Please move the Strident Trident blueprint to Pearl's shop

[SpookyXy]

A common complaint of the Pearl quests is that they feel unrewarding to do. A small fix for this would be to move the strident trident from Crab King's drops to Pearl's store alongside the pinchin winch. Reasoning:

Gnarwails are uncommon and when you do see them, you usually don't bother to fight them because their horns are only used to make the trident and it takes literal ages before you can make it.

The trident is the most powerful ocean weapon but it is only available after fighting the hardest ocean boss and right before the player unlocks planar weapons. If Pearl gave you the weapon then her quests would be preparing the player for the fight by providing you with the best weapon for it.

Another Pearl task could be playing the trident for her like her love used to. The trident would also make Pearl's fishing tasks easier and more convenient to do.

My main point is that the trident is unlocked too late, particularly after the fight it would be most helpful in and if Pearl instead gave you the trident blueprint, you would be able to use it for much more of your ocean activities.

[Walrusst]

It would be interesting if she gave you a half broken one the friendship point after she gives you the pearl, that way people who are able to fit in an extra task can style on the crab king in style without having to spend ages grinding. The costs sorta absurd I'll be real.

[Semind]

18 minutes ago, Walrusst said:

It would be interesting if she gave you a half broken one the friendship point after she gives you the pearl, that way people who are able to fit in an extra task can style on the crab king in style without having to spend ages grinding. The costs sorta absurd I'll be real.

I almost wanted to say I love this, because I got it into my head that it would be environmental storytelling somehow. Like the Strident Trident would be something the Crab King left her, and the reason it's half broken is from being an old thing she's held on to for sentimental reasons. So there'd be a bit of bittersweetness to have her hand you a weapon to go confront her lost love.

Then I remembered the she gives you the pearl so you can give it to the Crab King, and I don't think her intent is "Hey, you can have this thing because I'd like you to go beat him up"

[Walrusst]

4 minutes ago, Semind said:

I almost wanted to say I love this, because I got it into my head that it would be environmental storytelling somehow. Like the Strident Trident would be something the Crab King left her, and the reason it's half broken is from being an old thing she's held on to for sentimental reasons. So there'd be a bit of bittersweetness to have her hand you a weapon to go confront her lost love.

Then I remembered the she gives you the pearl so you can give it to the Crab King, and I don't think her intent is "Hey, you can have this thing because I'd like you to go beat him up"

It could be a stay safe trinket, it doesn't have to be for him but it is something that increases your odds of survival near her home.

[mykenception]

she gives you an old weapon to protect you from the seas when you journey to find her lover

quite a lovely narrative, I like it

[Semind]

3 minutes ago, Walrusst said:

It could be a stay safe trinket, it doesn't have to be for him but it is something that increases your odds of survival near her home.

Oh sorry. You're totally right, I just meant that the specific angle I mentioned struck a chord with me because I am a sucker for when narrative weight and gameplay impact align perfectly. One thing that Don't Starve isn't particularly strong at is bridging the ludo-narrative gap (Which isn't inherently a problem, to be clear!)

Throw in the fact that I am also a complete sucker for romance, tragedy and closure, my hallucinated version of your idea just pierced my soul.

[Masked Koopa]

IDK if Crab King needs his drops further neutered, there has got to be a better solution than this. Perhaps we could get more ocean content that spawns only after CC has been defeated but isn't lunar themed, caused by Wagstaff doing more Moon Quay portal shenanigans?

[mykenception]

2 minutes ago, Masked Koopa said:

IDK if Crab King needs his drops further neutered, there has got to be a better solution than this. Perhaps we could get more ocean content that spawns only after CC has been defeated but isn't lunar themed, caused by Wagstaff doing more Moon Quay portal shenanigans?

more juicy drops from crabking once we help wagstaff, same like scrappy werepig

actually a good incentive to fight him again ither than the extra 2 bottles

[Cheggf]

1 hour ago, SpookyXy said:

A common complaint of the Pearl quests is that they feel unrewarding to do.

An even more common complaint is that Crab King's drops suck, and you're suggesting that by your own admission the hardest ocean boss loses the one thing he has. Killing Crab King would just give 8 bumpers. 

[Well-met]

okay but this would make crab king's demise even less rewarding

[lowercase skye]

This is kind of unnecessary, I think you're putting an arbitrary restriction on yourself of ONLY fighting Pearled Crab King, but you can absolutely get the trident way earlier by just fighting the Crab King with regular gems. It'll give you his special bumpers too, which will help a lot with the Pearled fight later on.

2 hours ago, SpookyXy said:

Gnarwails are uncommon and when you do see them, you usually don't bother to fight them

I have two chests full of bundled Gnarwail horns

[mima_]

why does people think pearl quest hard? i can finish it in one trip and no fishing at all.. 

[Walrusst]

But yeah, a possible compromise would be to have an early trident be a part of the peals rewards, and to keep the blueprint as a CK reward. That way you can have the weapon for the fight if you get an extra friendship point, but replacements require you to do the fight.

[SpookyXy]

33 minutes ago, mima_ said:

why does people think pearl quest hard? i can finish it in one trip and no fishing at all.. 

I actually enjoy doing Pearl's quest but I know a lot of other people do not. That's why I thought the trident would be a more exciting incentive, more choices on which task you choose to do is always nice and it's an opportunity for more storytelling and character for Pearl and Crab King.

Personally I'm disapointed by the trident. It's cool conceptually but I never find myself making it because after I kill Crab King it's already moonstorm time, then Celestial champion time and then you have planar weapons. I truly think the trident would shine more if you got access to it when you're probably doing the bulk of your ocean activity which is when you're helping out Pearl.

I hadn't considered how this would negatively affect Crab king's drops because I usually do not refight bosses and I considered the bumpers, bottles and the celestial tribute a sufficient reward. So while I do still think the trident should be moved to Pearl, I ackowledge it's not a perfect solution.

[mima_]

22 minutes ago, SpookyXy said:

Personally I'm disapointed by the trident.

its deal 76-85 ish damage on boat.
also can sink monkey raid boat.
can mine salt instantly.
uproot bullkelp.
does really well with fish food combo farming.

[SpookyXy]

19 minutes ago, mima_ said:

its deal 76-85 ish damage on boat.
also can sink monkey raid boat.
can mine salt instantly.
uproot bullkelp.
does really well with fish food combo farming.

Yeah my problem is I get my salt boxes and kelp set up long before I fight CK because you find both as part of Pearl's quest or when finding the lunar island. There are tons of ways to get food so I've never fish food farmed. And while it probably is good vs monkey raids, I prefer avoiding Moon Quay like the plague so that I don't get pirate raided in the first place because I hate having my stuff stolen and the banana bushes don't entice me enough to go near that place except maybe during winter. The damage is nice but my problem isn't with the weapon's stats, it's the point in time in which the weapon is unlocked.

[Walrusst]

11 minutes ago, SpookyXy said:

There are tons of ways to get food so I've never fish food farmed. 

I did see a woodie who was too seriously wooding earlier which inspired me to build an absurdly long boat bridge that was held in place by fish trawlers all the way out to the deep ocean earlier.

it was sort of absurd how much fish the base had. Sadly, its gone now because its a official server everyone logged out of, but honestly that sort of setups way more cost effective than I initially assumed given the trawlers seem way less likely to break when they are at a distance where they are unloaded (It seems they only gather fish at a steady rate, which is perfect! In base trawlers tend to overflow and break all the time with the most minor negligence.)

Like, we had marotters who were next to our fishing tins.
They were mostly full in spite of the genuinely constant stealing.
It only took like 3 days to build this from one chest of materials (We had a wendy who was eating a spider fortress for silk too...)

SURF AND TURF FOR LIFE. that stuffs so wild.
Sure, figs are lower maintanance, protect you from nearly every season, yada yada....
Stone fruit lets you piergi spam, bannanas are cheap.

Surf and turf does it all, but also better.
BETTER.
It even works with spider meat.

Still like seven stacks of wood for my level of surf and turf team level spam was possibly a bit expensive and wasteful.

[mima_]

42 minutes ago, SpookyXy said:

Yeah my problem is I get my salt boxes and kelp set up long before I fight CK because you find both as part of Pearl's quest or when finding the lunar island. There are tons of ways to get food so I've never fish food farmed. And while it probably is good vs monkey raids, I prefer avoiding Moon Quay like the plague so that I don't get pirate raided in the first place because I hate having my stuff stolen and the banana bushes don't entice me enough to go near that place except maybe during winter. The damage is nice but my problem isn't with the weapon's stats, it's the point in time in which the weapon is unlocked.

salt not only for salt box.
gourmet saltlick can sink salt resources really fast if you play with multiplayer and they all tame beefalo.
now the thule bugnet also cost salt, while not alot but still needed
i never really farm fish for food. i farm them for boneshards.
the rest probably not all people do that. many like me love to sail. so pirate raid is one of common occurrence. sinking them is one way to get rid of them without making us holding the trinket ..
but doesnt mean that u find it not useful its bad item. i like to use it cus i know how to properly use them....

[DegenerateFurry]

Maybe she can sell the blueprint after (pearled) Crab King is killed once? That way, you can give the blueprint to your friends more easily.

[SpookyXy]

7 hours ago, mima_ said:

salt not only for salt box.
gourmet saltlick can sink salt resources really fast if you play with multiplayer and they all tame beefalo.
now the thule bugnet also cost salt, while not alot but still needed
i never really farm fish for food. i farm them for boneshards.
the rest probably not all people do that. many like me love to sail. so pirate raid is one of common occurrence. sinking them is one way to get rid of them without making us holding the trinket ..
but doesnt mean that u find it not useful its bad item. i like to use it cus i know how to properly use them....

I literally never once said it was a bad item, I just want it available earlier.

[Ginosaji]

There are a lot of issues with the so called rare blueprints.

Of scaled furnace you get way too many over time because she's worth killing for gems.

Trident strident is controversial because the whale horns have no other use but to make the trident.

I see no point locking stone pillar behind Ancient Guardian and inevitably behind Shadow Pieces and Ancient Fuelweaver as well because whoever rushed ruins early game isn't going to pass up on +15 free sanity for learning it.

Blueprint drops from Wagstaffs abandoned junk are way too many and it's too random what drops if any drop at all.

Monkey queen blueprints are just a fast method of converting bananas into papyrus. Someone explain to me why the cave bridge is free to make on an Alchemy Engine but docks aren't?

Toadstool just gets ignored by the majority of people because the loot isn't worth the investment in gear used to wail down 50k hp.

 

Bundling wrap blueprint seems fine because, hell i played when wraps were just new and it was just a thing to prototype. All the bees went extinct.

Nightmare Werepig blueprints are fine too.

[NoodlemanNed]

i think a much cleaner solution is adding tridents to the shop instead of the blueprint. I feel like the biggest issue with that item currently is that the horns take way too long to gather; the blueprint is the easy part. Pearl selling the trident itself would allow for it to actually be crafted earlier on, and for lategame you would use the prototype as usual.

this also helps with the original concern without neutering a boss' drops for no reason.

[WilsonHiggs]

9 hours ago, SpookyXy said:

I literally never once said it was a bad item, I just want it available earlier.

Then kill CK without the pearl(?)

50 minutes ago, NoodlemanNed said:

i think a much cleaner solution is adding tridents to the shop instead of the blueprint. I feel like the biggest issue with that item currently is that the horns take way too long to gather; the blueprint is the easy part. Pearl selling the trident itself would allow for it to actually be crafted earlier on, and for lategame you would use the prototype as usual.

this also helps with the original concern without neutering a boss' drops for no reason.

Gnarwhales are more common lately and you get horns in chests which are easier to spawn and, once you get 2 horns, you dont need to farm any more horn ever again...