Plains - WTF

[Kharn]

I stumbled upon the Plains biome. Not even kidding. Walked 100 feet in to see what it was and a Death Mosquito skewers me with an unblockable attack, down to 2 HP with full bronze armor and I can't dodge his attack no matter what. Jumping? Forget about it. Shield?...HAHAHAHAAHA may as well be holding tissue paper. I mean WTF?! I can't recover my body. Everytime I try to sneak back or anything I die instantly. Was really enjoying this game, but what the actual hocky puck is this?!

I now have 4 corpses sitting the plains....countless hours of lost skill progression and I still can't recover my body that has everything I've made since the beginning. And all of that equipment was programmed into me by previous biomes as pretty good equipment. That's just an Richard Nixon move.

I mean I understand hard games and all, but to just make all of your work a frigging joke like this just takes it to a new level of bass pro-ery. Make another intermediary step before we're even allowed to enter or have that DUMB BIRD FLY and say "yeah I wouldn't do that if I were you". This would have been the ONE TIME I WOULD HAVE APPRECIATED HIS STUPID INPUT....instead of the dozens of other times when's all like...."This is a leaf. It falls from trees." But no...not a single warning. And who the actual F thinks to yourself...a large Mosquito, STAY AWAY! No one, that's who. Especially when I can face tank a Troll so it absolutely makes sense a overfed gnat shouldn't be too bad. BWAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAA....WHAT WHERE YOU THINKING MAN!?!?!!? THIS GAME DOESN'T USE ANY SENSE OF REASON WHATSOEVER, YOU MORON!!!!!!!! Mosquito = 100 Trolls you dum dum! Didn't ya know!?!?

Damn I'm so pissed at all the progress I've lost. I pretty much have to start over with about 15-20 hours of grind just to remake all the crap I've lost. F this.

Gah, and I told myself....it's Early Access...you NEVER BUY EARLY ACCESS because it's always a bad idea and I just for some stupid reason didn't bother to listen to that little voice. Ugh, I'm so dumb. Never again. I'm tired of being the beta tester whose paycheck is a negative number.

[avatar.zero]

Originally posted by Dslim:

Those squitoes used to be worse, they nerfed them along time ago, they would fly 100 yards from the plains and nuke you while you were sailing, they even lowered the amount of damage they do.

That's actually a bit of a myth. The base damage and health, as well as their sensory range, is still the same as it was 2 years ago, it's just that the game no longer spawns starred skeeters.

Check out this guide entry from March 2021 versus this Reddit thread from November 2022 (lamenting the lack of starred variants of certain creatures) and the current Wiki entry for Deathsquitos[valheim.fandom.com] (which is one of the up-to-date pages).

EDIT: Okay, after looking through the version history, I see that a patch one week after launch reduced skeeter damage. Two weeks later, their auditory range was ENLARGED (so they actually originally had LESS sensory range).

[Zathabar]

Originally posted by Kharn:

Originally posted by Dslim:

Those squitoes used to be worse, they nerfed them along time ago, they would fly 100 yards from the plains and nuke you while you were sailing, they even lowered the amount of damage they do.

Hot damn, that's insane. I don't mind crazy hard enemies...but some kind of warning or progression wall goes a long way.

So did the damn Blackbird of Doom (Hurgin) not turn up as you entered the Biome stating "this Biome is dangerous you shouldn't be here?"

Coz that standard behaviour on Vanilla Valheim though I understand a lot of folks find his extensive hints irritating and turn them off?

[󠄉󠀁󠀁󠁿󠁿]

Another one falls victim, not the first and not the last.

[Azure]

Originally posted by Suzaku:

Or going out to gather more wood. You will always need more wood. Always. Always.

And when you think you have enough you will need more

[Brew]

I did the same thing. Stumbled across plains, looked cool, never been there and went to have a look.... *splat*. It was a fuling who ended me. Lesson learned. I don't remember what gear I had on, but it wasn't enough.

If you completely loot one of your gravemarkers, you get the "corpse run" buff, which slows stamina drain from running/jumping (allows you run continuously farther), and makes you take much less damage. I've been hit by a deathsquito while naked but under its effect, and I survived it easily. Really helps you recover your stuff, which is clearly the point of it.

If you die, for a little while afterword you have an effect which prevents skill drain when dying. That prevents multiple deaths in quick succession from draining your skills. So if you died multiple times quickly, you did not lose skills with each death.

So, dying over and over in quick succession leaves grave markers and does not drain skills. Each new grave marker is then another dose of "corpse run", which actually acts to help you get your stuff back. I've heard some people use this to create something like gravemarker "paths", where they just run from marker to marker, keeping corpse run up the whole way, so they can run farther and survive more easily. Is an interesting idea, though I have not had occasion to want to attempt this myself. Fyi.

[76561198097107304]

Originally posted by Kharn:

Originally posted by Suzaku:

Or going out to gather more wood. You will always need more wood. Always. Always.

Oh for sure. I have already one full chest of just regular wood and a 2nd chest mixed of core and fine wood.

Your gone need A LOT more than that my friend....

[Maelstrom]

You should be in mountains gear before attempting plains the first time. Once you are familiar with the plains you can do plains content is much lower gear (trollhide, root, etc) but it's not something I'd recommend on the first playthrough.

[Balalaika]

Originally posted by Kharn:

blah blah blah game is HARD

I can just say get gud but thats rude so let me say it nicely and explanatory. Mosquito is one of those insta gib mobs that most survival games have. Even higher level players with better gear can still be caught unprepared by the mosquito. That is its sole job to put people back in their place, to give them a bit of reality check, to keep them on edge. People snooze through Mystlands, but everyone is soberly awake when they return back to Plains.

Mosquitos are like baseballs you have to time it and whack it. Dodge it around trees or bushes, or simply mess up its pathing if its close enough because it needs the whined up space.

Also at this point your gear is pretty weak. Anything in plains or the mountain will one shot you.

Best way to deal with them is, at first go slowly through plains and snipe them with a bow from distance until you get used to the place, after some practice you will be surgical your bow.

Also yes get mountain gear first.

[HangarPilot]

One tip I haven't seen mentioned yet is "cheating" ... if you search/Google "console commands" there's a way to enable the dev console.

One of my favorite commands for situations like this is "ghost mode" ... it makes you invisible to enemies and you just stroll right into the plains and recover your gear. Another option would be "god mode" (invincible).

Or, you can use something like "no cost" mode to rebuild your gear for free.

On a related note, the next update currently in the Public Test Branch adds some of these features to the game settings. In it, there's an option to make the death penalty more casual (you keep equipped gear) and there's an option to make all enemies "passive" (they won't aggro unless you pick a fight). Similar to ghost mode, you could make the enemies passive and go get your gear.

If your gear is really "unretrievable" and you're put off by the idea of re-grinding the materials to build new ... you might consider one of these options to get out of your bind.

[Dslim]

Originally posted by avatar.zero:

Originally posted by Dslim:

Those squitoes used to be worse, they nerfed them along time ago, they would fly 100 yards from the plains and nuke you while you were sailing, they even lowered the amount of damage they do.

That's actually a bit of a myth. The base damage and health, as well as their sensory range, is still the same as it was 2 years ago, it's just that the game no longer spawns starred skeeters.

Check out this guide entry from March 2021 versus this Reddit thread from November 2022 (lamenting the lack of starred variants of certain creatures) and the current Wiki entry for Deathsquitos[valheim.fandom.com] (which is one of the up-to-date pages).

EDIT: Okay, after looking through the version history, I see that a patch one week after launch reduced skeeter damage. Two weeks later, their auditory range was ENLARGED (so they actually originally had LESS sensory range).

Their audio range was increased so you could hear them, not that they had less range of attack.

[Aurumworks]

You can parry a Deathsquito with a bronze buckler. Found that out when I was exploring the coast of a Dark Forest on my island and there was one tiny patch of Plains there, just some 20m long, but enough to spawn a single Deathsquito. Managed the parry and then the thing was dead with one swing. You can deal with singular Plains enemies with end stage Dark Forest equipment.

[John]

Originally posted by Dslim:

Those squitoes used to be worse, they nerfed them along time ago, they would fly 100 yards from the plains and nuke you while you were sailing, they even lowered the amount of damage they do.

Oh please don't remind me, those were the worst, they did like a hundred damage if not more. Now they do what, 40 or something?

For how to deal with them?, you can learn when to attack them simply by hearing the sound they make. Once the buzzing is at a certain volume hit them with a mace. It takes time to practice and by all means i don't suggest it, but it is possible, they only have like 10 hp and die from everything you do. 19 out of 20 times i hit them before they can sting me, which are good odds as usually i have more hp than they can dish out in 1 hit.

[iamoffline1]

AFAIK Hugin only tells you to gtfo when entering the black forest if you haven't killed eikthyr yet. You'll get these clues: 1. Boss killed > Hugin will tell you to go to the black forest / 2. Boss killed > Drops a swampy key so ... swamps / 3. Boss killed > No direct hints, but you will find something in the swamps to craft cold resist potions and so on. They heavily rely on people figuring it out on themselves if they're not following any guide (no critique, I actually loved that).

[Tangoblue]

Originally posted by Dslim:

Those squitoes used to be worse, they nerfed them along time ago, they would fly 100 yards from the plains and nuke you while you were sailing, they even lowered the amount of damage they do.

Yeah, many a player got PTSD from those things. They would reach for a nonexistent sword and shield when they heard a buzzing in their house.

[Fraqment]

Originally posted by Kharn:

I stumbled upon the Plains biome. Not even kidding. Walked 100 feet in to see what it was and a Death Mosquito skewers me with an unblockable attack, down to 2 HP with full bronze armor and I can't dodge his attack no matter what. Jumping? Forget about it. Shield?...HAHAHAHAAHA may as well be holding tissue paper. I mean WTF?! I can't recover my body. Everytime I try to sneak back or anything I die instantly. Was really enjoying this game, but what the actual hocky puck is this?!

I now have 4 corpses sitting the plains....countless hours of lost skill progression and I still can't recover my body that has everything I've made since the beginning. And all of that equipment was programmed into me by previous biomes as pretty good equipment. That's just an Richard Nixon move.

I mean I understand hard games and all, but to just make all of your work a frigging joke like this just takes it to a new level of bass pro-ery. Make another intermediary step before we're even allowed to enter or have that DUMB BIRD FLY and say "yeah I wouldn't do that if I were you". This would have been the ONE TIME I WOULD HAVE APPRECIATED HIS STUPID INPUT....instead of the dozens of other times when's all like...."This is a leaf. It falls from trees." But no...not a single warning. And who the actual F thinks to yourself...a large Mosquito, STAY AWAY! No one, that's who. Especially when I can face tank a Troll so it absolutely makes sense a overfed gnat shouldn't be too bad. BWAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAA....WHAT WHERE YOU THINKING MAN!?!?!!? THIS GAME DOESN'T USE ANY SENSE OF REASON WHATSOEVER, YOU MORON!!!!!!!! Mosquito = 100 Trolls you dum dum! Didn't ya know!?!?

Damn I'm so pissed at all the progress I've lost. I pretty much have to start over with about 15-20 hours of grind just to remake all the crap I've lost. F this.

Gah, and I told myself....it's Early Access...you NEVER BUY EARLY ACCESS because it's always a bad idea and I just for some stupid reason didn't bother to listen to that little voice. Ugh, I'm so dumb. Never again. I'm tired of being the beta tester whose paycheck is a negative number.

Congratulations you have learned something.
The bronze armour is worth nothing especially not in the plane......