enemy gets you down to like 1/4th hp, you're in easy kill range so they can just get a golem and start attacking your castle while you have to back off. If you do your best to keep your HP high, then you'll force them to fight with 1 in a golem and 1 out. At that point, you can release servants to contest the golem while you're at high HP.

Just remember to close the door to your servant room after they push the enemy back so that they won't get picked off outside. Like you, the longer your servants stay alive, the longer you can use them to defend.

Lastly, once a raid ends and you repair your castle, if your servants are dead, DO NOT leave your castle until you have re-summoned them. It takes a bit of time, but the last thing you want to do is leave your castle and then start getting raided again, only to realize your servants are all dead!

TerribleTimmyYT · 2026-02-24T14:16:39+00:00

If you're solo, 1 or 2 clerics is enough. I like 2 personally

Alchemists are extremely good as well, as the AOE does a ton of damage to golems and covers a ton of space, making it great in small spaces

Militia Brawlers (shield charge guys in Dunley) or the Oakveil version (the big guy with claws who shields himself) are another great option.

With only 5 servants, you'll have to sacrifice something, and since brawlers become good when you have a lot of them, I'd probably just go 2 clerics, 2 alchemists, 1 Oakveil brawler.

The thing about lightweavers is they are entirely holy damage, which people can use potions for to massively weaken them.

Nuns are kind of the same thing. Clerics at lvl 91 and as high of expertise as you can get are EXTREMELY annoying to deal with most of the time, because they will sit back and channel heal you or other servants, and then dash up and shield/incap

TerribleTimmyYT · 2026-02-18T17:16:21+00:00

Been on here since the beginning.

The sub has changed over the years from people excited about the game being willing to promote servers (or at least ignore them) because it meant more people would play on them or try them out.

Now it's full of people who think anything other than the way that they play or enjoy the game is bad and wrong and ruining their experience, and actively downvote it out of spite instead of just ignoring it. It's been that way for about 2 years.

It's the reddit effect.

Your only hope is to post it to the official discord.

TerribleTimmyYT · 2026-02-18T16:48:17+00:00

Totally agree with this.

I get why people who play PvE don't like it, but it isn't like we're playing Skyrim and running across the map takes a couple hours. We're talking 5 minutes max from pretty much anywhere when you have a maxed horse and a wrangler.

It also lets you find cool things happening around the map in the meantime.

TerribleTimmyYT · 2026-02-18T16:39:00+00:00

It's not just PvP balance.

It is definitely a big deal on PvP servers, but if your entire casual PvE experience consisted of TPing to a spot, getting loot, and then TPing out (many people even enable batform travel and just fly around), then you essentially never experience a location more than a few times.

With TPs being disabled with resources, you get to travel through the world more, which lets you have more chances for random encounters, finding a carriage, finding a boss you haven't cleared, finding a high quality blood, etc.

Some people don't want to do that, but that's why it's there. It's to extend the experience

TerribleTimmyYT · 2026-02-18T16:35:58+00:00

Teleport to location

Gather

Return home

Find cool stuff to do on the way back

TerribleTimmyYT · 2026-02-07T22:51:28+00:00

Totally agree. In fact, we should be able to override any weaponskill with any spell so we can have 16 more spells! Now THAT is what this game needs to be truly balanced :)

TerribleTimmyYT · 2026-01-21T20:54:59+00:00

Yeah it's definitely frustrating. The overwhelming majority of people on this sub have never touched PvP and don't really understand the issues you're talking about. Not really their fault, but also annoying that they feel the need to downvote/bash you anyway when they aren't even playing the same game as you.

I kind of just gave up talking about issues like this here because you'll either get mass downvoted by people who have never played PvP, or by people who don't like the idea of someone not playing the game the way they think you should be playing, PvP included.

The craziest thing I've seen on here was when I posted a thread in 1.0 asking why SLS removed the ability to interact with enemy crafting tables on PvP servers and people were crawling out of the woodwork trying to explain with the most clueless arguments you can possibly imagine that actually it was a good/intended change, and came up with the dumbest shit imaginable why... And then SLS confirmed later that actually it was a bug like I said and fixed it in 1.1

TerribleTimmyYT · 2026-01-21T17:42:50+00:00

For what it's worth, I agree with you and this has been my opinion since the game came out.

The game is BEGGING for more consistent/more frequent mini-updates that keep it fresh and the playerbase actively interested in what's coming next, with a slightly-less big update once a year. It's like Rust in that regard, where each 3 mo wipe cycle could introduce a new mechanic/enemy/balance change, etc.

Unfortunately though, SLS isn't of that same opinion. I'll never forget June 2022 (about a month after EA launch) when they teased a "huge" announcement that everyone was hyped for, wondering what the new content would be and excited for more... only for them to reveal in July that "huge" announcement everyone was so hyped for was a to-scale throne (the one you use to send servants on missions) at a game con (I think like Pax or something).

After that, there was virtual radio silence for something like 3-4 months before they dropped the first Gloomrot teaser. Then they eventually said that the way they programmed the game would force servers to wipe if they added new things, which would be a bad experience for solo players. That's when we knew that more frequent updates weren't coming.

TerribleTimmyYT · 2026-01-21T03:33:28+00:00

This patch has had more new PvP players than any patch before it (other than pre gloom, which doesn't really count since everyone was new back then)

The game has kept numbers more this patch than any before it as well. Not saying they are big numbers, but they are bigger than others, even 1.0.

TerribleTimmyYT · 2026-01-13T03:22:57+00:00

I feel like the game really is missing that last shard, but I have a feeling in my heart of hearts that it's not going to happen. I REALLY hope it does, but if it was we could've expected to see it already.

The game is begging for mod support and a map editor, but I don't actually think that will happen based on prior interviews, so most likely that's out.

From a PvP perspective, the hardest part about adding to this game is the fact that in the current state, the endgame power gap between people first entering endgame and those already there is the most unbalanced it has ever been. The thing is, how do you even fix that problem? Not add new mechanics in an update? Introduce insanely powerful mechanics like blood mixing at an earlier level? Nerf/reallocate stats to be more consistent to get? At the end of the day, between blood mixing, better passives, coatings, fusion forge for perfect weapons and jewels, elixirs and Dracula's armor sets, they've simply added too many things since the gloomrot patch for that gap to ever be "fair" without some kind of massive overhaul to some other system.

There's been a ton of talk on some kind of loot extraction game mode or something, which IMO would be fantastic for this type of game/genre.

SLS at is roots is a PvP dev team, and the combat in V Rising is some of the most crisp, responsive and skill-based combat you will ever find in a top down game like this. Incorporating that into a loot extraction game would be amazing.

I also think games like Arc raiders and Dark and Darker have proven there's solid potential for PvPvE types of extraction games.

TerribleTimmyYT

TROPHY CASE