u/TungstWn

I was wondering how difficult a full run through the Mistlands in Swamp gear would be. Turns out, it's not terribly hard, and I did the whole thing without dying.

Rules:

1. The challenge is beaten when The Queen's trophy is mounted at the Sacrificial Stones.
2. All weapons, armor, ammunition, trinkets, forsaken powers, and items must be available no later than swamp progression. (Exception is the starter Black Metal Pickaxe. I had it for convenience in mining, since when I began the challenge, I hadn't decided if I would allow myself to use Mistlands weapons and armor.) This includes a prohibition on the Wisplight. Since this challenge is intended to take place after beating the Swamp, Bonemass buff is allowed.
3. Game is set to pure Vanilla with default world settings and no mods.
4. No console commands are allowed between starting the challenge and mounting The Queen's trophy.
5. Starting home with plenty of materials inside to minimize gathering outside of the Mistlands.
6. Starting portals to Haldor, the Bog Witch, and the world center.
7. Mistlands foods are allowed, but all cooked foods are locked behind Mountain/Plains progression (I think), so this really only allows cooked Seeker/Hare meat. Since Serpent Meat and Serpent Stew require swamp build pieces to acquire, they count as Swamp progression.

Here's what I did to set things up.

1. I used u/WD40Bomber's Valheim Map Generator to find the seed dCTvcwZ6DI that has a stretch of Mistlands with over a dozen dungeons and The Queen spawn.
2. Using a different character, I enabled console commands, flew to the Mistlands, cleared out my starting Dvergr Tower, placed the starting build pieces, and console spawned the materials inside the tower. I did see the map before actually playing it, but after getting to the starting tower, I didn't look at the map again so I wouldn't remember the locations of POIs.
3. I used console commands on an old character to reset skill levels closer to what they should be around the time the Swamp has been cleared. I also console-spawned the hotkey loadout and armor.
4. After that, no console commands were used outside of the "Bonus Footage" that replaced part 9.
5. Speaking of which, as the video explains, I forgot to record when I played part 9, so I found another Infested Mine and cleared it out after the challenge was over.

I have concluded that Mistlands actually isn't all that hard a biome. The Root Harnesk makes combat much easier, and even navigating without a Wisplight is easy enough. Groups of Seekers can be dispatched with a battleaxe or atgeir, and Gjalls are pretty easy to fight as long as you can find a spot above or outside the mist.

I beat this whole thing without dying (though I had some very close calls). I have the uncut footage of everything except part 9. I guess I technically can't prove that I survived all of that, but I think my documented survival of the rest of this experience gives my "trust me bro" evidence some weight.

I highly recommend trying this out if you're a Valheim veteran looking for a fun challenge. Total play time was about 7 hours.