Originally posted by canned ham 91:

I just started this game a week ago. Defeated the first boss, but not the second. Built a boat and went exploring. Found a nice island with black forest and meadows, and even the trader. Also stepped onto the mountain biome but immediately left, and same with the plains biome. Was exploring through a meadows biome, came upon a collection of buildings, and got attacked and immediately killed by drageurs (sp?). So now all my good equipment is stuck in the middle of a settlement of these brutal beasts (were probably 5 or 6 of them) . Any way my newb character can get my equipment back without being repeatedly killed?

I thought players weren't supposed to encounter beasts in biomes that hadn't open up for them yet.

Help!

1. There are draugr villages in some meadow biomes of the game. Their building architecture is different from that of the other abandoned villages and become easier to spot once you pay attention to that. Also getting close you can hear flies buzzing in some buildings (draugr spawners). That should be your first line of defense to help avoid them until you can handle them.

2. As for handling them in your current level of progression(which let's assume is really low) the most conservative/safe way perhaps is to:

- make tons and tons of arrows and a few bows Fire arrows at your assumed level would be best but if you're low on resources for that just wooden.

- have resources to make a campfire or two, wood for construction of covering the campfire in case of rain), wood for fuel for it, and wood perhaps to make a workbench and more arrows(but this will then require a larger construction that comes next)

-If you have the hoe yet and can raise ground, bow range to most or all the structures, raise the ground to make a high plateu. Draugr archers can still shoot you but if you make a 3x3 plateau you can drop the ground in the middle square where archers cant get to you to rest if needed.

- Make the plateau covered for a campfire on the edge. to let you rest in the center drop down safe spot.

- Make the plateau even bigger if you want to have a workbench for repairs/more arrows.

-Alternatively, you can build a wooden tower with the fire at the bottom under the tower but you'll need to put fort defense walls around as a buffer defense. Make sure the walls around are at a wide enough radius that you can shoot down from the blind at draugr but not so wide that you cant get a good angle'd shot.

-Once built, shoot the draugr free roaming outside of the buildings first.

-Then (and this is why you need tons of arrows/bows/repairs) shoot the structures(roof or walls depending on angles to expose the buildings inside.

-Focus on destroying the draugr spawners inside them. If you don't they'll unlimitedly spawn more draugr. That can become a serious problem if you don't take the spawners out first because the spawners will spawn more draugr is there is not 3 in radius to the spawner. If you shoot walls and they get out from the building and out of the spawner's 3x check range), you can get tons of draugr going and that's going to be a challenge.

Also the more that spawn, the higher the chances for 1 and 2 star draugr(harder) and draugr elites.

This will take a considerable amount of time because the structures can take alot of damage before demolishing. The larger long houses in draugr villages can also require you to demolish layers before you cant get clear shots to the spawners or draugr.

3. If the range method isn't to your liking at this stage of things, you can opt to clear only with range the draugr that killed you(hopefully you didnt open a building with a spawner) and get your stuff and come back when you are stronger to handle them.

4. The spawners as mentioned as the real issue to deal with because its endless spawns if they're not contained. Staghammer or iron sledge hammer are good for clearing draugr spawners because the range of their aoe can clip through walls. So you can sometimes safely melee through a building to destroy them(and other draugr but you also run the risk of breaking the walls and letting them out. Its tricky.

5. If you choose to melee in, a shield with good block parry helps so you can then counter attack and take them down. At your level though I suspect that's not going to be very effective until you get bronze or better armor because you can easily get overwhelmed. Some like using polearms special attack too for aoe'ing if too many around but that does nothing for archers in the fray either.

6. An alternate (and resource costly) method is a speed runner method for mobs: campfires. When they run over the fires they take damage but eventually the fires break. You can run around placing down fires as you kite draugr but again the archers will still be potentially an issue unless you keep moving well. Its also a method that requires practice to use well as you also need stamina to run around with too.

7. Another alternative method is building spike walls and running them through a gauntlet of it(that doesnt remove spawners though) it also requires you going through the black forest (usually though small camps can have core wood pieces you can demolish sometimes but not enough for lots of spikes) and I don't know if you are at that level of things yet.



So really alot depends on your play style and abilities at your current progression stage of the game. There are many different methods to take them on and it just depends on how risky/conservative you want to be in handling them.



And lastly, take things slow. Exploring is ok but this game (as you've learned) will quickly punish you if you're not cautious with your exploration. A good rule of thumb until you really are adept with the game is to stick to the biome you're supposed to be progressing through and do so cautiously until you're geared with that biome's best stuff relative to your play style.