This biome basically stopped me playing normally and pushed me to creative mode (cheats) and the mist be gone mod. And no, it's not about difficulty, it simply sucked the fun out of it.

Originally posted by CombatWombat:

One material is buried in caves that you can easily miss for hours because of mist and labyrinth layout. The other one is hidden behind killing neutral intelligent mobs that you already befriended before (Trader)

Whether you find infested mines easy to miss or not is subjective opinion.

Mistlands material gathering is actually made easier by the fact that all new materials can be transported by portals.

You don't need to kill any dvergr to progress and "befriending" (which doesn't even happen) one won't make you their blood-kin. In fact, if you act aggressively towards dvergr at one outpost, the others won't magically know you're a murderer.

Preferred the Mist lands before their update/release...

I can't say Mistlands is my favorite biome, but hating it..... no, not at all.

I guess part of my experience is bases upon my SP game; in which I was very lucky.
I found out the location of the queen was in fact at the coast; making it so much easier to set up a base there.

Next I found that at one side of the staircase leading to the sealed door was a wooden wall. After smashing it, I found several rooms under the staircase and the plateau leading to the sealed door; which in turn became my new "base".

After that I just explored the area; one bit at the time, trying to find the required amount of cores to build and upgrade the next level forges.

What I didn't do, was building an extensive base over there. All I had was a bed, a chest, a portal and a few wisplights. Every thing else; including preparing the food and breeding the chickens was done at my main base at a BF island.

However, despite that, I did learn a few things.

1) The mistlight sucks if you move too fast. And it certanly sucks to the Nth degree when you're in an infested mine. it's therefore better to equip the Dvergr Circlet and the Meginjord when you're heading in an infested mine for better light.

Bottom line: don't move too fast, but instead move a bit, wait for the light to catch up on you, then move forward again. And use the time you wait to look around you and to listen.

2) About each and every infested mine has a 1 or 2* seeker. I've usually found them at the bottoms of those watery pits. Advantage of that area, you have the slope going down, get into sneeking mode and shot them from the top. Both bow and Crossbow will do nicely.

3) In general you can haul a lot from the Mistlands, but if you're doing it smart you won't need that much at all. Concentrate at hare meat and skin, sap, jotun puffs, carapache, black marble and soft tissue first. The two latter can be found when mining out the remains of the Yotun, which are found all over the land.
If you want to harvest the metals - copper / iron - you wil need a coastal base. But considering we already got two biomes where you can find those and both requiring a ship as well, I personally won't bother much with it.

Instead, set up a small farm near your 'base' and use that to harvest Jotunpuffs. Also, don't plant your full amount, but only half of what you have. That way, *if* a seeker comes to destroy the plants, you got the option to replant and grow them anyway.

As for the sap extractor, don't destroy the chest, let the seekers do that for you. After that you can simply pick up everything that was in the chest as well as the chest materials in itself.
It's a much safer option as to fight the Dvergr, especially since there's no need to use their "soft tissue" anyway.

Thorin :)

Thanks for trying, but it is not the difficulty. The biome just sucks on so many levels. Getting pounded by a swarm of seekers is just the icing on the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. Remove it an it is still just a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

I love mountains and I love the plains. I even love the swamp, the water sucks, but the design is nice. The mistlands just suck there is nothing there why I want to go there.

I never had such a reaction to any of the other bioms. If I had to say anything positive about it than it would be seeing my first Gjall while sailing into a mist free fjord was magical.

Here is more ♥♥♥♥♥♥ things that needed more time to think to spot it.

The progression in Mistlands is totally off from other biomes. Other biomes have great game design (you are not told but funneled to the solution). Mistlands sucks in this regard.

Black Forest: You get a pickaxe and find copper -> next table
Swamp: You get a key and the material is in the things with doors -> next table
Mountains: You get something to find the thing you need
Plains: The material basically comes to you
Mistland: You get an insufficient light. One material is buried in caves that you can easily miss for hours because of mist and labyrinth layout. The other one is hidden behind killing neutral intelligent mobs that you already befriended before (Trader)

That is such a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ design. The killing the already befriended mobs especially is such a punch in the gut I can’t even.....

You know what I did the first time I came across them and they were attacked? I defended them! How stupid of me and probably 99% of players. And no, luring mobs to them for doing the killing is not morally superior.

This isnt exactly an answer to OP, but rahter a counterbalance. I liked Mistlands very much, its a breath of fresh air tbh. Not every piece fits exactly, but my only complaint would be about the bossfight. Tedious, and it just looks ugly.

But the rest, not seeing stuff is kind of the point, each biome has its own flavour and the important part is that every flavour is of a different type, and that other mechanics are mixed up in difficulty as well (like the material in plains is easier than previous biomes).
Also Dwarves are in many lores can be quite evil and "wild". They are not at home in mistlands just as the player, and they both came to exploit the land. Its basically wild west.

I get the complaints, they are all valid too, but for standard up the ladder progression and stereotypes/tropes we can play any of the faceless AAA games. I like indie games because they can have mistlands.


edit: ok, one more thing to hate haha, the weapons, i was so dissapointed to learn that Afl is in fact not a spear, but thats not a "revelant" complaint :P

The Mistlands are a challenge, but I didn't find my second and later excursions into them any more of a ramp up in difficulty than the Swamps, Mountains or Plains were. In fact I found Plains more challenging, although with the reduced visibility Mistlands can result in a lot more "surprise" encounters.

When I first stumbled into the Mistlands I didn't even have the Wisp Light, a huge mistake. With the endless fog and the challenging vertical terrain it totally sucked.

Later I came back with maxed out gear and the wisp light, and on exploring more I did find flat areas suitable for farming and for easier travel, but there is admittedly still a lot of vertical terrain which in some ways is worse than the mountains. I died multiple times but

I've figured out a few things that have vastly improved my experience and survival rate in the Mistlands...

1) Don't go in without maxed out gear, your best food and the wisp light. And don't get caught there at night. Really, Valheim has always punished you for going into new biomes unprepared so this shouldn't be a secret. I really don't think it's worse than the previous biomes in terms of difficulty, I think most of the people gripping about how horrible Mistlands are have forgotten the pain they experienced when first exploring the Swamps, Mountains or Plains biomes. I still hate Fulings and Deathsquitos more than I do Seekers and Gjalls.

2) The Dvergr are your friends... until you make them otherwise. If you find a Dvergr tower or mine, mark it on the map and use it as a refuge, if Gjall or Seekers are chasing you, getting to a Dvergr settlement will mean you have several of your little buddies beating down the monsters in short order. Only take out a Dvergr base with a lot of prep, planning and caution, ideally only attack one that has already been beaten down badly by monster attacks. And only take them out to get the bits you need for sap extractors.

3) Build a base in an adjacent biome or in an easy to defend location on the coast of the Mistlands. My current Mistlands base is a tower on a long, very craggy peninsula. It's far enough out in the water that it is mist free most of the time and gets few spawns other than hares. The walk down the rocky terrain of the peninsula is terrible, but a few hundred wood later I had installed a causeway and bridge system that takes me right into the mainland with little effort. Doing this on frequently used routes is a bit more work than raising paths in the swamp, and the same as building stairs and mountain paths so it is doable. And Ygdrassil wood and wisps are not hard to collect, so scattering those around will make for an easier to find and more comfortable run out or back.

4) Seekers and Gjall will destroy your crops. So don;t hang around your planted areas except when it is time to harvest and replant. Fields of Jotunpuffs, a chicken farm and bee hives are all you need for the Honey Glazed chicken meal, which is currently one of the best haelth foods in the game, so make lots. Misthare supreme is a little better, but you can't breed Misthares so availability and time spent to hunt the clever little bas---ds is a downside. Eggs from the chicken farm and Jotunpuffs will make Mushroom omelettes, the second bet stamina food in the game. You won't need many Magecap mushrooms until you get into magical weaponry, so concentrate your mistlands farming on Jotunpuffs initially.

I could add more but this will already be a TLDR post for many readers. So don't give up, you can beat the Mistlands just like you did every other biome.

same for me bro. there is no fun of exploration at all whaen u cant see sh1t. The landscape is terrible rocks everywhere. hard to find something useful

Thanks for trying, but it is not the difficulty. The biome just sucks on so many levels. Getting pounded by a swarm of seekers is just the icing on the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. Remove it an it is still just a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

I love mountains and I love the plains. I even love the swamp, the water sucks, but the design is nice. The mistlands just suck there is nothing there why I want to go there.

I never had such a reaction to any of the other bioms. If I had to say anything positive about it than it would be seeing my first Gjall while sailing into a mist free fjord was magical.

Originally posted by ORLY:

Did I miss something?

There's sort of two camps in the forums. Those who love mistlands and those who find the design annoying. I enjoyed the progression on difficulty in mistlands.

In a way, the game trains your senses gradually. Starting from swamps, you pay attention to your footing and terrain. In mountains and plains, you should start learning to pay attention to sounds (wolves) and move a little slower to spot mosquitoes, wolf packs, and drakes in the distance. You use terrain a lot more to handle situations when wolf packs hunt you.

Mistland progresses both concepts on using terrain and listening to your senses. Remembering where is a good place to engage and fall back. If you hear fluttering, rumbling, then you need to go even slower. Get some height. Not every part of Mistland has mist. Mark, fallback and use those open areas as your arena.

You could create wisp lights to plant, mark your path and provide visibility. To me, mistlands was designed to be dangerous when you move too fast, much like running around in plains without awareness of deathquitoes will just get you killed (you could be pulling 3-4 at one go) no matter how geared you are.

Seekers and soldiers have fixed attack patterns which over time makes it easy to take them out once you know their patterns. Seekers come in groups of 3. When they fly, go defensive and prepare to dodge if required.

Find a good arena to kite them, then using bombs (preparation before going into mistlands) to take most of them out is the safest and most effective way for me.

The game design heavily rewards exercising caution and preparation.

Impatience is probably what's getting you killed and killing your experience.

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Finally, you don't need to kill dvergers to get what you need. You can find them in mines. And you really only need 1. Dverger camps and their other forts often get attacked by seekers and gjalls. Again, the game design allows for both methods to obtain what you need. Being nice to them just takes a little longer. (again, patience).

I prep a lot, taking the land piece by piece. Ive bin there like 200 hours. Havent dyed yet, but fun....That it is Not....

the mistlands are the new mountains. you go, get what you need, and don't return. I don't hate it, exactly, but I see no reason to live there or spend a lot of time in it. Esp since they were kind enough to send bug-meat to my home and bunnies can be collected along ML borders without hunting/effort easily enough, or hang out at a dwarf outpost with spikes.

fun... not as much. Visibility really, really damages that. I didn't hate the time there, but it was less enjoyable that places I can see, where I can find a new POI or sweet base location.