catapult travel system, to ashlands from home: valheim

observations: 1. this was all done in vanilla, with 3x drops. no mods. this took a really long time, i estimate 40-60 hours. if you just want to play around with catapults a little, go on top of a big mountain and launch yourself. that wont take very long to set up. there is a high amount of exploration and trial and error needed to make a connected system like the one shown here. 2. it is hard to go uphill, even if you build a custom angled launcher, as i did for many of these. the catapult adds a lot of speed, but not much height. if you are short on time or materials, you are probably better off just running and jumping to get up the front side of a mountain, instead of connecting literally 4-5 catapults in some cases. some goes for the “elevator“ catapults which simply help me reach a higher catapult. you can skip those and just run/jump to climb the tower you make. its a matter of preference. i wanted to try, as a proof of concept. 3. be careful around the catapult bucket. you can accidentally launch your gear if you press a belt hotkey. this includes hammer, when you are switching to hammer to build or repair, as well as the weapon you typically use to break down the catapult, in my case, dual axes. i have launched both accidentally, many times. 4. angled launchers are part of the trial and error. if you are on a high mountain, a flat launch is best, for more speed. if you are on the ground, some degree of launch angle will help you. be careful with angled launchers as the physics collisions between the catapult and structure can be problematic. 5. as it relates to #4, the issue with the catapults is the micro-collisions due to the physics of this game. its probably even worse in multiplayer. every time you go through a portal, use the catapult, etc, it may move a little bit. you can see during the long leg, recon1 to recon2 (the high mountain launch leading to the plains rock base), things wont consistently like up over super long distances. i have taken that leg before and basically hit the plains rock tower straight on. if you are trying to achieve “door-to-door“ perfection on your catapult system, keep your expectations low. the catapults moves a little each time, and i have even seen it flip over entirely and fall out of the platform. putting the catapult legs down helps. 6. yes, i blind-dropped into the ocean many times while doing this. if you have stamina potions, you will be fine. swim as far as you can, then potion, swim some more until you have like 10 stamina left, then tread water until the potion cooldown ends, repeat. you can tread water indefinitely as long as you have more than zero stamina. 7. in terms of scouting, you probably want to start with the last leg first, getting from mainland to ashlands. i have a particularly close mountain on this seed. your mileage may very. explore the north shore above ashlands and look for mountains. mistlands rock outcroppings could also work. with my launch point, i was very comfortably able to make landfall, coming in at about twice the height of the ash trees. 8. building up into trees is at your own risk. one troll, and its all coming down. if you want a little more security and dont mind spending the time, first raise ground in a steep pillar, then plant a pine tree right on top of it. the pine tree will come in after a few days, though you want be able to predict if it will be a tall one; repeat until you get a tall one. with the base of the tree up much higher than the surrounding area, it will be less likely to get hit by a troll or other source of “chop“ damage. 9. when you are making jump platforms to ascend a tower, leave a little extra room in case you die and lose jump skill, or are playing with others. you dont want to price yourself out of making a jump because you lost a little skill. 10. i havent tested it, but i suspect that movement speed is a factor in the catapult flight. meaning, if you use werewolf armor, you might fly farther. however, like #9, you want to test distance in the heaviest setup, so you dont lose access when you change equipment. 11. try to avoid pathing through the mistlands. you want your path to work whether or not you are wearing wisplight. gjall are also nasty against structures.