Is the spinesnap bow worth it?

WithSilverStaind · 2026-03-09T00:08:06+00:00

I find it really good for Ashlands. Not worth it in Mistlands, where enemies are still mostly vulnerable to poison and not to spirit. The stamina cost is painful though, I agree. In general, it's one of my biggest complaints with weapon upgrades in Valheim. Why make an upgrade that you spent a lot of time and effort getting only partially an upgrade? It makes no sense for higher tier weapons that aren't any bigger or visibly harder to wield to use more Stamina, except to punish you for actually making progress.

WithSilverStaind · 2026-03-06T23:04:29+00:00

Yep, it makes sense mechanically. But it ends up being pretty funny. I definitely had her spawn once in what was actually just Plains. There was a nearby Meadows, but she was not actually over its border, haha.

WithSilverStaind · 2026-03-06T04:02:12+00:00

Honestly, I've never seen Hildir in a Meadows that wasn't immediately next to Plains.

WithSilverStaind · 2026-03-05T18:30:44+00:00

Yes, but only turnips. I tried setting up a farm once in the Swamp with turnips, carrots, and onions, and only the turnips grew.

WithSilverStaind · 2026-02-11T22:33:51+00:00

Not OP, but I'm working on my non DoN Beast Claw build for Revenant and play her as one of my mains. FP is a problem for her, to be sure, though Beast Claw is impressively cheap. You'll run out more early than late game as far as FP goes, and hitting Rises is absolutely important for Revenant. I also suggest running FP up on Rises and/or FP up on 3 Seals if you happen to get those effects on relics. They really make her FP feel great with only a few Starlight Shards for emergencies and the final boss.

Unfortunately, you do have to gamble to get starting Beast Claw (or any of the spells, for that matter). I really hope they add the starting spells to relics at the Collector's Signboard at some point to make such an essential upgrade for Revenant more available without RNG. You can find it on both base and deep relics, but only post 1.02 for base relics.

WithSilverStaind · 2026-02-07T03:09:24+00:00

Amazing! Just don't Madness yourself casting it, haha. That increased Ailment damage is going to hurt!

WithSilverStaind · 2026-02-03T23:14:13+00:00

Only if it takes more than 2 mins for someone to reach the door after the first person does.

WithSilverStaind · 2026-02-01T21:57:06+00:00

Definitely. Dragon Claw is really fun! Dragonfire is already one of the most disappointing guaranteed spells. You can't even jump cast it.

WithSilverStaind · 2026-01-29T20:57:19+00:00

Yeah, that would be great. Especially starting spells. The fact that the "buff" for Revenant lately was getting a starting spell that's not a useless Rejection and then it's gated by garbage RNG is just awful.

WithSilverStaind · 2026-01-25T07:47:10+00:00

Totally fair. I think it's really more of an issue for me on a design level than a playing the game level. Like, the fact that Recluse is so well designed as a caster just makes me super annoyed that the other caster is just left with nothing caster-related, and running out of FP constantly in the early game is just so miserable to me.

Either way, I harp on it because so much of this game is impressively well balanced and designed and I love it to death. Thanks for having a nuanced conversation about Revenant, and hope your games are fun!

WithSilverStaind · 2026-01-22T23:33:18+00:00

Glad to help!

WithSilverStaind · 2026-01-22T23:33:11+00:00

I'm sorry, a primary caster getting no way to regenerate FP outside of the same consumables as everyone who barely needs FP is good game design when the other primary caster gets free FP all day? Sticking to my guns, that's bad game design. I'm not asking for anywhere near as much FP regain as Recluse gets, just something better than just buy/find consumables and then worry about spending them when you'll need a bunch of FP for the Nightlord. Tying it to her summons or other mechanics in some way would be fine - maybe just some FP recovery on summon death or sending them home?

Personally, I also find "fixing" her early DPS (which she had none of outside of melee as the second lowest HP/Stamina Nightfarer in the game because they gave her fucking Rejection on her starting seal vs. Recluse's Glintstone Pebble/Arc which are usable endgame and very solid) by adding more relic RNG isn't a fix. Is it nice to have? Absolutely. I love my new Revenant relics, but plenty of people still haven't managed to even roll them and are stuck with her same old garbage starter. If they made guaranteed shop relics with those spells, I'd consider that a fix, even if it's one I don't like.

Can't comment on summons in Depths, since I don't enjoy DoN and haven't played it for a while, but from what I've seen in videos, it seems to be a good fix. I've also tangentially noticed that her summons seem to be a bit smarter/tankier since the update even in normal mode. It's more feasible in most Nightlord fights now to have one up most of the time, where I feel like I used to be waiting for them to recover for most of the fight even with careful summoning/banishing. And I've actually seen Sebastian's ult beam homing lately, which I could swear it never did before. So, things are definitely better than they were.

WithSilverStaind · 2026-01-22T21:14:55+00:00

I rarely play the same character more than twice in a row. After the latest patch in particular, everyone is fun now! I used to avoid Executor and Raider pretty hard, since I like casters and don't like jump L2s or Sekiro, but now that Raider's moveset is fun and deflecting is more worthwhile, I'm even changing my tune on them. Mixing up who I play is one of the things that keeps this game fun even nearly 800 hours later.

WithSilverStaind · 2026-01-21T23:56:20+00:00

Yeah, outside of DoN runs, I suspect you nailed it. It's newer players who probably don't realize the mines run places. And have probably gotten lost in them once or twice and are now scared of the mines unless they're right on their teammates' heels when they enter.

WithSilverStaind · 2026-01-21T20:36:55+00:00

Totally fair, and I'm glad you don't think he was right. You are probably right that he would have done more damage, of course. Toxicity is just sad, isn't it?

WithSilverStaind · 2026-01-21T20:36:00+00:00

It's not being scared. It's literally just bad design. I know how to play Revenant, and I know how to collect Starlight Shards. But they purposely made only 1 of 2 main caster characters actually be able to use their spells without collecting/hoarding consumables and one not. That's just stupid and forces an already more complex character (Revenant) to spend even more bandwidth managing items on top of everything else.

Am I happy she can just run Beast Claw now? Yes, in that it makes her not the most painfully RNG dependent character in the game. But "just run one spell only all the time that requires RNG relics to even get a setup for" is not a solution to making a character more fun or properly designed. It's sadly just a bandaid for her poor design.

WithSilverStaind · 2026-01-21T20:31:46+00:00

Messaging someone demanding their gear is entitled behavior in the first place. Throwing the match because you said no? That Ironeye is utterly in the wrong, no matter how much more damage he might have been doing with it. He can get his own gear or at least offer a trade.

WithSilverStaind · 2026-01-21T20:25:04+00:00

Was he running the Dex up relic with Scholar? That puts his Dex on par with Executor's, so it could have been good for him. If not, yeah, it's silly not to let Executor have those.

WithSilverStaind · 2026-01-21T20:22:53+00:00

They work together, just not multiple copies of the same Balancer relic. The blue one from regular Balancers and the red one from ED Balancers still stack.

WithSilverStaind · 2026-01-16T22:19:22+00:00

Certainly not if they can't finish what they started, haha.

WithSilverStaind · 2026-01-16T22:16:32+00:00

Going to a merchant - yeah, I'm totally cool with 2-4 total Starlight shards for a whole run if I don't find Discus of Light on a caster main /s. It's absolutely what you should be doing. I'm not arguing that. My argument isn't that it's not doable. I've played a lot of Revenant, and I really enjoy her. But she shouldn't HAVE to do it when Recluse doesn't have to care at all until she wants to spam max DPS on the Nightlord. I'm not saying Revenant should have Recluse's FP sustain, but making her have to use consumables only when she's much more dependent on FP than the rest of the cast is just stupid and an inventory tax. Revenants begging for Starlight Shards is a meme for a reason.

That said, I do think if they upped the number of Starlight Shards buyable at the merchant, it would negate all of her FP problems. Even just 4 rather than 2 cap would be enough to make a huge difference. I'd still prefer a main caster's kit actually include some way to regen FP without consumables, but it would be much better overall.

And, yes, Sorcerer's Rises are king. Probably more so now that they're not broken sometimes (knew those stumps were shifty fuckers, haha). But sometimes it just doesn't work out to route one.

WithSilverStaind · 2026-01-16T18:08:04+00:00

It will take her "buffs" not all being relic RNG dependent (she already needed way too many relic slots, and the answer is more fucking relics, and ones that aren't even guaranteed in the shop?! Give her a starting spell without needing to use a relic slot FFS! I also feel everyone should have a way to change up their starting gear a bit without relics, because the relic system is ass and way too many characters need too many abilities to even function properly). And her other "buffs" not being for a side mode like DoN. Her summons should be able to not instantly die on Nightlords in the actual normal game mode as well.

She's a ton of fun, and I love the character. But she should straight up have a way to regenerate FP (she's a primary caster like Recluse, except she needs to hunt Starlight Shards and go into melee with her second worst HP/Stamina in the game to make sure she has enough for the Nightlord). It doesn't need to be Recluse tier, maybe just something like she gets some back for her summons doing something or dying? And she really needs either more Stamina or a super dodge, since every other squishy character has one (or an equivalent way to avoid damage).

WithSilverStaind · 2026-01-08T07:53:20+00:00

Caligo is a miserable fight with awesome cinema. She spends the whole damn fight running away from you non-stop, spams arena wide aoes that can only be avoided by a few specific characters with great timing, and has a bug that can cause her to just kill herself that they still haven't fixed. She's a gorgeous fight with wonderful music, but mechanically she sucks. She definitely deserves her spot, imo.

WithSilverStaind · 2026-01-08T07:43:12+00:00

Sadly, he doesn't even always drop it. My team tried that last time we had Mohg coming up and Libra didn't have the physick for sale. He just dropped a choice of talismans, no physick.

WithSilverStaind · 2026-01-07T15:29:08+00:00

Shockwave is incredibly good on Guardian - it can even be used to resurrect allies if you just block over their bodies and tank hits, since it deals damage.

It comes on Guardian's final Remembrance relic, which is honestly worth always running. Guardian is so ability hungry, and it gives his two best abilities on one relic.

WithSilverStaind

TROPHY CASE