Is sailing supposed to be an abysmal experience?

[Waywarbler]

3 hours ago, Capybara007 said:

i always thought it would be good if pearled ck was optional, and regular ck could just drop the tribute, it really benefits nobody that you have to do pearled to progress

maybe make the pearled ck drop something really good for long term worlds

Maybe Pearl would refuse to leave her island for WARBOT until you give her the cracked pearl, so that she moves on from Crab King. So you could do unpearled CK for the celestial tribute, and then pearled CK could be done later while the lunar rifts are open, as part of convincing Pearl to leave. Heck, maybe current Crab King could be pre-rift and then pearled CK would be a rebalanced and planar version of the old CK? Is this a bizarre idea?

On the topic of sailing, I don't really have a problem with it. Sails feel too out of my control, so I just paddle everywhere with oars, and the only oar that feels too slow is the base wooden oar, which is pretty much a stepping stone to driftwood oars anyways.

[lowercase skye]

12 hours ago, Dwight34 said:

There is no room for skill expression because you can barely dodge, can't run away, can't maneuver well...

What does "skill expression" even mean in this context. You express your skill by knowing how to anticipate and react to slipping on the ice, knowing the ways to maneuver your clunky boat platform around, making sure you're properly prepared so you don't have to run away, knowing the patterns with the cannons so you can effectively destroy them, reacting fast to the claws before they overwhelm you, etc. Lots of room for expressing skill, it's just a different type of skill from the rest of the game.

12 hours ago, Dwight34 said:

The sharks are basically a meme with their total absence of an attack pattern

Their attack pattern is they jump on your boat and do a bite attack, then roll a chance for another bite attack. If the chance fails, they'll simply flop around for a bit, but if it succeeds then they'll bite and roll the chance again. Whenever they flop instead of biting, you have a window to attack them a couple times before they jump away, and you can also do a risky move by hitting them once as they jump on the boat. If they don't get to hit you for a few cycles of this, they'll lose interest, so you need to lure them back over with meat (which will also give you several free hits on them as they jump out of the water to eat it.)

Very reasonable attack pattern, you just have to engage with them good faith and learn it. I haven't had issues killing rockjaws since a few months after they were added, though I often opt not to kill them at all since the game makes that a very clear easier option.

12 hours ago, Dwight34 said:

gnarwail are weird/useless if you don't have a ranged attack to provoke them

You can offer them meat by clicking on them with it and they will come over to you to accept it. You can then attack them when they get close. You can either do this repeatedly if you really want to kill them, or simply take their horn and be done.

12 hours ago, Dwight34 said:

Malbatross is not even considered a real boss by most (at least most will never seek her out)

I mean, okay? Spider Queens and Treeguards also aren't hyped up as a real boss nor are they something people particularly seek out. Regardless though the Malbatross has its own boss music and unique drops, by the game's definition it is absolutely a boss and it doesn't really matter if people don't "consider" it to be.

12 hours ago, Dwight34 said:

the spiders in the waterlogged biome are just facetanking

Sea Striders are a puzzle of how quickly you can kill them as they mount your boat. You never have to tank them unless you're still in the early game using a spear, in which case you would be better off luring one at a time with some meat rather than sailing right into their nests.

12 hours ago, Dwight34 said:

 pirate raids are notoriously unfair and lacking in options

They're still annoying at times but they definitely don't lack options. Most skill trees give you more than enough power to take out a pirate raid on your own, or you can just drop a handful of twigs on your boat to make the pirates only steal that and then leave you alone. Now that we've got the Balatro machine on the mainland, you can even prepare bananas in advance, and just drop one for the monkeys to take and leave you alone.

12 hours ago, Dwight34 said:

cookie monsters are extremely easy and just hold F to kill them before your boat sinks

Cookie Cutters attack in waves, with one Cookie Cutter sharing "aggro" on your boat with like 3-6 others in the vicinity. You need a good weapon to just hold F and kill them, or a slower more careful strategy in the early game.

12 hours ago, Dwight34 said:

the flowers are basically impossible to fight against without extreme range or waiting for nighttime.

I mean, that's the solution to the puzzle, yeah. That being said there are very often situations where a Sea Weed spawns far away enough from the rest of its group that you can stunlock it during the day while being out of range of the others. You can also shield your boat with your body to stop leaks from being formed, which lets you do some riskier stuff by equipping armor and quickly picking off one Sea Weed then rowing away from the rest so they drop aggro. Sea Weeds are probably one of my favorite mobs ever because there's a lot of ways to approach them but they never stop being extremely deadly.

I do not say this to be mean, but everything you're saying here is just lack of experience with the ocean, concluding that x or y thing is impossible or too one-note due to a lack of understanding of how they actually work. None of these things are nearly as bad as you propose.

[Milordo]

1 hour ago, lowercase skye said:

I mean, okay? Spider Queens and Treeguards also aren't hyped up as a real boss nor are they something people particularly seek out. Regardless though the Malbatross has its own boss music and unique drops, by the game's definition it is absolutely a boss and it doesn't really matter if people don't "consider" it to be.

The nerve of the community every single time around this topic. The rage everytime rising up of people slandering them when there are all the goddamm evidence pointing "yes they're bosses", and Klei even updated one of them to receive the auto-scaling boss balance LMAO. The insult everytime because they were literally the first introduced by Klei in times where the game was completely different from today. But nooooo, Deerclops, who his by all defenition a glorified Treeguard, he's a boss, treeguards? "Noooooo how you dareee!!!!!"

Malbatross is a first for me btw. Now we'll launch a trolling organization to misinform everybody around, about random entities of the game being bosses and others not.

 

YES, THEY'RE BOSSES, THANK YOU.

[cropo]

3 hours ago, Waywarbler said:

Maybe Pearl would refuse to leave her island for WARBOT until you give her the cracked pearl, so that she moves on from Crab King. So you could do unpearled CK for the celestial tribute, and then pearled CK could be done later while the lunar rifts are open, as part of convincing Pearl to leave. Heck, maybe current Crab King could be pre-rift and then pearled CK would be a rebalanced and planar version of the old CK? Is this a bizarre idea?

On the topic of sailing, I don't really have a problem with it. Sails feel too out of my control, so I just paddle everywhere with oars, and the only oar that feels too slow is the base wooden oar, which is pretty much a stepping stone to driftwood oars anyways.

This would make CK a much better fight imo. I love the idea of making pearl CK slightly buffed and making it post-rifts. I think the straw that is breaking the camels back for me personally is having to pearl it. I know people think he's easy but for me his crab guards sleep inconsistency and the canons popping under your boat are some of the toughest timings I've ever had to deal with in the game and if he wasn't pearled he would be far more manageable for me.

Malbatross is also able to have its loot in a Krampus sack, which I consider to be a qualifier for a boss.


Maybe you could debate Treeguards not being a boss though, I could be convinced either way.

Edited July 1, 2025 by cropo