Do mobs run away?

[bbyhighness]

Hi, I'm very new to the game and I'm curious about people's experiences with mobs turning around and running away. At first I thought it was that they run away when they have really low health, but it doesn't always happen. And it was always with smaller mobs, so I didn't really care to figure it out, but today it happened with a troll.

I fought three trolls so far and two of them fought valiantly till their very last breath, but just today I spotted a troll across a river. So I shot him, as you do. He immediately started making his way towards me, but got stuck in the river, so I thought "free head shot practice" and went to town on him. But then I got distracted by some greydwarfs that made their way across the river to join the fun. I noticed while I was fighting them that the troll got unstuck and was getting out of the water pretty close to me, so I moved away a little bit so he wouldn't immediately slam me to the bedrock.

But when I got rid of the dwarfs (and some skellies that heard the commotion and came to see what was going on), the troll was nowhere to be seen. I thought he maybe died from DOT since I was using fire arrows, but didn't find the remains. I finally spotted him chilling further down the river with his back to me. I couldn't see his health bar, but I figured there wasn't a lot of health left in him, so I shot him again. He didn't die, but instead of turning around a fighting me, he started walking away. He took two more arrows before he died, but he didn't try to fight me at all.

Was it because his health was low or is there any other mechanic that I'm not familiar with? Because like I said, the trolls I fought before didn't try to run away at all.

[Jbones]

if you get far enough away they lose agro on you and stop perusing you i imagine that happened. helps you when you're in trouble and need to run away eventually they stop chasing and return to their spawn point.

[Razorhunter]

Its just the more than broken and buggy ai pathfinding, theyre not backing up intentionally. Its annoying for sure.

[Psojed]

Originally posted by bbyhighness:

So I shot him

This.

Enemies run away beause you shoot them with a bow. I don't know why, but it happens regardless of their remaining HP.

[bbyhighness]

Originally posted by Jbones:

if you get far enough away they lose agro on you and stop perusing you i imagine that happened. helps you when you're in trouble and need to run away eventually they stop chasing and return to their spawn point.

Yes, I actually know that they deagro if you get far enough form them, but in this situation I was still fairly close when he got out of the river. Also, they usually agro immediately when I shoot them even if they're further away. With this one he only agroed after the first shot, but then at the end, I shot him three times and he just kept trying to walk away.

[bbyhighness]

Originally posted by Razorhunter:

Its just the more than broken and buggy ai pathfinding, theyre not backing up intentionally. Its annoying for sure.

I guess that could be it. Maybe him getting stuck in the river messed with his ai somehow, because up until then he was acting normally. Though honestly, I know the mechanic of enemies running away if they have low health from other games and I find that realistic, so I wouldn't be against it.

[Razorhunter]

Originally posted by bbyhighness:

Originally posted by Razorhunter:

Its just the more than broken and buggy ai pathfinding, theyre not backing up intentionally. Its annoying for sure.

I guess that could be it. Maybe him getting stuck in the river messed with his ai somehow, because up until then he was acting normally. Though honestly, I know the mechanic of enemies running away if they have low health from other games and I find that realistic, so I wouldn't be against it.

I mean yea theres the "pulled too far backup" but enemies, and especially strong ones are backing away from me at 50 centimeter distance running in circles and bugging out in pathfinding thats just super frequent in this game..

[bbyhighness]

Originally posted by Razorhunter:

Originally posted by bbyhighness:

I guess that could be it. Maybe him getting stuck in the river messed with his ai somehow, because up until then he was acting normally. Though honestly, I know the mechanic of enemies running away if they have low health from other games and I find that realistic, so I wouldn't be against it.

I mean yea theres the "pulled too far backup" but enemies, and especially strong ones are backing away from me at 50 centimeter distance running in circles and bugging out in pathfinding thats just super frequent in this game..

Now that you mention them running in circles, I do remember seeing a youtube playthrough where the guy was using the troll to cut birch trees and the troll kept spinning like a ballerina :D

[JP_Russell]

It's not just if you get far away from enemies. Enemies in Valheim are programmed to return to their spawn location after a certain amount of time of not being able to hit you, even if they're relatively close to you. This is likely all that happened here.

[Zep Tepi]

They will leave if they are getting damaged and having trouble with pathfinding. This was put in on purpose so they don't just stand there being a pincushion for ranged attacks. You can usually re-aggro them and get them to turn around, though.

It's easy to lose a troll by ducking through a forest this way. If you are kiting and running, you may have to go back and get its attention more than once to finish it off. Don't try to outrun one in open space, let the pathfinding trip them up for you. (Works to get lox off your tail too if there happens to be a forest nearby.)

[Mr Felidae]

I sometimes have enemies run away from me as well.

I've made multiple observations in which a single attack dealing >50% damage relative to total health had the enemy temporarily flee, only to return to the same spot later and aggroing if the player is present still. It's all I can present so whether my statement holds true is not for me to decide.

[Nerevar]

since the engine update enemies run away if they are unable to perform an attack within x seconds while giveing chase. once that time has passed without them beeing able to attack (no matter if they land a hit or not) theyll go back to thier spawn area.

this is intentional. it already happend before this update.

since the new warriors are very slow and not very agile they are very prone to this form of "my planet needs me"

like that warlock today which slingshotted himself out of his on fortress via his own fortress spikes. it looked hilarious.

[J-96]

Hi, I am new to the game and I am under the impression that greylings or boars for example will run away from torches. I hold a torch in my off hand and seem to have a harder time getting them to stay near so I can swing a hit.

[Nerevar]

Originally posted by RIFF TRAIN:

Hi, I am new to the game and I am under the impression that greylings or boars for example will run away from torches. I hold a torch in my off hand and seem to have a harder time getting them to stay near so I can swing a hit.

thats because greylings/dwarfs and boars fear fire of any sort. but that applys only to the earlygame. so its not related to this topic at all.

[bbyhighness]

Originally posted by Mr Felidae:

I sometimes have enemies run away from me as well.

I've made multiple observations in which a single attack dealing >50% damage relative to total health had the enemy temporarily flee, only to return to the same spot later and aggroing if the player is present still. It's all I can present so whether my statement holds true is not for me to decide.

That's interesting. Probably not what happened here though, because that was before I even killed Eikthyr, so I definitely wouldn't be able to take troll down half his health with a single shot. But it could explain some of the smaller mobs running.

[bbyhighness]

Originally posted by Zep Tepi:

They will leave if they are getting damaged and having trouble with pathfinding. This was put in on purpose so they don't just stand there being a pincushion for ranged attacks. You can usually re-aggro them and get them to turn around, though.

It's easy to lose a troll by ducking through a forest this way. If you are kiting and running, you may have to go back and get its attention more than once to finish it off. Don't try to outrun one in open space, let the pathfinding trip them up for you. (Works to get lox off your tail too if there happens to be a forest nearby.)

Yes, since then I actually had this exact experience you describe with running through the forest. I had to retrace several times yelling "come back and fight, you coward" at the computer screen :D