Valheim (Part 3)

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5

Still got a lot to cover, huh? Last time, we were about to fight...

The 'Mass

This beast looks like Swamp Thing and Slimer had a baby,
and then that baby grew addicted to crystal meth.

I vividly remember when I first fought Bonemass. I threw the Withered Bones into its altar, and that mass of goo and bone appeared. To their credit, the enemies and bosses of Valheim have logical weaknesses; fire and axes against the tree-like Abominations, as an example. Being a slime, Bonemass is weak to frost arrows, but unless you skipped steps, you shouldn’t have those; your other option is blunt damage. Still not sure how whacking a blob with a club can kill it, but whatever. Both times I took it down, I was equipped with the iron sledge, a two-handed weapon made using Ymir flesh, obtainable from Haldor. My second time was a lot easier, because I was better prepared.

Full disclaimer, at this point of the review/guide, I've gone
back to the Viking I beat the game with. If I want to do
these fights again for screenshots, I'll make it easier on
myself. My capture didn't involve a lot of enemies.

Bosses really are the final exam of their biome, and Bonemass is every annoying aspect of the swamps rolled into one bastard. Its area of effect causes nonstop rain, so you can never shake away the Wet debuff. It pukes poison gas regularly, so fighting it without poison resistance is stupid. It tosses its own matter, creating blobs and skeletons, so there’s always enemies to kill – and that’s before considering the other swamp residents who can butt in like unwanted neighbor visits on a day off. Draugr, we can deal, but... Abominations? In the middle of a Bonemass battle, they’re fun.

And of course, he's puking, too. What a classy gentleman.

Valheim is BRU-TAL.

This visual sign, accompanied by a "ding" that gets higher-
pitched as you get closer, is what you get when the
wishbone detects something underground.

When Bonemass is killed, it drops its trophy and a wishbone. Its Forsaken power massively increases your resistance to slash, blunt and pierce damages for five minutes. We’re reaching the point where your foods provide plenty of stamina, so your greater worry is surviving enemy attacks now. Eikthyr’s power was fine so far, but Bonemass’s power will save your Viking ass regularly. As for the wishbone, when equipped, it will beep close to stuff hidden underground. There are many Viking burial sites with jewels to plunder. Thanks to the wishbone, you can also find masses of muddy scrap piles hidden around a swamp, allowing you to farm iron without walking into a crypt. (It’s also possible to “prospect” by hammering the swamp ground with a two-handed mace to find these piles before beating Bonemass.) The wishbone is the main way to find silver nodes in...

The Mountain – “Moder”

In case you can't see it: The little floating red "1" is an HP
lost every tick. I am freezing to death right now.

I know parts of this game have felt like an uphill climb,
but it wasn't that literal before!

It’s only getting tougher from here. Resilient as they are, even Vikings cannot survive the cold of the mountains without help. Go too far into the white without any protection and the “freezing” effect is applied, slowly taking away your Viking's HP and slowing their stamina regen. You can freeze to death here. You’ll need frost resistance mead. I’d recommend always keeping a few in a chest, even once it no longer feels necessary. Imagine that you die on the mountain with all your frost resistance gear on – then how are you going to get it back without some protection?

Of course this cave is empty, I've already cleared it.
For a mountain base, it looks cozy.

The mountain is infamous for its difficult terrain, the trickiest yet. You’ll spend a lot of stamina scaling the cliffs. It’s gonna be tough, it’s gonna be annoying. Mountains can be of all sizes, and can be anywhere. I’ve seen some in the middle of Black Forests, I’ve seen some only reachable by crossing plains (...joy), I’ve seen some surrounded by mistlands (...also joy). Sometimes they have frost caves, which hide poisonous bats, cultists, and ulv, four-legged werewolves of the “who’s a good boi?” variety. The frost caves are the only location of some crafting materials... mostly for cosmetic base decorations.

Like a lot of weaker enemies, drakes eventually become
little more than annoyances... if only there weren't so
damn many at times!

Why yes, I WILL mine one to death.

Not that the outside is any safer. Moder is the mother of all Drakes, flying dragon-like creatures who attack with blasts of their frost breath. Fire arrows will be useful again. The “big” enemy here is the stone golem, which loves to jumpscare by coming together into a walking pile of rocks that attacks with as much power as a walking pile of rocks could. They resist arrows and are only weak to blunt damage. Oh, and pickaxes too, if you’re crazy enough to mine one to death. At night, you’ll encounter the prowling Fenring, two-legged werewolves of the “Bad dog!” variety. And, of course, wolves. Lots of wolves. They’re fast, they attack in packs, and just like boars, both their fur and meat can be used. Oh, that’s gonna be fun if they pop up while fighting Moder.

Stop beeping, I found it!

The metal here is silver, and its veins are hidden underground, requiring the use of the wishbone. (Or maybe you get lucky mining the entire mountain away. Or maybe you spotted a tiny bit of silver protruding from a cliff. Who knows.) Veins won’t appear beneath a certain altitude, so you must look for them high up. It’s heavier than iron, so it’s a pain to carry. Combine it to wolf pelts and a wolf trophy for a cape that grants resistance to frost. Doesn’t matter if you’re in your birthday suit underneath the cape, you’re now protected. Video game physics! You’ll want a full set of the new equipment tier, the Wolf Armor, since it’s got better stats. You can also find obsidian, a teleportable metal that can be used for a strong arrow type.

Like the silver deposits, Moder’s altar is located high up. One tricky part of the fight is to not fall down the mountain. However, its summoning condition is intense: You must sacrifice three dragon eggs. Every dragon egg has a weight of 200, meaning that even with a Megingjord, you can probably carry just one at a time. Dragon eggs are taken from Drake nests.

Ooh, I want an omelette.

You are being hunted

Oh Odin, that's a lot of goblins. Er, fulings.
(I couldn't get a raid to trigger during capture, so I'm
taking pictures from Jade PG's video. Check it out!)

One aspect I've barely mentioned is the raids. Although you can now tinker with the options to change their frequency (or remove them entirely), there was a time where you had no say on how often they happened. Originally, at certain intervals of real life time (the wiki says 46 minutes), a random event has a 20% chance to trigger. They can happen as early as before you even beat the first boss; and every time you beat a boss, new raids unlock in which your base can be assaulted by enemies from the latest biome. Bonemass is on your hit list? Expect Draugr knocking at your door to deliver the good news of the swamp. Before Yagluth bites the dust, you’ll get visits from the local fuling gang. If you killed the Elder and trolls before, you might see trolls laying waste to your barricades.

Far from home? If you killed wolves before, you can get the ominous message at the top of this section, and be attacked by an entire pack. (It’s funny if you get this while venturing the plains; watch canids murder fulings and lox left and right. They do your job for you!)

The entire pack? Nice, I was running out of pelts. (This
screenshot is taken from Embr's video on the same topic.)

These raids keep you on your toes, so you must always be prepared. Only issue is that, when you’re not ready (if, say, the raid begins while you’re low on food, or you’ve barely explored the new biome and you aren’t equipped against its threats)... you’re in for a fun time.

Valheim can be brutal.

Ugh, more of those blue brutes. My one tamed boar got
killed during a troll raid. I hate them.
(Screenshot also from Jade PG's video.)

I distinctly remember, in my first game, the Draugr event hitting while I was at home, while I had barely visited the swamp yet, and getting badly outmatched. Killed. My house’s door was left open in the chaos. Respawn at bed. The Draugr were waiting for me. Not exactly a face I feel like waking up next to. I don’t know how many times I got killed in the next few minutes, sometimes getting back to my body barely in time to equip my gear and fight back. Usually, it took too long, and I would die again. I think I eventually got lucky and killed the last ones, or they got bored and left (which can happen when the event ends). I’ve also had my fair share of troll surprises.

I made my second solo playthrough so that the odds of raids were a lot lower, but not completely gone; if you want to build in peace, you can turn raids off. As for me, playing with fewer raids has been great.

Completing Hildir’s bonus quests adds special raids to the rotation, so you can end up encountering the mini-bosses from those dungeons. Also, each time you kill a boss, their associated raid is replaced by the next boss’s, but the enemy spawns in early-game biomes increase in strength – after killing Yagluth, you can find fulings in the meadows at night. Speaking of...

The Plains – “Yagluth”

Come down here you coward! Ah, there we go.

Moder is a very tough boss as the fight will constantly be interrupted by smaller Drakes. She will fly, meaning your best mode of attack is arrows. That, or take advantage of the moments she lands to sneak in some chops with a sword or axe. Being an ice creature, she hates fire.

Furnaces, windmills... We're getting technological here!

Her defeat grants dragon tears, necessary in the construction of an artisan table, which must be around while you build the next important pieces of machinery:

• Blast furnaces melting Black Metal scraps into ingots;
• Spinning wheels, which turn flax into linen thread;
• Windmills, which turn barley into flour for recipes;
• And stone ovens, for recipes made in the cauldron that still need to be cooked afterwards, like bread or pies.

You also get Moder’s trophy which, once taken to its altar, unlocks the power to control the wind so it blows your ship forward for 5 minutes while sailing. Would have been nice to have that earlier, if you ask me; every time I sought Moder, I had to sail. (And yes, that's when I met the Mistlands two biomes early. The Seeker Surprise fucking sucked.)

It's not big, but it can hurt. Time for some bug killer spray.

Onwards! If you’ve ever come close to the plains before, you’ve already met the local fauna. By which I mean, big ass fucking Deathsquitos that will attack on sight and drain a significant portion of your HP unless you’re protected. These mosquitos like to stick around the edges of plains and attack on sight, even if you’re not on their biome. Thankfully, these things can be sniped from a distance (if you know they’re around) and, at 10 HP, are guaranteed one-hit kills. They always drop needles, which make powerful arrows.

The troll-level threat here is the semi-peaceful wild lox. They will attack if you come too close, but you can easily walk past. Their tough skin, high HP, and strong attacks makes them very dangerous, and you can have more than one mad at you at a time. Their pelts aren’t great unless you’re bored of your wolf cape, but their meat is useful for pies.

Lox meat mixed in dough with cloudberries... yum yum.

Just three or four? That's not so bad. When you raid a
village, you're attacked by, like, twenty of these guys.

Goblins are normally early-game fodder, but Valheim's Fulings will kick your ass. They can carry clubs, swords, spears, and torches, meaning you must account for their different combat tactics. Their tougher cousins, the berserkers, are slow but still hit hard. To top it off, they have shamans, who love to cast fireballs your way, and can also cast a spell that both shields and heals nearby fuling units. If you attack a village, expect dozens of these little shits swarming you.

Nothing to see here, just a bunch of Growths taking down
a Lox. I should run, 'cause I'm the next target.

Oh, there’s also tar pits. If you fall in one, doesn't matter the level of death penalty you've picked; you cannot retrieve that body, you lose everything on it. Forever. Even worse, they spawn Growths, even deadlier than the Blobs and Oozers. They spit a stream of tar, which slows and poisons you. If a few attack you at once, you’re fucked. I don’t use that word lightly in Valheim. On the plus side, they always spawn from tar pits, so you can set up workbenches around a pit to stop that, as workbenches and other player base builds (campfires, portals, forges, etc.) will stop enemy spawns in a 20 meter area aroud them. Enemies from the same biome tend to not attack each other, but fulings and lox hate the Growths and will fight them. That hatred saved me more than once.

Got my flax planted, got my barley planted...
That should be enough, right? Ha! Nope.

Fulings drop black metal when defeated; it’s the only way to obtain it. It’s necessary for new tools, weapons, crafting stations and upgrades. You raid fuling villages to steal their totems, since you must sacrifice five to summon Yagluth. However, when exploring a village, you can find flax and barley. These two can only be planted and harvested in the plains, so when I did my second playthrough, after I cleared a village, I placed workbenches everywhere, then turned the place into a farm, planting more of both so I would never run out. (Barley, especially; flour is useful everywhere.)

Alright, so let’s say we have our five totems, and we also found a Vegvisir indicating where the fifth boss is located. Well? Let’s go! ...In Part 4.