Tips for Single Player?

[Lvl40MagicUser]

Ive been doing my damnedest to get back into this game but it seems more geared toward a multiplayer experience. Does anyone know of any tips, tricks, guides that can help me along. Every time I get to the black forest I wind up either running up on a big ass troll or being taken out by a group of greydwarfs or skeletons. I really want to like this game but, for a single player it just seems more like work than playing a game.

[Oakshield]

Playing it slow - as in not only move to the next biome if you feel ready for it, but also if your gear is ready for it - is one step.
Kiting sme enemies into an area that's more beneficial to you is the next one.

My tip: use the environment to your advantage.
The first boss is by far the easiest as you can kill him off with a bow. However, when going to fight him, look at the surroundings first. There's an altar, there are stone pilars near it, use those as cover. It helps.

After you defeat him and get told to move to the next boime and kill the boss there, start exploring carefully. But again, use that environment to your advantage.
Crypts and Troll caves offer shelter, even if you're outside. A campfire there will already give you a rested bonus.
If you want to kill a troll in a cave, sneak in, fire an arrow at him and the moment he comes at you, run out. Rince and repeat until he's down. Collect his hide as it helps you crafting far better armor.
But the other way works too, as pointed out. Enter the area in front of the entrance and shoot arrows from a troll there. If you're able to set up a workbench, even better, as you can craft wooden arrows there to give you a (near infinite) supply of arrows to kill him.

When going to mine copper, work from the bottom to the top, not the other way around.
There's a lot under ground and mining a cave out there provides you with shelter. Add a workbench, a camp fire and you have a rested bonus, even if you don't sleep there. If you are attacked by greydwarves, build some more campfires, so they can't come near you.
And in case a troll attacks you, let him smash the copper vein. Saves you lots of mining. :)

Build a raft for short range transportation, as it doesn't have a cargo hold. Build a Karve as soon as you can, if makes transporting ores from far away regions easier. You can build a cart too, but it's better to use it as a storage at your main base, as to really transport things.

And finally:

Don't throw your old stuff away once you got better equipment. Store it in a chest near your bed, upgrade it if you can and try to get it to the max; even if that max is still inferiour to what you have.
Main reason, if you die - and it will most likely happen - you got some nice back-up gear to get your items back. And even while being inferiour, it's still better as to have nothing at all, or to craft an emergency outfit.
Same goes to food. Only dispose of food if you're two biomes ahead. That way you keep the best and semi best food in case you need it.

Thorin :)

[Angelica]

Two biggest tips I can give for playing solo.
1st - have a 'burner world' and a 'builder world'. The burner world is the world that you beat the bosses in, clear cut the continents and strip mine the mountains. Gathering resources can be very distructive and this is a very beautiful game.
2nd - Pack Mule char. Having a second char that you can log in just to do things at home while you are out adventuring is great. Log in, fill the kilns, start the furnaces, harvest crops, log out and switch to your geared up rage machine to go knock heads, then switch back again.

For me number 2 is almost a must because I don't like having to clear out my inventory of tools and weapons just to switch to domestic jobs.

[Behind_You]

Messaggio originale di Lvl37MagicUser:

Ive been doing my damnedest to get back into this game but it seems more geared toward a multiplayer experience. Does anyone know of any tips, tricks, guides that can help me along. Every time I get to the black forest I wind up either running up on a big ass troll or being taken out by a group of greydwarfs or skeletons. I really want to like this game but, for a single player it just seems more like work than playing a game.

Just get carrots and a cooking pot so you will have enough stamina. The game is largely based on minecraft so its going to have a bit of work involved, but its no giant grind. People who know the game well can be at the final biome is an extremely short time. That is why people say not to rush through the game.

[Zep Tepi]

Go slow and deal with problems while they are still small. If you have one or two dwarves throwing rocks at you smack them before they turn into a swarm.

Sneak if you're not confident in your skills.

Use your ears! All of the mobs make noise. Learn what they sound like. You will often hear the troll's low pitched groan before it notices you. The sound of clanking skeletons can lead you to a crypt.

Speaking of crypt, your armor level should be 10 or greater before you go in. Make a campfire in the first room (optional, but I always do it for several reasons). Use a shield for loose archers. Bring a stagbreaker to kill things behind doors. Don't hesitate to run back to the first room if you've got something big on your tail. (If the campfire smokes you, you can sit down just inside one of the corridors to get your rested buff back.)

Go in with the best gear and food you can get. If you don't have parrying down then get a tower shield. (I normally use the shield for archers and put it away the rest of the time because it makes you slow. Put it away if you're trying to run.)

Eikthyr buff was made for running away from things. It's the panic button.

Standard dwarves are no more harmful than flies once you get a decent weapon. If you have more than two on you, then run. Those hits add up quickly and they like to surround you. Stronger dwarves end up in that category as you get better gear.

Start your carrot farm ASAP. (Bronze cultivator.) And then eat better food.

Do like the dwarves do. Don't stand in one place while fighting, move around and they will miss a lot of the time.

Trolls aren't slow, they're just big. If you try to outrun a troll in the meadows it will be difficult. But, it's easy to lose them in the black forest because they can't fit between the trees like you can. If they knock over a tree, they will have to walk around the log while you can jump over it. Use obstructions to your advantage. They will give up eventually.

Dwarves and skeletons hate each other. If you're being chased by one, you can lead them toward the other and they will fight each other.

Avoid the pink glowing spawners until you know what you're doing.

Fun with ditches! (Takes some prep ahead of time.) A troll can't cross a steep sided ditch. Normally I put one around my base, but you can put them anywhere. If you need to hunt trolls for armor, lead them to a long ditch and shoot them from across it. Yes it is cheese, but if you're having trouble, do it anyway.

Also, bad dwarves go in the hole. If you're going to be someplace for awhile, near your base or mining location, dig a deep hole, then use your shield to push dwarves into it. They don't respawn if they don't die. (This does not include night time spawns, so get out of there after sunset.) More cheese, but well worth it.

[Angelica]

I should add, given my style of play ... I've died more to greylings and falling trees than anything else in the game. Logs have physics, you can use them to break things, but they can also break you...

As for the greylings - well I don't always watch my food buffs like I should, one or two bad tree chops, then just a stone's throw from death.

[Exiled]

Echoing others, preparation and caution are what you need before heading into new zones. I was getting demolished going into Swamps for the first time and that's because I wasn't optimising myself properly. Once I did (and eventually became more comfortable, except for Abominations where I opted to just GTFO) I found the transition to be not so bad. I experienced a similar (but less drastic) gap going into Black Forest.

If something seems sketchy or it doesn't seem like you can handle it - run! You've been there now once and next time you'll be better prepared that perhaps you won't need to run.

#9's reply on blocking is good. I didn't utilize block until later on and regret not really learning it. It's so useful but until you really need it it's easy to think you don't.

For what it's worth, all my playtime (100hrs 4/5 bosses atm) is solo w/ no mods.

[hazelrah]

combat is largely stamina/health management. if you're in a fight and your stamina hits zero, you're often just as dead as if health hits zero. as long as you're mindful of that you're free to develop whatever combat style or technique you like. you are a small squishy thing that trolls would very much like to smear all over their logs. so early on your biggest advantage is mobility. i would suggest that you don't run about like a chicken with your head cut off, your stamina will disappear fast and then you become just another log stain. instead, slow down, & keep out of reach. use the terrain. use quick bursts of speed to stay out of range. if your food or armor isn't up to snuff use ranged attacks to whittle them down. if you're feeling confident, go in close for melee and use the dodge roll to your advantage. use skellys to your advantage, they're a great distraction. use fallen trees too, mobs will route around them.
if you are outmatched or outnumbered, you need to have strategies to stay alive. the best combat strategy is to control the situation to your advantage.

[Bjørn Thorsson]

I've 2000+ game hours, in various maps, half solo, half MP.
The thing which saved my ass more, in both ways, have always been sneaking: if you play solo you've all the time you need to raise it, starting the very first day in Meadows, to get to swamps at a good level (I mean over 60/70, which becomes 75/85 by wearing the full Troll armor set, absolutely recommended, while above 85 base skill you'll just waste the points, so switch to Root set).

Then it mostly depends on the "type" of gamer you are: I mean (usual difference) "melee" or "ranged". If melee, you're going to risk more, even moving faster, but you'll need heavier armors/weapons (and HPs related food, mostly). If ranged, you'll risk less but will move slower, only real limit will be the armor "level" (you're probably keep using Troll set for a while, then move to Root set, before to Fenris one) and the fact you'll need silver to access Mountains (I found easier to explore Plains, before Mountain).

Other players already gave you nice advice: have a backup, for the "oh sh!t" moments, don't run all the time, etc. etc.

Only real problems I found, of course, was the "Boss tests": killing Eikthyr the first time have been a nightmare (and Huginn told me "be prepared"), killing The Elder was far more... now, in solo, I've still to kill Bonemass (waiting to kill him 'cause I've still to empty a lot of crypts) but I saw it's mostly a matter of having a strategy, not just to lower your horns and charge (same as, when the time will come, to beat Moder... about Yagluth I'm not that sure, still, tho).
The nice side is you're not forced to kill bosses up to the time you'll be ready for them (you probably did already, in MP: in solo it's totally different :D).

[SilverSpeedy]

Other part about being solo, is have main base and outpost with good defense. Earthen walls away from buildings and tall enough that trolls cannot climb over or grey dwarves cannot get through can be very helpful. Also protect you from events/raids. For trolls, bow at range is the best. Fine bow/draugr bow with wooden arrows on sneak attack to a troll does around 150 damage. Stone towers do not offer best protection vs trolls, logger trolls can break the stone tower walls before you can shot them dead. Earthen walls takes no damage from any type of troll or monsters. Collect feathers from seagulls or ravens by shooting them with a bow. Keep an eye for wild hives and collect the queen bee to make new hives.

For deer boss I used club and wooden shield. The shield stop a lot of damage include the lightning attack. Try to upgrade your gear as much as possible, it helps fighting new monsters. Copper might be slow at first but later on, you start finding a lot more areas. Same with ores like iron and silver. Elder boss was easy to kill and was shocked how bonemass went down.

Plains I do not recommend since the monsters hit like a train and are fast. Furlings can deal high damage even with troll armor on. Root armor helps a bit but not really. Root armor is good vs bugs.

Abyssal dagger and harpoon is a pain in solo for limited time in mining the items before it sinks in the ocean.

[Eightball]

Trolls can be outrun..they will give up the chase after a bit.

They hit hard for early gear so I tend to use a knife and backstab them. Works well for me. As a side thought I will say that I think knives are underrated and I have found then can carry you through all the biomes. I mention that because there is nice variety of weaponry in the game so try it all out and don't quickly fall to the bow/mace meta.

As an example the Stagbreaker is something you can craft very early and it is great for those pesky mobs of attacking Greydwarves (Brutes included). Area of effect damage and knock back means you can keep those groups of baddies at a distance.

Learning the weakness (if there is one) and the resistances of your enemies can help a huge bit in deciding how to deal with them and making yourself more survivable at the same time.

And yes I play mostly solo. It is more than doable and very enjoyable.

[Javamensch]

Explore, craft good weapons and level up your weapon abilities, be innovative in building things, be wary of spooky things and most of all, enjoy!

[Ryzilynt]

Take your time and be overly prepared. Best to find what overly prepared is by failing many times. That's the magic.

[Bobucles]

Trolls are the dodge iframes tutorial. Having a huge club swing through your body doesn't matter. Just wait for the attack, and time the dodge.

[Sono]

just enjoy the game at your own pace, rushing to beat is not fun and will get you kilt. Relax yourself and know it'll take time. Don't sweat it too much if you die, have a plan to recover your stuff before you even make that venture out just in case you die. Youd be surprised how routine hum drum death runs get when you play so much and then die to a really dumb reason in a dangerous area. Get the time to know the game, and i emphasis time. Don't be afraid of dying, it's part of the game. :)

Everytime I see people complain they aren't dealing damage or dying too fast its because theyre trying to pseudo speedrun the game. As such however, having a backup set of equipment is a good idea to make death runs less risky. Though this gets far less scary if you equip bonemass power just incase for your death run.

[electricdawn]

Messaggio originale di Bobucles:

Trolls are the dodge iframes tutorial. Having a huge club swing through your body doesn't matter. Just wait for the attack, and time the dodge.

People keep saying that. But I honestly doubt there is anything like an "invincibility frame" in Valheim.

I've done exactly that, trying to dodge out of the way in any direction, and I've almost always got hit by a swinging club, tree, whatever.

So, I really don't believe this "iFrame" thingy. Have a shield, or stay out of their face.