Guide: How to hunt serpents

[Hau]

Now that I have filled my fridge with 50+ serpents, I am feeling confident enough to share my serpent hunting experience with everyone. I hope this information will help fellow vikings put those serpents onto their dinner plates, their heads on walls and poles, and clear out certain myths about these creatures.

To understand how to hunt them efficiently, first we must understand their behaviors:
- Serpents spawn only in Ocean biome.
- Like other creatures, they spawn a certain distance away from your current position when you are in the open ocean.
- Myth: Serpents do not spawn during daytime. Incorrect. They are able to spawn during daytime. The chance is extremely slim. Bad weather increases this chance.
- Serpents usually come out at night. In another word, nighttime increases the chance of them spawning greatly. A combination of nighttime and bad weather is the key to spawn them.

How to efficiently farm these creatures:

1. Find a location with a decent stretch of ocean. Preferably nice, open, and straight.

2. Set up a base of operation on the shore where the ocean is not too far away from it. You do not want to waste precious time getting your ship out to the ocean when night falls.

3. Build a longship.

4. Board your longship at night and paddle up and down the ocean stretch while staying close to shore. Do not wander away from the ocean biome into another biome.

5. Spend 80%+ of the time looking at the opposite direction of where your boat is going.

6. Do not sail at max speed. Reason: serpents can spawn directly behind you, 6 o'clock position. If you are going too fast, you would have just a few seconds to spot them before the game stop rendering them due to being out of range.

7. Once you have found a serpent, you have two options: One is to pull it to shore using a harpoon, and the other is killing the serpent at sea. Pulling it to shore and kill it yields meat, scales, and chance for a trophy. Killing at sea with a bow yields only meat because the rest would sink to the bottom of the ocean unless someone is swimming inside the serpent's mouth when it dies because that is location of loots drop. Caution, the serpent runs away when below half health. You can chase after it or make sure to finish it before it does so. Without a good weapon, a sneak attack can give you a headstart. Otherwise, bring your best bow and arrows. Time your shots at the moment when it comes at your ship, leaving it little time to get away.

8. Shore killing requires a harpoon which can be crafted with 30 chitins mined from sea turtles. Assume playing solo: Get off the rudder and harpoon your prey when ready. If successfully harpooned, a confirmation message will pop up. Get back on the rudder and steer toward the nearest shore. Do not panic. The longship can take a huge beating before it goes down, more than 10+ hits. Adjust the speed of your longship so it does not go too slow to too fast. The harpoon line can break if the tension is too much. Pay attention to the thickness of the rope - an indicator of rope tension. Make sure you have ample stamina. Moving around on foot while harpooned something reduces your stamina. Your stamina do not regenerate during this time. Once at shore, jump on it and drag the serpent as far away from the shoreline as possible. Right mouse click to release it or just swap to your most damaging weapon and swing at any parts of the serpent. Hopefully you have enough stamina to finish it before it crawls back into the sea. Loots pop out at its head, so make sure it dies with its head not in deep water.

Final notes, multiple serpents can spawn in a given area. One time I were pulling one toward shore and ran into another one. As mentioned above, bad weather such as rain, fog, or storm all increase the chance of serpent spawning. During one stormy night, I were able to beach and meat three serpents before morning came.

Well, good luck and have fun stocking that fridge. Serpent stews, so good! SKAAL!!!

[daggaz]

Yarrrr.

[Warrax]

Tip: if you navigate the harpooned Serpent well, you can actually get other mobs to agro on it.
Very handy ... once the other mobs get agro’d you can just stand there, and watch.

[Pantstron]

I built a pen to hold them ashore for later humane slaughtering

[blankitosonic]

I made like 80+ pieces before kill moder and i figure out that it is more profitable just kill them in the sea with dragr bow and frost arrows , they get down with 3-5 of these arrows and no time to runaway they have if u got good aim and 40+ bow skill ( slow makes them cheesy )
I get more lucky just in night with some waves in the ocean , not in the storms being night or day ( dont know why ) and when huge fog is on you they easily go to your boat when u cant see them(surely because slow speed )
Harpoon them to the shore gets time and scales are pretty useless right now , only if u lookin for the trophy

[Jaysus]

Originally posted by Warrax:

Tip: if you navigate the harpooned Serpent well, you can actually get other mobs to agro on it.
Very handy ... once the other mobs get agro’d you can just stand there, and watch.

Can confirm, once saw a ghost beat up a sea serpent in an epic ocean fight.

10/10 my forefathers protect me against lord snakey.