Does being cold or freezing (ice around the screen's edges) reduce movement speed at all?

[Discipline Before Dishonor]

Or does walking in snow slow the character's movement speed by any degree? If so, to what degree? Just asking if anybody has ever seen a patch note or an update or any evidence that would indicate such a mechanic exists. Just want to know for future preparedness

[Broccoli Clock]

Anecdotally, if it does it's not all that noticeable, and I'm guessing the effect is applied to the other things too. For instance I don't find myself being chased down by bears any more in Winter conditions than I do in Summer, due to me being slower in snow.

While this isn't an option for large surfaces, the path block that gives a speed boost, doesn't get a deep snow layer on it, even in the depths of Winter, so it retains that speed boost.

[MKMoose]

30 minutes ago, Discipline Before Dishonor said:

Or does walking in snow slow the character's movement speed by any degree? If so, to what degree?

It's 5% for every snow layer (up to 35% at the maximum of 7 layers), as far as I can tell from the JSON definition for snow.

I'm not aware of player temperature having any impact.

[Broccoli Clock]

7 minutes ago, MKMoose said:

It's 5% for every snow layer (up to 35% at the maximum of 7 layers)

I'm going to assume, perhaps wrongly, that a block is 8 layers "high", thus snow will fall on a block and increase in layers each time until that point (after all if it hits layer 8 then it's technically a full block). That's my assumption anyway.

With that said, I honestly don't think I've ever seen more than 2 or 3 layers thick. Is it possible to have this anywhere there is snow, or does that level of "deep layering snow" only exist near the poles?

[MKMoose]

22 minutes ago, MKMoose said:

1 hour ago, Discipline Before Dishonor said:

Or does walking in snow slow the character's movement speed by any degree? If so, to what degree?

It's 5% for every snow layer (up to 35% at the maximum of 7 layers), as far as I can tell from the JSON definition for snow.

Yeah, small correction to this: naturally generating snow doesn't seem to ever go above three layers, making for a 15% walk speed reduction.

 

13 minutes ago, Broccoli Clock said:

I honestly don't think I've ever seen more than 2 or 3 layers thick. Is it possible to have this anywhere there is snow, or does that level of "deep layering snow" only exist near the poles?

Appreciate you pointing that out. It seems that anything above 3 layers can only be artificially created by the player. Full snow blocks can appear in polar regions, but they don't seem to reduce movement speed as far as I can find.

[LadyWYT]

4 hours ago, Discipline Before Dishonor said:

Or does walking in snow slow the character's movement speed by any degree? If so, to what degree?

Walking in the deepest snow(three layers) will slow a player's movement speed, as well as the speed of anything else moving through the snow. I'm not sure to what degree though, as the speed decrease doesn't register in the character window. I wouldn't say it's by a particularly detrimental amount though.

If you'd like being chilled to have stiffer penalties, such as reduced movement speed, I'd recommend looking into this mod: https://mods.vintagestory.at/brainfreeze

[Discipline Before Dishonor]

3 hours ago, LadyWYT said:

Walking in the deepest snow(three layers) will slow a player's movement speed, as well as the speed of anything else moving through the snow. I'm not sure to what degree though, as the speed decrease doesn't register in the character window. I wouldn't say it's by a particularly detrimental amount though.

If you'd like being chilled to have stiffer penalties, such as reduced movement speed, I'd recommend looking into this mod: https://mods.vintagestory.at/brainfreeze

This definitely isn't true for the brown bear. I can outrun a brown bear indefinitely as a blackguard at 100% movement speed, and he caught up to me well enough to kill me (hitting me 3 times) in the snow. I was wearing tailored gambeson helm and torso with leather boots, so no movement speed reduction. Whatever the movement speed debuff for snow is, it 100% definitely does not effect bears, otherwise he couldn't have done that. I can even outrun a brown bear long enough to reach my traps when I'm at 94% movement speed too

Edited December 7, 2025 by Discipline Before Dishonor

[Mowdan]

I think those wolves and bears catch me in the winter more because I am wearing the bear armor that slightly slows me down, plus with the snow slowing me down and having to stop to warm up, everything seems so far away in the winter. And is it just me or does the game make the days shorter too? All of this adds up a lot to make winter travel hard. This is the main reason I don't have lime, I can't go far to find it. Not only that but I can't really get bags either, no lime is no leather and no crop growing means no linen bag.  I got lots of metal though and winter is about to end for me.

[Broccoli Clock]

7 hours ago, Mowdan said:

bears catch me in the winter more because I am wearing the bear armor

Wearing the dead skin of their mate is probably a reason to attack you!