Also don't forget the portals.
After making land, it is one of the most important buildings to have

Originally posted by owenkj:

for the first 20 or so hours of playing Valheim I did very little exploring out of fear that I would get one shot from something I didnt see coming or couldnt defend myself from but eventually I decided that In a game like this exploring is half the fun so I decided to set sail for new lands after defeating the second boss and sure enough I got 1 shot off an enemy in the swamp that I was trying to run from. I had max upgraded bronze armor and about 80 health at the time but that didnt save me from the poison damage. Now my progress has been set back a good 4-5 hours as I have lost my boat and have little hope of ever recovering the 50 or so bronze worth of gear I lost. Natrually i never want to go exploring far ever again in this game and I dont think that makes for fun gameplay. ultimately I think death is too punishing in valheim. Losing Items on death makes sense in a game like minecraft where most of your progress is in your base and most valuables in your chests and Items break anyway but In a game like valheim where the majority of your valueable items and progress is on your person I think losing all items is far too punishing

Prolly got backstabbed by a Wraith. I hate those things :P In the swamp, if it is night time, wraiths can appear. They will be ghost like phantoms that fly/float and hover around the swamp. They really like sneaking up on you and backstabbing you. If they score a hit in your back you are pretty much dead.

Beware poison also. Your bow is your friend.

Always take a moment when you step foot on new land (from your boat) to put a portal up before you go exploring. An ounce of effort saves butt-loads of grief in this game. Being prepared usually means the difference between a good time and a headache.

I know its a long read, but line six he mentions poison damage.

Same thing happened to me and a friend of mine when we first set foot in the swamps (We didn't go there intentionally though, we were just sailing around and accidentally "stumbled onto something new that seemed like fun to explore"). So we jump out of a boat, encounter a 2-star Draugr Archer who one-shots both of us. We then have to make a raft (no resources for another carve of course) and sail across the ocean to recover our bodies (no serpents encountered, blessed be Odin). Thankfully we did remember to bring a portal this time, because the draugr killed us on the spot again and was literally guarding our tombstones. Long story short - we managed to recover our stuff after several attempts, but we never got our revenge on the draugr :D and we also learned a lot in the process haha.
I guess the moral of this story is - while dying is annoying (talk about your lost skills) and can often be very inconvenient (having your stuff stranded on another island), it also teaches you about the game and how NOT to die. In the end, however many times you die - it is still fun to explore :) so don't let a small setback discourage you.

It sounds sick but dying while exploring is an extremely useful learning experience.

Remember dying while you were exploring that new area and collecting so many new items and then getting 1-shot by something new? Damn right you do and you sure as hell ain't gonna ever forget it!

That's the hidden gem i am really starting to appreciate about Valheim.

When you set sail, carry portal materials and make sure you have already made a Primary portal before you leave to link you back home.

Chop pine trees in the black forest for core wood and set up spikes around your home and portals for basic defense.

Create a basic hold of chests(no roof needed) for storage. Just a fenced off area, really.

When you decide to explore, you really need to accept the potential realization that what you have in your inventory could be lost. If you cannot accept this, grind and make copies of what you are not willing to lose.

To me, personally, dying in Valheim is more impactful than dying in Minecraft.Don't know where to put my finger on it but the feeling is just so damned different.

Danger is a natural part of adventure. Without sense of danger it would be a walk to the museum - here is tree, here is monster, here is boss, thank you for excursion,.

It does seem to be a bad idea in general to spend materials upgrading most tools and armor rather than making extras, precisely because it amplifies the risks of exploring. (While only boosting your effectiveness by maybe 50%) Better to have plenty of backups for the inevitable recovery runs while you raid the edges for next tier resources.

He died of poison, probably from a blob (or worse an oozer). His hp was only 80. He had no poison protection potion. I might have died in my upgraded padded armor.

Or honey. Honey can work for poison survival in an emergency.

I just don't like how it is balanced. Nearly every enemy sucks at landing hits. Wolves and fulings are possibly the only exceptions. Everything else tries to go in for a hit about once every leap year or is otherwise so weak that it doesn't pose a threat.

0 stars are so forgiving that it is painfully boring, 2 stars hit so hard that death to them feels cheap.
Battling 0 stars feels like pointless pest control, whereas with 2 stars even the most vanilla method of fighting them feels like cheese.

I want enemies that are competent, and aren't relying too hard on giant stat climbs to compensate for their lack of aggression.

Especially when it comes to the fulings I think the reddish brown colouration does a poor job of communicating how hard they are going to hit compared with their 0/1 star brethren.

It is a two part problem. The discrepancy between 0 and 2 star enemies should be large but it is too large. But there is also too much of a discrepancy between the difficulty of biomes and the gear that we use to deal with them. Too much of the map becomes danger-free after we are ready for mountains or plains. Putting fulings in every biome later on feels like a cop-out and robs the meadows/black forest/swamps of their unique identity somewhat.

Valid points Cooperal...

But as a seasoned player with max gear and stats, its not the one stars or even the two stars, its those moments you forgot to eat, let it get dark, got wet, ran too long (no stamina) and ran into 4 goblins (one of which is a two star) fight your way through them, accidentally aggroing a group of Lox, and just when you think you have weathered the storm you get bonked by a deathsquito.

The opportunity to die still exists, it just takes some complacency.

I personally hope they don't nerf anything. In fact i'm for making mobs hit harder. I wish the deathsquitos were still the threat they once were. I'd like to see smarter AI, goblins that surround you before they attack. Trolls that look for weaknesses in your base.

Paragraphs dude, paragraphs. could only read topic and first line... Punctuation too.

Exploration isnt difficult or too dangerous at all, unless you go to say black forest right from the start. There is progression you need to do in upgrading your gear and foods before moving on to more dangerous areas.

Early on, mining and such, just build a wall around and you are safe. Wood is plentiful.

As you progress, death becomes less and less likely in the game. You got a little unlucky, 80 hp isn't a whole lot to go out into the black forest with (let alone the swamp).

I would be more than happy to help you get your stuff.

Higher level Food currently in game can get you up near 260 health (so there is hope, something for you to shoot for)

Look for carrot seeds in black forest, and turnip seeds in swamp. Once you harvest them you'll have access to the soup recipes. Also, Blueberries and Rasberries make queen's jam, another good food to have.

if you died from poison in the swamp, there is a poison resistance potion that decreases poison damage by I think 75% (someone will correct me if I"m wrong).

If you don't think it will ruin your experience I can bring materials in your world to craft a long boat which will give you some added protection against threats you'll face on your journeys.

Just send a friend request if you are interested.

Swamp is the place they step up and teach you the value of potions/meads.

Setting sail is fine and all... Karve isn't the best for open ocean but it can work.

The big issue is that it sounds like you made landfall in the swamp.

Swamps and boimes after that can be very dangerous to the unaware. My advice would be that in future you land in a "safe" biome <meadows or black forest> and explore the edges while you collect resources. The swamp offers a lot of things and building up your food and making potions before you really venture in and explore is the safest way to approach it.

Also don't forget the portals.
After making land, it is one of the most important buildings to have

You learn from deaths and don't repeat the same mistake.
The lesson here is one where many have their first death: Many creatures in the swamp inflict powerful poisons. Never go to the swamp without having Poison Resistance Mead active and a stack on you. These must be taken before you get poisoned.