Our group has pretty much moved past our latest run at Valheim, though really only Potshot and I were invested in it at its peak. Once we had mastered the plains once more and faced the drudgery of navigating the mists of the Mistlands, we were about done. The Cataclysm Classic pre-patch arrived and off we went to Azeroth once more.
However, I felt like I needed to get some closure or something on the Mistlands, because I have slowly persisted. I gave up on playing the biome on Iron Gate’s terms, installing a mod that removed the oppressive mist and revealed splendor of the area.
Seriously, I might be a bit torqued if I were the artist and had made all the models for this landscape only to have it hidden away by a dull gray mist. The mist removing mod, and you can find it here, is pretty much mandatory in my book now. And it is client side only, so you don’t even have to mess with your server.
After a bit I also dialed back the difficulty and the death penalty, tired of dying and losing all my skill points. At that point I will admit I was going full on tourist easy mode. My gut says that, after three good runs, we’re probably done with Valheim as a group, there being enough other options to explore these days, and I wanted to at least see The Queen, the final boss of the Mistlands, and maybe get a glance into the Ashlands before calling it a wrap.
But now I cannot find her. I mean, I had that big marker on the map.
In a blank spot on the map
However, when I went there, having braved the water that was damaging my boat by 1 hit point every second, which made for a few perilous crossings where the wind was against me and I had forgotten to get the Moder wind changing power setup.
I got myself to the landmass where The Queen was marked, traveled overland, setup a quick portal base, then moved towards the marker, finding a Dvergr tower right in the neighborhood.
A likely location to work from
I slaughtered them all, destroyed their ward, and setup another portal in there so I could come and go from the area more easily. The Queen, according to the map, was located on a rocky island just west of that tower, so I built a boat and sailed over to take a look. (The whole 1 point of damage per tick thing had been fixed by this point at least.)
I had already crafted the sealbreaker necessary to get into the lair of The Queen. I just wanted to find the door. And what I found were rocks.
Just seems to be rocks
I moved around the island, went to nearby islands from which I could view this island from different angles.
Looking at rocks from other rocks
I read somewhere that the entrance can be hidden or otherwise obscured… random map generation issues are always a thing… so I went back to the island and started mining the hell out of it, digging down.
Breaking rocks to expose more rocks
And there was nothing there Time for more research.
A note I found said that the Ashlands update could have affected boss locations, especially for bosses in areas not yet revealed. Since I hadn’t been there before the update, The Queen might have moved. It was suggested that bosses might remain in the vicinity, just having moved.
So I started an ever widening search and found another infected mine, more Dvergr camps, and all the usual stuff, but no sign of The Queen.
At this point I am just “screw it, let’s cheat!” I mean, I’m already using mods, including a mod that remove the damn mist from the Mistlands, practically the defining characteristic of the biome, I have turned down difficulty, and I have relaxed the death penalty. So I am going to go to the world generator map with our world seed, turn on boss locations, and just go there.
And, hey presto, The Queen revealed.
Location Options for The Queen – From the mission Queen to a new one
Not even that far of a sail, relative to some past voyages.
Sailing to the new location
It is an awkward site, something of an archipelago of jutting rocks, but I find a spot on another infected mine, setup another portal… man, that portal mod we grabbed that does not required paired portals is really handy… and began to awkwardly search for The Queen… and nothing.
Then I noticed that the world map generator hasn’t been updated for the Ashlands expansion yet, so it is all out of date data. The only option at the moment is to start doing infected mines in the hope of finding another location revealing rune. And off we go to do that.
Another mine with another seeker
With difficulty turned down to “easy” this isn’t tough. It is just a matter of exploring each mine thoroughly. I need a new, unused rune, so going back to old, already cleared mines isn’t an option. I need new mines. I have about five marked on the map. I clear and search them all and I have nothing but a bunch of loot. Yay, I can make another sealbreaker now and have lots of seeker meat, but otherwise not very fruitful.
Meanwhile, the world map generator gets its update, something I notice when checking back just to see where likely biomes are. I check the map with the current version and while it still persists in telling me that my original location for The Queen is valid, the new location I have been searching is not.
Seeking yet another location for The Queen
I have to get in a boat again and set sail.
Passing a rather soggy Dvergr outpost…
One again I had all the pieces in hand to setup a base with a portal. I found a likely Dvergr settlement nearby the possible location, slaughtered the lot of them… they were under attack anyway, so the local seekers helped me out… then broke up their ward and built the base.
A quick scout around the marker on the map came up dry. Or wet, actually, the place is another coastal location with quite a bit of water around it.
Still searching for The Queen
I have not yet given up hope, but I have yet to locate the The Queen either. We shall see how far I am willing to go on that front.
The Ancient Gaming Noob 