I haven't set up OBS yet, so I'm uploading this first video without any commentary using the Steam video capture they've recently released. Apologies if anything is janky!
So, I really want to get some new arms, legs, horns, or wings before I do much towards advancing our starting quests. I'm fairly familiar with both of the two initial quests, and this character is currently pretty weak on the attack and defense side of things. Most of their current skills and traits will shine more in the long run as passives that I don't need to acquire later.
With that said what I really wanted to find was a lair or ruin so I could kill some low level enemies - hopefully not turtles because they have incredible armor and will wreck my face.
The World Map is where you do a lot of your travel, and when you're moving around on here you will occasionally get prompts about ruins, lairs, and other various events/locations that you can stumble upon.
As a brief aside, what I've generally found to be true so far is that when you're looking at the world map, everything on the left is 'beginner friendly', and the further to the right you go on the map the harder everything gets. Monsters in the deep jungle will one-hit you as a newbie without any trouble.
But, anyhow, I decided that I'd take a step to the left and begin going up and down within the grasslands I start in and... wouldn't ya know it, I immediately found a lair of a legendary creature. Thankfully, this is a glowpad which by default isn't hostile to me, AND, even if they are hostile... they can't move! So this is a perfect chance to farm a bit of XP and see if we can't reach level 5. At level 5, I should get a new mutation and get to boost an existing mutation a few levels. Whatever I get will end up being a huge boon to my survivability in these early levels.
I wander around Auto Exploring for a bit to fill in the map, and take out a few Prickler plants as I do so, which provides my first level, bringing Fiddler up to level 4.
Then, it's time to farm some of the Glowpads that are just freaking littering this map; a half-dozen or so of those gives us the next level needed!
And as predicted, that gives us a chance to snag a new Mutation!
Horns, perfect! That's what we're going to pick for sure.
I hadn't been aware that there were variations for the horn art - that's pretty cool. I go with the classic two-horn style, though now in retrospect I'm sad I missed the opportunity to be a unicorn of death. Next time!
I picked Two Hearts to advance, as I was hoping I'd get more Toughness from it. I didn't, but that's okay. I do get to sprint further when I need it and that has value.
And with that, we can finally path down the stairs and check out the lair itself. These can sometimes have great loot, and occasionally you can talk to the legendary creature... which we get lucky and are able to do.
Since we can talk to it, we can also perform the Water Ritual, which shares some of my fresh water with them and gives us the chance to exchange secrets and skills. It's super useful when you can do it.
I choose to ask it to share knowledge of a skill with me, as I can't see myself coming back here and I honestly don't need reputation with flowers that badly. Best to burn it immediately to get something useful.
And with that done, it was time to clear the rest of the dungeon.
The legendary creature fell to a beetle inside the cave not long after I got my skill, and I swept through the rest of the glowpads before turning around and heading back to town to generate a savepoint.
With all of this done, we're in a pretty great place for trying the actual quest. I'd still like better weapons, but I'll try the quest first and see how it goes - if I die immediately, I'll find a den of Snapjaws and kill them to haul some loot back to town. My Ego is garbage so my trade value won't be great... but anything helps!
Until next time friends, Happy Gaming!
▶️ 3Speak