I'm back with another update on Tribes of Midgard! They've recently released Season 2: The Serpent Saga. Remember how in my previous post I was saying 'Water = death'? WELL the devs heard our drowned cries and added SWIMMING!! Gone are the days where we die to ankle deep water, and now we roam the oceans! 😎
That is only a small part of this great update. They've unlocked the ocean as a new biome, with ships, islands to conquer, as well as new ocean themed enemies.
The islands hide great treasures, as well as the path to the forbidden Jörmungandr. But beware, for the islands also hide poisoned traps, capable of bringing the strongest Einherjar to their knees.
I immediately started a new world in order to experience this exciting new update.
The beginning of the game was the same as before the update: Gather materials, clear enemy camps, defeat the Helthings at night. Except this time, we have to keep an eye out for the Shipyard. It spawns on Ash Beaches, and this is how it looks on the map:
As with other structures such as the lumberyard, quarry and farm, we will need to rebuild the Shipyard before we can use it.
It costs not only raw materials such as wood and iron, but also Ancient Cores. This means you will have to clear out some monster camps and gather at least 2 Ancient Cores before you can build it.
Once your Shipyard is rebuilt, you will have 3 different options of Boats available, however you will only be able to build the simplest Færing Boat. This is the weakest boat, and it can only hold 1 player at a time.
To build stronger boats, you will have to upgrade your Shipyard. To upgrade it to level 2, you will need double the materials needed for level 1. This means you will need 1500 Souls, 30 Wooden Boards, 18 Wrought Iron, and 6 Ancient Cores in total, which is a significant chunk of materials.
If you're playing with friends, it should be easier to gather these materials, and you will need higher leveled boats if you want to sail the seas in the same boat as your friends. A level 2 Boat, the Karve Boat, can hold up to 4 players and has 5 times the health of a level 1 boat.
In order to get to the Jörmungandr, we first have to find and activate 3 different Beacons that are randomly scattered across the oceans.
Each time you clear a enemy camp on Ash beach biome, you will find a beacon treasure map. Using it will reveal the location of 1 Beacon on the map. You can then use your boats to sail over to them. Generally, they are located quite close to the lands, although I do not believe we can swim over to it, as our stamina will most likely run out before then.
Dangers of Sea Travel
It is also worth mentioning that if you decide to jump into a boat anywhere other than a beach, you will be unable to climb back up to shore if you do fall in the water, as there is a cliff between the sea and any biome other than the Beach biome.
Heres a pic of me and my friend attempting to share a 1 person boat xD I was unable to climb in when he was in the boat, and my stamina (blue bar near the mouse) was running out pretty fast:
There are also these small islands on the seas with hostile mobs that will shoot at you and your ship. After testing, I think it is impossible to get onto these islands, and the only way to kill them might be with a ranged weapon like a bow.
The Beacon
The area where the beacon is located will be a Ash Beach Biome, with a Shrine and a enemy camp. The path to the Beacon itself is filled with traps such as poisonous arrows, which continue to deal damage to you after you are hit. Although annoying, they have a a regular and long gap between arrows so you are able to walk through the traps without much trouble.
After which, you will drop into an arena-esque area where the Beacon is located. It will be surrounded by some of the new mobs, the Selkie and the Fossegrim.
The Selkie (with the brown seal's tail) will attack and give you debuffs, while the Fossegrim (holding a lyre) will buff its allies, making it hard to take them down.
The few games I played always had 2 Fossegrims and at least 6 Selkies spawning near the Beacons, not sure if the amount scales according to players, since all my games were played with only 2 players.
If you are prepared with enough potions and weapons, it is relatively straightforward, and then you can activate the Beacon. Your character will take 5 seconds to activate it, so it is important to not be interrupted. I think it is possible to lure the monsters away with another player while you take the chance to activate it, but I have not tried it yet.
You will need to activate 3 different Beacons in order to find the resting place of Jörmungandr. It will also be an island in the Sea, so you will have to sail there. Be sure to activate the Shrine there in case you die in the Jörmungandr fight!
I think the starting animation of the fight is pretty cool, you lower a piece of bait down into the rocky seas and out comes a fearsome serpent:
The fight is pretty straightforward, the Jörmungandr cant move from its location, but it does have a ranged AOE attack where it spits out a poison puddle on the floor, limiting your movements.
I didn't bring a bow with me, so I had to stick to the edge of the platform in order for me to hit the Jörmungandr, making me more vulnerable to its attacks.
It took us a while, and we died a few times, and went back to defend against Helthings at night, but eventually we managed to defeat the Jörmungandr and bring peace to the lands (and seas) once again.
We tried to clear the last Jotunn before we ended the game via the Bifrost, but it was too strong. After dying to it twice, we decided it was time to leave xD
I quite like this Saga, it gives us an incentive to explore the largely ignored Ash Beaches biome, as well as to sail freely across the seas. The monsters there are harder to deal with than the other biomes, in my opinion, especially the spin-to-win Unsunken Warchiefs. Before this, I only went to the Ash Beaches to buy items from the Sorcerer xD
That's all from me today, thanks for reading! Tribes of Midgard has been an absolute blast to play with, especially with friends! I can't wait to see what the next update will bring!
Image, GIFs credit to Tribes of Midgard website, as well as in game footage from me