Yeah, am up in the mountain behind my base, found silver w the sledge, mighty fine tool, and have 2 golems watching me from above my little silver vein. I just run past them down to my base, gather the glands from them pissing off the drakes watching over the two nearby eggs. 5 drake trophies so far, busy place. usually a couple wolves waiting for me on the way down, free food.

Looking at your description of things I think a couple things would help you. Go into settings and turn up the critter sound, turn down the music a bit. It's nice you can hear your wife fart, but you would be much better off hearing the grey dwarf fart, or the other things going on that are well announced. But you have to recognize the sounds, like the low woofling of the trolls, the sound of ravens whenever you are around something interesting you Should Pay Attention To in the BF. If you hear even the quietest of wolf howl you are in for a visit, usually by 2.
Go home at night. Go home at night. Sleep at night.
You understand you have to have a bank of stam , running and jumping ability, all weapon skills. You get them by running, jumping and using those abilities all you can. At the end of the BF they should be in the high 20s, low 30s. 40-50s in the mountains. If they are not, you will have problems in the swamp and die quickly in the mountains where those skills are important. There are those that say skill levels don't matter. If you are struggling, then they do.
Stealth is a skill. Use it when you don't need it to build it up.
This is bad news but 160 hours is nothing unless you have an appointment in some other game. You should have piles of resources from the BF, half a chest of turnips, lots of blood bags, ooze, guck, chains. Your WBench and forge s/b at lvl 5. You should have all new iron weapons at level 4 when you leave the swamp which means lots of sunken crypts. You can't do that in 167 hours... You're rushing it. Yes you can snoop around the mountains early but it's time you could spend actually preparing yourself to be there comfortably.
And you need to know when to hold them and when to fold them. When to run and when to stay and fight.
There is nothing wrong with how the game works up through the plains. ML, well not every hit is a home run. You don't need to get gud but it would be in your best interest to learn what they hell your doing. Watch a few vids on the basics. I think that if you keep at it, in a few weeks or a month you will be having a great time. Or not, your choice. The game punishes those that don't prepare, don't pay attention.
Difficulty settings are in the works. Close to 3k hours of 99% solo, no mods, no dev commands. And I am older than dirt, can't see for ♥♥♥♥ and have terrible reflexes. It can be done.

That's what valheim always used to be as far back as I can remember.
Mining attracts creatures,

Depending on the location and your progress in the game its sometimes more, sometimes less.

This works! Try it!
1. Find node. Ck for nearby trollhouse and put a workbench inside entrance just for giggles. Kill troll.
2. Take down trees over top of copper and around edges. Leave them as logs and push off node. Makes for pathing issues with enemies.
3. Go right up against node with your pick and dig the ground straight down and even a little under the node if you can. Once you get to BEDROCK, don't stop before that, then start going right or left all around the node as deep and close to node as possible. Do NOT hit the node.
4. When you have made complete circuit decide whether you want to put your portal down there, a chest and campfire. If you do there is possibility of event. If you are getting troll events this might be iffy, or not, your call. If you already have a safe spot a bit away really don't need to do this.
5. Start working on node and clear it out around the edges a bit. They still won't be able to get to you, you might get a troll every day or two. Go to center top and dig down so you are shielded by copper and clear it all out in a logical manner.
6. Go home at night or figure that you will call in mobs. Good target practice. Have fun. You should have no more problems.
Hot tip: Mine silver from underneath too, Nothing can reach you and when vein is fully released from dirt one or two good taps and it all comes tumbling down. Very fast method.

You're just 'unlucky'. It's not a survival game. It's a denial game.

Okay.
160 hours in, I feel like this game needs to be reviewed by someone in studio they will actually listen to. Like a tester. Right? Because the early gameplay had me hooked, and honestly still does. But later on, well how bad can it get....

If this game ended at swamps, it'd be ok. No need to balance further. But seriously, how did it get this far without someone saying something about how hard things get? Love to see the content of the next patch, got a feeling I won't be playing anymore by then but who knows.

But if you can get past the 4th boss without cheats, good for you.
Now try and fix something you might win a nobel prize for, because the amount of effort required to play Valheim solo is snowballing.

Ever think of making a solo mode, or maybe updating the description of the game to say that you CAN play solo, but you'd better bring a half a dozen friends if you want to get anywhere.
Options are needed. Difficulty related options. And I'm sure there is someone out there saying 'git gud noob" and I say, thanks for your contribution. I enjoy survival hardcore.

How about this? That greydwarf that snuck in behind you? Yeah? Your 200 hour playthrough is DONE.
Restart. And next time, look behind you. And this is forest. There are a lot more things that will do the same thing the same way to you. But without variation.

You will die. Cheaply.
For me, that's what hardcore means. One bad decision usually kills you.

You shouldn't have to have swat level reflexes and programming -they sell it as 'education' but you might as well buy TV Guide - to play a game that's supposed to be fun. More than a dozen times something that isn't making noise just sneaks in behind me while I'm doing something (not distracted, I can hear my wife fart with headphones on - and she doesn't fart often) could be in my base or MILES away and the result is the same, one hit to wake me up, another hit to let me know I'm trying to recover my corpse. Feels like an unfinished stealth mechanic, IMO.

And - if you aren't using cheats - that's at least a day or two's gaming to get back that ground - and that's if you make it. The second time. (or 3rd or 4th. I wasn't keeping track, and kind of gave up)

If your're supporting stealth mechanics but not supporting stealth survival, well, that would lead to my 4/10 review. I like this game more than this, but I will not push it. Because it doesn't matter how slow you go, what you wear, stealth requires a stamina bank. Jumping requires a stamina bank. Walking while stealthy requires stamina reserve. And it doesn't make any sense, other than a quick fix for a core gameplay mechanic (for some games) where VALHEIM is falling on it's sword.
(Look at detection ranges, light levels, et.c or get into programming solitaire)


This feels like a low rent low content no subscription WOW (World of Warcraft... for those who have never been infected) And 2 things, now I know why I quit wow. (it didn't matter) And now I know why it won't grow back. I had this cancer removed a few years ago. 404.

Lot's of content
No Plan.

Lots of EA sales though, and that matters!!!!
I mean, you all did all this right? That was a lot of work.

Props.

Now, if you can actually make a release out of this...

Originally posted by D Scriptus:

You're just 'unlucky'. It's not a survival game. It's a denial game.

Okay.
160 hours in, I feel like this game needs to be reviewed by someone in studio they will actually listen to. Like a tester. Right? Because the early gameplay had me hooked, and honestly still does. But later on, well how bad can it get....

If this game ended at swamps, it'd be ok. No need to balance further. But seriously, how did it get this far without someone saying something about how hard things get? Love to see the content of the next patch, got a feeling I won't be playing anymore by then but who knows.

But if you can get past the 4th boss without cheats, good for you.
Now try and fix something you might win a nobel prize for, because the amount of effort required to play Valheim solo is snowballing.

Ever think of making a solo mode, or maybe updating the description of the game to say that you CAN play solo, but you'd better bring a half a dozen friends if you want to get anywhere.
Options are needed. Difficulty related options. And I'm sure there is someone out there saying 'git gud noob" and I say, thanks for your contribution. I enjoy survival hardcore.

How about this? That greydwarf that snuck in behind you? Yeah? Your 200 hour playthrough is DONE.
Restart. And next time, look behind you. And this is forest. There are a lot more things that will do the same thing the same way to you. But without variation.

You will die. Cheaply.
For me, that's what hardcore means. One bad decision usually kills you.

You shouldn't have to have swat level reflexes and programming -they sell it as 'education' but you might as well buy TV Guide - to play a game that's supposed to be fun. More than a dozen times something that isn't making noise just sneaks in behind me while I'm doing something (not distracted, I can hear my wife fart with headphones on - and she doesn't fart often) could be in my base or MILES away and the result is the same, one hit to wake me up, another hit to let me know I'm trying to recover my corpse. Feels like an unfinished stealth mechanic, IMO.

And - if you aren't using cheats - that's at least a day or two's gaming to get back that ground - and that's if you make it. The second time. (or 3rd or 4th. I wasn't keeping track, and kind of gave up)

If your're supporting stealth mechanics but not supporting stealth survival, well, that would lead to my 4/10 review. I like this game more than this, but I will not push it. Because it doesn't matter how slow you go, what you wear, stealth requires a stamina bank. Jumping requires a stamina bank. Walking while stealthy requires stamina reserve. And it doesn't make any sense, other than a quick fix for a core gameplay mechanic (for some games) where VALHEIM is falling on it's sword.
(Look at detection ranges, light levels, et.c or get into programming solitaire)


This feels like a low rent low content no subscription WOW (World of Warcraft... for those who have never been infected) And 2 things, now I know why I quit wow. (it didn't matter) And now I know why it won't grow back. I had this cancer removed a few years ago. 404.

Lot's of content
No Plan.

Lots of EA sales though, and that matters!!!!
I mean, you all did all this right? That was a lot of work.

Props.

Now, if you can actually make a release out of this...

Difficulty settings are already in the works.

And I've been soloing the whole time.

As mentioned above...You could always find a new node to mine at and come back to that one later.

A good way to clear large and tough enemy groups is to use an entrenchment and arrows. Dig a square trench somewhere not to far away from the group you wanna fight. Make the trench large enough so there is enough space in the center for you to dodge attacks and snipe the hardest stuff with flint and/or fire arrows. Aggro the group and kite them to the trench and do your business. Once you've killed the trouble makers with arrows. Finish off the rest with melee. I started doing this in the plains to clear the villages. Works well to kill large groups with lots of tough enemies like multiple brutes and shamans.

Also make sure to kill off any GreyDwarf spawners in the forrest. Or you're in for trouble trying to mine.

this same situation could happen at release. if you can't handle the node stay out the kitchen

Yeah, definitely unlucky and probably mining at night. Neither of those is the game's fault.

Greydwarves except for Shaman and Brutes are afraid of fire and will run from it. Place multiple camp fires around the copper node. Copper nodes are frequently guarded by trolls but once you kill the troll that spawns nearby it takes at least 3 game days before another one can spawn.

During the day there can only be 3 active greydwarves in a 64 x 64 tile radius but at night (or during a raid) there can be 6. Greydwarves have a visual perception range of 30 tiles and alert at 20 tiles distance but their hearing perception range is 64 tiles (max render distance). Mining is noisy. It will attract creatures from maximum range. If you are seeing something different than this you either have a bug or a mod conflict (if you are running mods).

pro tip use the trolls to mine the copper WAY faster you can also bypass killing the first boss to get a pick so you can get boar raids longer to stock up on food and leather scraps also a fire will keep lower grey dwarfs off your back and work benches prevent monster spawns for so many feet drop a couple around ur mineing area should help a bit

use campfires and torches in early fights vs greydwarves. once you kill a few trolls and then get a bronze sword, you can two hit the normal dwarves, and three hit the mage when he misses his poison mist attack

It seems likely that you've just gotten unlucky with the number of spawns around you, and/or you're mining at night.

Mining and chopping trees has a large "noise" radius, so that's another thing you might be falling afoul of. See https://valheim.fandom.com/wiki/Creature_senses#Noise

Make sure to sleep at night to minimize the night-time "wandering monster" spawns, because that's a thing. If it's daytime, then you should only have to deal with an influx of creatures early in the day; once you've attracted all the local baddies, they should stop showing up.

Are you mining during night time?

When mining during day, the sound can draw mobs quite a distance around the node and occasionally the game will spawn new enemies. During night, when more mobs are spawned it can be tedious. Trolls are usually not that common and by putting fireplaces around the node you can mostly ignore the grey-dwarfs.

That is unlucky. Also possibly night time.

For day spawns, dig a hole a little way out from where you are mining and punt the greys in there. That will keep them from respawning. Trolls should not be too numerous, so once you kill them they should leave you alone for awhile.

Campfires, workbenches and a few other things will suppress spawns in a small area but be careful of having three of such objects close to each other or you could trigger a raid.

Sounds like you're just unlucky.

Pick axe noise will draw greydwarves and trolls, moreso at night time so if you're trying to do it at night - don't. Sleep, get your rested buff, start again in daylight. But you can also use this as a learning experience, obviously you're in a densely populated area. Find another area to mine the copper. What I would suggest is that you scope out another spot take the time to see what's nearby. You can kill off greydwarf spawners but they do respawn. If there's a troll just look somewhere a little more further afield.