V Rising has an impressive number of bosses to take down. I was also feeling in the mood to perform a heist. It was time to put my blade to the sharpener and get some kills under my belt.
Like any good vampire adventure, I first needed to top off on some blood. I was running around with quite low-quality rouge blood. I went around to some local villages like I was window shopping and found myself quite a score. While 93% rogue blood won’t quite get the last tier of boosts, it was more than good enough for my low level.
While I had spotted some 100% brute blood earlier in the day. So I decided to leave those individuals alone. That villager was long gone by the time I revisited that location. I can only assume a wolf beat me to my prize.
Now that I was ready to fight, I went off to find Grayson the Armorer. He is quite a nasty fight. While this was my first time encountering him, it would not be the last. I ended up getting killed a few times over.
It also did not help that my gear broke during one of my encounters with him. I knew, despite how well that run was going that that fight was not going to go well. So I stood in place, and it did not take long to be sent back to my base.
Like many boss fights, there tends to be a trick with them. Up till getting to him, I found a few times these armor repair stations that did not repair your armor but made you immune to damage. After many failed attempts at this fight, I'd learn to use them so I could run over all the traps he ends up placing down. Making the fight a far more even playing field.
Taking him out is a big deal. As with any boss, you unlock the ability to craft or gain something. With him, it was the ability to craft workshop floors in my base. So any machines that belonged to that group in a room that only had those floors would now benefit from me using them.
Having the right kind of flooring reduces crafting time by 25% for anything that is affected by it. It might not seem like a big deal getting a bit quicker crafting time. It, however, adds up to the insane amount of time I'd end up playing this game.
While running around, doing some looting. I spotted a caravan. I’ve run into these in the past without much luck in taking them out. This time, I had time on my side. I waited till it was not that far from a waygate so I could respawn if I got killed. I then changed into battle.
Naturally, as I did, another important piece of gear broke. I really should have just repaired everything at once. At least this time around, I was able to finish the job. I ended up looting a blood-stained cloak that gave me some health and sun resistance. Along with copper ore, among other things. While not the best loot ever, it was fun to give it a try.
I was really hoping to unlock some crafting recipes for better gear or weapons. Gear level plays a massive role in V Vising, so if you can just get a level or two above a boss. You have a much easier time. Even if the stats you gained seem meaningless.
One thing a vampire needs is servants. I unlocked the Dominate skill and went looking around for my first victim. I ended up just grabbing someone somewhat close to me. While they did not have great blood. It was better than nothing.
On my way back, I spotted another caravan. This one was a little lower in level, and while my new servant almost got killed. I feel the loot was more than worthwhile. Unlike the other one I had taken out. This one came loaded with some gens, recipes, and even some copper coins I could use at some vendors.
Being so close to home, and my servant being down to just a sliver of health. We managed to make it. I had made him his own coffin. Once he recovered some I'd send him off to do some looting of things around me. He could not quite take on the copper mine for me yet. I needed to craft him some better gear than the random junk I pulled out of a chest. I’d be getting my money's worth out of that servant in no time.
Funny enough, despite later on being able to have quite a few servants. I only stuck to having a couple. Since I was just playing solo in my own little world and not on a dedicated server. Time only passed while I was playing. Since you could send them off for hours to almost a day, it seems like it would take far too long before I'd get enough out of having a lot of them. I also just enjoyed farming everything for the most part myself. I did, however, over time, send a couple out to get the stuff I was always short on, like ores.
Slowly, over time, my little castle started to grow. While it was far from the days of sleeping in my coffin to avoid being burned alive by the sun, as I had no roof over my head. This place was slowly needing to be expanded as I the more crafting stations I acquired.
I ended up spending the remainder of that day adding a couple more walls and getting caught up on some crafting I was being lazy about. While I'd prefer to be out fighting things. Sometimes you just need to invest some time getting ready for those future battles instead of jumping headfirst into them.
At this point, my storage situation was getting way out of hand. I had perhaps almost a dozen chests at this point for all the loot I was acquiring. I spent a little time trying to organize the madness and condense it a little bit. A far better solution would be needed, and thankfully, much later on, I'd find out V Rising had such a solution. For now, however, I was still quite low level and did not know of such ways.
Screenshots were taken, and content was written by @Enjar about V Rising (Tracking link that takes you to the game's Steam page. I receive no commissions on sales. It’s simply a request to be used by the game publisher).
Disclosure: A review copy of the game was received for free.
