Valhalla Awaits

• Five walkable biomes, in progression-friendly order.
• Five bosses near the initial spawn point.
• Three traders on one land mass within easy sailing distance.
• Island northeast of spawn, for those who value solitude.
• Land mass southwest of spawn can be reached on foot if you step carefully.

https://valheim-map.world/?seed=flair&offset=0%2C0&zoom=0.300&view=0&ver=0.221.10

Mostly because I have no other choice if I want my skill at a reasonable level.

Apparently, it was a bit blustery when I was in the mountains, mining silver and clearing out ice caves.

Drake-nip here was never intended to become a beacon for drakes, but this is his life now.

Drake-nip's life started as a nuisance spawn near my wolf taming hut. After having killed a few golem spawns in the area, I created a small trench for a golem to live in. This keeps more golems from spawning and he is contained to a safe space.

The problem was that the area also spawns a lot of drakes. This is good for the production of Eyescream, but not so good for the golem's continued life in the trench. So, I put a roof over the golem, hoping to keep him safe from the drakes. And while it does stop the drakes from shooting at Drake-nip, they must be able to smell him and it drives the drakes nuts. I am forever finding drakes circling and rubbing up against the roof. They don't shoot it, and Drake-nip doesn't attack them. But, they are always there, circling.

Mountain camp:

Wolf Den:

Let me preface by saying that Valheim is by far one of the most screenshottable games I have played.

A big part of Valheim is exploration and the lighting in this game is stunning. I like the sense of danger that this screen shot exudes: a lone viking walking through a thick forest, seemingly alert for any enemies lurking behind the next tree.

I've alluded to my hatred of Fulings before, but here it is on full display. This is the result of many hours of genocide. I only collect heads with my original character on vanilla loot. The drop rate is 10% so I have killed thousands. It never ceases to bring me joy.

I received my copy of the Valheim board game today. The game pieces look great and I can't wait to give it a play.

On our current world, we decided to try a different tactic for fighting Bonemass. In retrospect, the bonfires were mostly pointless, but the platform worked out pretty well.

A couple minutes into the fight, I discovered that I could reach Bonemass with my mace from the platform, by taking out the half-walls. While a bit dangerous, this greatly sped things up.

Heading to Bonemass. Realized we were surrounded by plains but noticed a small break in the land. Thought it might be a gap between two separate islands. I was wrong. By that point I had no choice but to rip through it at full sail and pray. I did not die for my mistake, and it was difficult to impress upon my friend just how lucky we were to not have been murdered.

I'm a veteran of several different groups, hoping to start a large new group of mostly new players. One issue I had in previous groups was players not knowing what they should be doing at any given time. There were also disagreements about base design, with everyone having their own opinion and no easy way of choosing one over the other.

One solution I'm considering for this next group is to have each player take on a specific role or two. This would give them clear goals and responsibilities, and would give each player the final say over their respective domain. This is more or less how we ended up playing during my last game, but just providing the roles earlier and more explicitly.

• Beastmaster - Builds and manages the animal pens. Tames and breeds wildlife, providing a steady supply of meat.
• Brewer - Builds and manages the beehives and fermenters. Provides a steady stream of mead and honey.
• Chef - Builds and manages the kitchen. Provides a steady supply of cooked food.
• Expedition Leader - Builds and manages the cart and portal hub. Ensures supplies needed for expeditions are conveniently placed near portals. Carries extra supplies to distribute while on expeditions.
• Farmer - Builds and manages the farm. Provides a steady supply of crops.
• Harbourmaster - Builds and manages ships and the dock. Keeps ships repaired; ensures party has supplies needed to craft ship, when relevant.
• Lord of Festivities - Builds and manages the grand hall (room for max comfort). Organises fun and silly events. Adds flourishes to the base.
• Lumbermaster - Plants trees and harvests wood. Provides a steady supply of wood of different kinds.
• Miner - Builds and manages mining outposts. Provides a steady supply of stone and metal ore.
• Pathfinder - Builds and manages roads, bridges, and the cartography table. Explores new lands, marks resources and locations of interest, forages while on the go.
• Quartermaster - Builds and manages the storage area. Keeps materials sorted and well labelled.
• Smith - Builds and manages the workshop and forge. Produces a steady supply of coal and refined metal.
• Watchmaster - Builds and manages base defenses. Responsible for defense during raids, and protecting the party during expeditions.

How does your group share responsibilities? Do you have explicit or implicit roles? Any others you'd add to the list?

Note: I know these roles aren't equally difficult or complex, but that's ok - some players like simple jobs, while others like the advanced or time consuming stuff.

My wife and I ventured into the Mistlands for the first time yesterday and wound up being chased out by a rampaging 1-star insectoid/rock creature. This thing was insanely fast and incredibly pissed. It persued us well out of the Mistlands, through the Black Forest (where we had to constantly weave through trees and chug stamina potions to keep going), and all the way to our nearby temporary plains portal, where we escaped back to our base.

That portal was just on the shore near our boat, a great distance south. What is the likelihood that the creature will still be present if we return through that portal? Based on our experience with it, I suspect it will effortlessly kill us before we've even fully loaded into the other side.

If it's still there, we're probably better off taking another boat south and luring the creature away from our portal, or just abandoning that portal entirely.

Whatever that thing was it made my heart beat through my chest. It felt good to be afraid of something again.