The mistlands were fine once I just adapted to them. Stamina is far far far more important then it is in earlier biomes.

But I'm going to throw out my crackpot idea again: what mistlands _really_ needed at launch was flying vehicles. Seriously.

The gjall float around without any means of support. Have the gjalls drop a special "float" gland, that allows you to craft a sort of hot air balloon as a starter flying vehicle. Slow, hard to steer, but it can drop an anchor down to the _top_ of a mountain, allowing you explore the mountain and the area around it safer. You'd travel from mountain top to mountain top exploring into the mistlands.

Later on, when the mistlands forge is unlocked, we have recipes for making parts needed for actual flying ships, like a longboat slug underneath a long cylindrical airbag. Steers betters, moves faster, etc. Have several versions, a smaller one and a larger one, just like we have with ocean ships.