Valheim: Ashenlands Bound

My son-in-law has been making the rounds of survival games. He stood a Palworld server up, so I played — and loved — Palworld. He sent me the server save file for my own use and was going to switch to an Enshrouded server, but one of his friends wanted to try Valheim again to explore the new Ashenlands expansion, so he swapped to a Valheim server instead, and invited me to come along with them through the new content.

The first time I played, it was with the static gaming group I’m part of, Team Spode. My boyfriend also took part. It was amazing. Any time I’d log in, there’d be people building, hunting or exploring. The village just kept growing.

Bonemass was our big accomplishment. After that, people started drifting off, looking for a more structured experience.

We managed at last to get Yagluth, the final boss at the time; after that, there was little reason to stay. Calrain and I played a bit longer and really made a nice base, out in the plains. After he left, I spent time making bases in the world before I also moved on.

Sometime later, Team Spode member Calrain spun up a new Valheim server, and of course I was there for it. We sped through the early bosses, and between the two of us, built a respectable little village. We did a lot more with tamed animals, here. The point with this was to explore the Mistlands, but I found them frustrating and Not Fun, and so I didn’t stick around. Calrain did some more explorations. I don’t think he ever found the boss.

Mistlands was just trying to find any of the dungeons to gather the necessary crud without being able to see anything at all ever, even with their glow lights and stuff. VERY frustrating, and it doesn’t look like it has gotten any better.

Now I’m with a new crew and we’re doing it all over again. My son-in-law and his friend are pushing pretty hard. We’ve been tanking the bosses instead of kiting them with arrows; we’re up to Moder now, and it looks like Yagluth will be falling in the next couple of days.

And then, Mistlands. And after that, the Ashen Lands.

I did some exploring and slipped into the Ashen Lands. The sea is red, the color of blood. I don’t know if it is burning the ship, but my ship wrecked not too long after. The raven told me I wasn’t ready for what lay within the Ashen Lands, and I pretty much agree. I doubt I am ready.

But if we can get through Mistlands, it just has to be better when you can see where you are going. The Swamp was bad. Mistlands is worse.