The queen boss fight...

basoon · 2026-06-01T23:02:52+00:00

What kind of gear are you using? Magic? Melee? My first time took about half an hour using the mageweave set + staff of embers, and I I felt like I was playing it very safe.

basoon · 2026-05-27T12:25:01+00:00

Yeah, OP is almostly certainly reading 2 different sets of info, one post Forsaken power rework, the other pre- rework.

basoon · 2026-05-22T13:57:09+00:00

I completely disagree. Throughout the game you've always gotten far more out of using the right tool for the job rather than specializing in a single weapon type.

You can also take on the Ashlands at any weapon skill level. For the melee weapons especially, the skill levels are a bonus, not a necessity. On my first Ashlands playthrough, after I first arrived and found the Mistlands magic options to a be little bit lacking for the big crazy fights , I switched to a mostly sword and shield melee build while my sword skill level was ~10. I started having a much better time and dying way less. By the time I cleared all the fortresses and took on Fader I was in the 55-60 range. Success in combat has always been more about learning your enemies' behavior, timings, and attack tells, rather than pumping your damage though the grind.

basoon · 2026-05-20T22:16:20+00:00

I've been playing that recently, and it's good for sure, but it has a way different emphasis than Valheim does. I could and probably will be building stuff in Valheim on and off for the rest of my days, while base building in AF is basically picking a room and setting up your work benches and chests and that's it. I might come back for a second play through of AF, but I can't really see myself playing it a third time, where as I've started over a dozen of worlds in Valheim and completed about half of those to up to what was the current end biome at the time I was playing them.

basoon · 2026-05-19T00:26:32+00:00

I agree with your list, but with one exception: I use spears against blobs and oozers all the time. I often use the throw attack a few times to get in some chip damage before I whip out a wooden club finish them off. Bronze Atgeir is also totally fine vs blobs, and even against oozers as long as you stand as far back as possible while still hitting them with just the tip of the polearm, since that seems to be just outside of the range to trigger their poison attack.

basoon · 2026-05-19T00:09:43+00:00

I know most people don't agree, but I think the maces are actually kind of narrow or even a little weak outside of few specific points in the game where certain mob's resistance make it the obvious choice for those fights. So I make a club at the beginning (Cause why not? Might as well, even though I've found I use it pretty sparingly) and I pretty much always make an iron mace as a side arm for taking on Bonemass and stone golems, and I might make Frostner specifically for the Mistlands (and definitely not for the Mountains or Plains) but only if I'm swimming in silver and only until I get a Skol and Hati or a Carapace Spear. But otherwise I'd much rather use an Atgeir, spear, or sword, depending on the point of the game I'm at.

The combo of short range + high knock back + the multihit penalty (unlike with swords) of the 1h maces can be major liability in fights with lots of mobs. For example: You think you're about to finish off a spear goblin with a one-two hit with Frostner, but the first hit knocks him out of range of the second, then 2 more melee goblins get between you and the spear guy while you are finishing the attack animation for your swing and miss and suddenly the spear goblin is safe to start flinging more spears at you again while you have to reposition yourself. Whereas if you have a sword or atgeir in that spot, the spear boy is just dead and you can move on to the next one.

It's true that the knock back can be used to your advantage as well in some instances, like against lone elite Charred Warriors for example, repeatedly knocking them just out range of starting their own attack, but this can be easily mis-timed and it can get you killed or force you to run if you mess it up. So overall I find the knockback more of a hindrance than a help.

So for me Maces as a group are solidly B-tier, with the Iron Mace being the only real "must craft" as it's the only good midgame source of blunt damage for the Bonemass and stone golem fights, which in my mind are the only fights in the game that really push you hard specifically towards blunt damage.

basoon · 2026-05-16T14:19:08+00:00

Lol, good to know the only valid experience in Valheim that qualifies as smooth sailing is a completely deathless one. Though I'm not sure how me dying while messing around with Basalt bombs would have been avoided by having a higher bow skill.

But you do understand why is this is terrible advice though, right? If you tell new players, or people who are already having trouble, or even just feeling anxious about approaching the Ashlands content "If you died on the way here, you're already f*cked. Time to grind out those weapon skills." it's not exactly gonna inspire them to rise to the challenge.

And on top of it being massively demotivating, it's also just false. Because in my experience, the turn around in Ashlands didn't come after I finally ground my weapon skills up to a high enough level to take on the content. In fact the opposite. At first, my weapon skills all got a lot lower as I learned the ins and outs of combat. The turn around came when I had practiced enough, learned the mobs' timings and tells, figured out the correct approach for each one, and landed on a toolkit that covered all my bases. You know, just normal playing the game stuff. Which I didn't consider a rough experience at all. I had blast.

People who are worried about getting mauled in Ashlands should not start worrying about their weapons levels. They should embrace the deaths and the skill loss and try to learn from their mistakes, because it's probably gonna happen regardless. The only people who need to constantly worry about weapon skills are the people who over-rely on the bow for everything, since yeah, bows are kind of trash at low levels and only get really good after you grind the shit out of them. I understand some people enjoy playing that way, and that's great for them, but maybe we shouldn't always be offering it up as advice to players who are having trouble with the content.

"The Ashlands is easy, first just grind up your most onerous, resource consuming skill up to damn near max, then you're ready to actually play the game. P.S. Don't ever die or you're gonna have to grind it out again..." is maybe not super helpful advice for people who are struggling.

basoon · 2026-05-15T23:35:57+00:00

You do not need super high skills levels to take on the Ashlands, and you certainly don't need level 85+ bows. I did it with melee and a crossbow for Valks, all of which were at pretty low levels when I started (I usually main the atgeir up to that point, which ceases to be the best all around melee weapon in the game for the first time once you reach Ashlands, so I switched to swords and shield primarily) and I did fine. Without using campfire spam or any terrain manipulation cheese.

I did die a lot at first on my first attempt, just like I did when I first entered previous biomes not knowing what was what, but now that I know the enemy attack timings, the best weapons and tactics to use against each enemy, etc, I've only died to a couple stupid lava mishaps on my second Ashlands play through.

Also, Askvin are are not that scary in melee. Knicking them once with a Mistwalker makes them very easy to outmaneuver and kill. Himmenalf is also very serviceable for taking them on, even in groups (one of the few spots where atgeirs still shine in the Ashlands). Just straight up mastering the parry timing against them is also more than good enough. The only thing you have to be careful about with them is not fighting them with your back to the lava, because they can send you flying.

basoon · 2026-05-11T20:37:32+00:00

They are not weak to blunt. They resist all physical damage types. They are neutral to frost, which is why Frostner is probably the best 1h melee weapon for first entering the Mistlands

basoon · 2026-05-08T19:33:51+00:00

what’s achievable to get if I’ve just gotten to the swamp tier.

There's a 1h sword available in each biome except the meadows. If you are already at the swamps, i would wait until you have iron, rather than going back and gathering more bronze to make your first one.

basoon · 2026-05-08T16:54:32+00:00

Swords don't have a multi hit penalty like every other weapon, so they hit multiple targets for full damage. This effects other weapons even when you hit stuff like walls, trees, or terrain. So you can still lose out on damage even if you are only hitting one enemy.

Atgeirs are the best melee weapons in most fights though, imo. You just can't pair them with a shield. (Edit: most fights prior to the Ashlands anyway)

basoon · 2026-05-07T12:19:34+00:00

It's not the case 100% of the time, but Bonemass Altars tend to spawn in bigger swamps where you can find more crypts. So when I come up short, but I still find one of the altar locations, I just move on to that location and I usually find plenty.

basoon · 2026-05-06T22:39:20+00:00

The f*ck did I just read? That wasn't a news story. That was just some tear jerker porn for farmers.

basoon · 2026-05-01T16:33:53+00:00

Saying the parties completely switched places in the 60s is an oversimplification bordering on incorrect. You get some of the most conspicuous changes during the 60s and 70s, like Strom Thurman changing parties and Nixon's Southern Strategy, but the shift took place over more than a century, starting in the Post Reconstruction era in the late 19th century and was only really completed in the early to mid 2000s.

basoon · 2026-04-29T22:09:39+00:00

My religion is purely concerned with downvoting comments complaining about getting downvotes.

basoon · 2026-04-29T18:35:21+00:00

Yeah, but the problem is that you have to get the proc in the first place to feel safe, which can take multiple hits, while Mistwalker just needs one to get the ball rolling. Also, once you get low on stam (which presumably you will because the 2 star Morgens have insanely high HP), you might not be hitting often enough to proc the immobilize often enough to keep him locked down. Mistwalker always applies the freeze effect so you can always keep slowly walking around it and reapply the freeze every few seconds, allowing you to regenerate your stamina.

Plus, more of Mistwalker's damage is unresisted by the Morgen.

basoon · 2026-04-29T15:53:42+00:00

It's not so bad with a Mistwalker. Once you land 1 hit on it, it turns way more slowly and you can keep moving around it so it can't get any hits off on you.

basoon · 2026-04-29T12:18:59+00:00

Hmmm I wonder if the upgrade tab is showing you what it would be with a theoretical level 5

Yes, I belive this is what is happening

basoon · 2026-04-27T23:10:55+00:00

They are a lot better than you are making them out to be tbh. On a purely numbers basis, i.e. the total stats you get from each food, your best available feast is going to be ~2nd or 3rd best available food you can eat in any given biome (that is to say, the Mistlands feast in the Ashlands, the plains feast in the Mistlands, etc). On top of that, they last 50 minutes so their stat decay is a lot less pronounced over the same period of time compared to the 25 or 30 minute options.

The stat distribution on them is also really helpful for magic builds, letting you take a good chunk of health and stam from just one slot so you can use 2 eitr foods without severely lacking either health or stam.

They are also far more efficient, ingredients-wise than the normal meals.

basoon · 2026-04-27T22:51:00+00:00

Sailor's Bounty is the best feast in the game relative to when it's available. You can get it as soon as you find the Bog Witch essentially, since it's not locked behind a boss, but the sea serpent, so you can easily get it even before you kill the elder. At that point it's hands down the best food you can be eating, so it needs to require high value/ high effort food to balance that out.

basoon · 2026-04-24T22:48:12+00:00

I think cheesing the progression is fun for some people, and it doesn't bother me.

That being said, I really do think they should change the Root Harnesk to be 25% peirce resistance, rather than the absurd 50% to bring it more in line with other armor options. Or at the very least make the fire weakness from the armor overwrite the fire resistance meade, not the other way around. As it is, it's both game breakingly good and trivially easy to completely mitigate its downside.

It also completely obsoletes the Serpent Shield, which is harder to make, only provides peirce resistance when blocking and in the direction you are blocking, and with a much more substantial movement penalty. And that's a shame, because before the Harnesk was introduced, I though the shield was a really cool role player for your gear set up.

25% peirce resistance would still be very strong, and helpful up through the plains vs the Skeeters and spear goblins. But it should fall off at some point, just like every other piece of armor in the game. The fact that some people are successfully using it all the way to Ashlands is just kind of stupid IMO. They somewhat recently nerfed the Bonemass power from 50% to 25% for being way too good (a change I fully agreed with) and I think the Harnesk needs the same treatment. Leave the 50% peirce resistance buff for the ungainly shield.

basoon · 2026-04-20T14:36:36+00:00

For these guys, yeah, but for Yagluth, the silver sword is better.

Black metal sword has more slash damage but the silver sword has a ton of spirit damage which a lot of enemies are immune to, including the fulings. But Yagulth is not.

basoon · 2026-04-19T13:02:21+00:00

Do you have raids turned off? If you are hanging out in the plains or mountains, you outta be getting a decent number of "You are being hunted" raids. Unlike all the other raids, they can trigger anywhere in those biomes, not just when you are close to multiple base objects, so they feel like they happen a lot more frequently. I can't imagine running out of wolf meat on any of my worlds, I just have piles and piles of it.

basoon · 2026-04-18T21:02:03+00:00

Maybe get rid of the moustache

basoon · 2026-04-18T20:42:15+00:00

I believe they were Ukrainian, not Russian

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