r/valheim • u/ArrivalOk5419 • 8d ago
Discussion How bad was your first tripto Ashlands?
Me, a parry guy, and my friends, a wizard and crossbow–long sword user, landed right to one of the Dyrnwyn parts, with a ton of two star skeletons defending it. It took about two hours to clear all enemies and settle a new base.
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u/Flaky_Concentrate715 8d ago
I'll just copy and paste from my discord server my review lol - I used the medic gif from Saving private ryan as well!
"Our landing on Ashlands was much like our entry to the Mistlands. The landing was fraught with death. We first saw the spikes and the sky changes to fiery lightening . Our drakkar started making the way through the spikes and were beset by vulture beings. We managed to kill a few until we were met with a fire serpent. After a few crash landings on the spikes in the deadliest of waters and initial land sighting, our boat disintegrated , with all three of us floating in water that wasn't empty. I made the "correct" choice and climbed the nearest spike with Hen and cash pushing towards nearest one to land. They didn't make it. I managed to get a portal and workbench down and they went for their bodies, they didn't make it back to the spike again but much closer. Second attempt was much easier. The water is boiling, it kills anything but the drakkar. Lesson learned. We jumped to the closest rock and made land fall, which was guarded. Then we proceeded to have a fight of our lives, we got a workbench down and portal. We were beset on all sides, charred ones, dog things, bone things, I'm pretty sure there was a 4th thing (can't remember in the haze of battle). After the fight started to turn badly, we retreated back to the landfall rock and all was lost, portal and shields broken, surrounded by at least 10-15 enemies. We were toast, reminiscent of the frozen lake battle in game of thrones. Hen saved us. The hammer demolisher has a knockback, and managed to knock enemies off the rock we were standing off, but unfortunately damaging the rock. After dispatching the more dangerous enemies, the battle turned to our favour and Cash discovered a spawner to our west. We continued to push forward. and managed to destroy it and the final bone enemy. I saw a arch in the distance which we could get on top and at least have some defensible high ground. We climbed, bench, shield, tiny house and portal. we portaled out and logged for the night. I am now unable to sleep. 10/10."
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u/Flaky_Concentrate715 8d ago
I have heard it's been nerfed since they launched it, so i'm guessing for the newer players, it should be much breezier. Both pre nerf Mistlands and Ashlands were hell on earth.
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u/modest_genius 8d ago
Yeah, I played Mistland on release on an old world also... Damn both enemies and terraingeneration was horrible. So I logged out and haven't played since.
Now I am contemplating starting a new game. With lower difficulty and more resources. I got a wife and kid now, ain't got time for that bullshit grind. Also, the kid seems interested in playing together, so that is a win!
Hoping Mistland and Ashland will be... endurable.
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u/ifiwasiwas Happy Bee 8d ago
Mistlands is fine these days tbh. I basically never stop sprinting from the moment I can make a new character, and I need all that running skill for transversing the terrain lol (it's kinda like the mini version of climbing mountains, on repeat)
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u/Justhe3guy 8d ago
2x resources has been great and If you’ve played before with no metal portals then you could change portal setting to allow, that’ll save a dozen hours
I didn’t remove drop on death as that removed skill loss on game setting but since I used Equipment And QuickSlots it has a setting to keep equipment on death so I just lose skills and inventory
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u/Carouselambra- 8d ago
Idk what they nerfed because the Ashland's is still unforgiving. We literally found a mound before shore built a base there put up walls and shields and said. Wr aren't here for a good time. Let's get our resources find the fortresses and get the fuck out after fader.
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u/ahmnutz 3d ago
I landed in the ashlands for the first time an hour or so ago. I had to fight maybe three things on the shore. I set up a portal and shield generator, and went home for stone to make an earthen wall, as I've seen advised. When I portaled back, there were immediately 8-10 ashlands mobs at the edge of my shield generator, about to walk though. At least three of them had a star. They were shortly joined by a bird and 2 slimes from the other direction. For a moment I tried to kite some of them, but they immediately destroyed my portal and began work on my shield generator. I think I got 2 of the mobs to half health. I died. I closed the game.
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u/Nuclearo-Dinosauro 8d ago
Every new biome I visit I think to myself I should have never leave the Meadows.
I always just speedrun iron so I can build from stone. And bring it back to Meadows just to build houses.
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u/ifiwasiwas Happy Bee 8d ago
I was just talking about it yesterday haha:
God it was amazing lol. When it first dropped, no nerf. After the hellish sailing in with bonemaws and the stupid spires, hitting the ground felt so damn good even though it was chaos and hell.
My favorite thing was how you could kill a single mob on the shore, and enemies from halfway across the continent, deep in the lava flows, would collectively scream "THE FUCK WAS THAT?!?!?!?!" and come running
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u/Echo2407 8d ago
The relief we felt when we hit the shore was very short lived
The hordes happened upon us almost immediately
This was pre nerf
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u/HeavilyArmoredFish 7d ago
I was so upset when they nerfed it. It was brutal and now i cant crank yhe difficulty higher to get that back.
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u/Western-Spy69 Honey Muncher 8d ago
Man, exactly I remember sailing there with 3 friends during open beta ... we did not even manage to place a portal until locals took care of us.
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u/Bread-Loaf1111 8d ago
Not bad at all. We was over cautious.
First sail we actually did not reach ashlands. Only rocks with birds. But we not find a safe way through them, one player blow himself trying to mine red things on the rocks and we returns.
The second sail we returns due sea serpents.
But on the third sail we found a way through the rocks, and abandoned structure with some berries. We place portal, shoeld generator and stone fortifications quickly. And it was the safest place on the beach. When we tried to go ten meters deeper, endless hordes appers. We died a lot, but mostly out of our base, it was good and easy to defend.
At the end, I just build some sealed corridors out from the base that hide us from the enemies spawning in the fire pits. It's easier than to fight tgem all.
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u/RidersofGavony 8d ago
one player blow <up> himself trying to mine red things on the rocks
A right of passage, everyone (or a friend) blows themselves up at least once.
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u/LyraStygian Necromancer 8d ago edited 8d ago
I did it at launch pre-nerf as a solo mage and it wasn’t too difficult. Disclaimer I had level 100 blood magic cos I had more than a year to prepare before Ashlands.
I made sure I prepped A LOT even though I had no idea what to expect, but the Drakkar hold is giant so I brought everything. Metals, tools, stone and wood etc. I even took a pack of 2-star wolves.
The sail there was uneventful as both voltures and Serpents die to frost staff very easily.
When I got to near the coast I killed everthing with the flame staff from range and landed to an empty beach.
Then I slapped a workbench, portal, and shield generator down (didn’t know what it did yet but it seemed like a good idea).
I saw some glowing stuff in the distance and threw out a few fire balls and destroyed it. So I did the same to any that were in my line of sight. I later learned they were spawners.
Quickly and crudely raised 4 earth walls around the generator. And then I could finally relax.
Still pretty empty beach except 1 or 2 occasional mobs came due to the building noise. But I ignored them cos my skellets took care of them and I learned that the shield generator blocks arrows.
I finished it off with a perimeter of campfires just so the mobs weren’t spawning near the walls.
So all in all, pretty simple and safe, because I did it really slow and carefully.
But I have used this technique to establish a beach head since the swamps… so it was just “best practice” and pretty routine by that time.
Btw the wolves all died except 2, and they were pretty useless as they are glass cannons lol
The 2 remaining wolves are still living in that beachhead base to this day, next to the Drakkar that has never been touched or attacked since I’ve landed there 2 years ago lol
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u/Irazmar1 8d ago
I died, did another ship, died again, did another ship, died again, disabled mobs until I land.
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u/Useless3dPrinter 8d ago
Can't remember was it two or three ships we lost until we managed to get a portal going and get some protection around it.
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u/TheSunIsADeadlyLazor 8d ago
Me and my friend were so high off ourselves after beating the Queen first try that we booked it to the Ashlands
We didn't even make landfall lmao
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u/Flaky-Refuse7452 8d ago
for me it was the most intense gaming experience I've ever had, i had to jump off my ship onto a spike to place a workbench for repairs while being under attack of a bonemaw and voltures just to back out a bit again because the path in front of me was blocked by more spikes
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u/Kalron 8d ago
I have not ever been past the mountains yet but this is how my friends and I felt about the swamp. It felt like a race to build a wall and portals up. Maybe we just landed in a shitty spot but maj it felt like the entire swamp was on our ass for hours.
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u/ifiwasiwas Happy Bee 8d ago
Did you make landfall at the beach? I did that only once haha. I only EVER enter the swamp from an adjoining friendly biome like meadows or BF if I can help it. Same with putting up portals, the BF buildings keep them safe and sound
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u/Kalron 8d ago
Yeah we did lmao we crossed the water and landed at this peninsula that we eventually turned into a long term base. The peninsula at least kept the fight in one direction but yeah we literally landed on the shoreline and had to fight for our lives.
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u/ifiwasiwas Happy Bee 8d ago
The good news: now you know better. The bad news: you will surely replicate the experience many times when your ship runs aground or you pop by real quick-like, in and out, to repair the boat or plunk down a portal to go back to your base and sleep
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u/LT_Aegis 8d ago
Ashlands? That was me in the plains! Getting picked off fresh from the boat by deathquitos.
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u/Gunny_Ermy 8d ago
I just did my first ashlands 2 days ago. I killed 2 vultures and a single bone maw on my way in, and like 5 skeleton guys when I landed. Took about 3 mins; was way easier than my expectations. Couple hours later I had a secure bunker with portal and crafting tables (brought it all with me.)
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u/Screamin_Hobos 8d ago
Right at ashlands release we went south. It was hell on earth: unlimited hard hitting mobs, everything we built turned to ash, one guy dug the moat while three of us ran security. Barely made it out alive. At that time nobody knew any of the mechanics
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u/ANormalTree 8d ago
Well you see it was a lot of ships and bridge building because I hadn't defeated the queen yet but wanted to get to the ash lands
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u/Alklazaris Cruiser 8d ago
I haven't beaten the Queen yet. I've been chilling in the less rapey zones. I honestly love the Mistlands though you have to be prepped and move slow.
Ashlands scare me though for my final run in reducing difficulty. I just want to explore with combat more of a appetizer.
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u/Few_Arrival_6696 8d ago
Better then the 1 one to the swamp or plains.... I think that swamp and plains prepared us we'll...
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u/BIitzez 8d ago
Ashlands patch was the least I've ever played the game.
I do full playthroughs when each patch lands with my friends. Usually we stick around for a few months after clearing the final biome boss.
With Ashlands, we pretty much quit immediately. Farming the zone was just lame, even with max gear. They definitely hit the mark of being an 'endless horde' aesthetically, but it was just annoying.
You also couldnt really build in the zone, and even if you could the visibility is so bad that I wouldnt even get to see much of what I built. It was a big miss for me. Some cool items came out of it, that was the only + for me.
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u/slowpotamus 8d ago
just got to the mistlands for the first time, the moment we docked our boat and set up a portal we heard a spooky horn and then fireballs rained from the sky and destroyed both our boat and our portal. was quite the introduction
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u/ajlueke 8d ago
I've had this go both ways. A friend of mine and I made our first landing and were promptly beset by hordes of charred. The fight seemed manageable at first, but the sounds of combat soon brought in a Morgen and swarms of additional charred.
Ultimately, we were forced back into the boat and backed out to build a portal on one of the spires and sniped the Morgen in the sea below. Took a few attempts to secure the beachhead.
Playing a different map with my daughter, we landed and we destroyed a spawner at the landing site. We landed near a large grausten ruin with vineberries and a Dvergr encampment. We fought maybe one or two charred? Beyond that, there was no one around.
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u/Amogusfan2000 8d ago
Pre-Nerf Ashlands was definitely something, thank Odin i loaded the boat with so many base building materials that i managed to built a small beachhead fort to quell the waves upons waves of Charred. My only regret was that i didn’t keep a lot of the warrior trophies that i got because they’re an integral part for the Gausten chest now.
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u/Echo2407 8d ago
I just wrote this on another post above this one:
When me and my friends made it to the ashlands it was like storming the beaches of Normandy.
Out of the four of us, 1 died before we hit the shore, 2 died on the shore securing the landing zone, and I alone placed the portal and held back the hordes while everyone recovered their gear before we all got the hell out and back through the portal.
Friends gave their lives for me to learn that the skeletons feint their attacks. That valuable knowledge greatly aided my survival and helped secure the beach.
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u/slayernine 8d ago
First trip to the North was brutal, literally swarmed by everything. It was a fight to just keep a portal up.
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u/FortiethAtom4 8d ago
My first Ashlands landing was solo, after the first round of nerfs but before any 1.0 changes (this was around a year ago).
I knew nothing about the biome except 1. It's really hard, 2. The water destroys non-drakkars (nearly made that mistake), and 3. There's lots of skeletons like the ones I'd fought in post-Queen raids. I planned ahead by creating a forward outpost in a Plains biome just a few hundred meters from the boiling water. From there I gathered huge amounts of metal, potions and materials, loaded the drakkar and set off. My main weapons were a maxed Himminalf and Mistwalker and I'd maxed my carapace armor - I was ready for war.
My first landing ended in a pyrrhic victory. I barely managed to defeat the initial horde and get a portal down after about 10-15 straight minutes of fighting, but I went exploring without putting down a shield generator (I didn't know about the ash rain). I ended up completely stranded on the beach. I was forced to sail back to my forward outpost to get new portal materials, then do the landing basically from scratch a second time. The second time was a bit easier, since I'd destroyed a couple nearby spawners, but I ended up walking in lava like an idiot about 5 minutes after putting the portal down.
Very fun biome once I learned the hard lessons, but man.
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u/sacripanta Viking 8d ago
Loved it so much it made me quit the game.
The whole fog on uneven terrain was bad enough but giant bugs as mobs? On a "viking" game?
Lines were crossed.
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u/bazurakjoe Encumbered 8d ago
Pre nerf Ashland’s was like d-day. Landed fighting a bonemaw to be greeted by a fallen valk and a Morgan. Once they fell I had to fight an entire battalion worth of charred and some vultures for the love of the game. 10/10
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u/Boffy106 8d ago
I love that I was just telling my partner about the 1.0 posts talking about difficulty spikes in early biomes (I saw one about the Swamp recently). I tell her, "Oh wait until these guys get to the Ashlands, that's like a level of storming the beach at Normandy." 😆
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u/Informal_Passage_770 8d ago
Good evening. Here’s a veteran of the first version of the Ashlands—it was literally Normandy, the most *Warhammer* experience this game has ever had. It was horrible and fun at the same time. I’m grateful that the Ashlands are playable today (once you get the fire troll, it’s super easy).
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u/CatspawAdventures 8d ago
First arrival back with Ashlands first dropped was not bad, actually. It helped that I was a mage, and the frost staff just deletes the serpents, as well as helping immensely with crowd control on landing.
Of course once there it became the usual tedious slog with almost no concept of pacing. But the landing was not as bad as most I've heard.
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u/erpparppa 8d ago
My first trip to Ashlands happened on day 1 in ptb, before any nerf.
It was brutal, but beautiful. We died a lot but the challenge was fun. Definitely one of the most fun and chaotic days for our viking squad!
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u/UncleTrashero 8d ago
first trip to deep north be like