Blocking Spawns

[katsuragi]

So... I just made it to Ashlands. Honestly, I just meant to scout the shoreline a bit from my boat but it didn't work out that way. I had weaved my way through the ocean spikes, looking for land when one of those sea serpents that shoot twin green plasma balls found me. Wind was not favorable to sail back out and I still had the swamp's damage reduction power equipped so no Modder power to help me get away. I'm too cowardly to fight the serpent from my boat because I don't know if I can kill it before it destroys my boat and it's pretty clear that falling in the water is certain death. So... as I saw it, I had one option.

Raise sails and head further in to find land. That's what I did. Did I mention the sun had gone done just then and it was now pitch black out? I sail inward until I see the outline of a thing that looks different than the ocean spikes so I figure that must be where the land is. When I get close I can see dozens of things moving about with mostly just the red glowy bits visible in the darkness. I can barely tell what is water and what is land in the dark but the serpent is still pounding on my boat. That's when my boat emits that awful crunchy sound boats emit when they are about to fall apart. I leap from the deck, aiming for what I hope is ground.

I land, Krom in hand, and am immediately swarmed by who-knows-what. I see skeleton things with swords, other reddish things throwing fire at me, birds swoop all around me, and farther away, 2 things lob fire arrows at me. Complete chaos, especially since I don't look at guides or watch YT videos to even know what to expect.

Oh man, what a fight. The birds went first because I could not get away from them. Once they were gone I could keep ahead of the melee guys and dodge the fire throwers just by keeping in motion, so I singled out the arrow guys next. Once they were dead, I just kited the melee guys around, pausing to deliver Krom's wonderful thrust attack every few seconds as stamina allowed, until all that was left was the fire throwers (whom I still have very little clue what they looked like. Did I mention it was dark AF?) They turned out to be fairly squishy and within another minute I was alone at my landing spot.

I see many more things moving about in the distance and some other things I think might have been spawners(?) I really don't know what I was looking at, but nothing was actively trying to kill me so I quickly made a bench and a portal and GTFO.

Ok, so... what was I posting this for? Oh yeah....

What's the best way to keep this area clear, cheaply. Workbenches? Campfires?

[Soma]

Black marble is fireproof also the new stone you get in ashlands. Stone perimeters and the new shield is enough. I built my wall 8 meters high. If they cant see you they will leave. If you want to cheese it with spawn proofing the campfire is better since your workbench will eventually burn up. It is 100% do able without cheesing the spawns, just go slow and build multi level defenses. Build your escape portals high up or on something that cant be destroyed

The putrid cave is indestructible like a troll cave so you can build a portal on top and run inside. If you hit sneak just before entering the cave you will be in stealth mode when you enter. My first landing I built a network of portals on top of these caves and enemies did not destroy them nor did the fire. It takes alot of portals, but I had tons of cores lying around anyways!

oops, forgot to say thanks for the fun read! I love it when people tell their stories of conquest! Yours was a well written fun read, really put me in the moment!

[Nerevar]

marble is fireproof. the new stone is not.

regarding your post tc : dont place the portal at the flat beach. place it somewhere upwards where melee enemies cannot get to it.

as for the serpent :

dont be the coward. the serpent has only 1100 hp. a troll has 600 hp. and gjall has 1500. you HAVE already fought WORSE. the bonemaw like all swimming enemies is WEAK to frost of course. so frost arrows away and they die WAY faster than they can ever break the boat. the new boat has 3000 hp. thats triple the longships health. a single bonemaw takes along time to break this thing.

and you could just stop at ANY of these rock spires and slam a bench down and repair the boat at any point without much risk. just kill the birds before jumping onto the spire.

and dont sail in when its about to become night. always start at DAWN. so you have 20 minutes for landfall and you can actually see what youre doing.

it sounds like you lucked out with the landing commando of enemies beeing mostly weaklings and easy to kite warriors. if morgens or valks join the frey this early you could have died.

but from the discription alone i can tell that you unlike most other posters here know that you DONT STOP MOVEING between attacks is key to combat in valheim as this way you space and avoid the majority of hits by default. aka playing combat patiently and paying attention to the enemies.

gl on your ashlands adventures. campfires are best for spawn blocking as they dont burn and are cheap and dont need a bench to make.

find a charred fortress as your central portal outpost. this gets you most of what you need to get started. the fortresses have this evilish green glowing light pillar above them you can spot form a long distance away.

[Knightframe]

For the 1.st ashlands landing i recomend you take wood to repair your ship (by placing workbenches on spikes) and a lot of arrows/bolts for seperents (wich are just anoying and do
joke damage to new boat).

Do not land as soon as you see the land. Its better to land on area that has some type of structure as it can help you as early defense. Oh and....those rocks you think you are safe standing on them.....Ai cheats and can easy climb them.

Try to find a location that is not near lava or spawners. (if you find dwermer buildings --- well abuse them as your landing defense).

As soon as you land, place a workbench and stonecutter and enclose them in stone so they dont burn. Then start making mudwalls all araund it. This is gona be your base core.
Once mudwalls are set, place a shield into a middle and fill it with bones.

Now your portal is safe (mostly). I recomend getting more stone now from your base and create a second circle of mud araund the core. If a random fire blob explodes near the mudwalls, you gona have a breach.

Placing workbenches or fireplaces will not help with spawn reduction (it will only prevent spawn near it). So extending your base with mudwalls even outside the buble protection is a way to go (just be sure you enclose workbenches into a stone).

Also------keep your boat as far away from base as possible as mobs will encircle your base and attack it.

I found a good strategy is to make a T shape pier as mobs are kinda stupid and will not go araund it.

[katsuragi]

Very nice. Thank you all for the insights. I haven't been back in game since my adventure this morning but it sounds like the portal I escaped in is probably toast. I just dropped it right on the beach where I landed. Guess i'll probably need a new boat too... lol

[c0mad0r]

"What's the best way to keep this area clear, cheaply. Workbenches? Campfires?"

My method:

1) Dig a hole near a large rock or next to broken buildings deep enough for a workbench
2) Build workbench in the hole
3) Cover the workbench using a grausten floor

So, you'll need mats enough for at least 2 benches and 1 stone bench along with 8 grausten to get this done, but it's worth it.

Why this way?

- Workbenches had the largest perimeter for no-spawns
- A grausten floor is burn resistant and protects the wood bench below it so long as the bench isn't touching the gausten floor
- A grausten floor that is flush with the ground makes it so that only a lava blob explosion can destroy it

I've had my Ashlands home since the first PTB and have only had one of 13 benches destroyed and that one only got blown up by my own hand. I was being raided by those random spawners and my catapult blew it up lol.

[Zombits]

you should be easily able to kill bonemaw with any good range weapon before it kills your drakkar at 1vs1.

I heard people talk about water damage there. me or my mage barrier never took any. only skeletts ...