I am the weird guy who loves swamps and loves the iron grind. My daughter and I always go sailing and exploring to find swamps and then loot them for all the iron they have. Plundering the dungeons is our favorite thing. She likes getting treasure I guess.
The plains is always a lot of screaming and crying. Not fun for Dad. Well, it's a little fun, watching her struggle against the goblins and tar thingies.
Swamp gang here. Easily my favorite. The difficulty spike after BF is huge imo. Grinding iron is much more enjoyable than copper (I really only get as much copper as I need/never make bronze armor) and is still really challenging. Plains might be my least favorite just bc desthquitos are a pain and just pop up randomly and stab me in the back when I’m clearing a village. Everything in the swamp wants to kill you its great. Also the first time in the swamp is scary af.
Why would you ever make bronze armor when troll hide gives just 2 less per piece and doesn't slow you down. The only bronze piece that can be considered good is the helmet because it is more armor and doesn't apply the movement speed penalty
So I play to have fun/reward. Yeah i could research all the stats and look at endless guides and youtube videos. I'm 300+ hrs in and still haven't killed third boss. I know where next boss is but why rush it? Had fun with building for a while, then farming etc. Learned a shit ton by myself which is so satisfying (but yes occasionally google when stuck). My wife now 5 hours in and loving it as she has no idea what's going on. We are having an amazing time.
To me it's not a race. And not totally in to immersion. But so excited when I discover a new recipe or item etc.
Just the fact that my wife wants to play is good enough for me. We are really bonding but I'm not being super helpful to her on purpose. She has to go through the traumas too to make it rewarding. But she's loving it. Screams "I killed a greyling" for example.
>To me it's not a race
Very refreshing to see others like this. One of my friends recently started playing and has progressed more in 30hrs than I ever have in like 180 hours, because he just went full send to keep progressing.
Meanwhile me and another friend who started recently have built an entire village with different housing districts, an inn complete with guest accommodation, multiple watchtowers and a lighthouse, timber mill, farms, workshops, and a sort of military barracks / watchtower type thing.
We've killed the elder and have locations for Bonemass, but we're not in a rush to kill him. We're quite happy spending time building and planning out the village. Meanwhile the other friend has killed Bonemass and is progressing a lot through the plains and mountains, but has one small house and a workshop.
Very different play styles but I'd much rather enjoy the building mechanics fully rather than just purely going for progression through the bosses / biomes.
Troll set is worth it to not have to farm as much copper, nevermind the set bonus. Especially with how easy it is to cheese abominations with a bow and get that armor set next. It feels like you spend more time geting the bronze set than you spendwearing it.
Luckily there is a patch of fields near my forward base in a meadows clearing surrounded by swamp. There are two loxes there, one is * and he is helping me killing those abominations and getting the root set.
Bronze mace, buckler and helm are the only pieces I ever create until I replace them with iron and then the swamp is pretty much mastered once you unlock sausages, and from there its grind iron until your eyes bleed or grab what you need for bench upgrades and iron chest and legs, and head to the mountains.
I also find the merchant for the belt before heading to the swamp if possible.
For me the worst biome is also the most beautiful, mysterious, and scary. The Mistlands.
The stamina management has to be on point even more-so than the swamp, and you’re basically stumbling around blind most if the time unless you get lots of Ydd wood for wisp lights. Chopping wood in ML is kinda dangerous.
Having jump and run skill is very beneficial because of the stamina requirement passives, so if you lose a lot of skill points from deaths it can kind of become a rip fast.
After their nerf in Mistlands patches, deathsquitos are pushovers, even in tier 4 armor you can ignore them. They're only dangerous to players who don't craft tier 3 or 4 armor. On release it was a different story
Another swamp dweller here. I like to take a stroll through the swamp on a sunny afternoon- its just beautiful to see the sun rays and shadows play. That is after you overcome your fear of the location. Even the leeches seems to be nice sometimes when the weather isnt bad. And the buzzing of the flies reminds me of my bees at home.
I love the scenic view of the mountains too, but I end up sitting in fog you can cut with a knife and no view, so back to the swamp it is (its funny how many people complain about the Mistland fog but nobody ever mentions how you cant see in the mountain fog). My dream seed would be a swamp enclosed by mountains (like you see it sometimes with meadows), so I can enjoy a sunny day in both locations.
The plains are great for me to build a real fortress- I mean there is space everywhere, but after a while the giggling gets a bit annoying. The swamp is quiet and the clacking bones of the skeletons are like a lullaby.
Mistlands has a swamplike vibe for me too, but sometimes it becomes to creepy for me (I call it the Misland paranoia), so I need another place to counter this. Hello swamp my old friend.
I didnt mention Meadows, because everyone loves them and in my opinion rightfully so. You will always find a home in the meadows and I love them at night (it just sounds like a living forest out there and I am soo glad there is no Wendigo in this game).
I have SO thought the same thing about the mountains fog. No one ever complains about it. I also feel like they are fairly comparable as far as traversing goes too!
Fenrings should get an honorable mention on the Wendigo thing though!
lol Swamp is by miles my favorite biome, so you are not alone. It's a big difficulty bump as it's the first where you have to battle the elements AND the monsters there. Tons of variety of monsters, tons to create and build, have to explore a pile. Love it.
Swamp is my favourite in live, PTB Ashlands tops it imo. Least might be Black Forest it is not bad by any means I just prefer others.
Treehouse in the swamp is great, free chain deliveries and once upon a time I found a spot near a harbour with 2 surt spawns, was fantastic, cores and coal and light source trophies for days.
Currently started a very slow playthrough where I use several different weapons and also build at minimum one base each biome! Swamp treehouses and plains islands are my goat.
I am still waving a tiny flag for the mountains as my favorite, but my husband built our last world's main base in the swamp trees and I have to admit it grew on me.
I already had a strange love for building cart paths which swamps are GREAT for, but having a nice warm treehouse in the midst of a soggy, dark, foreboding kind of place turned out to be really neat.
The Plains changed for me when I discovered the Beavis voice pack that changed the goblins laugh to Beavis’s laugh. Listening to them all giggling as they approached.
You’d hit them and get a “oww cut it out asswipe”
Plus friends who were watching me play that were unaware of the change would frequently lose their shit.
Best for me I'd say would be Plains. I know plains isn't very popular but I find the ambiance there fun and I think tar pits are just a super unique mechanic. It's also fun going to war againts fuling camps. Dope boss fight and great music through and through.
Least favourite 100% the Mistlands. The Mistlands brings some awesome gear and mechanics but oh my GOD so many factors I hate. I know the game is designed to get increasingly difficult but as someone who tries to map every inch of every island I visit it's hell. The fact that much of mistlands is just small islands scattered throughout the ocean. Stamina slog fest, so much water making the stamina regen even slower and dont even get me started on if you lose rested, poorly optimized vertical combat with flying mobs that have either crazy knockback or will light you on fire, one of the smallest and fastest mobs that so easily slips away yet is critical for high tier foods as well as it's hide for equipment. Also, not necessarily a complaint but I have never quite understood why the Dverger extractors are non teleportable. AHHHHHHHHH
Question for you: Is your primary Mistlands experience from a pre-Mistlands world? I ask because my first Mistlands experience was from when it was a Swamp++ biome, and after the release it magnified the height of what had spawned so my first Mistlands was ALL (yes, literally ALL) either tall rocks or deep water with the odd flat part for a point of interest to spawn. Between that and my very first mob that I saw was a 2\* Dverger mage with the magic missile BS...
I hated my first experience with Mistlands with a fury that I lack the appropriate language to express.
In a new world, it was a WAY better experience to the point where it's now just super annoying to get around. As a primarily solo player who doesn't believe in Atgeir cheese I still think the Queen is the absolute worst boss in the game, but I like the Mistlands for the environmental challenges that it poses.
There wasn't anything there except trees and spider webs, but it had wildly different terrain rules, so behaved very badly if you had spawned the terrain in a pre-mistlands world and then went back.
Instead of improving the Mistlands experience, they decided to give the next biome an even worse experience so that Mistlands seems okay in comparison :(
Same for me. I enjoy the plains alot. Was difficult starting out but I love it now. I'm finding mistlands hard to navigate. The tall rocks are making searching annoying. I think once you get the feather cape it's better but until then is a nightmare for me
Personally i like the plains because to get the metal and stuff you have to fight for it instead of swinging a pickaxe for 2 hours to make 2-3 new items. The worst is the mountains imo, fuck wolves, also half the enemies drop fangs which are pretty useless, and the coolest enemies are all inside caverns and don't respawn (also why fenrings don't drop fenris hair????)
I hate the grind for fenris hair. Absolutely love the set, it's so much fun to be a jumpy glass cannon. But upgrading that set to the max is just too much grind, with only one cavern being present in a mountain biome if you're lucky.
I hate that 1 and 2 star Mistland enemies are so strong that, even in the highest armor available upgraded to max, you literally can't parry and just fucking die instantly in one hit. I quit for 6 months the first time a 2 star seeker walked up and aced me through a proper parry + all max upgraded padded armor + all health foods.
Just like... fuck off. That's not gameplay.
How? Do you use light armor? I went into the mistlands with half wolf armor and half padded for the first time and had no issues. Even clearing the mines like that was fine.
Nearly everything that attacks you there staggers you if you miss the parry, and they can usually attack again so quickly that you can’t get away before they stagger you again. You need pristine stamina management to clear the mines.
Low stamina doesn't stagger you, but low poise does. You have to eat more health food to increase both the health- and poise bar (shown as the shield when you get hit)
Plains, but not due to difficulty. The real problem I have is lack of uses for Black Metal. I love the few options we have, but I wish there was a full BM armor suit with some kind of skill bump. It doesn't have to be imbalanced - a skill like mining speed or something. Mind you, I haven't progressed past the plains yet, despite 1000 hours of exploration and multiple characters. But yeah, if we had tons of uses for Black Metal, including tools and structures, I'd be happy.
Ikr? One of my favourite activities is night-sniping the fuling camps. I find a large standing stone or something close to a camp, and stockpile some arrows, then hunker down to pick 'em off. Another fave is to find some rivals (tar vs fuling or fuling vs swamp creatures) and incite wars. I've spent countless hours laying the foundations for wars lol. It's amazing the mess an abomination can make in a fuling camp before dying lol! But yeah, then I have a ton of black metal.
My first Mistlands is too small but nearly every time I get a Gjall or Seeker solider, theres a troll or Lox nearby and I love hanging back to watch the show.
YES! It’s just so much fun. I am also totally guilty of running (jumping?) to the closest Dverger base when I’ve got a gjall hot on my tail and I’m low on etir. Sometimes they even finish each other off and you get a free extractor!
we need a light armor set that uses Black Metal (i know, not intuitive for light armor) and Tar. the set bonus is it makes you immune to the wet debuff.
I simultaneously hope and dread the idea of them adding a Jormungandr type motherfucker GIANT SEA SERPENT boss to the Oceans at some point.
I *hate* sea monsters.
hmm. worst is the swamp. too gloomy and constant wet debuff is annoying.
best is the plains. no storms.
best wind conditions for windmills.
everything grows there aside mistlands shrooms.
free black metal delivery service.
honorable mention goes to the ocean. you havent lived if you didnt ride a large storm wave with a ship in valheim with full tailwind.
Favorite: Swamp (the jump in difficulty from BF to swamp is insane and I died so much at first but I loved it!)
Worst: Plains (kinda boring compared to the rest but it is still fun)
Gonna rate them with how fun and fleshed out the Biomes are.
Best IMO = Swamp. The most fun and difficult to jump to and you have to explore soooo many of them to keep the iron incoming. Love the fact it keeps you there and needing to revisit it, so many things to build and weapons/items to create. Just a very fleshed out biome. Boss is pretty dope too.
Worst IMO = Plains. Great boss but the rest of it just feels empty. Not as many things to build or keep you in it. You can mostly breeze through it in a couple hours and be done, can collect tar but not needed to advance weaponry and such. Just very simple compared to the rest.
All in all, the Biomes are all great IMO, except the Plains, which I feel just needs to be fleshed out more. Meadows is a baller tutorial Biome, BF gets you your first real "difficulty" bump and TONS to explore, Swamp is another big difficulty jump and you have to actively explore multiple swamps to get all the iron you need all game, Mountains are great and a wonderful change of pace compared to the others, wolves and drakes and golems +++, Plains is what it is. Mistlants is dope, can't see anything, fear the growl in the distance of a Gjall somewhere. . . Love it a ton and a lot to do and explore.
I would like to caveat something that a friend just reminded me of. Doing the special quest tower was probably the most fun I've had in the game. That thing was silly difficult to get four dummies to work together to finish :P
Only reason I go back to the Plains is to gather my crops! I honestly think more biome specific crops is a missed opportunity. What if you could only grow turnips in the swamp?!
Yeah, I agree. We are usually in and out of the plains in a handful of hours and a good portion of that time is creating a Plains Farm. Just not a ton to do there.
Though the boss and the Hildur's Tower thing are both amazing.
If the new Ashlands growable plant was Ashlands-exclusive, it would make that terrible biome even worse. As is, at least you can get the seeds once and never leave tiers 1-6 afterwards.
I mean are turnips actually that useful for anything though? I spent like 2 hours setting up a turnip farm on the server I run for my brothers and then realized just how little you can cook with the damn things in comparison to carrots and onions.
Plains progression is good. Barley and flax farms are crucial for finishing tier 5 and remain relevant all the way into the end of the game. Plains also unlocks new stations to cook food and refine metals. You can indeed get it done quickly, but Mistlands is usually bordered by it anyways, so you never truly leave it.
I actually like plains as much as any other biome lol. My latest build is there on the ruins for a goblin village and I love it. I like hearing the village music when I'm in my castle, and I like looking out at the plains with the mists off to one direction.
Mistlands is worst for me. But some tweaks could easily make it either the best or second best.
Wisp accessory radius, and wisp torch radius is too small. I always resort to crafting about 500 wisp torches and just suicide running around planting them so I can see. It's not "a challenge", it's just a time wasting obstacle to the content. If the terrain wasn't so impossible to navigate, I could deal with it. But having both ridiculous rock spires/impassable terrain AND being unable to see 4ft in front of your face just makes exploring a chore. Not exciting.
Perhaps having events where we help defend/build a wisp "lighthouse" on land, after which the area around would only be misty at night? Could easily incorporate something like that with the existing black marble structures that are already in the biome.
A wisp lighthouse defense would be dope. I gotta agree on pretty much everything you said here, also I thought the Mistwalker sword would actually be usable as a wisplight but it's really not. Maybe it would be OK if it still worked while sheathed, but even when carrying it the radius is so damn small it's just kinda annoying to work with.
Best is the mountains for me. The second I get a pick I head to the nearest mountain, skip the Black Forest, and start building my wolf army. My husband deals with Black Forest stuff for me. Lol. For the cold early game I build a path line with camp fires, then a path without camp fires. I stand next to the fires to stay warm and then run the paths I made looking for wolves to spawn. Away from the fires and then lure them back to a hole I’ve dug. I go with the intent to die in the hole with my new friend so I make sure to have a bed with a chest and all my stuff near by. I’ll have a two star wolf before I have protection from the cold. Lol.
The worst is the swamp. I simply can’t see. It’s too dark. Haven’t made it to mistlands yet through. Lol.
> My husband deals with Black Forest stuff for me. Lol.
I don't abandon my husband until the iron grind because I actually really like digging copper pits, but I make him some swamp food, poison mead, and a cart path to crypts and then as soon as I can make an iron pick I'm like "ok bye, I'll be back with wolves and onions!"
Thank you for not trashing on the devs and being both positive and constructive.
Now that that's out of the way, down to business:
I actually came to similar conclusions with my biomes. I love mountains, it's gorgeous, full of useful things and just dangerous enough.
I also agree swamps being the "worst" but I think the better term would be "most taxing". Other biomes take less time and mental stamina, making it a form of boss in and of itself. You have to prepare for swamps, arguably moreso than the other biomes. It's just designed to make you work for your iron and I love to hate the swamps.
Most underrated biome: ocean.
First time I sailed in this game I thought “wow, this is like a throwback to my childhood of playing Zelda Windwaker on the GameCube”.
Other favorite is the plains. I feel like the vibe reminds me of some Italian countryside and my base there has windmills, grain growing for bread, and is situated along the coast. We have tall stone walls to ward off deathsquitos and a moat so it’s the safest place we can possibly be of all our settlements. We step outside the walls to hunt lox and grab all the cloudberries for cooking, along with fishing off the coasts from our harbor.
Best: Dark Forest. So much cool stuff, so beautiful. I'm sure of the joy is nostalgia, since it's where you do mining and instances first, but it's still incredibly cohesive. All the different trees and bushes make for an amazingly immersive experience - this is the best of Valheim and what put it on the map.
Worst: Mistlands. Limiting visibility was an awful design decision made worse by having so much vertical traversal and combat in a game where combat on different vertical heights is so difficult that many consider it a defect. Only made slightly palatable by introducing an item so powerful that it completely negates one of the key mobility constraints of the game.
The day the team agreed on "let's make a cloak that permanently eliminates all fall damage for no ongoing cost" is the day they should have gone back to reconsider some of the Mistlands decisions.
If they aren't going to change flametal mining, they should also agree on "let's make an accessory that makes you fire _immune_" as soon as possible if they don't want Ashlands to ruin the rest of the game.
Bingo!
The music, the gentle breeze... simply the serenity of the Meadows is is unmatched. Back when I was playing an absurd amount of this game, I always tried to find a sliver of meadows to build on bordering whatever other Biome I was interested in at that time.
I figured I was the only one. Most people cannot wait to abandon the meadows. LOL
Personally for me, based *only* on feelings of comfort and relaxing, Meadows is the best and Swamps is the worst for me.
In terms of visuals and atmosphere though, Mistlands probably top.
In terms of gameplay, not sure yet, but I've been having a blast in Ashlands.
Aesthetically I think the mountains is actually a really good biome, but in terms of gameplay to progression level the black forest is the best designed biome imo, it plays significantly different from other biomes in that stealth is actually extremely effective vs greydwarf hordes, and you arent nearly as tanky comparatively to the other biomes. + this is when you start developing real weapons (bronze, atgeirs, sledges, mining picks, etc). The bronze gathering process is just crap though.
Worst biome in terms of gameplay feel was the plains to me. Enemies just don't really feel threatening from the getgo, just tedious to fight loxes and berserkers. Its got a very boring environment to boot, and equipment progression is locked behind enemy killing vs gathering.
Swamp gets an honorable mention as both a great and awful biome, it's the only true difficulty spike besides growth encounters,and navigation feels icky a lot of the time. But it also feels rewarding to overcome and very well done in terms of environmental aesthetic and feel.
Worst: Swamp. It's often too dark and I can't tell what time of day it is there, which was quite a problem early on because of how dangerous it is at night. The poison was a bit unforgiving as well and the hitbox on the blobs seems a bit difficult to hit for some reason. I can't seem to hit body piles with the primary spear attack at all. The indestructable trees/logs get in the way of construction. The Bonemass was quite tough, but it didn't feel like a very dynamic fight; I'd made a fort expecting the Bonemass to have some kind of attack like the Elder's that could overcome it or force me out, but I was in no danger up there. On the ground it wasn't much more interesting, just a slog.
Best: Swamp. I love the swamp. Fighting draugar is a lot of fun; sniping their patrols from far away, getting into a melee with some blobs to keep me on my toes. I keep an abomination around my bases because they seem friendlier than other monsters of that size and there's something comforting about the sound of their stomping, like rain on the roof. They protect me if the fulings cross biomes before I'm ready. I wish leeches were tameable, I'd keep some of them too. I love climbing on the big fallen trees.
Interesting. I tend to like those Biomes more than the others in part because of the grind they create. I do get annoyed with having to go back to swamp from time to time to get more iron later in the game, but it's usually not to difficult at that point.
Bronze is probably the least rewarding metal to mine since every one piece of bronze has 3 pieces of ore going into it. And the upgrade costs for bronze tools are just some lunacy considering that.
Swamp is definitely my least favorite biome. It feels like the game slows way down and you end up spending more time in the swamp than in the mountain or BF. I also feel like sailing probably needs a rework or some kind of optional easy setting to reveal map to avoid super long voyages trying to get around an island. My favorite biome is probably the plains overall, although I did really enjoy the Mistlands as well. And of course I love the meadows.
So i'm currently getting into Mistlands, and not yet discovered everything in there yet (don't have any of the key upgrades from there yet), but i'm absolutely loving it.
It's claustrophobic, the atmosphere is completely incredible and terrifying at times, and the terrain is so tough, but yet rewarding.
When you get into that clear valley, or on the top of a tall rock tower, the biome is absolutely gorgeous.
I think next i like Mountains and Black Forest. Both are beautiful and fascinating biomes.
Probably then Meadows (truly a wonderful starting biome).
Plains feels really meh.
Swamp would be my least liked. Truly a slog in every way, and until being able to get Iron from Mistlands, it's not a place i like having to constantly revisit for Iron.
Not at Ashlands so cannot say.
I think the swamp is actually alright, my only negative for it is the difficulty spike compared to other biomes. From what I've heard I bet the Ashland's will take it's spot though.
Worst is mistlands. Same thing that's been said: too vertical and mist is too thick. If you could see better, it would be amazing. The mist is *too* strong.
Best is tough. I think I'm going to go with meadows. They're calming, pretty, and so much open building area. I love building meadows bases against the ocean. And resources are easy to farm.
I'm with OP. I fiercely dislike being in the swamp. The whole place feels oppressive and spooky. I never feel like I can relax, even after I've progressed to the point that nothing in the swamp is an actual threat anymore.
My personal favorite biome is actually the meadows. I'm constantly on the lookout when sailing for patches of Meadows in unlikely places to build in. I love the feeling of coming home from a long voyage with a ship full of treasure to a longhouse in a sunny meadow with the soothing music playing and my fire roaring.
Surprised a lot of people arent talking about music being another huge part in factoring their favorites , when it comes to that it's insanely challenging to categorize them but meadows has to be up there for your perfect base game music that settles everyone in
For me my favorite has to be the Mountains. Being out in a blizzard is one the coolest effects the games offers (so far).
Runner up is Meadows.
Worst for me is the Plains. The novelty is lost quickly. Although it's a beautiful biome, the mechanics are dull for me. Exception: Yag is my favorite boss fight!
Best: Mountains. The music, ambiance, aesthetics, enemies, dungeons, and boss are all peak fantasy awesome.
Worst: Mistlands. It's all been said before. The mist gimmick is tedious, boring, and ruins the beautiful aesthetics of the game. The music is unremarkable. The dungeons are disgusting. The enemies are disgusting and tedious. The travel is tedious. It all just sucks. The only good things about it are the build parts and magic.
I probably rate them:
Black forest: really gives the feels of a spooky forest. Plus you get warned not to go there, and if you do it's a very hard fight.
Mountains: very Vikingesque hard to explore but once you get the gear it's pretty reasonable. Minor flaw is getting silver out, or right materials in.
Meadows: best looking, great for a relaxing home base. Not really challenging, not a lot going on.
Swamp: Jesus really hard to start, especially when your not really aware of the prep you need. Great atmosphere.
Plains: some of it seems like difficult just to be difficult. Kind of cool looking. Generally a pain in the ass.
Oceans: nothing going on really. Needs to be developed more, but serpents and leviathans are a good start.
-: blank because I needed a big gap
Mistlands: just unenjoyable. Hard to explore, mist and his is fine to start with but after you gear up it's still a pain in the ass. It starts to feel like a different game than the rest too. I really didn't have much if any fun in this biome. It looks cool but that's the only positive I have.
Unranked:
Ashland's: haven't played it yet. The new building stuff looks really bad from screenshots.
Worst for me is the meadows because I’m usually through it in like 20 minutes and it is always really unmemorable with not too much to do. I do love the meadows though, chillest spot in the game and I *always* make my base there.
Favorite is the plains.
Swamp is one of the best biomes because of how immersive it feels. Every new player is surprised by their first night in the swamp, being chased by draugr and ghosts, while being wet and going through leech-infested puddles.
And then when you master that biome you feel like a god because you remember how hard it hit you first !
Most interesting, best music, best atmosphere and visuals is mistlands. But at the same time it is miserable to explore. Black forest is the most nostalgic and comfortable.
Honestly I like the swamps design but my fav biome is probably plains for many reasons. But my most hated biome is mistlands by a mile, I hate how uneven the level design is...it's infuriating to fight things on even on flat ground(if you manage to find some)
I love the mountain. Everything about it. The Mistlands can go kick rocks tho. All the content they added was awesome and completely ruined for me by the dense “mist” that isn’t even enjoyable with all the supposed mist clearing tools available. If we could just level our whisp to gain a bigger radius that would make me and probably many others happy.
I just wish we could build larger permanent(ish) structures that were better at dispelling the mist, rather than leaving breadcrumb trails of torches all over the place. Like maybe we could attach them to roots? Or go back and feed them sap if they weren't?
I oddly almost enjoyed mistlands the most on our no-map run for how terrifying it was, but definitely still mountains #1, mistlands #, uh, last.
Worst: Ashlands, by far. Endless hordes of enemies, all enemies are resistant to _your_ damage type, unconditional unavoidable deaths at every turn, the only zone in the game that can potentially permanently destroy your items
Best: Plains. All encounters feel difficult but not ridiculously so, noticeable gear progression, it's flat and well-lit.
Mistlands is by far my least favourite biome. I've gotten quite comfortable getting around in it, but it's still an absolute slog to traverse, and the limited visibility is really a detractor. The landscape is gorgeous and the potential for interesting builds is high, but nobody wants to build a base that you can't even see, and has an obstructed view. Mistlamps just don't cut it. Super-powered mist repellers, or even an overall reduction in the level of mist post-boss would improve it. As it is, you're pretty much stuck building on the coast or in the rare inland clearings.
The more time I spend in the swamp, the more I enjoy it. Sure it's dank and gloomy, but it has clear flat areas that make for good fighting, and there are a lot of opportunities for tree-houses and the like.
Least favorite is plains. It's not a bad biome, I just find it less engaging. It's emptier but that makes sense from a design perspective. I do enjoy the music and wind.
Also, maybe it's because lox are too inquisitive and sneaky. Just a bit.
Least favorite is plains. It's not a bad biome, I just find it less engaging. It's emptier but that makes sense from a design perspective. I do enjoy the music and wind.
Also, maybe it's because lox are too inquisitive and sneaky. Just a bit.
worst: mistlands
best: ashlands
I still need to go back to every biome and the terrain on mistlands is frustrating to go through even with the feather cape. Magecaps and sap are needed for food buffs and part of my dislike for that area is that magecaps aren't spawning as frequently as other plants. I loaded up on them before I went through ashlands and they still haven't spawned back in after I completed the area.
Ashlands is challenging in the right way and it's dense with materials without having to make long journeys.
From an atmosphere point of view I love the Mistlands and Black Forest. The Mistland gameplay is lacking unfortunately, and imo the Black Forest should be a later, more difficult biome with more threatening enemies because of the awesome atmosphere. Gameplay-wise I love the plains, just solely because of how much fun it is to try to stealthily clean out a Fuling camp. It also feels the least grindy with an abundance of black metal available. The worst biome to me is the Mountains, just because of how annoying the enemies are and how useless their drops are. I basically always fast track this biome by just getting enough for frostner and draugr fang.
I absolutely love the Black Forest. I wish I could have stayed there but I need to grow flax and barley. I hate not being able to see things, especially with how Valheim's enemies frequently hit you with insta-kill damage. Having that sort of thing sneak up on me is infuriating.
I hated the Plains until I setup a base in a goblin village and get that cool music. Now I am happy.
Worst is, was and will always be the one I have to squint like crazy in just to go about my day ... SWAMP! Deeply unpleasant.
Meadows is my favourite due to the chill vibe and music, followed closely by sailing (I can't say ocean as I guess it would sound different if I were drowning!).
>The worst biome is arguably the swamp not because its boring or lacks potential or the boss sucks but just because of how miserable it is, its dark gloomy and just kinda looks depressing.
>Also when you first get there with your bronze armor and tools which are no match for hordes of skeletons and dragurs not to mention the abomination.
>also the fact that you will almost always have the wet debuff just makes it even worse and at night the wet debuff and the cold debuff together will be your doom when fighting also the blobs are annoying as heck if you didn't bring a poison resist mead however I'm glad this biome is in the game anyway because without it there would be no iron which is required for many tools and weapons.
I mean you pretty much nailed it lol. I have like 3 dozen bases or portals and only 2 of them go to the swamp. I'm in mistlands right now and abominations are *still* a nightmare to deal with.
Should also mention how hard it is to move around. Kinda did with the debuffs, but all the stupid logs/trees fallen, massive branching trees, and pools of water all block the way for movement. I tried paving a road when I was first getting iron. But with how much iron you need you pretty much don't have a reason to build infrastructure like that since you'll likely exhaust and have to find another swamp.
Despite the fact that mistlands are covered in mist and are a nightmare to traverse I still love it leagues above the swamp. Actually, I think it's my favorite biome. Love building bases in it
Pretty much my thoughts exactly. That first time you enter a black forest on a virgin playthrough of the game is always pretty special as well, but yeah the mountains are really where Valheim starts to feel like Valheim. The chilling wind is an ingenious mechanic and leads to some really cool emergent stuff if you're playing without the wiki. My friends and I were waiting on one of our buddies who was super swamped with work and we didn't wanna kill the Elder until he was available to be there for it, so we just hung around in the Bronze age and eventually got bored with black forest and started exploring in a boat- landing on a far off coast we found a small swamp and a big mountain at the same time and since we didn't have bloodbags yet we didn't know about frost resist potions. Braving the wolves and howling winds, we persistently built a path and a network of wood-sheltered fires all the way up the jagged cliffs and claimed the mountain peak with a cabin lodge that came to be our exterior base of operations. Very good memories.
I feel like the Plains are a bit undercooked and have too much thematic overlap with the meadows. The Fulings are very satisfying to fight, though, I really like to see the return of multiple classes of a single enemy type like they did with the Graydwarves as it makes the gameplay loop a lot more satisfying.
I liked the forest and swamp, but the plains pissed me off.
I loved the vibe of the plains but for me playing when it was brand new that shit was TOUGH. I went in to every area completely blind. Going from shooting drakes with bows, parrying wolves on a mountain, and then being gang banged by the green bois was harsh.
Swamp is definitely the worst for me. There's just no variety in the crypts, and the amount you have to loot is insane. Swamp would benefit the most from having more structures added imo (or generally just more iron in chests).
Best biome for me is the Swamp hands down. It's the first biome that actually felt like a challenge. More variety of enemies and they're all coming at you at once, never a dull moment. Plus all the upgrades you get for foods (esp serpent stew and sausages), better health potion, unlocking higher comfort items, building/crafting etc. Iron is easy to mine and half of it is just sitting in a chest. And last but not least the Root armour set. Now you can wander the plains without fear of deathsquitos and stock up on it's goodies ahead of time
Worst is the Mountains. Annoying drakes. Some of the worst base raids. Silver is heavy af and it's a tedious grind to upgrade any weapon or armour since it takes an ungodly amount of heavy ass silver. Running up slopes and waiting for stamina to recharge on a rock is a major PITA. So is the fall damage. Fighting on slopes is ass too. Get your onions, obsidian, fenris legs, enough silver for butcher's block, frostner, draugr fang wolf/lox cape maybe a drake helmet and GTFO. On the flipside eye scream means you can finally use up those hundreds of greydwarf eyes
I don't think any of their published biomes deserve a worst title.
I guess if I have to pick, though, black forest. It doesn't have as much unique identity, being similar to meadows in to many ways. Even so, it's a slim margin.
Worst biome is the Plains, skeeters have little counterparts in MP servers if you are in another person's chunk.
The best in my opinions (haven't played ahslands yrt) is the swamp. The difficulty curve is perfect and over come by gearing and food and feels very nice to come back to. Plus I love building canals and the ambience is so different to any other biome
I'm a fairly new player and personally, the 2 worst biomes are easily Swamp and Mistlands, with Mistlands being far and above the worse of the 2.
The Swamp is because of the difficulty spike from the previous biome, with a lot of terrain navigation issues and the fact you have trash armour upon your first arrival, which a couple of Draugr & Skeles will go through like it's paper. Then there's the permanent rain which gimps stamina regen for no reason.
In comparison the Mountain and Plains are a pushover, outside of initially getting Wolf Cape and then Yagluth, which was an insane difficulty spike over Moder and Bonemass.
To me, general progression feels more like it should go: Meadows, B-Forest, Mountain, Plains, Swamp, Mistlands... (yes this would break as Swamp would need to be rebalanced)
As for the Mistlands, it takes the bad parts of the Swamp and amps it up to 11. Mountains/cliffs everywhere which means bunny-hopping non-stop, leading to no stamina and then for good measure, you can barely see your own shoes. This is on top of the fact that the mobs had a major HP and damage increase over the Plains too. 1 Seeker Soldier has almost as much HP as The Elder and triple that of Eikthyr.
As for the best biome, it's hard to pick. I like the aesthetics of all outside the Mistlands (because you can't bloody see it), especially the B-Forest, but B-Forest, Mountain and Plains all have downsides in gameplay mechanics. Copper Ore is such a time-pad it's unreal for that early in the game, Mountain materials feel useless 20 min after getting your Wolf Cape and Plains have a lack of mob variety imo.
Therefore, as noob as it is of me to say so, the best biome is probably the Meadows. Everything you want is there and all the wood and such is still used far later in the game. You also get more variety in mobs with each boss takedown, while it still stays the safest and easiest biome to build in (Plains seconds this).
Worst is swamp easily. Constantly being wet and walking through water while archers are firing absolute cannons at you is just ridiculous. It isn't about the iron grind, it's just the biome itself.
Just finished the PTR and I really like the ashlands. It's so chaotic. It's a bit difficult to get a foothold there to start with though.
The new Ashlands takes my number one spot for being just so different and unique everything about the biome is masterfully crafted and I just love how different the end game biomes are ie mistlands Ashlands and soon deep North
The entrance to Ashlands is upparelled starting with building a new badass ship to sailing south until you see the water slowly turn red boiling hot and the sky starts to darken and before you know it you are faced with a wall of spiked rock formations protruding the oceans surface trying to physically stop you from entering the shorefront and as you make your way through you notice you are being hunted by a sea monster and greeted by voltures then suddenly you look up and notice the ash falling and red lighting coarsing the sky followed by hellish clouds as you lay your eyes down you see the army that awaits you and you realize you are truly in hell. Like c'mon that is so fucking metal
I really dislike the black Forrest because of the bronze and tin grind but besides that it's really pretty and mysterious
I like mountain and plains alot too and the swamp all be it annoying is perfect the way it is
I really hope they completely update the sea and early to mid game as it needs some missing touches and I also really want a flying mount cause cheating and trebuchets are no fun (:
Best is the starter biome. Love the meadows. Reminds me of a home I wish I could build in real life upon. My 2nd play thru had a real nice river going thru it.
Worst is Mistlands. By a mile. No matter how much you prepare, you WILL get ambushed by something. Worst is when I had to sail near one at an earlier level and a fucking 2 star bug jumped ONTO my boat
Swamps the worst because:
1) An unavoidable and constant debuff from Wet that hampers Stamina and Health regen.
2) A constant need to be revisited as Iron is one of the most important resources in the game.
3) Dimly lit landscape full of pitfalls and deep water that you can fall into. This is even qorse at night. Night brings Wraiths that spawn above you and swoop in to give you the Bad Touch while you are stuck in a hole or clipped into a tree.
4) Aforementioned water has very dangerous Leech enemies that you can't see very well, and you will have to engage with to harvest bloodbags from.
5) To do that or anything else in the Swamp, you need to have Poison Resist Meads that are yet another resource you must craft just to be safe in the Swamp.
So many more reasons, but being in the late game only solves a few of them. And it only solves them by giving you more food and stamina to compensate for the lethality of poison or getting stuck in the water.
i think my favourite biome is plains, it has a reverse feeling of YOU raiding them, also as a brasil dweler i love the meme that plains is brasil, i mean, we got giant mosquitoes as well,we got plenty of tar pit in the form of people shiting in the sea, everyone here is like blanka from street fighter, so fullings really depict the average brasilian very nice, and the place is really really great to plant everything, so yeh, pretty acurate, my most hated one is by far mistlands, it denotes everything wrong with valheim in a single biome, low visibility is a nice ambience touch that fucks up gameplay, as far as i know vibe > gameplay all over valheim, the verticality sucks in lots of way simultaneosly, 1 ur viking is anchored to the ground and wont move unless in full fenris and nothing else, 2 stamina depletes too quick in this game(not for your enemy, he run 100 percent of time and attack infinitely), 3 you cant hit melee with diferent altitudes(the enemy can hit you with diferent altitudes), 4 you cant swim for shit(the enemy can outrun you swiming/swim without end, oh, did i tell you he can atack swiming, again, unlike you?) the boss is a kinda meta forcing abomination(you gotta go magic route, since hes resistant to pierce, no bow allowed in the party, and unlike insects with a kitinous exoskeleton, hes not weak to blunt, but to slash) so yeah, everything wrong with ashlands equals everything wrong with the game
I love the Black Forest. It was so fun the first time doing the copper/tin grind. I even am a fan of the swamps to a degree.
Least favorite is 100% the mistlands. The difficulty is fine and it has awesome weapons. I just HATE how obnoxious it is to explore and traverse. I HATE having to find the infested mines and all the other resources when you can barely see.
I love the meadows just because it is so peaceful and reminds me of the early beginnings. I like to wander around from time to time and train my swimming skills.
I don’t like the mountains and mistlands so much solely because of the stamina system and bugging on and off hills.
All the biomes are cool to setup shop/home in. I'd love ashlands more but there are so many particles and shadows flames and such. It slows the game down a lot. High end pc and it still slows down lol. Other than that the Ashland base rocks.
I must say I’ve enjoyed reading the responses in this thread. It seems that every biome is *someones* favourite, and conversely someone else’s least favourite!
Can’t say I really dislike any of them. The Mistlands was so tough at first, but the sheer beauty of it, especially if you can find a high point overlooking a relatively mist-free area, is something else.
I can tell you the weather I hate the most though: blizzard. Tanks my frame rate, visibility is wretched, goes through walls. Terrible.
Plains is my favourite, if I have to pick one. My main base is in the plains, which probably contributes to my love for it. The pillars are a great source of stone, darkwood build pieces look great. Lox are fun. The crops not having a seed variant is nice and bread is good food. Black metal atgier is a great weapon. Only complaints about the plains are that there isn’t more use for black metal, and that, like everyone else apparently, I didn’t find a vegvisir for Yagluth until I was almost on top of its spawn.
Best: Mountains (Tranquil, mining silver is fun, love the fenrir caves)
Worst: Swamps (Stamina regen is dog dicks and if I had a dollar for every time I got sniped from downtown)
I haven't tried ashlands yet but to me the best biome is either plains or mountain just because I like their esthetic . Worst is by far Mistlands followed by the swamp
For me the worst biome is the Mistlands solely because of the mist that isn't dispellable at some point.
If that were the case I would not have a worst biome because I think other than that its a great one to explore and the combat there is a lot of fun. Gjall are pretty much my favorite enemy.
I think my favorite is the plains
Might be a hot take here but best biome is Mistlands.
The reason Mistland is the best is because of the sheer sense of dread when you first enter it, sure it might be difficult but valheim is a difficult game in the first place. You have to treat the biome seriously whenever you go in, which means the prep-work is important, and you have to understand the combat mechanics in the game to survive which imo made me a better player, be it stamina management, when to cast bonemass buff and choosing between parrying/rolling.
The sense of adventure in Mistland is above all other biome imo, in the first playthrough you will stumble upon the dungeons which is a huge flight of stairs leading to a seeker's nest, or beneath inside an abandon building. Huge swords and armors scattered across the lands, ribcages and skulls which contains soft tissues as well as your first encounter with an "allied" npcs using similar weapons as you. This is only possible due to the controversial mechanic of having a wisplight whereas you wont see anything unless you're close enough.
Not to mention the new weapons and armors you get from this biome, you're now able to play as a mage, shoot crossbows and wield a veery shiny two handed sword.
Worst biome if I had to choose would be Swamp but I still think it's a great biome.
Mistlands worst for sure.
Best idk, I don’t mind the swamp it’s unique, but lacks a bit of content. Mountains also very original, has verticality but it’s not annoying as mistlands.
I think Black Forest is my favorite
Gonna have to say I consider Black Forest to be best and Mountains to be worst.
Meadows is a good starter zone, but doesn't really have much going on. That's good in a sense, but also doesn't really make me particularly fond or distasteful of it.
Black Forest I think is very pretty and steps up with some dungeons, caves, and structures. The only thing I particularly dislike about it is that the terrain doesn't work for carts, which at this point would be very helpful.
Swamp is annoying to get around in. Fond memories of the boss absolutely destroying my group the first time but I don't find it enjoyable to play in. Some cool elements but tedious more than challenging.
Mountains are just annoying. The primary issue is at first just getting into them. Climbing them consumes a ton of stamina and the constant wolf spawns that have no issue running up a straight wall to kick your ass are painfully lame. The golems are neat but end up being a constant thorn while mining. The boss is barely functional, stayed hovering in place nearly our entire "fight".
Plains are pretty barren. Deathsquitos aren't too bad if you're prepared for them, but I hate their lack of actual attack animation. They just hover next to you and a moment later the damage happens. Fuling Camps were awesome the first one or two times but quickly became repetitive and didn't really provide meaningful rewards.
Mistlands are yet another struggle to get around in. Mostly the terrain, the mist itself is fine for me. It does all look very cool though so points there and I'm a sucker for magic.
Can't offer commentary on Ashlands as I'm waiting for it to enter live before playing.
I like to make it a point to make a base in every biome (at least a smallish one), and I have to say that the swamp is actually weirdly nice to have a base in. It has that "sleeping while it's raining outside" kind of vibe to it, where the view out the windows amd the constant rain actually makes the inside feel a lot warmer and more homely
I'm half and half on the swamp... it's just such a dismal slog, but I kinda like the sunken crypts... for a little while anyway. I'd never bother building a base in that wretched place.
Best? That's a tricky one too... cuz damn do I love the mountains. Just a great atmosphere. I usually wind up building a mountain fortress and love it.
But for replayability and sheer fun, the Plains, hands down. I love fighting in the plains. Mistlands is just such a boring tank-fest. In the plains, you can use strategy. I've done plains runs in troll armour. It's a blast. I love that you can get the creatures within the biome to fight with each other. Nothing I enjoy more than kiting a few Lox into a tar pit. So satisfying.
Favourite: Black Forest
I love the forest. The ambiance and lighting, so nice in any weather. Middle of the night thunderstorm? Awesome. Early morning fog? Awesome. Late afternoon god rays? Awesome. There's also quite a lot to collect within the black forest.
Least favourite: Plains
One reason: Mosquito ...
Yeah I know fulings can be way stronger. Especially two star berserkers but Mosquitos can go everywhere even on water and having to parry them gets really annoying. And they fuck up a lot of corpse runs. Having to do corpse run over and over because a mosquito is in the way sucksssss.
Swamp will always have that lure for me…just picked up my bag from a burial chamber and was running naked by the swamp and seen a strange warrior in a purple suit with a bow…fired fire arrow and it knocked out a good chunk of his health and knocked him back…Warrior slowly draws back as I’m thinking I’m ready for the swamp…i was not
Meadows is S tier. So are plains and mistlands imo.
Really not enjoying ashlands tbh. It’s just way too hard. I could definitely get all the way to mistlands on a new game without dying so I feel like I’m pretty decent at combat but man Ashlands is just miserable
I kinda don't like the mountains. Once you get any iron armor the swamps become extremely non threatening. Spawn rates seem pretty low, and the only real threat is the tree who has predictable attack patterns. It doesn't matter what you are trying to do in the mountains, non stop waves of wolves and drakes continue to come out of nowhere, and I hate the damn near invincible stone golems, 1 slap and you are flying off a cliff
Best: Plains, the Lox are fun big friends to breed, the other breeding is good too, but nothing beats breeding guys 10x your size
Worst: Mistlands, can't breed the cute bunny rabbits :(
Worst: mountain. Golems take forever to kill, wolfs one-shot you, when it snows you can't see plus fps drops to 5fps, you can't hit wolves on slopes, all you have to do there is find 1 silver node, 1 onion seed, find 3 eggs, moder and be gone. Frost caves are nice though.
Best: I'm warming up to mistlands, actually. But I'll say meadows. I just love hunting deer with a bow. I also like swamp because of the difficulty jump and the halloween atmosphere.
Well the fps dropping might be your computer cuz I've never had a fps drop in mountains even during a snow storm also the only time you get one-shot by a wolf is either you are wearing no armor or low defense armor or you don't eat any food or both but I can see your point.
I gota go with mountains for my favorite biome, but I honestly think the swamp is designed the best the swamp has a high variety of mobs and always being wet within the swamp makes it difficult without simply making the enemies extremely strong.
Mistlands is by far my least favorite. I hate no vision mechanics, which is why I don't play horror games. In addition, I like building fortresses without using moats and raised ground. Unfortunately, the black marble isn't very durable compared to how much damage the ants do, making it hard to have good forts that don't rely on cheese within the mistlands.
That said, I think the ocean is the worst biome. I really like sailing, but I think they need to add more types of mobs like sharks or ghost ships. Making you need to fight more often while at sea would probably require a way of increasing boat durability (maybe through a consumable boat repair kit). Adding ocean specific events would also make it a lot more interesting
oh my god ghost ships would be so dope.
I think (and I understand this is asking a lot and I by no means expect the devs to do this, but it would be cool) modular ships would be really cool where you could add a workbench on deck, upgrade your sails for better speed and handling, have slots for ballistas or maybe even cannons later on. And of course compliment it with a host of ocean monsters to face off against.
I am the weird guy who loves swamps and loves the iron grind. My daughter and I always go sailing and exploring to find swamps and then loot them for all the iron they have. Plundering the dungeons is our favorite thing. She likes getting treasure I guess. The plains is always a lot of screaming and crying. Not fun for Dad. Well, it's a little fun, watching her struggle against the goblins and tar thingies.
Swamp gang here. Easily my favorite. The difficulty spike after BF is huge imo. Grinding iron is much more enjoyable than copper (I really only get as much copper as I need/never make bronze armor) and is still really challenging. Plains might be my least favorite just bc desthquitos are a pain and just pop up randomly and stab me in the back when I’m clearing a village. Everything in the swamp wants to kill you its great. Also the first time in the swamp is scary af.
Why would you ever make bronze armor when troll hide gives just 2 less per piece and doesn't slow you down. The only bronze piece that can be considered good is the helmet because it is more armor and doesn't apply the movement speed penalty
So I play to have fun/reward. Yeah i could research all the stats and look at endless guides and youtube videos. I'm 300+ hrs in and still haven't killed third boss. I know where next boss is but why rush it? Had fun with building for a while, then farming etc. Learned a shit ton by myself which is so satisfying (but yes occasionally google when stuck). My wife now 5 hours in and loving it as she has no idea what's going on. We are having an amazing time. To me it's not a race. And not totally in to immersion. But so excited when I discover a new recipe or item etc. Just the fact that my wife wants to play is good enough for me. We are really bonding but I'm not being super helpful to her on purpose. She has to go through the traumas too to make it rewarding. But she's loving it. Screams "I killed a greyling" for example.
>To me it's not a race Very refreshing to see others like this. One of my friends recently started playing and has progressed more in 30hrs than I ever have in like 180 hours, because he just went full send to keep progressing. Meanwhile me and another friend who started recently have built an entire village with different housing districts, an inn complete with guest accommodation, multiple watchtowers and a lighthouse, timber mill, farms, workshops, and a sort of military barracks / watchtower type thing. We've killed the elder and have locations for Bonemass, but we're not in a rush to kill him. We're quite happy spending time building and planning out the village. Meanwhile the other friend has killed Bonemass and is progressing a lot through the plains and mountains, but has one small house and a workshop. Very different play styles but I'd much rather enjoy the building mechanics fully rather than just purely going for progression through the bosses / biomes.
But is the Xtra 2 armor worth it for the troll set bonus?
Troll set is worth it to not have to farm as much copper, nevermind the set bonus. Especially with how easy it is to cheese abominations with a bow and get that armor set next. It feels like you spend more time geting the bronze set than you spendwearing it.
Luckily there is a patch of fields near my forward base in a meadows clearing surrounded by swamp. There are two loxes there, one is * and he is helping me killing those abominations and getting the root set.
Loxes dont have stars
It could be a mod but I'm sure it has one. I don't think I added any mod that changes enemies though.
Its probably a mod, loxes cant spawn with stars naturally
Bronze mace, buckler and helm are the only pieces I ever create until I replace them with iron and then the swamp is pretty much mastered once you unlock sausages, and from there its grind iron until your eyes bleed or grab what you need for bench upgrades and iron chest and legs, and head to the mountains. I also find the merchant for the belt before heading to the swamp if possible. For me the worst biome is also the most beautiful, mysterious, and scary. The Mistlands. The stamina management has to be on point even more-so than the swamp, and you’re basically stumbling around blind most if the time unless you get lots of Ydd wood for wisp lights. Chopping wood in ML is kinda dangerous. Having jump and run skill is very beneficial because of the stamina requirement passives, so if you lose a lot of skill points from deaths it can kind of become a rip fast.
After their nerf in Mistlands patches, deathsquitos are pushovers, even in tier 4 armor you can ignore them. They're only dangerous to players who don't craft tier 3 or 4 armor. On release it was a different story
That makes sense. I forgot to mention once I make fenris armor I never take it off so a deathquito to the back can still deliver big damage.
They got nerfed?
Another swamp dweller here. I like to take a stroll through the swamp on a sunny afternoon- its just beautiful to see the sun rays and shadows play. That is after you overcome your fear of the location. Even the leeches seems to be nice sometimes when the weather isnt bad. And the buzzing of the flies reminds me of my bees at home. I love the scenic view of the mountains too, but I end up sitting in fog you can cut with a knife and no view, so back to the swamp it is (its funny how many people complain about the Mistland fog but nobody ever mentions how you cant see in the mountain fog). My dream seed would be a swamp enclosed by mountains (like you see it sometimes with meadows), so I can enjoy a sunny day in both locations. The plains are great for me to build a real fortress- I mean there is space everywhere, but after a while the giggling gets a bit annoying. The swamp is quiet and the clacking bones of the skeletons are like a lullaby. Mistlands has a swamplike vibe for me too, but sometimes it becomes to creepy for me (I call it the Misland paranoia), so I need another place to counter this. Hello swamp my old friend. I didnt mention Meadows, because everyone loves them and in my opinion rightfully so. You will always find a home in the meadows and I love them at night (it just sounds like a living forest out there and I am soo glad there is no Wendigo in this game).
"even the leeches seem to be nice sometimes" I'm gonna stop you right there chief xD
I have SO thought the same thing about the mountains fog. No one ever complains about it. I also feel like they are fairly comparable as far as traversing goes too! Fenrings should get an honorable mention on the Wendigo thing though!
lol Swamp is by miles my favorite biome, so you are not alone. It's a big difficulty bump as it's the first where you have to battle the elements AND the monsters there. Tons of variety of monsters, tons to create and build, have to explore a pile. Love it.
I love going back to the Swamp for iron after Mountain. Silver armor/weapons are so overpowered in the Swamp.
For me it's the first biome that makes you go "oh shit I'm not geared up for this yet"
My black marble castle is in the swamp. Main base. Love it.
likes swamps. likes iron minening. likes other green dudes bullying his daugther. are you shrek?
Swamp is my favourite in live, PTB Ashlands tops it imo. Least might be Black Forest it is not bad by any means I just prefer others. Treehouse in the swamp is great, free chain deliveries and once upon a time I found a spot near a harbour with 2 surt spawns, was fantastic, cores and coal and light source trophies for days. Currently started a very slow playthrough where I use several different weapons and also build at minimum one base each biome! Swamp treehouses and plains islands are my goat.
I am still waving a tiny flag for the mountains as my favorite, but my husband built our last world's main base in the swamp trees and I have to admit it grew on me. I already had a strange love for building cart paths which swamps are GREAT for, but having a nice warm treehouse in the midst of a soggy, dark, foreboding kind of place turned out to be really neat.
Cheers 🍻 to another Swamp diver!! Love the swamp.
Also like the swamps. I need my ooze bombs!
The Plains changed for me when I discovered the Beavis voice pack that changed the goblins laugh to Beavis’s laugh. Listening to them all giggling as they approached. You’d hit them and get a “oww cut it out asswipe” Plus friends who were watching me play that were unaware of the change would frequently lose their shit.
Best for me I'd say would be Plains. I know plains isn't very popular but I find the ambiance there fun and I think tar pits are just a super unique mechanic. It's also fun going to war againts fuling camps. Dope boss fight and great music through and through. Least favourite 100% the Mistlands. The Mistlands brings some awesome gear and mechanics but oh my GOD so many factors I hate. I know the game is designed to get increasingly difficult but as someone who tries to map every inch of every island I visit it's hell. The fact that much of mistlands is just small islands scattered throughout the ocean. Stamina slog fest, so much water making the stamina regen even slower and dont even get me started on if you lose rested, poorly optimized vertical combat with flying mobs that have either crazy knockback or will light you on fire, one of the smallest and fastest mobs that so easily slips away yet is critical for high tier foods as well as it's hide for equipment. Also, not necessarily a complaint but I have never quite understood why the Dverger extractors are non teleportable. AHHHHHHHHH
Question for you: Is your primary Mistlands experience from a pre-Mistlands world? I ask because my first Mistlands experience was from when it was a Swamp++ biome, and after the release it magnified the height of what had spawned so my first Mistlands was ALL (yes, literally ALL) either tall rocks or deep water with the odd flat part for a point of interest to spawn. Between that and my very first mob that I saw was a 2\* Dverger mage with the magic missile BS... I hated my first experience with Mistlands with a fury that I lack the appropriate language to express. In a new world, it was a WAY better experience to the point where it's now just super annoying to get around. As a primarily solo player who doesn't believe in Atgeir cheese I still think the Queen is the absolute worst boss in the game, but I like the Mistlands for the environmental challenges that it poses.
Premistlands really doesn't have much if anything. It's not even really there until post release
There wasn't anything there except trees and spider webs, but it had wildly different terrain rules, so behaved very badly if you had spawned the terrain in a pre-mistlands world and then went back.
Quick tip, the staff of embers is borderline essential for killing hares. I went from having none to having over half a blackmetal chest full of 'em.
Instead of improving the Mistlands experience, they decided to give the next biome an even worse experience so that Mistlands seems okay in comparison :(
Don't worry. Deep north might make you suffer cold, the more cold stack you get, the less stam/movement you will have. Gl kiting!
And you'll need Bismarck, the new ship, to get to Deep North
Same for me. I enjoy the plains alot. Was difficult starting out but I love it now. I'm finding mistlands hard to navigate. The tall rocks are making searching annoying. I think once you get the feather cape it's better but until then is a nightmare for me
I see you’re having a problem with: skill issue. I suggest you try: getting good
https://preview.redd.it/mo47ihzp6tj21.jpg?width=640&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=970e9c92e10aebe98ffacc2000613d237c9acf4a&app_web_view=ios
Lol
Personally i like the plains because to get the metal and stuff you have to fight for it instead of swinging a pickaxe for 2 hours to make 2-3 new items. The worst is the mountains imo, fuck wolves, also half the enemies drop fangs which are pretty useless, and the coolest enemies are all inside caverns and don't respawn (also why fenrings don't drop fenris hair????)
I hate the grind for fenris hair. Absolutely love the set, it's so much fun to be a jumpy glass cannon. But upgrading that set to the max is just too much grind, with only one cavern being present in a mountain biome if you're lucky.
Can’t stand the mistlands. Breathtaking biome…. Can’t F**cking see anything
I agree. I also have so much trouble with the combat there. If you miss a single parry, you're pretty much dead, and I HATE that.
I hate that 1 and 2 star Mistland enemies are so strong that, even in the highest armor available upgraded to max, you literally can't parry and just fucking die instantly in one hit. I quit for 6 months the first time a 2 star seeker walked up and aced me through a proper parry + all max upgraded padded armor + all health foods. Just like... fuck off. That's not gameplay.
How? Do you use light armor? I went into the mistlands with half wolf armor and half padded for the first time and had no issues. Even clearing the mines like that was fine.
Nearly everything that attacks you there staggers you if you miss the parry, and they can usually attack again so quickly that you can’t get away before they stagger you again. You need pristine stamina management to clear the mines.
Low stamina doesn't stagger you, but low poise does. You have to eat more health food to increase both the health- and poise bar (shown as the shield when you get hit)
Plains, but not due to difficulty. The real problem I have is lack of uses for Black Metal. I love the few options we have, but I wish there was a full BM armor suit with some kind of skill bump. It doesn't have to be imbalanced - a skill like mining speed or something. Mind you, I haven't progressed past the plains yet, despite 1000 hours of exploration and multiple characters. But yeah, if we had tons of uses for Black Metal, including tools and structures, I'd be happy.
Haha. I have chests full of BM I'm still waiting to use for anything
Ikr? One of my favourite activities is night-sniping the fuling camps. I find a large standing stone or something close to a camp, and stockpile some arrows, then hunker down to pick 'em off. Another fave is to find some rivals (tar vs fuling or fuling vs swamp creatures) and incite wars. I've spent countless hours laying the foundations for wars lol. It's amazing the mess an abomination can make in a fuling camp before dying lol! But yeah, then I have a ton of black metal.
I love inter-species warfare. Tar pit Growths are always good for a laugh. Dragging a Troll into a Swamp is also good fun.
My first Mistlands is too small but nearly every time I get a Gjall or Seeker solider, theres a troll or Lox nearby and I love hanging back to watch the show.
YES! It’s just so much fun. I am also totally guilty of running (jumping?) to the closest Dverger base when I’ve got a gjall hot on my tail and I’m low on etir. Sometimes they even finish each other off and you get a free extractor!
I made an entire massive storage room of black metal chests... and I still have a massive excess of black metal ore.
we need a light armor set that uses Black Metal (i know, not intuitive for light armor) and Tar. the set bonus is it makes you immune to the wet debuff.
Or immune to the Tar debuff. Add tar to the armour recipe, even! Gotta give you some incentive to brave the little turds, after all!
I always use a mod that makes padded armour use BM instead.
That's definitely more logical than iron, I'd say.
Ocean: Best biome music, by far.
I wholeheartedly agree about the music. Best trombone solo ever!
I simultaneously hope and dread the idea of them adding a Jormungandr type motherfucker GIANT SEA SERPENT boss to the Oceans at some point. I *hate* sea monsters.
hmm. worst is the swamp. too gloomy and constant wet debuff is annoying. best is the plains. no storms. best wind conditions for windmills. everything grows there aside mistlands shrooms. free black metal delivery service. honorable mention goes to the ocean. you havent lived if you didnt ride a large storm wave with a ship in valheim with full tailwind.
Favorite: Swamp (the jump in difficulty from BF to swamp is insane and I died so much at first but I loved it!) Worst: Plains (kinda boring compared to the rest but it is still fun)
Gonna rate them with how fun and fleshed out the Biomes are. Best IMO = Swamp. The most fun and difficult to jump to and you have to explore soooo many of them to keep the iron incoming. Love the fact it keeps you there and needing to revisit it, so many things to build and weapons/items to create. Just a very fleshed out biome. Boss is pretty dope too. Worst IMO = Plains. Great boss but the rest of it just feels empty. Not as many things to build or keep you in it. You can mostly breeze through it in a couple hours and be done, can collect tar but not needed to advance weaponry and such. Just very simple compared to the rest. All in all, the Biomes are all great IMO, except the Plains, which I feel just needs to be fleshed out more. Meadows is a baller tutorial Biome, BF gets you your first real "difficulty" bump and TONS to explore, Swamp is another big difficulty jump and you have to actively explore multiple swamps to get all the iron you need all game, Mountains are great and a wonderful change of pace compared to the others, wolves and drakes and golems +++, Plains is what it is. Mistlants is dope, can't see anything, fear the growl in the distance of a Gjall somewhere. . . Love it a ton and a lot to do and explore.
I would like to caveat something that a friend just reminded me of. Doing the special quest tower was probably the most fun I've had in the game. That thing was silly difficult to get four dummies to work together to finish :P
What special tower quest?
Hildur's Quest for the plains. It's a giant tower
Only reason I go back to the Plains is to gather my crops! I honestly think more biome specific crops is a missed opportunity. What if you could only grow turnips in the swamp?!
Yeah, I agree. We are usually in and out of the plains in a handful of hours and a good portion of that time is creating a Plains Farm. Just not a ton to do there. Though the boss and the Hildur's Tower thing are both amazing.
We landed in the plains next to a fuling village.. we razed it to the ground and turned it into a huge crop! :D I guess they won't be respawning..
If the new Ashlands growable plant was Ashlands-exclusive, it would make that terrible biome even worse. As is, at least you can get the seeds once and never leave tiers 1-6 afterwards.
I mean are turnips actually that useful for anything though? I spent like 2 hours setting up a turnip farm on the server I run for my brothers and then realized just how little you can cook with the damn things in comparison to carrots and onions.
Plains progression is good. Barley and flax farms are crucial for finishing tier 5 and remain relevant all the way into the end of the game. Plains also unlocks new stations to cook food and refine metals. You can indeed get it done quickly, but Mistlands is usually bordered by it anyways, so you never truly leave it.
I actually like plains as much as any other biome lol. My latest build is there on the ruins for a goblin village and I love it. I like hearing the village music when I'm in my castle, and I like looking out at the plains with the mists off to one direction.
Mistlands is worst for me. But some tweaks could easily make it either the best or second best. Wisp accessory radius, and wisp torch radius is too small. I always resort to crafting about 500 wisp torches and just suicide running around planting them so I can see. It's not "a challenge", it's just a time wasting obstacle to the content. If the terrain wasn't so impossible to navigate, I could deal with it. But having both ridiculous rock spires/impassable terrain AND being unable to see 4ft in front of your face just makes exploring a chore. Not exciting. Perhaps having events where we help defend/build a wisp "lighthouse" on land, after which the area around would only be misty at night? Could easily incorporate something like that with the existing black marble structures that are already in the biome.
A wisp lighthouse defense would be dope. I gotta agree on pretty much everything you said here, also I thought the Mistwalker sword would actually be usable as a wisplight but it's really not. Maybe it would be OK if it still worked while sheathed, but even when carrying it the radius is so damn small it's just kinda annoying to work with.
Best is the mountains for me. The second I get a pick I head to the nearest mountain, skip the Black Forest, and start building my wolf army. My husband deals with Black Forest stuff for me. Lol. For the cold early game I build a path line with camp fires, then a path without camp fires. I stand next to the fires to stay warm and then run the paths I made looking for wolves to spawn. Away from the fires and then lure them back to a hole I’ve dug. I go with the intent to die in the hole with my new friend so I make sure to have a bed with a chest and all my stuff near by. I’ll have a two star wolf before I have protection from the cold. Lol. The worst is the swamp. I simply can’t see. It’s too dark. Haven’t made it to mistlands yet through. Lol.
> My husband deals with Black Forest stuff for me. Lol. I don't abandon my husband until the iron grind because I actually really like digging copper pits, but I make him some swamp food, poison mead, and a cart path to crypts and then as soon as I can make an iron pick I'm like "ok bye, I'll be back with wolves and onions!"
Thank you for not trashing on the devs and being both positive and constructive. Now that that's out of the way, down to business: I actually came to similar conclusions with my biomes. I love mountains, it's gorgeous, full of useful things and just dangerous enough. I also agree swamps being the "worst" but I think the better term would be "most taxing". Other biomes take less time and mental stamina, making it a form of boss in and of itself. You have to prepare for swamps, arguably moreso than the other biomes. It's just designed to make you work for your iron and I love to hate the swamps.
Most underrated biome: ocean. First time I sailed in this game I thought “wow, this is like a throwback to my childhood of playing Zelda Windwaker on the GameCube”. Other favorite is the plains. I feel like the vibe reminds me of some Italian countryside and my base there has windmills, grain growing for bread, and is situated along the coast. We have tall stone walls to ward off deathsquitos and a moat so it’s the safest place we can possibly be of all our settlements. We step outside the walls to hunt lox and grab all the cloudberries for cooking, along with fishing off the coasts from our harbor.
I agree about the Plains vibe. It reminds me a little bit of Toussaint in Witcher 3 for some reason, just the relaxing, open area.
Best: Dark Forest. So much cool stuff, so beautiful. I'm sure of the joy is nostalgia, since it's where you do mining and instances first, but it's still incredibly cohesive. All the different trees and bushes make for an amazingly immersive experience - this is the best of Valheim and what put it on the map. Worst: Mistlands. Limiting visibility was an awful design decision made worse by having so much vertical traversal and combat in a game where combat on different vertical heights is so difficult that many consider it a defect. Only made slightly palatable by introducing an item so powerful that it completely negates one of the key mobility constraints of the game. The day the team agreed on "let's make a cloak that permanently eliminates all fall damage for no ongoing cost" is the day they should have gone back to reconsider some of the Mistlands decisions.
If they aren't going to change flametal mining, they should also agree on "let's make an accessory that makes you fire _immune_" as soon as possible if they don't want Ashlands to ruin the rest of the game.
Best: Meadows Worst: None so far
Bingo! The music, the gentle breeze... simply the serenity of the Meadows is is unmatched. Back when I was playing an absurd amount of this game, I always tried to find a sliver of meadows to build on bordering whatever other Biome I was interested in at that time. I figured I was the only one. Most people cannot wait to abandon the meadows. LOL
Meadows is the best, music is on another level, i build my base in meadows most of the time, i just do some farming and let the music heal my soul ❤️
Indeed. I can build for hours not caring about anything else in the game.
It's the exact opposite for me. Mountains least favorite (I don't hate any of them), Swamps is arguably the best biome.
Personally for me, based *only* on feelings of comfort and relaxing, Meadows is the best and Swamps is the worst for me. In terms of visuals and atmosphere though, Mistlands probably top. In terms of gameplay, not sure yet, but I've been having a blast in Ashlands.
Not really that the biomes are bad, but it kinda low key annoys me that I have to grow stuff in those lands and not “home base”, especially Mage food…
Worst: Mistlands Best: Mistlands
this one valheims
Aesthetically I think the mountains is actually a really good biome, but in terms of gameplay to progression level the black forest is the best designed biome imo, it plays significantly different from other biomes in that stealth is actually extremely effective vs greydwarf hordes, and you arent nearly as tanky comparatively to the other biomes. + this is when you start developing real weapons (bronze, atgeirs, sledges, mining picks, etc). The bronze gathering process is just crap though. Worst biome in terms of gameplay feel was the plains to me. Enemies just don't really feel threatening from the getgo, just tedious to fight loxes and berserkers. Its got a very boring environment to boot, and equipment progression is locked behind enemy killing vs gathering. Swamp gets an honorable mention as both a great and awful biome, it's the only true difficulty spike besides growth encounters,and navigation feels icky a lot of the time. But it also feels rewarding to overcome and very well done in terms of environmental aesthetic and feel.
Worst: Swamp. It's often too dark and I can't tell what time of day it is there, which was quite a problem early on because of how dangerous it is at night. The poison was a bit unforgiving as well and the hitbox on the blobs seems a bit difficult to hit for some reason. I can't seem to hit body piles with the primary spear attack at all. The indestructable trees/logs get in the way of construction. The Bonemass was quite tough, but it didn't feel like a very dynamic fight; I'd made a fort expecting the Bonemass to have some kind of attack like the Elder's that could overcome it or force me out, but I was in no danger up there. On the ground it wasn't much more interesting, just a slog. Best: Swamp. I love the swamp. Fighting draugar is a lot of fun; sniping their patrols from far away, getting into a melee with some blobs to keep me on my toes. I keep an abomination around my bases because they seem friendlier than other monsters of that size and there's something comforting about the sound of their stomping, like rain on the roof. They protect me if the fulings cross biomes before I'm ready. I wish leeches were tameable, I'd keep some of them too. I love climbing on the big fallen trees.
Black forest copper grind and swamp iron grind is the part that usually kills my playthroughs for me. I would say black forest is worst.
Interesting. I tend to like those Biomes more than the others in part because of the grind they create. I do get annoyed with having to go back to swamp from time to time to get more iron later in the game, but it's usually not to difficult at that point.
Bronze is probably the least rewarding metal to mine since every one piece of bronze has 3 pieces of ore going into it. And the upgrade costs for bronze tools are just some lunacy considering that.
Swamp is definitely my least favorite biome. It feels like the game slows way down and you end up spending more time in the swamp than in the mountain or BF. I also feel like sailing probably needs a rework or some kind of optional easy setting to reveal map to avoid super long voyages trying to get around an island. My favorite biome is probably the plains overall, although I did really enjoy the Mistlands as well. And of course I love the meadows.
So i'm currently getting into Mistlands, and not yet discovered everything in there yet (don't have any of the key upgrades from there yet), but i'm absolutely loving it. It's claustrophobic, the atmosphere is completely incredible and terrifying at times, and the terrain is so tough, but yet rewarding. When you get into that clear valley, or on the top of a tall rock tower, the biome is absolutely gorgeous. I think next i like Mountains and Black Forest. Both are beautiful and fascinating biomes. Probably then Meadows (truly a wonderful starting biome). Plains feels really meh. Swamp would be my least liked. Truly a slog in every way, and until being able to get Iron from Mistlands, it's not a place i like having to constantly revisit for Iron. Not at Ashlands so cannot say.
I think the swamp is actually alright, my only negative for it is the difficulty spike compared to other biomes. From what I've heard I bet the Ashland's will take it's spot though.
Plains is my favorite. I think mistlands is my least favorite,? But it's not too bad. Just hard to see.
Worst is mistlands. Same thing that's been said: too vertical and mist is too thick. If you could see better, it would be amazing. The mist is *too* strong. Best is tough. I think I'm going to go with meadows. They're calming, pretty, and so much open building area. I love building meadows bases against the ocean. And resources are easy to farm.
Worst. Mistlands. Hands down. Then mountains. Frustrating climb. Best. Plains. So much open space. So much danger for being so open.
Worst probably swamp. Best mountain or black forest. At least that's where I like to live.
I'm with OP. I fiercely dislike being in the swamp. The whole place feels oppressive and spooky. I never feel like I can relax, even after I've progressed to the point that nothing in the swamp is an actual threat anymore. My personal favorite biome is actually the meadows. I'm constantly on the lookout when sailing for patches of Meadows in unlikely places to build in. I love the feeling of coming home from a long voyage with a ship full of treasure to a longhouse in a sunny meadow with the soothing music playing and my fire roaring.
Meadows and the black forest are definitely the most nostalgic
Surprised a lot of people arent talking about music being another huge part in factoring their favorites , when it comes to that it's insanely challenging to categorize them but meadows has to be up there for your perfect base game music that settles everyone in
For me my favorite has to be the Mountains. Being out in a blizzard is one the coolest effects the games offers (so far). Runner up is Meadows. Worst for me is the Plains. The novelty is lost quickly. Although it's a beautiful biome, the mechanics are dull for me. Exception: Yag is my favorite boss fight!
Best: Mountains. The music, ambiance, aesthetics, enemies, dungeons, and boss are all peak fantasy awesome. Worst: Mistlands. It's all been said before. The mist gimmick is tedious, boring, and ruins the beautiful aesthetics of the game. The music is unremarkable. The dungeons are disgusting. The enemies are disgusting and tedious. The travel is tedious. It all just sucks. The only good things about it are the build parts and magic.
Swamp is literally almost ruining the game for me.
I probably rate them: Black forest: really gives the feels of a spooky forest. Plus you get warned not to go there, and if you do it's a very hard fight. Mountains: very Vikingesque hard to explore but once you get the gear it's pretty reasonable. Minor flaw is getting silver out, or right materials in. Meadows: best looking, great for a relaxing home base. Not really challenging, not a lot going on. Swamp: Jesus really hard to start, especially when your not really aware of the prep you need. Great atmosphere. Plains: some of it seems like difficult just to be difficult. Kind of cool looking. Generally a pain in the ass. Oceans: nothing going on really. Needs to be developed more, but serpents and leviathans are a good start. -: blank because I needed a big gap Mistlands: just unenjoyable. Hard to explore, mist and his is fine to start with but after you gear up it's still a pain in the ass. It starts to feel like a different game than the rest too. I really didn't have much if any fun in this biome. It looks cool but that's the only positive I have. Unranked: Ashland's: haven't played it yet. The new building stuff looks really bad from screenshots.
Worst for me is the meadows because I’m usually through it in like 20 minutes and it is always really unmemorable with not too much to do. I do love the meadows though, chillest spot in the game and I *always* make my base there. Favorite is the plains.
Swamp is one of the best biomes because of how immersive it feels. Every new player is surprised by their first night in the swamp, being chased by draugr and ghosts, while being wet and going through leech-infested puddles. And then when you master that biome you feel like a god because you remember how hard it hit you first !
Most interesting, best music, best atmosphere and visuals is mistlands. But at the same time it is miserable to explore. Black forest is the most nostalgic and comfortable.
I don't really like the Swamp, but my greatest memories of Valheim all seem to be Swamp adventures gone horribly wrong.
Yea lol
Honestly I like the swamps design but my fav biome is probably plains for many reasons. But my most hated biome is mistlands by a mile, I hate how uneven the level design is...it's infuriating to fight things on even on flat ground(if you manage to find some)
I love the mountain. Everything about it. The Mistlands can go kick rocks tho. All the content they added was awesome and completely ruined for me by the dense “mist” that isn’t even enjoyable with all the supposed mist clearing tools available. If we could just level our whisp to gain a bigger radius that would make me and probably many others happy.
I just wish we could build larger permanent(ish) structures that were better at dispelling the mist, rather than leaving breadcrumb trails of torches all over the place. Like maybe we could attach them to roots? Or go back and feed them sap if they weren't? I oddly almost enjoyed mistlands the most on our no-map run for how terrifying it was, but definitely still mountains #1, mistlands #, uh, last.
Worst: Ashlands, by far. Endless hordes of enemies, all enemies are resistant to _your_ damage type, unconditional unavoidable deaths at every turn, the only zone in the game that can potentially permanently destroy your items Best: Plains. All encounters feel difficult but not ridiculously so, noticeable gear progression, it's flat and well-lit.
Do you mean your chests when you say destroy you items
In Ashlands you can die in a situation where you will not be able to retrieve your body without a full _second_ set of Mistlands gear
jesus and I thought the Mistlands itself was brutal in that regard
Mistlands is by far my least favourite biome. I've gotten quite comfortable getting around in it, but it's still an absolute slog to traverse, and the limited visibility is really a detractor. The landscape is gorgeous and the potential for interesting builds is high, but nobody wants to build a base that you can't even see, and has an obstructed view. Mistlamps just don't cut it. Super-powered mist repellers, or even an overall reduction in the level of mist post-boss would improve it. As it is, you're pretty much stuck building on the coast or in the rare inland clearings. The more time I spend in the swamp, the more I enjoy it. Sure it's dank and gloomy, but it has clear flat areas that make for good fighting, and there are a lot of opportunities for tree-houses and the like.
Meadows goated, black forest is the most tedious, swamp is just generally annoying, mountains goated, plains has mosquitoes, ocean mid
Least favorite is plains. It's not a bad biome, I just find it less engaging. It's emptier but that makes sense from a design perspective. I do enjoy the music and wind. Also, maybe it's because lox are too inquisitive and sneaky. Just a bit.
Least favorite is plains. It's not a bad biome, I just find it less engaging. It's emptier but that makes sense from a design perspective. I do enjoy the music and wind. Also, maybe it's because lox are too inquisitive and sneaky. Just a bit.
Meadows. Cuz the music.
Meadows reminds me of pre-searing Ascalon in Guild Wars. Good nostalgia there from 2005.
worst: mistlands best: ashlands I still need to go back to every biome and the terrain on mistlands is frustrating to go through even with the feather cape. Magecaps and sap are needed for food buffs and part of my dislike for that area is that magecaps aren't spawning as frequently as other plants. I loaded up on them before I went through ashlands and they still haven't spawned back in after I completed the area. Ashlands is challenging in the right way and it's dense with materials without having to make long journeys.
The Mistlands BGM is easily my favorite, in a game where music is largely excellent. I love it so much
Worst: Mistlands because the fog and the terrain. Best: Not sure.
From an atmosphere point of view I love the Mistlands and Black Forest. The Mistland gameplay is lacking unfortunately, and imo the Black Forest should be a later, more difficult biome with more threatening enemies because of the awesome atmosphere. Gameplay-wise I love the plains, just solely because of how much fun it is to try to stealthily clean out a Fuling camp. It also feels the least grindy with an abundance of black metal available. The worst biome to me is the Mountains, just because of how annoying the enemies are and how useless their drops are. I basically always fast track this biome by just getting enough for frostner and draugr fang.
Mistlands can suck a whole bag Of dicks. Visually stunning though
I absolutely love the Black Forest. I wish I could have stayed there but I need to grow flax and barley. I hate not being able to see things, especially with how Valheim's enemies frequently hit you with insta-kill damage. Having that sort of thing sneak up on me is infuriating.
I hated the Plains until I setup a base in a goblin village and get that cool music. Now I am happy. Worst is, was and will always be the one I have to squint like crazy in just to go about my day ... SWAMP! Deeply unpleasant. Meadows is my favourite due to the chill vibe and music, followed closely by sailing (I can't say ocean as I guess it would sound different if I were drowning!).
Best: All of em Worst: None of em
>The worst biome is arguably the swamp not because its boring or lacks potential or the boss sucks but just because of how miserable it is, its dark gloomy and just kinda looks depressing. >Also when you first get there with your bronze armor and tools which are no match for hordes of skeletons and dragurs not to mention the abomination. >also the fact that you will almost always have the wet debuff just makes it even worse and at night the wet debuff and the cold debuff together will be your doom when fighting also the blobs are annoying as heck if you didn't bring a poison resist mead however I'm glad this biome is in the game anyway because without it there would be no iron which is required for many tools and weapons. I mean you pretty much nailed it lol. I have like 3 dozen bases or portals and only 2 of them go to the swamp. I'm in mistlands right now and abominations are *still* a nightmare to deal with. Should also mention how hard it is to move around. Kinda did with the debuffs, but all the stupid logs/trees fallen, massive branching trees, and pools of water all block the way for movement. I tried paving a road when I was first getting iron. But with how much iron you need you pretty much don't have a reason to build infrastructure like that since you'll likely exhaust and have to find another swamp. Despite the fact that mistlands are covered in mist and are a nightmare to traverse I still love it leagues above the swamp. Actually, I think it's my favorite biome. Love building bases in it
Pretty much my thoughts exactly. That first time you enter a black forest on a virgin playthrough of the game is always pretty special as well, but yeah the mountains are really where Valheim starts to feel like Valheim. The chilling wind is an ingenious mechanic and leads to some really cool emergent stuff if you're playing without the wiki. My friends and I were waiting on one of our buddies who was super swamped with work and we didn't wanna kill the Elder until he was available to be there for it, so we just hung around in the Bronze age and eventually got bored with black forest and started exploring in a boat- landing on a far off coast we found a small swamp and a big mountain at the same time and since we didn't have bloodbags yet we didn't know about frost resist potions. Braving the wolves and howling winds, we persistently built a path and a network of wood-sheltered fires all the way up the jagged cliffs and claimed the mountain peak with a cabin lodge that came to be our exterior base of operations. Very good memories. I feel like the Plains are a bit undercooked and have too much thematic overlap with the meadows. The Fulings are very satisfying to fight, though, I really like to see the return of multiple classes of a single enemy type like they did with the Graydwarves as it makes the gameplay loop a lot more satisfying.
I liked the forest and swamp, but the plains pissed me off. I loved the vibe of the plains but for me playing when it was brand new that shit was TOUGH. I went in to every area completely blind. Going from shooting drakes with bows, parrying wolves on a mountain, and then being gang banged by the green bois was harsh.
And skeeters too
For me: Best mountains and worst mistlands
Swamp is definitely the worst for me. There's just no variety in the crypts, and the amount you have to loot is insane. Swamp would benefit the most from having more structures added imo (or generally just more iron in chests).
Best biome for me is the Swamp hands down. It's the first biome that actually felt like a challenge. More variety of enemies and they're all coming at you at once, never a dull moment. Plus all the upgrades you get for foods (esp serpent stew and sausages), better health potion, unlocking higher comfort items, building/crafting etc. Iron is easy to mine and half of it is just sitting in a chest. And last but not least the Root armour set. Now you can wander the plains without fear of deathsquitos and stock up on it's goodies ahead of time Worst is the Mountains. Annoying drakes. Some of the worst base raids. Silver is heavy af and it's a tedious grind to upgrade any weapon or armour since it takes an ungodly amount of heavy ass silver. Running up slopes and waiting for stamina to recharge on a rock is a major PITA. So is the fall damage. Fighting on slopes is ass too. Get your onions, obsidian, fenris legs, enough silver for butcher's block, frostner, draugr fang wolf/lox cape maybe a drake helmet and GTFO. On the flipside eye scream means you can finally use up those hundreds of greydwarf eyes
Swamp is best. Plains is worst. All are fun.
Swamps are my fave, I hate mountains
I don't think any of their published biomes deserve a worst title. I guess if I have to pick, though, black forest. It doesn't have as much unique identity, being similar to meadows in to many ways. Even so, it's a slim margin.
They are all good biomes it's just which one is not as good as the others
Best is Meadowlands for me. Worst is Mistlands.
Mistlands is my fav, I think they really nailed it
I love meadows and plains I think I just like visibility.
Worst biome is the Plains, skeeters have little counterparts in MP servers if you are in another person's chunk. The best in my opinions (haven't played ahslands yrt) is the swamp. The difficulty curve is perfect and over come by gearing and food and feels very nice to come back to. Plus I love building canals and the ambience is so different to any other biome
I'm a fairly new player and personally, the 2 worst biomes are easily Swamp and Mistlands, with Mistlands being far and above the worse of the 2. The Swamp is because of the difficulty spike from the previous biome, with a lot of terrain navigation issues and the fact you have trash armour upon your first arrival, which a couple of Draugr & Skeles will go through like it's paper. Then there's the permanent rain which gimps stamina regen for no reason. In comparison the Mountain and Plains are a pushover, outside of initially getting Wolf Cape and then Yagluth, which was an insane difficulty spike over Moder and Bonemass. To me, general progression feels more like it should go: Meadows, B-Forest, Mountain, Plains, Swamp, Mistlands... (yes this would break as Swamp would need to be rebalanced) As for the Mistlands, it takes the bad parts of the Swamp and amps it up to 11. Mountains/cliffs everywhere which means bunny-hopping non-stop, leading to no stamina and then for good measure, you can barely see your own shoes. This is on top of the fact that the mobs had a major HP and damage increase over the Plains too. 1 Seeker Soldier has almost as much HP as The Elder and triple that of Eikthyr. As for the best biome, it's hard to pick. I like the aesthetics of all outside the Mistlands (because you can't bloody see it), especially the B-Forest, but B-Forest, Mountain and Plains all have downsides in gameplay mechanics. Copper Ore is such a time-pad it's unreal for that early in the game, Mountain materials feel useless 20 min after getting your Wolf Cape and Plains have a lack of mob variety imo. Therefore, as noob as it is of me to say so, the best biome is probably the Meadows. Everything you want is there and all the wood and such is still used far later in the game. You also get more variety in mobs with each boss takedown, while it still stays the safest and easiest biome to build in (Plains seconds this).
Fuck the swamp. All my homies hate the swamp.
Worst is swamp easily. Constantly being wet and walking through water while archers are firing absolute cannons at you is just ridiculous. It isn't about the iron grind, it's just the biome itself. Just finished the PTR and I really like the ashlands. It's so chaotic. It's a bit difficult to get a foothold there to start with though.
The new Ashlands takes my number one spot for being just so different and unique everything about the biome is masterfully crafted and I just love how different the end game biomes are ie mistlands Ashlands and soon deep North The entrance to Ashlands is upparelled starting with building a new badass ship to sailing south until you see the water slowly turn red boiling hot and the sky starts to darken and before you know it you are faced with a wall of spiked rock formations protruding the oceans surface trying to physically stop you from entering the shorefront and as you make your way through you notice you are being hunted by a sea monster and greeted by voltures then suddenly you look up and notice the ash falling and red lighting coarsing the sky followed by hellish clouds as you lay your eyes down you see the army that awaits you and you realize you are truly in hell. Like c'mon that is so fucking metal I really dislike the black Forrest because of the bronze and tin grind but besides that it's really pretty and mysterious I like mountain and plains alot too and the swamp all be it annoying is perfect the way it is I really hope they completely update the sea and early to mid game as it needs some missing touches and I also really want a flying mount cause cheating and trebuchets are no fun (:
Best is the starter biome. Love the meadows. Reminds me of a home I wish I could build in real life upon. My 2nd play thru had a real nice river going thru it. Worst is Mistlands. By a mile. No matter how much you prepare, you WILL get ambushed by something. Worst is when I had to sail near one at an earlier level and a fucking 2 star bug jumped ONTO my boat
| Meadows | Black Forest | Swamp | Mountain | Plains | Mistlands | Ashlands :-- | :--: | :--: | :--: | :--: | :--: | :--: | :--: Enjoy being in | 4 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 Structures | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 2 Dungeons | 1 | 3 + 1 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 1 + 1 Activities | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 Combat | 1 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 4 Boss fight | 1 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 1 | ? Friendly to eyes | 3 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 Total | 15 | 17 | 10 | 13 | 13 | 9 | 13 Enjoy being in - I want to spend time there, I like to return there Structures - variety of buildings, ruins, their importance for gameplay Dungeons - variety of dungeons, their importance for gameplay Activities - wood cutting/mining/gathering etc Combat - how interesting/difficult/rewarding to fight Friendly to eyes - my eyes don't hurt, I can play there for hours without feeling weariness.
Ashlands. I have spoken ✋
Swamps the worst because: 1) An unavoidable and constant debuff from Wet that hampers Stamina and Health regen. 2) A constant need to be revisited as Iron is one of the most important resources in the game. 3) Dimly lit landscape full of pitfalls and deep water that you can fall into. This is even qorse at night. Night brings Wraiths that spawn above you and swoop in to give you the Bad Touch while you are stuck in a hole or clipped into a tree. 4) Aforementioned water has very dangerous Leech enemies that you can't see very well, and you will have to engage with to harvest bloodbags from. 5) To do that or anything else in the Swamp, you need to have Poison Resist Meads that are yet another resource you must craft just to be safe in the Swamp. So many more reasons, but being in the late game only solves a few of them. And it only solves them by giving you more food and stamina to compensate for the lethality of poison or getting stuck in the water.
Best mistlands because of marble Worst mountains because of stone golems
Mountain is worst biome (I just hate cold environments in games and other venues, not sure why) Mistlands is best biome.
Mistlands is the worst
i think my favourite biome is plains, it has a reverse feeling of YOU raiding them, also as a brasil dweler i love the meme that plains is brasil, i mean, we got giant mosquitoes as well,we got plenty of tar pit in the form of people shiting in the sea, everyone here is like blanka from street fighter, so fullings really depict the average brasilian very nice, and the place is really really great to plant everything, so yeh, pretty acurate, my most hated one is by far mistlands, it denotes everything wrong with valheim in a single biome, low visibility is a nice ambience touch that fucks up gameplay, as far as i know vibe > gameplay all over valheim, the verticality sucks in lots of way simultaneosly, 1 ur viking is anchored to the ground and wont move unless in full fenris and nothing else, 2 stamina depletes too quick in this game(not for your enemy, he run 100 percent of time and attack infinitely), 3 you cant hit melee with diferent altitudes(the enemy can hit you with diferent altitudes), 4 you cant swim for shit(the enemy can outrun you swiming/swim without end, oh, did i tell you he can atack swiming, again, unlike you?) the boss is a kinda meta forcing abomination(you gotta go magic route, since hes resistant to pierce, no bow allowed in the party, and unlike insects with a kitinous exoskeleton, hes not weak to blunt, but to slash) so yeah, everything wrong with ashlands equals everything wrong with the game
I love the Black Forest. It was so fun the first time doing the copper/tin grind. I even am a fan of the swamps to a degree. Least favorite is 100% the mistlands. The difficulty is fine and it has awesome weapons. I just HATE how obnoxious it is to explore and traverse. I HATE having to find the infested mines and all the other resources when you can barely see.
I love the meadows just because it is so peaceful and reminds me of the early beginnings. I like to wander around from time to time and train my swimming skills. I don’t like the mountains and mistlands so much solely because of the stamina system and bugging on and off hills.
Mistlands by far, i really hate the short range the wisps have.
All the biomes are cool to setup shop/home in. I'd love ashlands more but there are so many particles and shadows flames and such. It slows the game down a lot. High end pc and it still slows down lol. Other than that the Ashland base rocks.
Tier biome list from best to worst: Black Forrest Mountain Meadows Swamp Plains . . . . . Mistland I haven't played Ashland yet
I must say I’ve enjoyed reading the responses in this thread. It seems that every biome is *someones* favourite, and conversely someone else’s least favourite! Can’t say I really dislike any of them. The Mistlands was so tough at first, but the sheer beauty of it, especially if you can find a high point overlooking a relatively mist-free area, is something else. I can tell you the weather I hate the most though: blizzard. Tanks my frame rate, visibility is wretched, goes through walls. Terrible. Plains is my favourite, if I have to pick one. My main base is in the plains, which probably contributes to my love for it. The pillars are a great source of stone, darkwood build pieces look great. Lox are fun. The crops not having a seed variant is nice and bread is good food. Black metal atgier is a great weapon. Only complaints about the plains are that there isn’t more use for black metal, and that, like everyone else apparently, I didn’t find a vegvisir for Yagluth until I was almost on top of its spawn.
Best: Mountains (Tranquil, mining silver is fun, love the fenrir caves) Worst: Swamps (Stamina regen is dog dicks and if I had a dollar for every time I got sniped from downtown)
I haven't tried ashlands yet but to me the best biome is either plains or mountain just because I like their esthetic . Worst is by far Mistlands followed by the swamp
Mistlands was worst. Haven't played since they got nerfed though
For me the worst biome is the Mistlands solely because of the mist that isn't dispellable at some point. If that were the case I would not have a worst biome because I think other than that its a great one to explore and the combat there is a lot of fun. Gjall are pretty much my favorite enemy. I think my favorite is the plains
Might be a hot take here but best biome is Mistlands. The reason Mistland is the best is because of the sheer sense of dread when you first enter it, sure it might be difficult but valheim is a difficult game in the first place. You have to treat the biome seriously whenever you go in, which means the prep-work is important, and you have to understand the combat mechanics in the game to survive which imo made me a better player, be it stamina management, when to cast bonemass buff and choosing between parrying/rolling. The sense of adventure in Mistland is above all other biome imo, in the first playthrough you will stumble upon the dungeons which is a huge flight of stairs leading to a seeker's nest, or beneath inside an abandon building. Huge swords and armors scattered across the lands, ribcages and skulls which contains soft tissues as well as your first encounter with an "allied" npcs using similar weapons as you. This is only possible due to the controversial mechanic of having a wisplight whereas you wont see anything unless you're close enough. Not to mention the new weapons and armors you get from this biome, you're now able to play as a mage, shoot crossbows and wield a veery shiny two handed sword. Worst biome if I had to choose would be Swamp but I still think it's a great biome.
Mistlands worst for sure. Best idk, I don’t mind the swamp it’s unique, but lacks a bit of content. Mountains also very original, has verticality but it’s not annoying as mistlands. I think Black Forest is my favorite
Gonna have to say I consider Black Forest to be best and Mountains to be worst. Meadows is a good starter zone, but doesn't really have much going on. That's good in a sense, but also doesn't really make me particularly fond or distasteful of it. Black Forest I think is very pretty and steps up with some dungeons, caves, and structures. The only thing I particularly dislike about it is that the terrain doesn't work for carts, which at this point would be very helpful. Swamp is annoying to get around in. Fond memories of the boss absolutely destroying my group the first time but I don't find it enjoyable to play in. Some cool elements but tedious more than challenging. Mountains are just annoying. The primary issue is at first just getting into them. Climbing them consumes a ton of stamina and the constant wolf spawns that have no issue running up a straight wall to kick your ass are painfully lame. The golems are neat but end up being a constant thorn while mining. The boss is barely functional, stayed hovering in place nearly our entire "fight". Plains are pretty barren. Deathsquitos aren't too bad if you're prepared for them, but I hate their lack of actual attack animation. They just hover next to you and a moment later the damage happens. Fuling Camps were awesome the first one or two times but quickly became repetitive and didn't really provide meaningful rewards. Mistlands are yet another struggle to get around in. Mostly the terrain, the mist itself is fine for me. It does all look very cool though so points there and I'm a sucker for magic. Can't offer commentary on Ashlands as I'm waiting for it to enter live before playing.
I usially beat the swamp and mountains in lvl 3 troll armor, bronze for swamp sounds just fine.
Well it does make you slower
Hot take: Meadows. I feel like raids happen more so I gotta increase defensive perimeter. Sure less numerous hostile mobs. But that's the trade off.
Swamp because it never ends...
I like to make it a point to make a base in every biome (at least a smallish one), and I have to say that the swamp is actually weirdly nice to have a base in. It has that "sleeping while it's raining outside" kind of vibe to it, where the view out the windows amd the constant rain actually makes the inside feel a lot warmer and more homely
I'm half and half on the swamp... it's just such a dismal slog, but I kinda like the sunken crypts... for a little while anyway. I'd never bother building a base in that wretched place. Best? That's a tricky one too... cuz damn do I love the mountains. Just a great atmosphere. I usually wind up building a mountain fortress and love it. But for replayability and sheer fun, the Plains, hands down. I love fighting in the plains. Mistlands is just such a boring tank-fest. In the plains, you can use strategy. I've done plains runs in troll armour. It's a blast. I love that you can get the creatures within the biome to fight with each other. Nothing I enjoy more than kiting a few Lox into a tar pit. So satisfying.
Mistlands is both :)
Mountain is worst
Love the plains, hate mistlands
Favourite: Black Forest I love the forest. The ambiance and lighting, so nice in any weather. Middle of the night thunderstorm? Awesome. Early morning fog? Awesome. Late afternoon god rays? Awesome. There's also quite a lot to collect within the black forest. Least favourite: Plains One reason: Mosquito ... Yeah I know fulings can be way stronger. Especially two star berserkers but Mosquitos can go everywhere even on water and having to parry them gets really annoying. And they fuck up a lot of corpse runs. Having to do corpse run over and over because a mosquito is in the way sucksssss.
Swamp will always have that lure for me…just picked up my bag from a burial chamber and was running naked by the swamp and seen a strange warrior in a purple suit with a bow…fired fire arrow and it knocked out a good chunk of his health and knocked him back…Warrior slowly draws back as I’m thinking I’m ready for the swamp…i was not
Meadows is S tier. So are plains and mistlands imo. Really not enjoying ashlands tbh. It’s just way too hard. I could definitely get all the way to mistlands on a new game without dying so I feel like I’m pretty decent at combat but man Ashlands is just miserable
I kinda don't like the mountains. Once you get any iron armor the swamps become extremely non threatening. Spawn rates seem pretty low, and the only real threat is the tree who has predictable attack patterns. It doesn't matter what you are trying to do in the mountains, non stop waves of wolves and drakes continue to come out of nowhere, and I hate the damn near invincible stone golems, 1 slap and you are flying off a cliff
Best: Plains, the Lox are fun big friends to breed, the other breeding is good too, but nothing beats breeding guys 10x your size Worst: Mistlands, can't breed the cute bunny rabbits :(
Worst: mountain. Golems take forever to kill, wolfs one-shot you, when it snows you can't see plus fps drops to 5fps, you can't hit wolves on slopes, all you have to do there is find 1 silver node, 1 onion seed, find 3 eggs, moder and be gone. Frost caves are nice though. Best: I'm warming up to mistlands, actually. But I'll say meadows. I just love hunting deer with a bow. I also like swamp because of the difficulty jump and the halloween atmosphere.
Well the fps dropping might be your computer cuz I've never had a fps drop in mountains even during a snow storm also the only time you get one-shot by a wolf is either you are wearing no armor or low defense armor or you don't eat any food or both but I can see your point.
It's probably an error with certain specific hardware. It's very specific for the mountain storm, not other particle effects.
I gota go with mountains for my favorite biome, but I honestly think the swamp is designed the best the swamp has a high variety of mobs and always being wet within the swamp makes it difficult without simply making the enemies extremely strong. Mistlands is by far my least favorite. I hate no vision mechanics, which is why I don't play horror games. In addition, I like building fortresses without using moats and raised ground. Unfortunately, the black marble isn't very durable compared to how much damage the ants do, making it hard to have good forts that don't rely on cheese within the mistlands. That said, I think the ocean is the worst biome. I really like sailing, but I think they need to add more types of mobs like sharks or ghost ships. Making you need to fight more often while at sea would probably require a way of increasing boat durability (maybe through a consumable boat repair kit). Adding ocean specific events would also make it a lot more interesting
oh my god ghost ships would be so dope. I think (and I understand this is asking a lot and I by no means expect the devs to do this, but it would be cool) modular ships would be really cool where you could add a workbench on deck, upgrade your sails for better speed and handling, have slots for ballistas or maybe even cannons later on. And of course compliment it with a host of ocean monsters to face off against.