~ Internet Trolls ~
It has been a long time coming... almost a whole year to be exact. So much internet... never enough time. Eventually, it was bound to happen though. I have been playing a little Valheim again and it's been quite fun for the most part. Come give it a try!
You can join the Valheim Hive Gaming Server by following the instructions in this post: VALHIVE - Valheim Server for the Hive Gaming Community
You can also read about my old Valheim excursions if you like in my previous posts, here:
It was fun last time and there are a couple of familiar faces in our community but this time around it's all new. I have to admit... it's taken quite a while to remember all the things you need to know for a smoother experience. But it's coming back to me.
This post is mostly images of my experience troll hunting. I don't know why... but it's one of my favorite parts of the game. These trolls are huge, strong, and pretty relentless most of the time.
Though they may have some buttcheeks in common... the Trolls in this game aren't the cute and friendly types like the Troll dolls i grew up with. They are more than bloody violent. Some of them will even use a tree (which increases their range) to try and bash you.
I usually run backwards while shooting arrows into the troll. It can get tricky depending on the terrain. I used a lot of flaming arrows so you will see the enemies on fire from time to time.
It can take quite a while to kill one of these big fellas. Running takes your stamina away... and pulling the bow string back also takes away stamina. The longer you hold back... the more damage the arrow will inflict accurately. So, there's a balance to running, drawing the bow, shooting in time, and evading while stamina increases enough to run again.
The trolls can cover quite a bit of ground quickly and they can hit you from pretty far. Some even throw giant boulders. Needless to say... it was tough for me to get screenshots while doing all that.
I got damaged many times to get the action for you guys! hahaha Sometimes in the middle of a battle some of the troll's homies would show up. That makes it even tougher to evade and do all that other stuff. If you stop long enough to try and get the homie the troll will usually put the smack down on you!
So, troll hunting is kind of like a dance... trying not to die!
The purpose isn't for points or experience. Once you kill an enemy on the game they vanish in a fuschia colored cloud and leave behind some booty. Not the kind of booty you see in the image above....
In the image below you can see gold coins sitting on the troll skins left behind. This is the booty i came for!
~ Duty to the Booty ~
With the skins left behind you can craft armour for your character. If you notice, my character has blue clothing/armour. I needed more skins to finish making the set and to upgrade to a more durable quality.
In the game, trolls aren't just walking around everywhere and so easy to find... thankfully. They do a lot of damage if they get around your community or structures. So, i went out on the hunt to go collect what i was out to get.
I started getting a little better at taking the screenshots after a while... or so i thought. All it takes is one or two good hits from the troll to cause your character an acute case of death!
You can see my fresh corpse laying next to my brand new tombstone (which has all my items collected within) in the image above. I will not respawn from this place of my death. It will be marked on the map and i will wake up at my last saved spawn point. I had a house not too far away so it shouldn't be too bad... or so i thought.
"Under every bridge of truth there will be trolls." - Castleberry
I had been getting booted from the server pretty frequently so i didn't want to start anything too serious. That's why i did the troll hunting fairly close to home. Well, apparently during one of the boots my savepoint got lost. So, it respawned me from the very start of the game. On the map, that's quite far from where my hunting grounds were.
The thing is, when you die in the game, you wake up naked with no armour or weapons and you just have to run. In fact, in the game, it's called the corpse run. You have to dash back to your tombstone and collect all the things you had on you before. Of course, you don't have to go get your stuff... but when you have the booty... it's your duty!
Fortunately, we have a portal on the map close to the start of the game and i was able to port back to our main base. I had fully intended to re-save my spawn point in my house. I just have to click on my bed and it resets so that if i die i will wake up there to perform my next corpse run.
However, when i was eating some food to boost my stamina and health (right next to my bed) i totally space it out and went running back into battle. I had still quite a ways to go to get back to where my death had occurred.
But i made it back, re-equipped my armour and weapons, and before i could even finish the troll showed back up. Since he didn't have much life left it didn't take much to take him out!
Then right when things got rolling and i had some loot and momentum, wouldn't you know it, i got booted from the server again. I'm sure it's my connection or lack of ability in my computer. My poor, poor, laptop! So, i had to log back in.
For me, logging back in... or in at all can take a while. That's why it's frustrating when your computer or game lags especially in the heat of battle... but it's even worse when you get booted at any time. Frustrated isn't really even a strong enough word!
But i made it back to the action and picked up where i left off... slaughtering trolls. You can see my hood and cape in the image below. My set was now complete, which gives me a sneak bonus, but i needed a few more skins to upgrade all the way.
Things were going quick and smooth until some more homies showed up again!
This made the evade and attack plan take a bit longer!
The homies always complicate a nice hunt. Why do they have to jump in?
It's usually pretty easy and faster to draw the trolls out into one of these meadow type of areas and to run long laps whilst shooting! Generally, this is one of the better attack methods.
It also made for some better screenshots! hahaha
I tried to let them get up close and personal to get better images. I also tried to time the snaps to show the most action.
I will have to work on those snaps since there is a bit of a delay from when i push the button and the shot is actually captured.
I was able to finally get some blood in one of the shots. This game isn't that gory or bloody so it took some timing on my part to get the image below!
~ Sally Forth ~
At this point i upgraded my equipment as desired and found myself in need of metal. In the game, you have to mine copper and tin ore to combine to make bronze. There is pickaxe mining involved, transport of raw (heavy) items, smelting the ore into refined bullion, and then combining that to make bronze or crafting in whichever desired metal. Sounds complicated, i know, but it's more of just a grind and process.
This is when i remembered a belt you can buy that doubles the weight load your character can handle. This would double the time it takes you to mine and cary ore back etc. So, with my gold booty, i set out to the shop and found myself VERY short on gold... and you know what that means!
More troll hunting. This keyboard warrior stuff ain't so back killing off these internet trolls and all. I actually didn't go hunting for them. I mined some ore, or atleast tried to, and the trolls kept finding me.
Just when you think you are out... they pull you back in!
It takes so much time to run all the way out here in a special forest to mine the ore that can only be found here.
The time consuming part isn't the transit so much as it is the aquisition of the ore and then carrying it back to the safe place we have to process it.
It takes time to make the rounds and there is almost always some distractions popping up along the way. The logistics is what makes the game a grind. It's still fun though in my opinion... most of the time.
This troll whacked the shit out of me and i died. Remember that part up there where i mentioned having to start over at the beginning of the game? Remember that part where i forgot to reset my respawn point to my bed in my house?
Yep, i had to start my corpse run from the start of the game for a second time. This time though was totally my fault. smh
So, i run to the portal, port back to base, get to my house... and reset my spawn point. I ate some food to make sure i survive the marathon back to my grave and head out. I made it back to the grave and retrieved my stuff just in time to fend off the troll some more.
If you notice, this is one of the bastards that uses a whole tree to swipe at you.
I had the troll's health down to about halfway. We had a nice duel going with no homies to distract. I was ready to finish this troll off and get back to mining. I was ready to collect some gold. I was ready to Sally Forth and conquer. My inner Viking had awoken and i was ready to make some real progress in the world and then..... it all went black!
Yep, i got booted, again! I figured this was a wonderful stopping point. I was about as frustrated as one can be for such frivilous reasons.
The thing is i don't get much time to play games. I literally only have one game on my Steam account...
So, when i do get some time to play it's a bummer when the game or my equipment doesn't cooperate. Oh well, like i said... that was a good stopping point for now. But while we wait for the mods and updates it would be a good time to come join the server and try the game out if you have the chance and ability.
I have some art stuff to share soon and some more mushroom photos i will be looking forward to posting. Between curating and all my other duties... it's been nice to play a little Valheim when i got some free time. Looking forward to playing some more soon and until then y'all take care.
I do appreciate the time you took to check out my post! Thanks again for stopping by and Game On my friends! Game On!
