Originally posted by Measuperbia:

Huge ribbcages allways pair up with a skull.
-Stop looking for skulls and look for ribbcages!

That's not entirely true in my experience. I've found more than one ribcage that didn't have a skull, and I dug around quite a bit looking to make sure it wasn't underground. It is a good general rule, though.


P.S. I haven't found a skull yet, but I did find a mine. Haven't found anything in it except jelly and a pretty strong contingent of seekers. 2 1* and a bunch of normal seekers at the entrance. A couple more 1* back a bit farther with more normal seekers, and a 2* in a pit!

I haven't fought a 2* seeker yet, and I'm not feeling real confident in my eitr armor and a pair of knives, but... YOLO!

I could sure use those staves now...

They don't really look like skulls except from a certain angle, so look for a big round rock. Most of the rocks in mistlands are angular, not round. (In fact, when I went looking for normal rock one time, I started picking at a smooth surface on the ground to discover that it was really a buried skull.) Ribs and skulls also have a distinct wrinkled texture that normal mistland stone doesn't have.

there is no pattern to these that I have found, apart from not inside towers (right outside is ok). Ribs with and without, high/low/anywhere goes... coast, interior, large swath, small strip... same chance. Bigger areas got more chances, but small areas spawn them with equal probability far as I can tell

the good news is you only need 2-3 to make everything.

Originally posted by Measuperbia:

Huge ribbcages allways pair up with a skull.
-Stop looking for skulls and look for ribbcages!

this is false information. its not true at all.

its random if both spawn together or not. depends entirely on world generation and seed.

for example the dvegr mine sites can have either a ribcage or a skull. they never have both.

and the random ones in the mist sometimes are with a skull and sometimes its just a ribcage without a skull.

if youre unlucky theyll spawn below water level even. thankfully its rather rare so far.

soft tissue isnt an issue. its only needed for refined eitr and due to the devs not released black forge 3 and 4 currently you need less than 300 eitr to make EVERY SINGLE ITEM in the catalog and max thier upgrades to 2 aswell.

and 1 skull gives like 70 soft tissue. and you can find soft tissue in dvergr creates aswell albeit smaller amounts.

its a non issue as you only need like 2-3 skulls to max out due to lack of upgrades.

Ribcages are still easier to spot than lone skulls IMO, so it's always worth checking around them. Stumbling on a skull is slightly less probable, but it will happen sooner or later.

By the way, if you inspect the refinery, you can see that the device always uses sap as fuel of sorts, but the output isn't similarly defined. It could be that in future we can refine something else with it than just jotun brains, basically same way as smelters are right now.

Originally posted by Nerevar:

its a non issue as you only need like 2-3 skulls to max out due to lack of upgrades.

It is not a non-issue if you can't find those 2-3 (I think it's more like 3-4 in any case). I've found 2 already, and I haven't make a single staff yet.

As for swords (mentioned by another poster). Swords are everywhere. I've probably seen a couple dozen swords, so looking for swords is not very helpful IMO.

In my last playthrough I didn't make any magic items or eitr weave, and I remember having issue just finding 2 (I think it was) skulls. This time I'll probably need 4, and I've only found 2 across two fairly large ML biomes, one of them around the queen, so it's very large.

I haven't yet finished the queen area yet, but only finding one in all that space seems pretty sparse especially considering that mines are, in my experience, more frequent and generally lit with a mist light.

Back to the search...

Originally posted by Measuperbia:

Random ticks attackkng you, but no gjall around? -strong indication a skull nearby.

Huge ribbcages allways pair up with a skull.
-Stop looking for skulls and look for ribbcages!

Ribbcages are often paired with a sword sticking into it.
-start looking for "sword shapes" in the mist.

I really feel skulls are not that rare..

1. Ribcage maybe, skull not necessarily.
   
2. Not true, plenty of ribcages without skulls.
   
3. Perhaps but not in my experience. Saw that maybe once.
   
4. I found there was enough skulls, but that was one run and Valheim is very RNGesus.

Well I very recently just beat the endgame of mistlands in a run without using vegvisirs to find bosses. I can assure you it wasnt really that hard to find skulls when I was finecombing mistlands to find that boss altar.

About every single ribbcage i found, also had a skull. You do know there is a possibility that skull/ribbcages spawn completely upside down? The lowest ribb pointing straight upward making skull sometimes buried, sometimes skull is molded into unbreakable root or into a mountainside.

Listen for ticks. Ticks and no Gjall sound mean 100% Soft Tissue nearby. Ticks only spawn naturally (Before the Queen is slain) at soft tissue deposits.

The mistlands is, like every other biome, designed to teach you a lesson. The lesson of the Mistlands is that you can't always rely on your eyes. Every mob makes a very distinct sound, audible from very far away. You can use this for navigation in conjunction with other lessons you have picked up in Valheim.

Hear Seeker chirps (2-3 clealry audible) but it's daytime? There's a high chance there's an infested mines nearby.

Hear Multiple Dvergr, there's gonna be a tower or excavation nearby.

Ticks but no Gjall sounds? Likely Soft Tissue deposit.

More advanced than this though:

GJall and Seekers make distinct audio noises when Idle and Aggro, you can actual determine their state by their noises. Both also have (like many mobs) a sound cue for their "Windup" before attack, which you can use to blind parry or dodge.

People who drown out game audio with their awful spotify queue won't understand.

I always turn the music off in games. It just get's too repetitive for me after a while, and I like to hear the game sounds.

Playing currently in light armor, as soon as I hear the sound of flapping wings and/or ticks, I run and then approach the direction they came from slowly. Sound, of course, is critical in the mist.

My brain drowns out game music on its own after a while. but many games are starting to soundscape more, which means there's actually hints about what's going on in the game in the music.

You just have to wander around Mistlands until you come across one. Seekers and ticks in an area are a good indication that there is one nearby. Of course, they're going to be in the low areas, so that's where you need to look.

That's what I'm looking for now as well, along with looking for additional mines. Neither are easier to find, but at least I have the cape now, so travel is much easier.

It seems to be similar to how crypts in the swamp generate, look for large open areas of mistlands rather than small islands and strips (though they can still generate there, it’s less likely).

It’s also possible to get soft tissue by killing dvergers in camps and breaking their crates, though it is significantly more dangerous unless you use a cart/enemy to destroy their wards first for the crates.

Random ticks attackkng you, but no gjall around? -strong indication a skull nearby.

Huge ribbcages allways pair up with a skull.
-Stop looking for skulls and look for ribbcages!

Ribbcages are often paired with a sword sticking into it.
-start looking for "sword shapes" in the mist.

I really feel skulls are not that rare..

Well I very recently just beat the endgame of mistlands in a run without using vegvisirs to find bosses. I can assure you it wasnt really that hard to find skulls when I was finecombing mistlands to find that boss altar.

About every single ribbcage i found, also had a skull. You do know there is a possibility that skull/ribbcages spawn completely upside down? The lowest ribb pointing straight upward making skull sometimes buried, sometimes skull is molded into unbreakable root or into a mountainside.

Listen for ticks. Ticks and no Gjall sound mean 100% Soft Tissue nearby. Ticks only spawn naturally (Before the Queen is slain) at soft tissue deposits.

The mistlands is, like every other biome, designed to teach you a lesson. The lesson of the Mistlands is that you can't always rely on your eyes. Every mob makes a very distinct sound, audible from very far away. You can use this for navigation in conjunction with other lessons you have picked up in Valheim.

Hear Seeker chirps (2-3 clealry audible) but it's daytime? There's a high chance there's an infested mines nearby.

Hear Multiple Dvergr, there's gonna be a tower or excavation nearby.

Ticks but no Gjall sounds? Likely Soft Tissue deposit.

More advanced than this though:

GJall and Seekers make distinct audio noises when Idle and Aggro, you can actual determine their state by their noises. Both also have (like many mobs) a sound cue for their "Windup" before attack, which you can use to blind parry or dodge.

People who drown out game audio with their awful spotify queue won't understand.

I always turn the music off in games. It just get's too repetitive for me after a while, and I like to hear the game sounds.

Playing currently in light armor, as soon as I hear the sound of flapping wings and/or ticks, I run and then approach the direction they came from slowly. Sound, of course, is critical in the mist.

My brain drowns out game music on its own after a while. but many games are starting to soundscape more, which means there's actually hints about what's going on in the game in the music.

Originally posted by Nerevar:

its a non issue as you only need like 2-3 skulls to max out due to lack of upgrades.

It is not a non-issue if you can't find those 2-3 (I think it's more like 3-4 in any case). I've found 2 already, and I haven't make a single staff yet.

As for swords (mentioned by another poster). Swords are everywhere. I've probably seen a couple dozen swords, so looking for swords is not very helpful IMO.

In my last playthrough I didn't make any magic items or eitr weave, and I remember having issue just finding 2 (I think it was) skulls. This time I'll probably need 4, and I've only found 2 across two fairly large ML biomes, one of them around the queen, so it's very large.

I haven't yet finished the queen area yet, but only finding one in all that space seems pretty sparse especially considering that mines are, in my experience, more frequent and generally lit with a mist light.

Back to the search...

Originally posted by Measuperbia:

Random ticks attackkng you, but no gjall around? -strong indication a skull nearby.

Huge ribbcages allways pair up with a skull.
-Stop looking for skulls and look for ribbcages!

Ribbcages are often paired with a sword sticking into it.
-start looking for "sword shapes" in the mist.

I really feel skulls are not that rare..

1. Ribcage maybe, skull not necessarily.
   
2. Not true, plenty of ribcages without skulls.
   
3. Perhaps but not in my experience. Saw that maybe once.
   
4. I found there was enough skulls, but that was one run and Valheim is very RNGesus.

Ribcages are still easier to spot than lone skulls IMO, so it's always worth checking around them. Stumbling on a skull is slightly less probable, but it will happen sooner or later.

By the way, if you inspect the refinery, you can see that the device always uses sap as fuel of sorts, but the output isn't similarly defined. It could be that in future we can refine something else with it than just jotun brains, basically same way as smelters are right now.

Originally posted by Measuperbia:

Huge ribbcages allways pair up with a skull.
-Stop looking for skulls and look for ribbcages!

this is false information. its not true at all.

its random if both spawn together or not. depends entirely on world generation and seed.

for example the dvegr mine sites can have either a ribcage or a skull. they never have both.

and the random ones in the mist sometimes are with a skull and sometimes its just a ribcage without a skull.

if youre unlucky theyll spawn below water level even. thankfully its rather rare so far.

soft tissue isnt an issue. its only needed for refined eitr and due to the devs not released black forge 3 and 4 currently you need less than 300 eitr to make EVERY SINGLE ITEM in the catalog and max thier upgrades to 2 aswell.

and 1 skull gives like 70 soft tissue. and you can find soft tissue in dvergr creates aswell albeit smaller amounts.

its a non issue as you only need like 2-3 skulls to max out due to lack of upgrades.

You just have to wander around Mistlands until you come across one. Seekers and ticks in an area are a good indication that there is one nearby. Of course, they're going to be in the low areas, so that's where you need to look.

That's what I'm looking for now as well, along with looking for additional mines. Neither are easier to find, but at least I have the cape now, so travel is much easier.

It seems to be similar to how crypts in the swamp generate, look for large open areas of mistlands rather than small islands and strips (though they can still generate there, it’s less likely).

It’s also possible to get soft tissue by killing dvergers in camps and breaking their crates, though it is significantly more dangerous unless you use a cart/enemy to destroy their wards first for the crates.

Random ticks attackkng you, but no gjall around? -strong indication a skull nearby.

Huge ribbcages allways pair up with a skull.
-Stop looking for skulls and look for ribbcages!

Ribbcages are often paired with a sword sticking into it.
-start looking for "sword shapes" in the mist.

I really feel skulls are not that rare..

Originally posted by Measuperbia:

Huge ribbcages allways pair up with a skull.
-Stop looking for skulls and look for ribbcages!

That's not entirely true in my experience. I've found more than one ribcage that didn't have a skull, and I dug around quite a bit looking to make sure it wasn't underground. It is a good general rule, though.


P.S. I haven't found a skull yet, but I did find a mine. Haven't found anything in it except jelly and a pretty strong contingent of seekers. 2 1* and a bunch of normal seekers at the entrance. A couple more 1* back a bit farther with more normal seekers, and a 2* in a pit!

I haven't fought a 2* seeker yet, and I'm not feeling real confident in my eitr armor and a pair of knives, but... YOLO!

I could sure use those staves now...

They don't really look like skulls except from a certain angle, so look for a big round rock. Most of the rocks in mistlands are angular, not round. (In fact, when I went looking for normal rock one time, I started picking at a smooth surface on the ground to discover that it was really a buried skull.) Ribs and skulls also have a distinct wrinkled texture that normal mistland stone doesn't have.

there is no pattern to these that I have found, apart from not inside towers (right outside is ok). Ribs with and without, high/low/anywhere goes... coast, interior, large swath, small strip... same chance. Bigger areas got more chances, but small areas spawn them with equal probability far as I can tell

the good news is you only need 2-3 to make everything.