What may be a better approach is not to look at the amount of stars an enemy has, but if you're ready for the next biome - and thus new monsters - or not.

This game isn't meant as a "Look at me, I killed the last boss in 10 hours" game.

This game is meant to use your wits, skills and patience to progress through the different biomes until you feel you're ready for the next ones.

In general the highest possible armour / weapon / shield is good enough to enter the next biome; where you can find the resources craft the next armour.

i.e. the highest possible level leather armour is good enough to deal with trolls or to venture in the Dark Forest; where you can kill the trolls for more troll hide or mine copper and tin for bronze armour.
With bronze you can upgrade your workbench to get better leather or troll armour - personally I prefer Troll because of the sneak bonus - and once you got enough of it, you can build yourself a forge to craft better tools / weapons.

Bronze or Troll armour and Bronze weapons are good enough to explore the outskirts of the swamp, kill the monsters and carefully move in until you find a crypt where you can find iron scraps.
With that, you get iron, which can be used to upgrade both the forge and workbench; so you can upgrade your bronze or troll armour, or start crafting tier 1 iron armour.

Same goes for the plains and moutains so I won't go into those two biomes.

That doesn't mean you can't use the Wiki. I'm using it too, but so far only for checking wich foods are the best for which biome - with Serpent stew taken off of my list, as hunting a snake in a solo game is a pain - and which items are needed to build something or to upgrade something.

As for the increased levels of the monsters; I know that more stars mean more damage and it's pretty obvious (to me) at a 1 star Draugr hits a lot more as a 1 star boar. So instead of looking at the amount of stars a monster has or hasn't, check if you're up to deal with their normal versions. If you aren't, the best tactic is to run when being attacked by a 1 star monster. And since you're human, you can always outwit an AI created monster.


Thorin :)

Originally posted by Sentient Entropy:

Be thankful for the stars. Somehow I doubt that Eric the Red's victims were so lucky.

Ha, nice point :D

Originally posted by PakaNoHida:

I am saddened any time any player tries to do a spreadsheet of enemies instead of playing the game and getting lost in the fun.

Usually that's my approach, but the combination of game mechanics at play here is working directly against it for me. Starred enemies can mean 'epic fight' or 'instant death' depending on a lot of factors that I can't intuit so I gotta go all grognard on this. Can't learn by doing when the negative feedback is me exploding into a cloud of blood on the first parry.

I'm not that guy.

Real vikings drink plenty.

Originally posted by PakaNoHida:

I am saddened any time any player tries to do a spreadsheet of enemies instead of playing the game and getting lost in the fun.

Originally posted by Mr Majestic:
Vikings fight with shields and axes, not spreadsheets.

Agreed.

I'm saddened any time a player tells another player how to have fun.
Yeah sure the quote from Mr Majestic sounds cool but then you realize it's basically that guy on a birthday party that you ask if they can pass you the bottle of champagne and who replies "REAL MEN DON'T DRINK".
It's quite unproductive.

I am saddened any time any player tries to do a spreadsheet of enemies instead of playing the game and getting lost in the fun.

Originally posted by Mr Majestic:
Vikings fight with shields and axes, not spreadsheets.

Agreed.

Originally posted by Mharr:

Originally posted by Mr Majestic:

Vikings fight with shields and axes, not spreadsheets.

That's the thing isn't it? Sometimes you try to do exactly that and the extra star means 'harder fight' and other times it means 'wall of instant nope'.

I'd like to know where the walls *aren't* so I don't miss any epic axe battles.

Be thankful for the stars. Somehow I doubt that Eric the Red's victims were so lucky.

Originally posted by Mharr:

Originally posted by Mr Majestic:

Vikings fight with shields and axes, not spreadsheets.

That's the thing isn't it? Sometimes you try to do exactly that and the extra star means 'harder fight' and other times it means 'wall of instant nope'.

I'd like to know where the walls *aren't* so I don't miss any epic axe battles.

1 star means +50% damage and double health
2 star meands double damage and triple health.
Mind you this is the damage before armor and due to the way armor works a 2 star will end up doing way more than double damage.
That being said, every star significantly increases the amount of loot dropped. That's why 2 star boars and wolves are the best for taming.

Originally posted by Mr Majestic:

Vikings fight with shields and axes, not spreadsheets.

That's the thing isn't it? Sometimes you try to do exactly that and the extra star means 'harder fight' and other times it means 'wall of instant nope'.

I'd like to know where the walls *aren't* so I don't miss any epic axe battles.

Bigger than a bear or smaller than a boar, best to run away.

Vikings fight with shields and axes, not spreadsheets.

You can find enemy stats on the valheim wiki. You can do your calculations based on that.