Shivers are incredibly annoying to kill

[McFrugal]

In caves they jump straight over me sometimes with their lunging attack so they wind up behind me, and I think that's pretty obviously a bad thing.  There's also no warning for the lunge attack as far as I can tell, so they're just super chaotic and annoying and seem to deal more damage than other enemies.  From the data on the wiki it looks like they do about the same damage as Drifters, but they move faster than you so you can't just move backwards to dodge their attacks, which means they're far more lethal despite dealing the same damage.

In temporal storms they run away a lot and they move so fast you can't chase them down, which means there's no reason to actually go out in a temporal storm to fight them since you won't get any loot!  And that only adds to the problem of players wanting to just hide and not engage with the storms, despite all the mechanics that prevent players from escaping storm danger such as spawn restrictions being ignored and sleep being disabled.

Overall, I think they might be better if their damage was reduced (significantly reduced!) and they didn't run away during temporal storms.

Edited February 19, 2025 by McFrugal

[DUCATISLO]

id say we buff them by making them be able to climb walls tbh

[Zane Mordien]

On 2/19/2025 at 4:27 PM, McFrugal said:

In caves they jump straight over me sometimes with their lunging attack so they wind up behind me, and I think that's pretty obviously a bad thing.  

 

In temporal storms they run away a lot and they move so fast you can't chase them down, which means there's no reason to actually go out in a temporal storm to fight them since you won't get any loot!  

I'm just ignoring caves for the most part now. There is really nothing of value to justify the risk. Don't get me wrong, I will still stick my head in the first little bit to see if there is an easy ruin, but once I get past surface level mobs I just go back up. 

What loot does a shiver drop? Outside of the double headed the rest of the stuff is just there to annoy you IMO. I've personally started the lame task of building a fighting area because I have had the worst luck getting a temporal gear in my current playthrough. I've started adding fences to keep them from running around so much, so add some fences if you want to catch them. 

[McFrugal]

10 hours ago, DUCATISLO said:

id say we buff them by making them be able to climb walls tbh

Eh, climbing walls is more of a locust thing isn't it?  I guess I wouldn't be opposed to it so long as they were changed in other ways to make them more interesting and less of an outlier in terms of difficulty.

[LadyWYT]

On 2/19/2025 at 3:27 PM, McFrugal said:

they're just super chaotic and annoying

That's...kind of the point though. They move fast, with a hit-and-run tactic. Their main weaknesses are that they can't fit into smaller spaces(they need 2x2 to navigate), and that they randomly spaz out leaving the player with a short window of attack opportunity.

On 2/19/2025 at 3:27 PM, McFrugal said:

From the data on the wiki it looks like they do about the same damage as Drifters

Pretty much. I think they might do slightly less damage, in return for having a bit more health.

On 2/19/2025 at 3:27 PM, McFrugal said:

but they move faster than you so you can't just move backwards to dodge their attacks, which means they're far more lethal despite dealing the same damage.

Not entirely true. They're more lethal because they're fairly fast and able to chase you down more easily. However, the player can still outrun them, provided the player isn't weighed down too much by armor. As for backpedaling to dodge, it's definitely possible, especially if you time your counterattacks well, but it takes practice and requires good reflexes.

On 2/19/2025 at 3:27 PM, McFrugal said:

There's also no warning for the lunge attack as far as I can tell

If you know what sounds the shivers make, you can easily tell if one is nearby, and whether or not it has noticed you. If you hear a raspy growl, it's time to have your sword and shield at the ready, because it's in the process of charging.

10 hours ago, DUCATISLO said:

id say we buff them by making them be able to climb walls tbh

Agreed. Or at least, let them climb over one-block walls/fences, but maybe not walls that are higher than that.

10 hours ago, Zane Mordien said:

What loot does a shiver drop? Outside of the double headed the rest of the stuff is just there to annoy you IMO

I believe the bellhead shivers, stilt shivers, and deepslit shivers can all drop the same loot as a double-headed drifter. The deepslits appear during temporal storms, and I think the other two spawn deep underground near the mantle.

[Teh Pizza Lady]

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Shivers are incredibly annoying to kill

Good. Drifters and bowtorn are too easy. It was about time they introduced something to counter a hunter's ability to just shoot from a distance.

[Lanceleoghauni]

For all the people who complain about bowtorn they're incredibly trivial to kill the instant you have a bow and arrows, yeah. The fact that shivers move fast enough to force a confrontation is a good thing.

[Cetasaya]

Sorry OP, we're masochists here.  Thats why we play vintage story.  I love that OP's difficulty has just made us all want to buff all the mobs lol.

Anyway.

We need flying enemies.  And enemies that can AoE through walls.

In Minecraft, all the mobs are neutered and become small nuisances after iron armor.  In Vintage Story, they all, except the very highest tier, become neutered as soon as you get gambeson or better armor.

Vintage Story is actually too easy.  I no longer even bat an eye at night or in a temporal storm or in shallow caves cause all the mobs are one note and easily gankable even while naked and with stone weapons and some cover from bowtorn spears.  Wolves are kitable.  And bears are slow.  All mobs cannot handle the water.  At all.

Drifters are slow and weak.

Bowtorns have no melee answers.

And shivers never path right, spaz out, and are completely neutralized on any terrain but flat.  And dont even get me started about forests lol.  Ive gotten shivers in my basement and every time they path in a circle in one corner while i just wail on them with a falx with total impunity.

God I hope Dave just rips our assholes a mile wide.

[Teh Pizza Lady]

I fought two drifters in a cave with nothing but a box of scraps!

[StCatharines]

On 2/24/2025 at 6:17 AM, DUCATISLO said:

id say we buff them by making them be able to climb walls tbh

Shiver Tweaks has that, among other, options.

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Current modifications:

Shivers have the ability to climb walls (v1.0.0).
Shiver mouths are now perpetually open (v2.0.0).
All shivers have been given a 2x speed increase (v2.0.0).
Increased attack cooldown to 1.25 of vanilla value. (v3.0.0)
Removed flee AI (shivers will no longer flee when low on health). (v3.0.0)
Slowed down death animation slightly. (v3.0.0)
Increased "stickiness" of shivers (shivers now have an easier time of climbing walls). (v4.0.0)
Slightly closed shiver mouths (they should now be able to open wider during attack animations). (v4.0.0)
Bellhead shivers now summon enemies similar to the bell. (v4.0.0)
Increased attack cooldown to 2x of vanilla value. (v5.0.0)

 

 

[DUCATISLO]

Just now, StCatharines said:

Shiver Tweaks has that, among other, options.

i know and it sucks i cant config it server side

 

unless i just use the older mods...hmm

Edited February 27, 2025 by DUCATISLO

[StCatharines]

You can't? I have it configured on my server. It's shivertweaks.yaml and you can open it with Notepad++ or VSCode or whatever. Here's mine for an example:

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version: 1
# Enables shiver climbability.
Climbability Toggle: true #  (default: true) 
# Increases shiver movement speed by 2x if enabled.
Speed Modifier Toggle: true #  (default: true) 
# Increases attack cooldown by 2x. Best used when speed modifier is set to true.
Attack Cooldown Toggle: false #  (default: true) 
# Stops shivers from fleeing on low health.
Flee Behavior Toggle: true #  (default: true) 
# Makes Bellhead Shivers act like Bells.
Bellhead Toggle: true #  (default: true) 
# Slows down shiver death animation by half when enabled.
Death Animation Toggle: false #  (default: true) 
# Toggles between open and closed shiver jaws.
Jaw Toggle: false #  (default: true) 

 

[DUCATISLO]

Just now, StCatharines said:

You can't? I have it configured on my server. It's shivertweaks.yaml and you can open it with Notepad++ or VSCode or whatever. Here's mine for an example:

 

oh right...thx i forgot about the notepad thing