Bit confused about Sneak

[Similar]

When I had a Sneak of 3-4 and wore leather armor I could sneak up on a deer in broad daylight and stab it. Now I have 26 Sneak + 15 from a set of troll armor and I can't sneak up on anything (well, one single skeleton in a very dark burial chamber. All the other skeletons spotted me).
This seems a bit backwards?

It also seems like quite a few things just ignore sneak entirely. Greylings spot, or hear, you from 500 meters away, etc. And birds are just impossible, which makes it difficult to get feathers.

[Urban Blackbear]

There's two key pieces of info on the screen when you sneak. One is the eye, which tells you whether something has spotted you (full open eye), is looking for you (half eye) or is unaware of you (closed eye or just a line). The other is the noise meter which fills up with the more noise you are making. Either one can make an enemy aware of you. If you get spotted you have to break line of sight and be quiet for long enough for the enemy to "lose" you.

[Xenomorph]

never get in line of sight behind them you must sneak

[avatar.zero]

Originally posted by Urban Blackbear:

There's two key pieces of info on the screen when you sneak. One is the eye, which tells you whether something has spotted you (full open eye), is looking for you (half eye) or is unaware of you (closed eye or just a line). The other is the noise meter which fills up with the more noise you are making. Either one can make an enemy aware of you. If you get spotted you have to break line of sight and be quiet for long enough for the enemy to "lose" you.

That's not a noise meter, it indicates how visible you are to other creatures as a function of detection range. At full a creature can notice you from their full detection range, at half the range is halved, at one-fourth... pretty sure you get the picture. The bar strength depends on your Sneak level and the current lighting (open in daylight, the bar will be as close to full as your skill rating will allow, plenty of terrain at night it will be as low as your skill rating will allow).

[Damnion]

You have to be aware of wind direction too. It can carry your smell and alert your prey.

[knighttemplar1960]

It depends on what you are sneaking up on and what direction you are approaching it from. Most creatures can see you from 30 meters and alert on you from 20 meters. Vision isn't really what sneak reduces sneak reduces the noise you generate and sound in the game can travel 9999 meters. The list of creatures and how their perception works and its ranges ranges are listed in the link below.

Originally posted by Damnion:

You have to be aware of wind direction too. It can carry your smell and alert your prey.

No that's false. None of the creatures in Valheim use smell, only hearing and vision.

https://valheim.fandom.com/wiki/Creature_senses

[Similar]

Thanks all.

I still don't really get why it was so easy to sneak up on numerous deers very early on. I'm pretty sure I didn't do anything terribly clever. I also had much better luck with sneaking in the first burial chamber I did than in the second (hard to find them on this map, so I've only done two so far).

[Steve]

Hard to sneak in Burial chambers as I think they can hear you open doors. Not sure on that but it seems to be my experience. Combat will also alert nearby mobs as well.

I think, IIRC, sneak skill also reduces the stam you use while sneaking, or the speed you move at. Maybe both.

I don't use sneak an awful lot anymore, but did with my first playthrough as a dagger user. ATM my sneak is maybe 10-15 tops in Mistlands. If I do sneak to backstab a mob I can usually manage it outside as long as I'm behind them and watch the eye meter and noise I make.

[Similar]

Originally posted by Steve:

Hard to sneak in Burial chambers as I think they can hear you open doors. Not sure on that but it seems to be my experience. Combat will also alert nearby mobs as well.

It also seemed a bit glitchy, but whether it was sneak or the burial chamber, I don't know. Once the eye went wide open when there was nothing around, so something must have been alerted through several walls. It just seemed off.

Originally posted by Steve:

I think, IIRC, sneak skill also reduces the stam you use while sneaking, or the speed you move at. Maybe both.

yeah, I think I am a little faster now, at Sneak 27. Stam is hard to judge because I have more of it now.

Originally posted by Steve:

I don't use sneak an awful lot anymore, but did with my first playthrough as a dagger user. ATM my sneak is maybe 10-15 tops in Mistlands. If I do sneak to backstab a mob I can usually manage it outside as long as I'm behind them and watch the eye meter and noise I make.

I'm not convinced I could, even at my higher level. When I was very low level, it didn't seem to matter how I approached deer, it just worked (OTOH, it never worked with boars; far easier to just run up to them and stab them), but it doesn't now.
Maybe I killed off all the deer with poor eye sight and there's only the others left now...
Can't sneak up on greydwarves or greylings at all. It's not always they see me, but they seem to hear me no matter what I do.

I'm pretty certain 1 star skeletons spot me faster than the normal ones, which is kind of a nice mechanic.

[Sythalin]

Stealth is 100% useless mechanic in the game, so if you're leveling for a combat advantage you're wasting your time. You're better off just taking the 3x "sneak" damage with a bow, which will typically nearly one shot, if not completely one shot, whatever you're hitting of the appropriate gear/level.

[kelsobluebane]

Originally posted by Sythalin:

Stealth is 100% useless mechanic in the game, so if you're leveling for a combat advantage you're wasting your time. You're better off just taking the 3x "sneak" damage with a bow, which will typically nearly one shot, if not completely one shot, whatever you're hitting of the appropriate gear/level.

I was told you can one shot mobs with a dagger whilst in your birthday suit. Is this not the case anymore ?

[Sythalin]

Originally posted by kelsobluebane:

Originally posted by Sythalin:

Stealth is 100% useless mechanic in the game, so if you're leveling for a combat advantage you're wasting your time. You're better off just taking the 3x "sneak" damage with a bow, which will typically nearly one shot, if not completely one shot, whatever you're hitting of the appropriate gear/level.

I was told you can one shot mobs with a dagger whilst in your birthday suit. Is this not the case anymore ?

Maybe, I couldn't say. Since most mobs are spawned in groups, it makes trying to ambush them completely pointless since 1) the adds see you and alert whoever you're sneaking up on and 2) 90% of the time the mobs are aggroed on you before you even see them in the first place.

If going for immersion, go nuts; stealth it up as much as you can. In terms of general practicality for the majority of combat in the game it's a complete waste of time to bother with when you can just shoot from quite a long distance without being seen.

[jonnin]

the occasional one-shot is epic but its not a playstyle or strategy, its a meme.
your clothing has little effect on it, so if you can one shot it, you can. Its tied to your weapon skill and getting that sneak hit.

far as it goes I am seeing > 800 damage with one of the new ranged weapons on sneak attacks. There is a new mob that is a hit point sponge and you can shoot it in the backside like that and still not kill it, so shooting it normally in the face for < 100 each is slow going. Sneaking is important for efficiency (ammo or time), in other words, but trying to dagger everything is not part of that use of it. Getting that close takes time and patience, while just shooting it in the back can be done far away with no time spent.