Valheim Mistlands Patch 0.213.3 on Public Test Branch: Ballista Targeting, Mistlands Dungeon Mob Respawns, Fishing Tweaks, and More

Iron Gate pushed a bevy of fixes and tweaks for the recent Mistlands Expansion on Thursday. Fans will like the number of issues addressed from the Discord #suggestions and featureupvote.com feedback channels, including improvements to fishing emersion, Mistlands challenge, and replay value, the vanilla/legit construction of Dvergr hexagon doors, and of course the advertised new Ballista targeting system. There is also some stuff Fans might not like, such as tweaks forcing Egg autofarm redesigns and no buff to the Seeker Soldier trophy drop rate. We’ll cover it all in this post.

Note: See our post on how to migrate to the Public Test Branch if you want to try this content now. And as always, remember to backup your world and character saves.

Ballista Targeting and Clip Size

If you’ve started to build in the Mistlands, you may have had some… feelings coming back from a mining expedition just to find a Gjall bashing the walls of your base or bathing your crops in flames. Perhaps you had even more… feelings realizing the new automated defense capability provided by Ballistae was too annoying to deploy because “Ballista Hates Everything”, including you.

The recent tweet of the new Ballista targeting mode promised to fix this by allowing players to feed it a mob trophy to assign this mindless anti-seige weapon a target enemy species. Now, you can use this mode to force a Ballista to ignore other species and the player. You can also restore Ballistae to their indiscriminate killing mode, or feed it a different trophy to change targeting without having to dismantle and redeploy it.

On top of this, Ballistae now hold 40 bolts, up from 20, making this mindful sentry even more of a set-it-and-forget-it defensive strategy. You also might decide to deploy them near known mob spawn points to autofarm their loot drops. In any case, mob trophies across the board just got more useful; they’re not just for fishing and decor anymore.

Mistlands Mob and Dungeon Tweaks

Almost immediately after Gjall and Seeker attacks and AI were nerfed following the beta test, many players lamented the loss of challenge in Mistlands exploration. The new biome felt too easy, as the claxon of a targeting Gjall or the nighttime flutter of a high-tier Seeker squad were no longer the stuff of nightmares.

valheim mistlands patch 0 213 3 on public test branch goodbye gjall event with regular gjall spawn

Well, Mistlands mobs got their groove back with this latest patch. Gjall once again fire two projectiles, and the spacing and damage profile was rebalanced make them less punishing and more of an evasion challenge and reason to pop a fire resistance buff. Seeker AI is now more aggressive again: they will circle less and focus on the player more. Anyone who has attempted to defeat the Queen may see this as a blessing, increasing the effectiveness of AOE fire attacks for mob control (as with the Staff of Embers or the Bile Bomb).

The most unique update, however, is that mobs and Royal Jelly piles will now respawn in Infested Mines. You no longer will need to grind 3 Seeker Soldier trophies to go Royal Jelly shopping in the Infected Citadel. On top of this, Seekers, Ticks, and Seeker Brood will join Fulings as nighttime mob spawns after the Queen as been dethroned. Find them before they find you in the Black Forest, Mountains, and Plains biomes.

Fishing Refreshed Again

Have you felt a little disappointed with how fishing in Valheim lacks immersion and feels too casual and repetitive? This patch adds new mechanics to make it more engaging and frees you up to fish where you want. At the top of the list, of course, is new swag: a cool fishing hat with a special crafting recipe.

valheim mistlands patch 0 213 3 on public test branch 5star grouper catch

Fish will now try to escape, and your stamina will drain faster if you try to reel them while they try to swim away. Instead, you will have to watch the line and choose when to reel it in. High-stamina foods and stamina potions will be more important now for catching high-tier fish, which now provide slightly more Raw Fish. Catching fish will also have a small chance of yielding extra materials, and if you need to recast you won’t lose the bait by reeling it in or unequipping the fishing pole.

Finally, there is no longer a progression you have to follow in order to fish in later biomes. Bait recipes no longer require the “previous” biome’s fish. As long as you acquire the needed mob trophy, you can craft bait and skip to the biome and fish you want (like anglerfish for those Fish ‘n Bread fans). Once again, Iron Gate says they fixed Tetra respawning, so now might be the time to cook up those Fenring trophies and find a new lake in a Frost Cave.

Other Important Updates

One update that might affect Egg autofarmers is a decrease in the Egg drop distance from the Hen that laid it. This has a chance to break some autofarms, so check your build after you install the new patch. Wisp Torches are no longer primary targets, so you don’t have to worry as much about burying them or encasing them in Black Marble. As part of Iron Gate’s accessibility campaign, there is a new option to reduce flashing lights from storms and other sources. For those on their 21st playthrough, there is a new option to turn off hints from Hugin and Munin, as well.

valheim mistlands patch 0 213 3 on public test branch munin hint player sword block

Networking also saw some bug fixes for PlayFab servers, multiplayer performance, and several other issues. For a full list of new features, updates, and bug fixes, check out the detailed patch notes, below.

Detailed Patch Notes

  • New build piece: Hexagonal gate
  • New item: Fishing hat (needs a super secret recipe)
  • Players can now “use” a trophy on ballistas to limit what it will shoot at
  • Seeker circling tweaks (They should now feel a bit more aggressive again)
  • Gjall spit attack tweaks (They now shoot 2 projectiles again, but the burst interval is increased. Should now be more visible and somewhat easier to avoid instead. More fire damage, less blunt damage)
  • Added post-Queen nightspawns of Seekers, Broods and Ticks in Meadows, Black Forest, Mountain and Plains biomes
  • Mistlands boss now tries to flee if unable to reach the player
  • Mobs inside Mistlands Dungeons can now respawn
  • Royal jelly piles inside Mistlands Dungeons are now respawning (Added hanging Royal Jelly piles as an indicator in big dungeon rooms)
  • Wolves can now eat Chicken meat (Yum!)
  • Mist torches are no longer a primary target for enemies
  • Tweaked portal size to Mistlands boss room (The entrance “box” was a bit too big. Players should no longer be able to mine the top of the entrance and be able to press “E” to enter through the wall/stones)
  • Tweaked portal size on Mistlands dungeon exits (The exit “box” was a bit too big. Players should no longer be able to exit the dungeon while being on the floor right above the entrance)
  • Eitr regen is no longer affected by swimming or when encumbered
  • Ymir Flesh is now purchasable from Haldor after Elder is dead, instead of after Bonemass
  • Health and resistance tweaks on some Dvergr pieces
  • Ballista ammo capacity increased from 20 to 40
  • Obliterator now converts Mistlands trophies/wood/arrows/bolts properly
  • Mistlands biome music no longer stops playing if players use the dev command “env Clear” while being in Mistlands
  • Carapace bolt collider fixed (The offset was a bit off previously when you tried to pick ’em up)
  • Depth of Field fix (Stars in the sky no longer blurry)
  • Using the console command ‘save’ will now also save your local character file when playing on a multiplayer server
  • Cleaned up unused locations and dungeon rooms to lower RAM usage
  • Fixed a bug where players could craft an infinite amount of Raw fish
  • Hens now lay eggs closer to their bodies
  • Skeleton spawners can now spawn skeletons again even if there are summoned friendly skeletons nearby
  • Troll trap and Dvergr stake wall no longer take rain damage
  • Periodic lag spike fix (Resource unloading will now run while sleeping or pausing afk for 5 seconds if it hasn’t been run for a 20 minutes, or when calling “gc” from console, or if none of those things, every 60 minutes)
  • Seeker flying sound no longer plays if it dies mid air
  • Marble column build pieces: Tweaked snap points (They were previously not 100% aligned with other build pieces)
  • Additional damage for Bolt descriptions are now based on Crossbow skill instead of Bow skill
  • JotunPuffs, Magecap and a number of other pickables no longer leave invisible dead objects in the world when they are picked, and old dead objects are cleared when loaded in to increase performance and decrease save-file size.
  • Pickable DvergrStein no longer fall through objects
  • New item: Fishing hat
  • Fish no longer despawn when far away
  • Fish found in Ice Caves now respawn correctly
  • Higher tier fish now give slightly more Raw fish and there’s now a small chance for fish to give players some extra materials when they are successfully reeled in
  • Fishing bait is now returned if pulled in without fish or when recasting
  • Fishing bait recipes now take basic fishing bait instead of previous biome fish
  • Fishing bait recipes, and the fishing bait sold from Haldor is now 20 instead of 40 (This change was made due to the fishing bait return change mentioned above)
  • Fish will now try to escape when hooked. (Fish will wobble and splash in the water when they try to escape, which increases the stamina usage when pulling in. When they’re not trying to escape, the stamina usage for pulling in is reduced)
  • Tetra can now spawn at higher levels correctly
  • Tuna now only spawn in the Ocean biome
  • Higher-level fish only jump in the Ocean biome
  • Slightly increased skill gain when fishing
  • Fixed a bug where players received the “Fail to connect” message instead of “Server full” when trying to join a full PlayFab server
  • Fixed a bug where PlayFab accidentally signed in twice
  • Major improvements in how the game handles multiplayer sessions when going offline/disconnect. (It now tries more often to succeed with creating lobbies/relog compared to previously)
  • Added a pop-up message when players are trying to start a server when they’re not signed in correctly (i.e. being offline in some way)
  • Added support for non-crossplay PlayFab servers, and Xbox network users without the “Crossplay privilege” can only host and join non-crossplay supported servers
  • Added new server parameter that server owners can use if they want to run multiple dedicated servers using the same MAC-address in order to get unique PlayFab IDs for every server
  • Improved error handling of privilege manager
  • New “DNS Lookup failed” message when a server with an URL can’t be added to the server list due to DNS lookup failure
  • Improved performance and behaviour of local server lists
  • Fixed 2 soft lock cases that could happen when using PlayFab
  • Fixed a bug that paused matchmaking-timers when the game was paused
  • Reduce lighting flashes accessibility option added, reduces flashes for thunder, monster & player elemental effects, Galdr table, Obliterator and Portal
  • Raven hints can be toggled in settings (and console command removed)
  • New console commands added: catch (simulates catching a fish) & printnetobj (lists number of network objects by name surrounding player)
  • Improvements made for the “Manage Saves” menu, should now be a lot less laggy to use
  • Localization updated

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SurvivalSherpa
SurvivalSherpa

SurvivalSherpa is an avid gamer spending most of his time at the nexus of the survival, crafting, building, and role playing genres on any platform, especially to test indie titles in EA. AFK, life is about work and education in STEM fields, reading fantasy, and sipping great coffee in the Pacific Northwest.

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