Deathsquito, the laziest mob ever

[Kin]

I love Valheim, been building a lot of cool ♥♥♥♥ and been having a blast sailing around the world. I have one issue and it's the Deathsquito, not even for my own sake, I complain for the people I play with. The Deathsquito is the poorest excuse for a mob I have ever seen in a game, it drops an item that allows you to craft the best piercing arrow in the game. The mob itself does an absurd amount of damage if you're unarmored, which makes no sense to me. If it's purpose is to drop a resource that creates piercing arrows then why can't the Deathsquito do armor piercing damage instead of 80 damage to an unarmored player? I am not sure what type of game play that specific mob is suppose to create, but it's literally a death sentence to new players who stumble on them. They have barely anyway to detect their presence besides visually and they literally spawn out of thin air around you. So, lets say your a new player you sail a raft and oh a new area, instant death, then you try to retrieve your corpse repeated instant death. You can't out run them, and them being one hit to kill is even stupid. No idea what the developers were trying to go with here, but it's more of a trolling mob then a serious one. I think the game would be better off with more Goblins and no Deathsquitos, they make no sense and aren't instrumental to anything. Just a useless flying troll that is meant to gate new players from the Highlands. They should make everything else in the game more challenging and get rid of the Deathsquito.

[Zenith]

Originally posted by PsychaChi:

Half these replies need to honestly be removed or these people banned for a week.. why are the forum mods not enforcing forum rules?

In my experience, they only ever enforce the rules on select people, when it suits them.

[Panne of Koeke]

Don't even need a shield to handle them. One single dodge and one single dagger swing will kill it. Or you can shoot it with an arrow since it flies in a straight line. Almost, if not every weapon in the game can/will one-shot a deathsquito.

And heaven forbid the unprepared are punished for their lack of preparation. Imagine the dismay if everything was nerfed because a few goobers can't gather the cognitive function to deal with it normally.

[Dub]

One thing that the Deathsquito does great from a design perspective is how it instills fear in the player. It whips you hard when you stumble across one in the earlygame and, if you figure out that it came from the plains, creates a great fear of the biome itself. Once you later on have progressed far enough to withstand its high damage and you manage to kill one, the feeling of satisfaction and revenge for one-shotting it, just like it once did to you, is just so good. Their drop at this point is merely icing on the cake, a lategame reward when deathsquitos do not pose (as much) a threat any more.

I think that, while it is an unfair mob in the earlygame, it is also a crucial element of the Plains biome. It becomes a symbol of how far you have come in the game, and once you learn how to beat them, it feels amazing.

The real problem I can see is how a Deathsquito can wander out of the plains quite easily as a result of it chain-murdering lesser mobs, typically from the meadows, and therefore ends up far outside the plains biome itself. An inexperienced player may not make the connection to the Plains biome as a result, and therefore fails to learn the lesson it is meant to teach you. I can also imagine that if the player finds one while out at sea before stumbling across a plains biome on their main island, this experience feels extremely unfair because they were not only unaware of their existence: They now also have no way of retrieving their items. I believe that Hugin should teach new players to watch out when they are out at sea, and exert extreme caution.

At least that's my two cents.

[yeti]

Cannot understand the aggro from some of the posters here, against the OP.

Deathsquito's patrolling the waters makes exploring by boat early on a pain, rather than something to enjoy. Stop them from entering water tiles, and you limit them to being an actual plains enemy.

[LordOfTheBread]

Originally posted by PsychaChi:

Originally posted by LordOfTheDread:

When you go in plains you should have more than 80hp and an armor that greatly reduce their damage so they could hit you once and not twice.

Stop wandering the world naked / unprepared, this is already on the very easy side for a survival game.

Stop trying to start a fight.

Look at it this way you could even go there in wolf gear with no upgrades yet and they can chunk you easily if you miss them coming somehow. I don't have issues with them and have never died to them.

As for others, not everyone is the same but if im asking for some tweaks im doing it for me and from what I've seen while playing on servers with people.

So chill ok?

Sorry if telling the truth is picking a fight to you, you really shold have more thn 80hp and be armored to stroll the plains. Deathquitoes are slow, noisy with low HP monsters and they compensate by hitting hard (way lower since they got nerfed 2 times...).

People have to adapt to a game and learn ennemy pattern instead of crying for nerf.

I did not meant to attack you, lmy answer to you was not meant to be aggressive. Loks like you are the one that needs to chill....
I

[Dive Pymander]

Originally posted by Frankie:

If you are at the tech level that you would "sail" with a raft you have nothing that is worth retrieving.

^^^ Unironically this

[Zenith]

Originally posted by yeti:

Cannot understand the aggro from some of the posters here, against the OP.

Deathsquito's patrolling the waters makes exploring by boat early on a pain, rather than something to enjoy. Stop them from entering water tiles, and you limit them to being an actual plains enemy.

Well said, and a good idea.

[Dive Pymander]

By the time you have anything of any value or investment at all. You'll have gotten on the internet and typed in "Da $%^ kind of biomes in Valheim JFC?!" I accidentally make raft tier equipment all the time and throw it over the wall of my castle. It's not really gating anyone anymore than trees falling on newcomers heads do. The entire idea is that biomes represent levels, and if you think you're a big enough Viking to leave the safety of the meadows, and sail across the ocean in rag tunics... Well best of luck! Have fun! Se la vie! Enjoy your trip!

[LordOfTheBread]

Originally posted by PsychaChi:

Originally posted by LordOfTheDread:

Sorry if telling the truth is picking a fight to you, you really shold have more thn 80hp and be armored to stroll the plains. Deathquitoes are slow, noisy with low HP monsters and they compensate by hitting hard (way lower since they got nerfed 2 times...).

People have to adapt to a game and learn ennemy pattern instead of crying for nerf.

I did not meant to attack you, lmy answer to you was not meant to be aggressive. Loks like you are the one that needs to chill....
I

You're saying i have less than 80hp.

You're assuming im the one complaining about dying.

You're not reading the posts fully or missread them completely.

I've posted my solution already so go back and read.

Maybe stop taking things so personally, everyone should have more than 80hp before strolling the plains sounds better? You're easily offended pal....

[Dive Pymander]

They would be instakilled landing a raft in the Swamp by leeches, blobs, surtlings, elite draugrs and oozers if it didn't look so foreboding. One night half dead, hungry, wet and unrested in the Swamps is easier than a day fully buffed in the Plains. At raft tier, a Troll or Greydwarf Brute smack them upside the head and instakill them. Why would anyone think they can leave the meadows and just go sailing like that without some sort of.... Plan.

[Nesahat]

I like them? They make a very fun first impression :D And they really aren't a problem after you know what to expect.

[Lime]

Originally posted by yeti:

Deathsquito's patrolling the waters makes exploring by boat early on a pain, rather than something to enjoy. Stop them from entering water tiles, and you limit them to being an actual plains enemy.

They aren't supposed to. It's probably a bug. Drakes run into the same issue where they spawn in, fly off into the distance in a straight line, then after a few seconds, they do a 180 and immediately return to where they should be.

Unless you're using a raft, they aren't even an issue. They die in a single shot and will often just suicide into the side of your boat.

[Lime]

Originally posted by PsychaChi:

Most people hit plains in fully upgraded iron gear or some in a mix of silver gear.

Stamina kills people in the plains the most. You can be fighting a pack of goblins and be low on stam and even at 60-70 hp then hear a buzz noise then instant death.

Except you wouldn't die.

In fully upgraded Iron Armor, even without a cape of any kind, the most they'll hit you for is a little bit over 33.

[c0Zm1c]

They can only one-shot you if you're unprepared, which goes for most other enemies in the game really. I got one-shotted by a boar in the Meadows early on in the game. You can hear the Deathsquitos buzzing from quite far away so it's not just visual detection, though I do play with headphones on so that might be helping.

[Lime]

Originally posted by PsychaChi:

but balance it by making them spawn further away from you and have their buzz volume increased a bit more.

Mobs don't spawn in the standard detection range of a player, though. For a Deathsquito to aggro you, it'd have to spawn, you miss the spawn, then you run into detection range or it moves close enough to you.

They already spawn far enough away, imo.