Ashlands starting tips and tricks

[bvalltuii]

What strategies work best for you? Let's sit around the fireplace drinking mead and swapping rumours we've heard about the fiery lands to the south. List some hints and tips on getting a foothold in Dunkirk aka Ashlands.

Tip #: The Workbench Way - sail your big new boat (that is about to get sunk probably if it is your first time) to one of the black spikes sticking up as you cross into Ashlands waters, and PUT A WORKBENCH ON IT. It will save you and your boat, I promise. Equip the mighty hammer and repair your boat ad infinitum when bonemaw and voltures try to destroy it. You can stay there picking away at any bonemaws and voltures as long as you keep an eye on boat damage and repair it. I made it thru to land with just two workbenches along the way, and I also managed to rescue all the lootz from two earlier sunken dreams of glory from before I thought of this strat.

Tip #2: That water ain't for swimming! The ashlands water will fry you in no short order if you stay in it for more than about half a minute. You can jump in and grab stuff from your glowy body bag, or scoop up that tasty bonemaw meat, but GTFO of the water pronto (by the time your stamina bar hits zero, you may be too late if you aren't close to the ladder). I don't know the exact timing as I try to avoid spoilers on first play thru, but it’s not long!

Tip #3: Speaking of water – don’t stand in it just getting your feet wet or your pants will promptly incinerate (I hope you set up that portal already?). You have to keep your feet dry to not get killed by the water – if steamy bubbles are coming off of you, you will die (unless you are Shrek maybe).

Tip #3: Get to high ground immediately. Those big black rocks may save you when you first land (and later), and they get seriously damaged when mobs attack, leaving you with more building materials. Use the height advantage.

Tip #4: Build a small base NOW! Use those new stone building mats (or bring your own marble if you prefer the gauche Florida look) and throw up a base right away. Get that portal up, along with a stonecutter and shield generator. Put walls and a roof around it all or the environment (along with the mobs) will wreck it fast (expect stormy weather with a high chance of meteor showers). Your finewood will get incinerated so you won’t be able to rebuild your portal. I got stranded in ashlands when two portals were destroyed (because I stupidly stayed there during the night). I survived the night, but it was only a matter of time before I died because I didn’t have any way back (other than sailing – and the boat got wrecked too!) and no way to make food, etc.

Tip #4: DON’T stay there at night – at least until you have a solid, well defended base set up, even then … The mobs swarm you at night; every night is like a raid and they wreck everything given a smidgen of a chance. So as soon as it is getting dark, hop back thru the portal and go chop some more finewood, plant turnips, sort thru your chests, take a bio break, whatever. Wait until daylight (sleep works best of course, if you are itching to get back).

Tip #5: Everything your grandma said was right. Eat the best food, make sure you always have the rested buff, use the meads early and often, get a good night’s sleep, etc. Ashlands is brutal, so you won’t make it by faking it.

Tip #6: Go mage or go home. A controversial tip perhaps. You can definitely do it as a melee character, but I think it is WAY harder, at least at first (I have no idea about later yet). Frost staff is what I have used 90% of the time, with the occasional swing at the weaker mobs, and occasional use of the prot staff and summoning a few skels to distract the enemies (though they can wander off and pull aggro, so use sparingly). I have one piece of eitr armor for the 40% regen, not sure of the wisdom in that even. I don’t think full mage armor is worth it at all, just slap on the carapace and run around while you watch your eitr bar inch slowly up so you can get another zap or two in. Bows fail hard imho. Maybe they work later or if you have high skill (I die way too much to have high skill in anything). I loved bows all thru to mistlands, but they just don’t cut it in Ashlands for me.

Anyway, time to eat my morning Ygg porridge, so that’s all I can think of for now. Add any you think I’m missing and help out the poor draftees being sent to the front line in a leaky wooden boat with meager rations.

[drorbedrack]

Bring lots of metals. Enough for stonecutter, shield generator, blast furance and fully upgraded kitchen. Will make things easier. Dark forge + upgrades optional.

Don't step in lava!

Melee is totally fine.

[Gwastuno]

I would add that marksman and twitcher do not hit hard even with carapace armor. Warriors are more dangerous because of their attack patterns that are quite uncommon with something akin to feints. I found out that a simple way to deal with it is to parry like you would with fulings or draugrs. But if the strike does not hit, parry again. So instead of parrying once, parry twice in a row.

[Jondar Korric]

Originally posted by Gwastuno:

I would add that marksman and twitcher do not hit hard even with carapace armor. Warriors are more dangerous because of their attack patterns that are quite uncommon with something akin to feints. I found out that a simple way to deal with it is to parry like you would with fulings or draugrs. But if the strike does not hit, parry again. So instead of parrying once, parry twice in a row.

they aren't akin to Feints, they ARE Feints. they have two Feint attacks, and other than another certain Ashlands creature, they're the only ones that can Feint.

[ministrog]

i think the first landing base would be:
workbench,
stone workbench (so bring iron),
shield gen (so bring iron and copper) and of course
portal.

bring bonemass because there's a high chance you'll have a massive fight. once all four things are down, chill in your other bases and bring normal stone through your portal. also, place down campfires right on the edge of your basic workbench like satellites. the reason is because charred ones will now spawn a bit further away. as you discover more of ashlands you'll get the new grausten stones. they unlock a blueprint for triangle shapes for 2 grausten which i used to replace stone ones. it doesn't stop projectiles but it'll stop them marching in and breaking stuff.

the wood you find here will mostly turn into bolts but i'd suggest at the start save them for spikes. i got them poking through my triangle walls. normal wood and stone should be reserved for just making campfires as you explore. however, in especially nasty areas where you notice respawning is stubbornly present, it's worth setting up a hidden workbench with grausten roof and walls. out of sight out of mind and fireproof.

i thought the automated arbelests would be good here but it's not. what is good is the upgraded portal. i don't think it's necessary to replace all portals with this new one, since you can pair the new one with the old classic one. it can be placed on marble.

[JimmyEatSquirrel]

Im struggling the Ashlands but did manage to set up a foothold. I haven't been able to get far away from my base but was able to mine a flametal pillar. I would bring with ( assuming you are using normal portal settings)

-Workbench
-Portal
-50-100 stack of Black marble to make a basic foothold base/wall perimeter
-Enough iron/copper to make a fully upgraded black forge
-2 iron for a stonecutter to make your foothold base
-Mats for the new AL shield generator

I do think the advice of putting satellite campfires around your base, marking them and keeping them lit is good. This worked for me. Before I tried this I had waves of charred, askvins ( some 1-2 star) constantly flowing in.

I play mele and proceeded directly to upgrade my Blackforge to 4 and my mistwalker and armor to 4 and that took a little edge off the attacks and got me a little more damage ( but not much) and I made the Flametal shield and Ashen Cloak right off the bat. The cloak at level 2 ads 14 armor which is pretty nice for being so cheap.

As mele I found the Charred Twitchers and Archers no problem as long as I kept my shield up. One I learned the attack patterns of the Askvin, Charred Warrior and Morgan doing way better... but a starred charred warrior or Askvin will likely kill me if I cant parry so try to kite them and dodge roll.

All the best.

[Steve]

It's a warzone. Plan accordingly.

Scout the beach for a proper landing zone. (Loading your drakkar with materials for a portal FOB at this stage is risky, but go ahead and do it if you're confident in your skills.)
Time your landing to take maximum advantage of daylight.
Build QUICKLY. A portal FOB doesn't have the luxury of being big or pretty. Pillbox it.
Once you are established and the shield generator is fueled, GET OUT. Wait for the next sunrise. Maximize your daylight and respect the weather. If it gets bad, either get back or hunker down and don't move unless strictly necessary.

[Draconis]

Did anyone mention that grilled bonemaws are really tasty?

This really helped me at the start. Even when I had nothing else of use from the ashlands, the cooked bonemaw was the first upgrade. A bit heavy maybe, but I never brought along more than three. I ate at home before leaving.

Don't quite remember if it was on par with misthare supreme or slightly better.... but still bonemaws are easier to hunt than hares.

Edit: Looked it up now. It's slightly better than misthare (+5 points HP, +1 heal per tick), also means +2 points to your stagger limit (40% of max health). And each bonemaw is 7 hares' worth, which together with the quite quick respawn actually made me prefer a walk on the beack at ashlands over a rabbit hunt in the mistlands.

[Gunnar Hurtya]

IT GETS SHALLOW FAST, don't try landing your boat until you have a portal up

[cobb.311]

I brought mats for a portal and shield generator, and I had no real plans of sailing back out of the ashlands once I got there. I went in full speed and just beached the ship (bonemaw on my tail).

Used it as storage next to the portal.

[Nerevar]

Originally posted by drorbedrack:

Bring lots of metals. Enough for stonecutter, shield generator, blast furance and fully upgraded kitchen. Will make things easier. Dark forge + upgrades optional.

Don't step in lava!

Melee is totally fine.

aside the stonecutter and the shield the rest is completly unneeded to bring. portal home instead. faster. simpler. will also attract less enemies as you dont do pointless building early on.

i dont get why anyone who plays with portals on default would bring anything but a stonecutter and the shield materials with them. its a complete waste of time and materials. its a needless risk for no gain. the stone portal is silly easy to aquire. so you can just teleport everything right back to homebase.

[Darren Daulton]

Originally posted by bvalltuii:

Bows fail hard imho...

A good bow, decent bow skill, and frost arrows are highly effective.

[Remiel]

On PORTALS:
-Make sure to have at least two ideally three portals so if one gets destroyed you can still travel back.
-Fire works differently in the ashlands: fire may come from certain enemies or even fall randomly from the sky and it will spread around through grass and trees. If the portals catch fire you must quickly destroy them to save some pieces or the wood will burn and turn into coal. Therefore, try to place portals away from flammable stuff.
-The new stone portals have special qualities and CAN be used against regular normal portals. The special properties work on the source portal, you don't need the destination to also be stone portal. As far as I know, they will not burn.

[Remiel]

On FIRE and HEAT:
-Contrary to popular belief, fire is not such a common danger in the ashlands. Not the way cold affects you in the mountain. You don't need to constantly be drinking Fire protection potions one after another.
-Fire comes from some specific attacks from certain enemies. It can also fall from the sky. In the Ashlands, fire spreads around.
-Most enemies are fire resistant in the ashlands.
-Lava can kill you in one second. Stay very far away from lava.
-The seas around the Ashlands have very hot. If you enter the water you will not suffer any damage at first, but after some seconds you will see smoke coming from you and will see the screen borders getting distorted. This means that unless you get out from the water in the next seconds, you will be cooked alive. It's not an insta-kill, you will start losing hitpoints but veery quickly. Just make sure you have a quick way to get outside of the water and you'll be fine.
-Fire potions are useless against lava and hot water. The ashlands heavy armor will double the time required to kill you in lava and hot water.
-Asksvins are immune to lava. You can tame them and ride them. You suffered lava damage before but it was fixed a month ago, now you'll be safe atop the lizard.

[drorbedrack]

Originally posted by Nerevar:

Originally posted by drorbedrack:

Bring lots of metals. Enough for stonecutter, shield generator, blast furance and fully upgraded kitchen. Will make things easier. Dark forge + upgrades optional.

Don't step in lava!

Melee is totally fine.

aside the stonecutter and the shield the rest is completly unneeded to bring. portal home instead. faster. simpler. will also attract less enemies as you dont do pointless building early on.

i dont get why anyone who plays with portals on default would bring anything but a stonecutter and the shield materials with them. its a complete waste of time and materials. its a needless risk for no gain. the stone portal is silly easy to aquire. so you can just teleport everything right back to homebase.

me. I got some flamemetal before the new portal item (Dverger outposts have small amount of flamemetal, and they usually die to the mobs). So I could use it to get the new foods/shield/cape without going back. made things easier.

[Draconis]

Originally posted by drorbedrack:

me. I got some flamemetal before the new portal (Dverger outposts have small amount of it, and they usually die to the mobs). So I could use it to get the new foods/shield/cape without going back. made things easier.

Had a similar situation, but it was because I somehow was too blind to see the first putrid hole I came across (too focused on the enemies all around) und thus got my first flametal ore before I had the stone portal.
In the end I decided to sail back with my first load of flametal instead of looking for molten cores first. Was the drakkar's last journey so far.