Hardest Settings Possible

[Yasik]

Hello!
I wonder if anyone tried to play solo on hardest difficulty settings possble, and if yes then how far they managed to progress?
By "hardest possible" I assume this:
- one life; death means death, end of the game;
- max monster damage;
- min player damage;
- lowest resources rate;
- no portals;
- no map;
- most often raids;
- strictly single player;

I tried this settings just to see how long it will last.
First attempt: less than an hour - missed boar's chomp, staggered, couldnt react in time to second hit, death.
Second attempt: about 4 hours, couldnt notice skeleton archer from behind a tree, got one-shotted through block.
Third attempt: two RL days so far.
I have no idea how I'm going to proceed. Everything hits way too hard, and those are regular mobs, not mentioning starred or bosses.
I managed to kill 1-star skeleton though: made a tree house and shot the skeleton down from above. A mere bone is an extremely valuable, its a whole expedition to get one piece!
I dont see how melee is an option, I dont know how I'm going to get Surtling Cores from Burial Chamber where skeletons spawn in packs, not to mention ghosts.
But I learned few things.
Senses are the key, if I see or hear anything before they notice me - I have chance to retreat and fight on my own terms.
Hoe is friend, it marks land and can build indestructible walls.
Dont build more than 2 of workbench and campfire, any 3 of those counts as a 'base' and is eligible to raid. I dont need bed, since I live only one life.
Awlays, Be, Fed. Conserve stamina, you'll need it to run away.
Dont touch Trolls, sneak wont help you much and armor wont neither. Run away, dodge roll, side step. Dont block more than once, they hit way too hard to block - you'll get staggered and killed.
Its ok to spend few days gathering meat, chopping trees to clear view, wait for bees to collect honey. Dont rush, dont get bold, you're less than an ant - even greydwarf baby from Meadows can rip you apart in just two hits.

So whats your story or thoughts about this?

[Nerevar]

min player dmg and max enemy dmg is the same in this game. as its just 1 setting for both.

atleast its actually difficult in this game tough unlike lets say 7 days to die sadly in the most terrible way any game can do it but just makeing enemies deal more dmg and player doing less dmg. wish they would have done it differently. but thats probaly too much to ask just for a simple slider setting.

[blprice61]

Perma-death is hard enough with default settings (for me anyhow) managed to kill Yag, but was a Pyrrhic victory as my wine ran out and his last DoT killed me shortly after. All it takes is one mistake, one misclick at the wrong time, and *game over*. Challenging though.

[Yasik]

I still think if its ok to 'abuse' game mechanics, like building inside or under entrance of troll cave or on a tree where mobs cant reach me, or kill bosses with campfires. Will it be considered as 'honest play'?
Few things I need to add:
- nighttime is time to stay at home, under any circumstances dont explore at night or during rain or thunderstorm - weather prevents clear hearing and darkness prevents clear vision;
- no bed means no rested bonus;
- will a campfire, a workbench, and a forge considered '3 items base' and trigger raids?
- always, always know where and when to retreat, dont let retreath path get blocked, or surrounded, or ran out of stamina; litetrally, always retreat :) to live to fight another day.

[blprice61]

for overnights, you can make workbench, make bed, destroy workbench, place campfire, and sleep - no raid worries there.

The second one with campfire, workbench and forge... there's a way around that too. The upgrades do *not* qualify as base structures so you can even do leveled up workbench/forge. Setup by not making campfire, place workbench, forge, and whatever upgrades. Destroy whichever workplace you aren't going to be using right away and then build campfire. To switch, destroy campfire, rebuild the missing one, destroy the unused one, and remake campfire.

There's some 'fun' dance steps to do for things like cauldron and fermenter for example; some setups will require you to violate the Rule of Three for the time it takes to build one structure and destroy its source structure.

Early on I'd just dig a moat or use an earthen wall. Later perhaps underground outposts.. though with no portals the best places will likely be of little use.

[Nerevar]

Originally posted by Yasik:

I still think if its ok to 'abuse' game mechanics, like building inside or under entrance of troll cave or on a tree where mobs cant reach me, or kill bosses with campfires. Will it be considered as 'honest play'?
Few things I need to add:
- nighttime is time to stay at home, under any circumstances dont explore at night or during rain or thunderstorm - weather prevents clear hearing and darkness prevents clear vision;
- no bed means no rested bonus;
- will a campfire, a workbench, and a forge considered '3 items base' and trigger raids?
- always, always know where and when to retreat, dont let retreath path get blocked, or surrounded, or ran out of stamina; litetrally, always retreat :) to live to fight another day.

a bed isnt needed for the rested bonus. you only need a simple campfire to get a basic rested effect already. just sitting at the fire is all thats needed if its not sheltered one.

rest is pretty much generel good advice for regular play aswell.

[Yasik]

Just checked, yes its correct - to get rested bonus we need only campfire and be sheltered means roof over our head.
Digging a moat requires at least antler pickaxe, which in turn requires killing Eikthyr, and its most likely one-shot, so I either take risk (and die) or do it 'safely', like walling off his spawn point so he cant run around, then build a wall 'tower' at some distance I can shoot his from safety, but isnt it 'cheating' of a sort?
I either get inventive and make peace with myself and kill the deer, or most likely die.

[Zombits]

Started a random world a few days ago and i'm still playing on it, needed a new challenge

Settings are like this :

- hardcore combat

- ressources on 1:1 classic

- death : I keep equipped stuff but every thing else is lost perm . It's the most punishing setting i'm willing to use in a long term world . 7,5 % or so skills lost .

- Map : Yes , why would i draw a map myself . Would make everything much slower and not necessarely harder combat wise

- Portals : i always use the classic , no ores in portals , gives a reason to sail and explore on water, it does slow down a playthrough big time , but never tried other settings.

-No boss portal : Activated this one as well

Permadeath like its all over ? Na , not in Valheim with that much grinding .

I'm currently in mountain biome mining silver

[blprice61]

When I play with no map on, I either use a mod that gives a map from the cartography table (works much better in multiplayer or if you like to put signs everywhere), or I load the seed into the world viewer app with it set to default (shows just start point and general terrain). I do my damnedest to avoid getting lost, including making roads, placing compass markers, etc.. but *if* it happens and after three game days I'm *still* lost - well its either briefly enable map mode or abandon the run entirely.

As one person put it in a video I watched; it isn't about the map per se, it's about not knowing exactly where you are all the time. [edit:] or for that matter not being 100% sure you didn't foul up with your compass indicator somehow.

[Nerevar]

Originally posted by Yasik:

Just checked, yes its correct - to get rested bonus we need only campfire and be sheltered means roof over our head.
Digging a moat requires at least antler pickaxe, which in turn requires killing Eikthyr, and its most likely one-shot, so I either take risk (and die) or do it 'safely', like walling off his spawn point so he cant run around, then build a wall 'tower' at some distance I can shoot his from safety, but isnt it 'cheating' of a sort?
I either get inventive and make peace with myself and kill the deer, or most likely die.

you dont need to be sheltered either. just a fire is enough. just SIT near the fire on the ground for 20 seconds and you get rested buff.

[Mharr]

There isn't really a hardest possible, you can set the enemy damage multiplier to x100 if you want or your own output to 1%.

[Война]

I would like to play with this settings but at 1st the devs have to rework enemies' spawn system: spawning in a meter of a player in any hole to have a chance to attack from back is a disgusting spawn system.

[A Pebble]

I haven't ever tried it. The game is just too unpredictable for perma-death if you ask me. Even if you do everything right you could get hit by that bug that just doesn't make your attacks connect with the enemy. I even died once to 2 draugrs in the swamps while wearing mistlands-tier gear because I got pushed into a puddle that was *just* deep enough for me to not be able to attack back, but high enough for them to keep hitting me and body-blocking the land... So I literally couldn't do anything.

[westernwilson]

Originally posted by Yasik:

Digging a moat requires at least antler pickaxe, which in turn requires killing Eikthyr, and its most likely one-shot, so I either take risk (and die) or do it 'safely', like walling off his spawn point so he cant run around, then build a wall 'tower' at some distance I can shoot his from safety, but isnt it 'cheating' of a sort?
I either get inventive and make peace with myself and kill the deer, or most likely die.

I don't see how that is cheating at all! It is exactly what you would do if you were in that situation in real life : )

Pit and cliff traps were both traditional hunting strategies, and yesterday I heard a description of how low stone walls (or avenues of purpose planted trees...) were used to drive animals either into a confined area, or toward waiting hunters.

You can bet that the hunters of the past played it safe, and did everything they could to stack the deck in their favour. Even injuries could be fatal and everyone who could contribute was valuable to the community...too valuable to lose or have put out of commission.

Playing solo is a lot like that...you cannot take chances, and you have to plan your attacks carefully, with the knowledge of what you are going to do if things go badly.

I am not a fan of permadeath, why lose all your hard work...the game is scary enough as it is!

[Yasik]

Just checked again, yes its correct - to get a rested bonus we only need a campfire and sit near it for a few seconds, sheltered effect is not required.
Regarding Eikthyr, checked on my other character who finished the game, deer's lightning hits through world objects like earthen walls, stone rocks, 'indestructible' stones around spawning altar, but unless we're in deer's line of sight he doesnt use any special ability, but once he sees us for just a second - he'll use something from his arsenal and his us through any obstacle.
Also come to attention youtuber Fairy2Play, pretty amazing skills and perfect timing, naked permadeath runs including Yagluth kill means she survived everything before it. So in theory its possible, but only one single mistake ends it all.
I will take my time and build things I'm an engineer after all, I dont have lightning reflexes to be honest and dont like taking risks.

[Zombits]

People doing permadeath runs check seeds on world map site and/or mods . Otherwise its a waste of time on a huge map