This will be my last Valheim gaming post for a while. There are a couple of artworks i would like to finish up and post. However, this experience was the best one so far playing this incredibly immersive game.
For the rare instance, Deranged, Ruben, and I were all on at the same time. We decided to plan a raid and make some progress in the game together. I was sailing our smaller boat from one location to our settlement, while Ruben was showing his new mansion off. We were then joined by 
I had an amazingly difficult time maneuvering and parking the boat... so the guys and our primary captain of the sea, Ruben, came to help a brother out. Once we packed our things and in quite the hurry set out not completely prepared... we began our voyage to go fight the second boss!
Since we were all at the settlement at the same time for departure and the smaller boat was already there ready to ship out we decided to initiate our first group raid together as Day Trippers!
This venture covers quite a distance at sea and so day quickly turned to night. I was able to capture a cool screenshot of the moon and stars beyond the sail. The small talk along the way made the journey fun and although some of us were in more of a hurry than others to get the action started i would say the travel was some of the more interesting parts.
I also have to comment that after having experienced the difficulty of navigating the waters by commanding the boat, we were quite spoiled by having such a great captain of the ship. Ruben's ability to harness the wind was a thing of beauty and our time was significantly more efficiently used in the game by having him at the helm. Of course, leave it to me to hinder us regardless! You are a Knight Rider... only when you ride!
While trying to get a screenshot for this post... i ended up getting back to my game screen to see this! I was mortified to see that i had fallen overboard. If you swim you will run out of stamina and incur damage. The ship was way too far to swim to. If you die at sea you lose all your equipment. I about shat myself trying to figure out how i was going to overcome this obstacle.
I realized and was instructed to just hang tight, sit still, and not to move! Our captain turned around and after a few attempts to get the side of the boat and ladder close enough to grab and hop back in, we were successful! I had almost ran out of stamina but i saved just enough in the tank to get to the ladder.
While i was floating for my life... it wouldn't be a true catastrophe for me without it getting worse after it's already bad. We had a dramatic thunderstorm pop up and hinder the rescue mission. The waves would shift me or the boat just before i would be able to hop in. It was quite the test of patience and boy was i a nervous wreck! Some truly incredible navigating and steering skills were exhibited during this crisis!
We did make a few stops on land to get some materials that we had forgotten to bring with us. It was fun jumping ashore and attacking enemies as a group, building a shelter to sleep, and working together to get prepared for the grand battle to come!
The very next in-game day we hopped back in the boat and sailed to the boss. Ruben had already defeated this boss and had some tips. He was preparing some helpful strategies when all the sudden a bloodlust came over one of our Vikings and the boss was summoned!
I don't want to give too much of a spoiler as to the boss, but he does some major damage in multiple kinds of ways. In my screenshot you can see him vaguely in the background. He conjures up roots around the players... and shoots some other roots from his body. Either one will get you good. You gotta stick and move.
It took us almost 30 minutes as a team with each of us dying multiple times to defeat this elder boss. As we were almost finishing him off... our blood-lusting Viking conjured up another version of the boss. So, we went for round two! We went through hundreds and hundreds of arrows. I even went and chopped on one up close and personal.... until he stomped me into the ground killing me. Good thing we set up our respawn point nearby!
Mission accomplished! We came, we saw, we conquered! Now that the boss was dead twofold we grabbed up all the loot and headed home. Some of what the boss drops is needed to progress further later in the game. We hopped back in our sea vessel and shipped out Homeward Bound!
This whole mission would have gone a bit quicker had i not fallen overboard on the maiden voyage. Either way, for a first raid i would say it went fairly well. It takes a while to learn to gel as a team and function cohesively. This was one of the best times playing a video game i can remember. We all grew more familiar with each other and learned a lot about the game itself. This was a great bonding experience as well. That's what it is to be a Viking i suppose... Brother's In Arms!
Now, this wouldn't be a true Epic Adventure without another one of my Epic Fails! Since the ride home was long and arduous we all (except our captain Ruben) stepped away for a few minutes to get resituated. I ended up having to take a phone call and wouldn't you know to my chagrin... i found myself overboard once again!
I made sure to sit down as not to get jostled overboard. I didn't get up and move around so that i wouldn't get glitched out of the boat either, which has happened to me before! I wasn't even trying to get a screenshot this time either. After having done all that we set out to do, accomplishing so much, and returning home with so much loot... it would be a damn shame to die now, like this!
Fortunately for me, our captain was on his A-game this excursion and he circled back around for me once again! This time wasn't nearly as bad as the last time... but it was still nerve-racking regardless.
We all finally made it home, dropped off our loot, and secured our spoils. We all got a great many laughs along the way. My failures at riding were a great source of humor. I am truly looking forward to our next Viking raid.
Everyone is welcome to come to join us on the Hive Valheim server. I have the instructions and secure links down below to get started. The more the merrier, as you can see. Thanks for taking the time to read this post and comment. I appreciate the engagement and curation my posts have been getting. I will be posting my original artwork on my blog here soon! All the screenshots in this post were taken by me during gameplay... which is an art itself.
Hivebuzz must have been reading my drafts for this post! With all my overboard detours... apparently, i just became a DOLPHIN! While i was putting on the final touches for this post i just received the notification of my status change!
In all seriousness, i remember the days when i wasn't sure if i would ever grow enough to become one. All the Dolphins were large accounts and folks that generally started their BlockChain adventure before me.
Super Cool! I want to thank everyone that has ever commented, shared, and/or upvoted any of my posts. Without the community, i would not have been able to organically grow my account to this monumental level. This couldn't have been possible without all of you!
I hope this achievement encourages and motivates you all to keep on keepin on! Try not to focus on rewards and growth. Focus on engagement, community, and producing the best content you can. I assure you that all good things come to those who wait and hard work and effort will pay off in the long run! Even if it's just the relationships you develop along the way!
If you want to get started too then come and join the Hive Viking Settlement with us! We can build together! There is also a contest for building in this server which just kicked off today. Below, i will tell you how to get started and you can read about the Valheim contest on our exclusive Hive server!! at that link there.
Valheim is available as an early release at The Steam Store and can be purchased for about $22.00 dollars USD after taxes. I had to set up a Steam account just to get this game. Once you buy it you own it! So there isn't a monthly fee or anything. From what i read in the reviews and one of the things that persuaded me to take the risk was that many folks were saying this game was better in early release than many others as final products.
Honestly, i couldn't say, but it is trending as one of the most successful games sold on Steam ever. That is pretty incredible since it's only going to get better as it develops.
Once you buy and download the game and launch it... you will have to create your character. Then you will come to a start menu which looks much like the screenshot below. If you see i circled CANCEL... that's because to join the Hive server you will need to skip that popup.
Next, you will be brought to the screen below. I put a 1, 2, and 3 in the steps you need to take to get connected. First, click Join Game. Second, click Join IP. Third, fill in the IP number to connect. After you fill in the IP you will be prompted to type in a password. Below is the IP and Password. Copy it somewhere because you will have to paste it in every time you log in to the server.
IP: 173.237.31.108:30000
Password: valheim (all lowercase)
