I'm replaying Wynncraft, here's my thoughts (part 5 out!)

I feel like there could be some kind of soldier near a wagon in Detlas that doesn't say anything to you until you complete Arachnids' Ascent, where he'll take you over to the dungeon entrance. The explanation for it is that he could be part of Captain Enduyns' team.

 

Spoiler: LEVELS 18-21

Lava Springs:

This is technically level 18 content but I only got around to doing it at level 21, this will probably be the case with some other content too.

I actually forgot the name of this quest 10 minutes after doing it. It exists I guess? There are some minor interesting things, like the special Bremminglar potions I’ll probably never use, and that boss at the end having this unique custom fireball rain attack. I feel like this is mainly a way to give the savannah a use, and I guess it accomplishes that, so I’ll rate this quest as slightly above-average overall since it just isn’t very interesting IMO.

But I will say that lorewise, the quest feels a bit weird. This feels like the first quest to address the overall storyline in terms of the threat of the corruption. Keep in mind I don’t understand Wynn’s lore at all, so my perspective is legitimately the same as a new player in this circumstance. To me, does this imply that the corruption can be destroyed if we go underground and stuff? The “Beneath the Roots” secret discovery seems to reinforce this.

Also while I’m talking about the savannah I’d like to mention that those termite armorstand models that are underground are laggy as heck


Grave Digger:

This isn’t a terrible quest, but it certainly isn’t without flaws. The concept of the quest is interesting; it’s like another one where you’re the villain in a way. You’re basically a grave robber. However the story doesn’t matter here, it’s an excuse to show you where Nemract and Ancient Nemract are and it works well I think.

The concept of giving Druckish a potion of drunkness is so cool and feels natural. It’s a solution you have to find out on your own and one that makes sense. It could still be done a bit better though: I don’t think many people would expect a Potion Merchant to sell alcohol that isn’t always the best for you. They’d probably expect a different NPC to give it to you. However, with the new quest system, maybe the Bartender could give it to you! Not sure if that’s possible, but it would make a lot of sense and would probably help more new people figure out how to talk to Druckish.

The priest tells you that you must be purified before you meet Sayleros’ bro, but why do I need to be purified? I literally just killed some core of the corruption underground one quest ago with no purification, but now I need it to kill some random zombie? And why do I need rotten flesh which is FROM the corrupted??? I actually like the fact that you need rotten flesh as it isn’t too hard to grind, it gets people to explore Ancient Nemract which I think is a really cool area (although other quests would accomplish that too), and if you’ve been hoarding flesh on your journey so far you can benefit from that also.

I’ll finish with some compliments for the quest. Getting a grindspot as a reward is cool since it’s so useful but also doesn’t feel mandatory for progress. The bossfight may be too simple but Sayleros’ bro slowly losing his flesh was pretty funny. This quest overall is VERY VERY old, but compared to Cook’s Assistant its leagues better. With a few tweaks it could be great.


Ancient Nemract:

This is just a really good area. It’s a grindspot but also very cool in terms of lore and atmosphere. It definitely puts the destructive power of the corruption into perspective, considering how grand it is compared to current Nemract, as well as the fact that its never been reclaimed (unless you count the Underworld Crypt as doing that). My only complaint about this area is the Sun God mob that occasionally spawns. It doesn’t seem to drop anything and doesn’t make much sense lorewise. Is it a fiery corrupted? A god that used to be worshipped despite never being mentioned? Either way I think Underworld Crypt Key Guardians serve as a better and more fitting “hard mob” here.


Studying the Corrupt:

Oh boy. This quest. I’ve definitely heard some negative opinions on this one, and given that I’ve not done it in a long time, I don’t know whether or not it holds up.

This is the first quest that I think has explicit references, in this case to Harry Potter. No, changing the guy’s name to “Pottur” doesn’t make it subtle. I personally hate stuff like this (in all fairness I fucking hate harry potter in general so I’m probably influenced by that too in this case), as it just ruins immersion for me way more than something like shouts ever would. It just feels so unoriginal too. At least be creative with your names and make them an anagram or something. There’s a larger reason why I hate references like this, but I’ll get to that when I discuss the dreaded Recover the Past.

Apart from that, this is a quest of high highs and low lows. I’ll start with the bad: those 3 wizards are so stupid. HOW did they not think that Garoth would be corrupted given that corruption is like the only threat in Wynn apart from bandits. These have to be the dumbest NPCs in the game. It’s such a stupid plot point. Not being able to break that one gate in Roots of Corruption was also odd, why can Ice Snake destroy it but not Bomb Arrow or Meteor? Still, I feel like these issues wouldn’t be too hard to change, and the quest would actually be good without these.

As for good stuff, this is first quest to greatly delve into the lore and I like it a lot. That part where Garoth gets dragged into the portal left me with a lot of questions and made me a lot more interested in the lore overall (this never gets resolved to be fair, but not having answers kinda makes it more fun IMO). I also enjoyed reading about Garoth’s studies too, I know the gimmick of reading through notes is done a lot, but this is the first time most people will see it so I’ll give it a pass here. It also hints at the Twains which I love: it starts to give an idea of a grand interconnected world.


Lost Sanctuary:

This is considered the worst dungeon by many, but I don’t think it’s any worse than the Decrepit Sewers. It’s just so repetitive in terms of what the gameplay is, and having to chase creepers for tokens instead of killing mobs is a “unique” idea that doesn’t last that long. Garoth is a unique boss and their gimmick fits well with the rest of the dungeon, but it would be cool if he had less health and no health regen so players can kill him more easily if they want, just to give people more choices. I also like the theme of the dungeon: fighting dinosaurs seems goofy but a lost cavern full of prehistoric carnivores doesn’t seem too outlandish (and come on, its dinosaurs, how is this not awesome), and the inclusion of creepers with other strange creatures fits well with the lore.

If I had to guess, when this dungeon was being redone in 1.14.1, it was kind of rushed through given that seven other dungeons had to be made. This dungeon has a lot of potential: I like the prehistoric theme and Garoth is a much more interesting character than Charon, Witherhead, or Arakadicus. But at the end of the day, this dungeon is just at a weird spot in terms of players wanting to do it. If you want XP, Underworld Crypt is probably a better option since you’ll unlock it 3 levels after Studying the Corrupt, and none of the rewards stand out to me. I can only really see most players running this more than once if the dungeon became really fun, which could very well become possible one day.

Spoiler: LEVELS 21-25

Cluck Cluck & Other Short Quests:

Pit of the Dead, Lost Tower, Dwelling Walls, Macabre Masquerade, and Cluck Cluck are all short and unmemorable quests that with the exception of Cluck Cluck, I skipped on my first playthrough. These are all low-tier quests but despite this, I don’t want them removed because they provide the experience I want from a quest. This is because they’re able to be beaten very quickly if you know what you’re doing. Are you on a second playthrough and want some rapid XP at level 24, but want a break from grinding? Just do Dwelling Walls in a minute! This is why I dislike a lot of cutscenes in quests: I know what happens, and yes it was cool the first time, but just let me unlock the area that I lootrun already.

I will say however that Cluck Cluck could work as something other than a quest. It just feels random for the sake of being random outside of the context of the Bob or Scientist Brothers lore, and it sticks you with a seemingly random quest item for 51 levels. If it was just an island you could visit that was like level 70 or something, like Skien’s Island and Maro Peaks, that would fit better honestly and you wouldn’t end up with a quest item.

Counterargument to the above: this quest kinda gets you out into the ocean and shows you that there are islands out there. But a counteragrument to this is that Misadventure at the Sea does the same thing but better, as it tells you about the seaskipper. Some poor guy is probably gonna try swimming to Rooster Island with just their vanish spell.

Also, Nohno somehow knows you helped out Yahya? Do the two of them communicate by mail or something? Telepathy?


Durum Isles & Boss Altars:

Durum Isles is a cool concept. Its slightly hidden, but the reward for discovering is great for anyone who wants to grind their professions a bit. But of course, the island’s crown jewel is Bovine Barn.

Let me start by saying that not a lot of people will probably experience this at-level on their first playthrough. How many people will think to go here at level 25-35? Still, having cool stuff like this to find on repeat playthroughs isn’t something I mind, although players will miss out on a great boss. The biggest issue comes with making the altar work: there’s nothing that explains that you need to right-click on the altar WITH the ingredients. When I first discovered boss altars when I returned to Wynn after a break, I couldn’t figure out how to use them. I wouldn’t be surprised if some other players had the same experience.

The Durum Protector is pretty great too and serves as a nice challenge. I’d talk about it more but it kicked my butt.


Tempo Town Trouble:

Let me start by complaining about how this quest starts in Nemract. Why though? I guess it’s to help players find their way to Time Valley, but why not have the starting NPC in Elkurn, where you’ll already likely be at level 25 to complete Lost Sanctuary and Recover the Past? Instead, you have to take a trip all the way from Nemract to Tempo Town, which admittedly isn’t that long (2:15 with a 6/10 brown horse) but it just isn’t that exciting and feels like unnecessary padding in the same vein as old Jungle Fever. Elkurn just makes so much more sense as a quest start point.

I’m not sure why the Tempo Town residents are homeless. Did they lose their home in Time Valley? Are they just homeless people from the rest of Wynn? Why doesn’t Elkurn let them in - You’d think that town would be more charitable during a war if that was the case? Are they building a town with minimal defense during a cataclysmic war?

This quest has some really nice builds too, and the storyline is pretty interesting considering its just a setup for player retention. If I understood it correctly, the Tempo Town residents just happen to be building a town in the path a monster set in a time loop takes, and you broke the loop and set it free. That’s a really cool concept IMO.


Time Troubles & Tempo Town:

Before doing this playthrough, I never really bothered to with the daily Time Troubles. I felt like they were just some cheap gimmick to ensure people log in each day. But after doing them, I actually think they’re a really cool feature and one of the highlights of the earlygame.

The fact that you can only fight each Time Trouble once a day seems a lot better once you think of it as a means of balance rather than a means of getting people to log in. Let’s face it, not a lot of people will remain at this level range long enough to buy a ton of these items, so the system might as well only be built around getting 1-2 of them. Think of it like beating the Qira Hive and only getting one master hive item: after killing the five time troubles you can buy one item, or wait another day so you’ll have enough to buy a different item. It’s basically one nice reward that you get from exploring the world. And that’s another reason why I like Time Troubles: they encourage exploring Time Valley and they have a genuine unique and cool reward for finding them. It’s like lootrunning but actually good. As for the item balance, I purchased the 30% walk speed chestplate which seems really nice, so I’ll see how long it stays good for.

As for Tempo Town itself… eh…

The town name actually sounds like it could be from Fortnite and I’m not alone in thinking this, but I’ll give it a pass if it was hastily built lorewise or something. My main issue is that it just feels like it has too many commodities, and therefore feels too big, for what’s supposed to be a barely surviving tiny village. Why not move the power merchant and stuff to Elkurn? I’m fine with Tempo Town existing, but it seems to have an identity crisis: does it want to be the next Thesead or a town on its last legs?

Spoiler: LEVELS 25-28

Recover the Past:

I think I’ve been too harsh on this quest. It’s not a bad quest, rather a good quest with one of the worst moments in all of Wynncraft (I would say worst, but oh boy does RoL have some terrible moments…)

Finding the 3 Frumans was pretty fun, and it was really nice to finally get some insight into YOUR character’s backstory in a sense. The first two cutscenes paint a picture of an interesting, albeit somewhat cartoonishly evil, government. And then we get to that cutscene. You know the one. I hate “there is no war in the fruman walls”! I hate “there is no war in the fruman walls”! The cutscene actually starts out okay, I really like how they reference Aledar. But the most iconic part is what truly sucks.

Let me start by saying that I absolutely love Avatar: The Last Airbender. It’s phenomenal and you should drop everything you’re doing to watch it. So basically there’s a really dramatic scene where someone says “there is no war in (SPOILER)” and it’s a super dramatic and important moment. And Wynncraft just rips it off almost exactly. This is awful, like shamelessly awful. You can’t just blatantly copy a scene from a popular show and expect it to work. And you know what? It doesn’t work. It almost ruins the rest of the quest and actually hurts Wynncraft as a whole, because what it shows me is that Wynncraft isn’t even trying anymore. They’ll just put any reference from anything popular and expect it to work. What’s worst is that the community liked this reference. It doesn’t even tell the player anything either! Is there a civil war or something? I have no clue because it sounds like they just wanted to include a reference and nothing else! I swear, if we get more stuff like this I’m actually gonna be pissed.


The Dark Descent:

This is personally one of my least favorite dungeon quests. It’s just a string of cutscenes where you don’t really see what’s going on. There’s no gameplay apart from a tiny parkour segment, you just walk from point A to point B. I can see why some people would like this, especially if creepy atmospheres and cutscenes are their thing. Also this quest does have General Gracken, so maybe it isn’t that bad, especially since the new dialogue system means I can quickly skip each cutscene.


Underworld Crypt:

This was my favorite dungeon for a while, but over time, my opinion has definitely declined. I’ll give it credit for having some concepts not seen in other dungeons yet, but the problem with the survival portions at the start and the boat is that they feel so slow. When grinding tokens, there’s always some mob to strike, but it just feels like you aren’t do much in the survival parts of Underworld Crypt.

The boss fight is probably polarizing but there’s something I really like about it. It’s so unique yet doesn’t feel out of place in Wynncraft. The fact that it is so different from everything else makes it especially cool. IDK, I always just have so much fun at this part, whether I quickly kill Charon with Gracken or if I spend 5 minutes fooling around. It’s a shame the rest of the dungeon doesn’t live up to its creativity.


Misadventure on the Sea:

This is my favorite quest in Wynncraft. I don’t know if it’s the best, but in terms of personal enjoyment, other popular quests I’ve played like TFF1&2, PonR, and AHC don’t quite live up to this.

There are just so many amazing things it has, which I’ll list out here:
- The bartender explicitly acknowledges your past accomplishments.
- The ship is full of so many secrets to find, some of which took multiple playthroughs to find and some I don’t think I’ve found yet.
- The ability to skip the Osearer encounter if you’ve explored enough.
- The colossal rat boss fight bein legitimately good and not just a meme for the sake of having a meme.
- The hilarious part where you fly over Selchar and have to dodge seagulls.
- Pirates and pets moving around the ship on their own.
- Free seaskipper passes to Selchar are a reward that’s beneficial at any level.
- This is just a great introduction to the Seaskipper in general.
- I honestly can’t think of any flaws for the quest, apart from the fact that cleaning dead bodies in a ship is too morbid and clashes greatly with the quest’s otherwise very lighthearted tone.

But the best part about the quest is that it’s about YOU. So many other quests are either the player having to help someone out or centers around some other NPC who may or may not be obnoxious. But even as Honip orders you around, it feels like you’re constantly on your own quest to escape. And apart from the seaskipper saving you at the end, all your accomplishments are your own (or Snoo’s, but I’ll give that chicken a pass). And you actually get commemoration for your work, either through the bartender complimenting you at the start or the pirates slowly growing to like you. Out of every questline, this is the one where I felt like my character was actually a hero.


Other Notes:

• That priest from Grave Digger is definitely a cannibal
• There’s a bovemist priest in Elkurn who looks to be wearing a cow leather robe or something which is a nice touch.
• In the path leading up to the Bovine Barn boss, there are flowers which have hay bales for leaves, which is such a creative idea for a cow-themed area.
• Leveling up still doesn’t seem like an issue, if a player does most quests and both dungeons at least once they probably won’t have to grind at all (assuming they kill side mobs in quests and stuff)
• Due to the above reason I skipped playing Deja Vu, but if I remember correctly from countless HICH attempts, it's very fun and has one of the best story concepts.
• I found this castle-themed eco cave in Time Valley with some really cool gimmicks, like doors that when open also open up prison cells filled with mobs. This place was honestly more interesting than the Lost Sanctuary.
• From now on I’m only talking about quests that I have something notable to mention about them. This is why I never talked about the corrupt potato quest despite doing it.

Hello everyone, I am back with more thoughts on Wynncraft. I haven't played that much + these take time to write up so don't expect these too regularly, although I'll try to get a portion out per month. At this rate I'll be level 100 in 2023 lol

 

Are you going to do the boss altars too or nah, only mentioning it because they are very unique and might have thoughts on them idk

Also great post interesting to see what ppl think when they have played for so long

 

Oh yeah definitely, I plan on going playing through all the boss altars but I might not have a ton to say about each one since I’m not the best at critiquing boss fights

 

SO true except there's one place where there are 2 grass blocks directly on top of each other and it hurts to look at :)))))

i am generally ambivalent towards harry potter and i still think this fucking sucks so.

i think decrepit sewers is infinitely worse because neither is interesting but at least lost sanctuary feels faster (fun fact: lost sanctuary is my go-to for do 10 dungeons guild objective (horrible guild objective. worse than raids.))

bovine barn up there with my favorite boss altars.

i always think it's funny to see how many bugs are still in it every update but yeah it does feel extremely tedious after multiple runs.

i didn't know most of these because i've only done the quest twice but it is still in my top 3 favorite quests

 

Afaik "Nether God" exists at the Roots of Corruption, so don't take it too seriously.

Is it actually true?


Will you cover secret discoveries?

 

IIRC I complained about the name being odd when it came out and a staff member told me they weren't getting rid of the name because they found it funny. With the comparison to fortnite, yeah I find it funny too

 

It's interesting to see these opinions, especially ones that are opposite to ones I've seen generally too. There's a lot of things that I seem to have just not noticed or thought about at all when I was going through the game as well.

(This isn't very important to this thread, just a personal note.) Honestly when I was doing all my donator classes to 103 playthroughs, I actually was intending to try to rate everything in the game, but I ended up just not really liking anything whatsoever, while it is partially the fault of the fact that I had already done all the quests in the game several times previously and also that I am naturally extremely difficult to impress or entertain, even on the first playthrough for a lot of things I don't think there's ever really been anything in Wynn that I've particularly enjoyed (at the very least not from my memory aside from knowing that I did like a couple of things pre-gavel). Also the amount of effort that it would've required to come up with worded thoughts for everything was definitely more than I would've cared to put in. I respect the work of going through the whole game and pulling it apart and analysing it like this.

 

I plan to cover them past level 40, as I've never done most of those before.

 

Uh oh, Fruman walls rant

Tbh I disagree that it doesnt fit the quest, I have never watched ATLA and didnt know that it was a reference when I did the quest, it was fitting imo and gives right enough information to know that something is wrong with Fruma and that some kind of a war (most likely a revolution) is happening. I do agree however that its not good to just copy a scene from popular show

A bit unrelated but looking back Im not 100% sure why I started spamming Fruman walls, but I dont remember seeing it as a meme online before going to wiki to copy dialogue. Maybe I just really liked that moment in the quest and it was a good copypasta material.

 

when part 4?

 

Probably not for a few weeks, haven’t had much time to play Wynn and I’ve been busy with other games.

 

Here's part 4, this time focusing primarily on the desert and mesa content! Fair warning, I have some pretty hot takes (no pun intended) this time.

Spoiler: LEVELS 28-32

More Boss Altars:
At level 30 and with better items, I decided to give the Bovine Barn another chance. Fun fact: the Seaskipper dialogue for Durum Isles actually alludes to something cool being in the barn! This time around I had a much easier time with the fight, and I won without losing half health and probably would’ve been fine without the heal spell. It’s tough, but definitely feels fair and it seems like there are many ways to approach it. Do you ignore the cow for a bit to take out the scarecrows, knowing they’ll respawn? How much of the arena do you use? All great boss fights have some element of strategy to them, and so far this is the best one in my playthrough.

I then went and did the Rotten Passage, which took two tries (and I used the heal spell a few times, sue me). It was also pretty fun! I like how it ties into the world; while Bovine Barn was just kinda there, Haros’ battle feels like a fight to defend Nemract. Speaking of the fight, it reminded me a lot of Bovine Barn, in the sense that you’re dodging ranged mobs that spawn while dodging other enemies. This is no way a bad thing, and it leads to a frantic and challenging fight.

I’m OP and that’s okay (or maybe not):
So, now I’m level 31 and I’m pretty strong. I have Durum’s Serenity for a lot of skill points, Haros’ Oar for damage, and Black Ripper for even more (melee) damage. In one level, I’ll get access to the Hourslip item for much more health and walkspeed. With a focus on speed and melee attacks, it’s almost like I’ll have something close to… a class build.

These are also really strong items, and I feel like I’ll have an easy time with the level 30-40 content. So, does that make this part of the game easy, since I have access to great items? Well no. These items took effort to gain rather than luck (looking at you mythics), and I’m not sure how many new players would find all 5 Time Troubles and do both boss altars at this level. I was able to do this stuff on a repeat playthrough, and I think it’s cool how much I was benefitted for it.

---

EDIT: I wrote the prior 2 paragraphs before doing the desert content, and holy crap, these items were insane. I really do think that walkspeed was the MVP here, as after swapping out Hourslip for the Mummy’s Rag, I almost got shredded by Hashr, whereas in the previous run I easily won the fight with Hourslip. That item in particular might need a slight nerf, or at least SOME downsides.

Craftsmas Chaos:
I’m skipping a bunch of quests on this playthrough (at least at lower levels when I don’t need much XP), and Craftsmas Chaos would’ve been one of them. But after thinking about it, I think I have to discuss this quest. It is insane.

This quest features actual time travel, like… think about it. We’re sent 30 years into the past and all we do is save Santa?? Do you understand how much canonical power the player would have if they went into the past with knowledge of the present? Time travel in a game’s story is pandora’s box, and this quest breaks it open. Let’s all just pretend this is a non-canon christmas episode.

The thing is, the time travel stuff is actual really great. I love the hints to it in Tom’s original dialogue, and it’s cool how YOU corrupt Santa by bringing him that corrupted item.

Also, Santa’s island is weirdly hard to find considering how hand-holdy most other quests are. The quest beacon helps a lot, but it almost feels like you have to use a normal boat to get there, since new players won’t know the Ice Nations seaskipper drops you nearby. Why not have a seaskipper to Santa’s island?

The Desert:
The level 30-40 portion of the game doesn’t get nearly enough love. It feels like some self-contained storyline like Corkus with the bandits and Hashr’s civilization, but it also still fits into the overall world pretty well. I think all the builds (terrain and structures) are great, and I thought they were so cool back in 2014 that they helped get me into building.

There are a lot of cool mobs, and it like how they’re moving away from generic undead to stuff like locust swarms near rivers and camels that attack you. The sandpiles in particular are a really cool mob concept: do you risk attacking one for more XP and emeralds in exchange for more mobs attacking you?

The discoveries are also great and make me feel like an archaeologist. Sure, some discoveries are underwhelming like the boulder one, but there are also some really cool puzzles like the sword one (that one also ties into the dungeon quest!). The quicksand discovery has to be one of my absolute favorites!

The Mercenary:
This quest is nearly unchanged from how it was in 2014, and boy did it age well. This is an amazing introduction to Almuj, the desert, and major IDs.

My biggest complaint is that the story seems a bit to over-the-top. Apparently Takan killed all of Nemract’s army or something, but wouldn’t you expect the port city to be overrun or something? And yeah, the trail of blood is also cliche, but everything else is pretty good. The stealth part is nice and feels tense considering that the bandits can shred weaker players. The bandits within the barracks can be killed, meaning you can forgo the stealth option if you want to, and I like that you can make that choice. I also think the fact that you one-shot Takan is hilarious.

This feels like a harder quest for new players, so I’m glad the reward is worth it: getting your first fabled item has to be cool. Magnet is not a good major ID, but it serves as a nice introduction to the concept. Now, just to store these emeralds in the bank…

A Sandy Scandal:
It’s 2022, why is the Almuj bank still questlocked? Why does Almuj, out of all towns, only allow trusted members into their bank? Every other town should do this too technically, so why just Almuj? All this provides is an inconvenience of time: there’s zero challenge in running to the Detlas bank since the savannah is like level 18 now. This feature only exists to be frustrating. Maybe this would be better if the quest to unlock it was short, but instead I have to watch a bunch of cutscenes and a time-based survival section.

I get that witness reports are meant to make the quest feel more organic, but on repeat playthroughs it’s just annoying. And in the end, it means nothing in terms of the quest storyline, since the bandits are eventually reported to that one guard.

I actually kinda like the part where you escape the Bandit hideout (which is RIGHT NEXT to Almuj for some bizarre reason???) because to the best of knowledge, you’re encouraged to think and actually utilize your movement spell. And I have to give the part where you disarm TNT some credit, because it’s a unique “boss fight”. But yeah, not the best quest overall and I hate how the bank is gated behind it. Perhaps that aspect is simply souring my opinion of the quest, because it does have a great concept and some nice moments.

But yeah, now I have the bank unlocked! Surely I will never have to sit through cutscene-filled quests to unlock something essential again? Right? Surely the gms now know how annoying this is?

Spoiler: LEVELS 33-35

The Mesa:
As content slowly shifts from the desert to the mesa, I feel the need to defend this area. A lot of people hate it, and I’d really like to know why. The labyrinthian and layered area is so unique and stands out from everywhere else in the game. The wild west theme is really creative. It isn’t too isolated, as both the desert and abandoned mines serve as entrances and exits. It isn’t too mazelike either, since you know one side is Rymek and the other side has staircases up. Sure, it doesn’t have a ton of content, but it doesn’t need to have a lot. 2.5 quests, some eco caves, grind spots, and a boss altar is pretty good.

Honestly, the biggest issue comes from the NPCs in Rymek. I wish they weren’t hostile so I could actually use my TP scrolls within the range of the town. I like how they fight back but having something like this in a town feels too inconvenient, since it’s supposed to be a safe haven. The fact that some of them are actually hostile mobs sucks too.

But yeah, the mesa being one of the better areas in my opinion is one of my hot takes for the day. Let me know why you dislike the mesa too if you do in the comments, I’d like to hear your opinions, since I really just like that place a lot.

Kingdom of Sand:
This might be the best dungeon quest so far. Good story that fits in with the world and entertaining gameplay. Traveling through the treacherous mesa to Rymek on your own is a really fun adventure and the quest beacon ensures you’re never truly lost.

It’s interesting how both The Mercenary and this quest have segments where you’re sneaking around bandits in some building, but both quests manage to do their parts completely differently. Here, it’s more of a puzzle. A pretty simple puzzle, but a fun one.

I like how in terms of the story, you're at odds with the bandits in terms of whether or not you should take the scepter, and that Lanu is likely in the wrong here. Unfortunately, despite the Bandits’ warnings, nothing comes of taking the scepter - in fact it’s so much more beneficial for you to do so. It would theoretically be cool if there was some consequence of opening the tomb, but for a quest this important that may not be the best idea.

Grind Spots are a huge problem:
So far, I had been leveling up without grinding at any grindspots: quests, killing mobs along the road (this one is pretty good for xp at lower levels), and discoveries had been good enough. But I decided to try grinding at that one desert pyramid that is extremely easy to find. And it’s insane. In like four minutes I was sixty percent of way to level 36 (I was level 35). WynnExcavation Site A took the same amount of time to do (potentially more or less depending on parkour skill + knowledge of what to do) for LESS XP than grinding mobs. I had 28% XP Bonus, but I also had 10% of xp set to go to my guild. Sure, the mobs did a bunch of damage and I had high enough walk speed to easily dodge them, but man, the feeling of gaining XP this fast was addicting. Why take time to do quests, which have potential to be bad, if you can just keep grinding and get the repeated satisfaction of leveling up over and over again in a short timespan?

And I think grind spots like this are a very, very big problem for the following reason: Wynncraft does not have a good endgame. I know it, you know it, the people who make the game know it. But what it DOES have is a great lead-up to endgame. Grind spots are really not that fun, and by doing them you skip all/most of the quests and dungeons and stuff. And there are probably more issues I’m not thinking of.

I firmly believe that for first-time players, there absolutely should not be easy-to-abuse grind spots out in the open. I’m fine having this area nestled in the upper mesa or something, but it is so easy to find and so easy to level up at.

Now, time for a suggestion: nerf all these grind spots but give players an option to activate a 1.5x/2x combat xp boost (doesn’t affect guild xp) on any classes after reaching level 105 on a class. This would lead to players actually playing the game the first time around, but people can speedrun repeat playthroughs.

But yeah, I felt the need to mention this. This may be a controversial opinion, but I’ve always been very, very much against powerleveling on your first playthrough; I think it can outright ruin Wynncraft for them and I think the content team needs to discourage it as much as possible (powerleveling on repeat playthroughs is fine). I’ll likely touch on this topic again once I arrive at Gavel, the province known for its spider grindspot.

WynnExcavation Site A:
Here we are! The first questline in the game! Except… it doesn’t really feel like one, considering it’s four quests spread out over thirty-five levels. Because of this, it doesn’t really feel like much of a questline, instead just a bunch of quests are sorta linked together until the way end, where the storyline becomes more obvious.

Now, I’m going to be reviewing questlines a bit more differently than the other quests here in this thread. I’m going to put a heavy focus on the overarching story. Why is that? Because I feel like by putting your quests in a questline, you are also putting emphasis on a connected narrative. It’s not gameplay, or quest items, or locations that links them together, it’s the story they try to tell. That being said, I’ll wait until after I’ve done Site D before I review WynnExcavation’s story as a whole. For now, I’ll just focus on the individual quest.

Site A is a very average quest and the most “2014 Wynncraft” thing I have ever seen. The most unique thing about it is that it still uses a hopper in the current year. It’s basically another “explore here and kill this” quest with the slightest hint of a connected storyline. Yeah, apart from the quest item and some dialogue at the end, there’s nothing here that really sets this up to be a questline. It feels so disconnected and when I did it in 2014, I didn’t get too excited for what’s to come.

Also I have to mention this somewhere on the forums: during the “puzzle” where you have to read diary entries, one of them mentions a three-headed monster in a dream. I don’t know if this is foreshadowing for Amadel’s wither form, but if it is that’s awesome!

Tribal Aggression:
This is really not a good quest, I’m sorry to say. Even the quests most people really dislike, like Dwelling Walls and Pit of the Dead, are quests that I consider mediocre but with some merit by virtue of how easily you can speedrun them. But this quest just has a ton of unavoidable backtracking. Why do you have go between the two camps THREE times? And when you aren’t running back and forth, you’re going through mediocre caves filled with average mobs (why are the people in the two camps attacking you for no reason there?). The story is just so generic too. If any quest needs a severe revamp, it’s this one.

Spoiler: LEVELS 36-38

Wrath of the Mummy:
Oh look, another “explore here and kill this” quest! This is an okay quest, but it does have one cool moment I want to talk about. I actually really like the part where you get Pink Wool. This is because there’s no specific way to do it: killing the pink sheep, buying one from the market, looting one from a chest, and buying it at Rymek. Getting one at Rymek is the most expensive, but the one that may be most obvious if you went there for Kingdom of Sand. But if you remember the other sources of pink wool, your wallet is rewarded.

I also want to address the Mummy’s Tomb itself. It’s fun, and would make a great Eco Cave, but… the old one (prior to the 1.18 update) was just so much better. It was dark and you had little space to move, and it really gave the sense of an incredibly deteriorated tomb that you’re not supposed to be in. There was nothing like it and it built up anticipation for a terrifying foe ahead. In contrast, the current tomb is very bright and open. There’s nothing that distinguishes it from an Eco Cave in the desert, honestly.

Final note: the reward is great. The chestplate that is, not the seemingly pointless quest item. I think it’s cool to give low-level players +tier options, considering how important the ID is for class building.

Sand-Swept Tomb:
Alright, this is also my favorite dungeon yet, although given how powerful I was I probably lost a lot of the enjoyment I could’ve gotten. But yeah, it did fix a lot of issues I had with previous dungeons. It didn’t feel too tedious, and it didn’t repeat stuff too much. Hashr was my favorite dungeon boss yet from both a lore and gameplay perspective. The whole “random rooms” element is a great gimmick that enhances replayability, but could honestly be communicated to players better.

I actually ran the dungeon 3 times to get a feel for all the different rooms, but sadly I got the same parkour room 3 times, which is a bit disappointing and would probably underwhelm anyone who runs the dungeon at first. I don’t know if there’s a way to fix that, however. Here’s some stuff that could be changed, though:

• The Limestone Jackal room has too low of a spawnrate, I feel like I spent more time waiting there instead of killing mobs. I was probably just killing them faster than intended...
• The parkour room with the falling platforms has some weird barriers on the walls that I think impacted my jumps at one point. Dunno.

I will say this though… I’ve done half of the unique dungeons by now, and I don’t know if it’s just me, but I feel like they’re missing something. I don’t know. Maybe I’ve done them too much that I’ve gotten fatigued? That could explain why certain long eco caves interest me more; it’s my first time doing most of them. But yeah, I think Sand-Swept Tomb is well-designed and was fun enough that I ran it 3 times, but I just feel like there’s some ingredient missing from it.

Remaining Mesa Content:
Canyon Condor has a very lame story (it’s just a string of fetch quests for random strangers) and some okay to bad gameplay. The rose segment is especially lame, as the quest book literally tells you where to go, meaning that whole part is just a waste of time apart from some brief but good parkour. Yeah, I get it, finding that rose on your own is actually pretty hard (upon the quest’s release people really struggled with it), but it isn’t impossible as you can see the rose mesa from the distance with 8+ render distance, although I’d be fine with a hint being added to in a replacement for handholding.

Where Canyon Condor shines a bit more is how it fits in with the world. I like the foreshadowing of Temple of the Legends, and the context it provides to a seemingly out of place part of Wynn. And the fact that you’re likely following in Bob’s footsteps is cool too.

The real reason I did Canyon Condor was to fight Rymek Luke, which was a lot more fun than I remember! The boss’ charge combo was great and really kept me on my toes, especially during the second phase. Even with my high walkspeed, I still died once due to this. I then tried again with 5% walkspeed and while I never managed to beat the boss, it still felt like I could manage the boss and came close to winning at one point. Overall, another balanced and entertaining boss altar.

Also, while exploring the Mesa, I fell into a cave filled with sentry traps and a charge-spamming mob named Kaven. It dropped an item called howler bait, and needless to say, this was the most exciting part of my playthrough yet. I honestly still don’t know what to do with it. Either way, for the first time ever I felt like I had found something truly mysterious.

The final thing I did was explore the upper mesa. There’s some cool stuff there, like a grind spot that’s almost good and a nice place to mine sandstone. I feel like it could use some loot chests though, and the terrain kinda feels like it could use some work (but I’m no building expert). It’s pretty solitary up there, but at the same time, it leads to a unique feel that I kinda like.

Other Notes:

• I planned on doing all kill mobs miniquests but you know what? I’m level 35 and don’t feel like grinding bonemeal for a level 25 quest.
• Worid shows up in Almuj for some reason? Dunno why he’s here.
• I may dislike a Sandy Scandal, but it is LEAGUES better than that old quest where you have to get water and mashed insects.
• The bazaar place with the old touroto hide in Rymek is one of the coolest parts of any town.
• In the WynnExcavation Site A build there’s a crate labeled “5N41L5 8OU53 Perserved Milk” For those who don’t know, Snails House made the song “Warm Milk” used in those memes where Omni-Man shows you his huge butt. The crazy thing is, I think this was in the game BEFORE that became a meme. To be fair this easter egg was likely added because the song is simply good but still, wild prophetic stuff.
• I had to mention that last one somewhere.

I'm glad you're all enjoying this thread, and I hope to have the next part done in a few weeks. As always, I encourage you all to post your own thoughts in the comments too!

 

Regarding the Limestone Jackals, their respawn rates are actually very high already. I don't know why they take so long to respawn.

 

So that's what that one was. I could never figure out what the hell "bouse" was meant to be, never considered 8 being 1337 for H when it's always been B to me lol

 

On the other hand, it fits into the idea "it is a city of bandits" (which is what vibe I get from it).

Technically it is the same as in Sewers of Ragni - you unseal the place meaning the monster inside can get out. I mean, it isn't some amazing thing and it could be shown better (terrain changes around the dungeon, particles etc.) but it isn't "nothing happens"

Maybe because it is their sanctuary (and like irl cultures it can be quite intrusive for them), but idk.

 

I took a look at the lighting in the tomb and i agree that it probably is too bright in there, i'm not going to change the gameplay of it but i dimmed the light so the atmosphere is better, i might add a few more things but not in the boss room.

 

Oh nice, I'll definitely give it a look once the change is ingame!

 

idk, I just agree with you on almost everything

 

Now that I'm doing all discoveries and nearly every quest at this stage in the game, updates to this thread will now be covering every 5 levels instead of 10. I still have yet to do all Llevigar and Nesaak discoveries, so those will be discussed in my next post.

Spoiler: LEVELS 39-43 (GAVEL & OCEAN)

Pirate’s Trove:
Let me start by saying that I like how the game seems to trust the player to find stuff on their own now. Whereas the Nemract, Desert, and Time Valley regions all were introduced in quests that start in a familiar location, you have to embark towards Gavel on your own. I do think the quest book should mention you start near Llevigar though, so players know to buy a seaskipper boat pass rather than a 2 emerald blocks boat

This… is actually a good quest. It’s super quick on repeat playthroughs, and for new players, it does a good job at guiding players around one of the more maze-like cities. I love the ending, where you find all those emerald blocks and the guy just steals from you. Genuinely a great addition to the quest.

Ice Nations:
First off, it might be best for the questbook to say “Meet Adigard on Nodguj Island” instead of “Meet Adigard on the Ice Islands”, as it might be tricky for first-time players to find him without the online map. Sure, the quest book beacon does work, but is it really best if they use a boat?

And oh man, the part where you try to find the ship is even more agitating without the online map (something not everyone will know about). He tells you to go “North” which you will outright miss if you don’t read dialogue - so a lot of people will miss it. And there’s no quest book beacon to the boat. Now, this would be fine if going north from Adigard’s location would take you to the boat, but that’s not the case. It takes you to the level 70 Dead Island graveyard. You instead have to go north from the seaskipper’s boat.

Side Note: I do not use Wynntils, and while I assume a lot of new players will download it for its convenient features, I don’t feel like switching to 1.12 minecraft for the perspective of using it.

Your reward is XP, emeralds, access to a blacksmith, and a quest helmet. I haven’t been too harsh to normal quest items since you can get rid of them, but you’re STUCK with this climbing helmet forever. And you get another one each class! This item isn’t even useful for like 15 levels! Why, why is this still in the game? After all, there are armor merchants right on the ice islands, why can’t they sell a climbing helmet instead?

The story is uninteresting and reminds me so much of the Tribal Aggression story I did five levels earlier. Then there’s the whole part about the undead attack, which is just strange lorewise. Are corrupteds intelligent enough to like control ships and stuff? And you know what? This quest is just not good in my eyes, I’m sorry.

Heart of Llevigar:
I really like the introduction to this quest with all the particles and stuff. The "secret passageway" to the Head Engineer is quite creative, and it sorta doubles as a quicker way to get to the Gavel door if you really want. Next, there are some issues with this quest include the room with the head engineer being a bit too mazelike when it comes to finding where you need to go next, and some parts make the player take fall damage.

Puzzles range from bad to great yet flawed. The first puzzle is too confusing if the player doesn’t know you can PULL the iron and gold blocks too. Without that info, which isn’t communicated to the player in any way (apart from using F3 to see the pistons are actually sticky pistons), I don’t know if they’ll be able to solve the puzzle without that. With that knowledge it’s fun, but without it I actually had to use a guide on my first playthrough of it. The color puzzle, while very fun and actually hard (IMO), it has some big problems for colorblind players from what I've heard people say. I really hope at some point, puzzles like this and others become more accessible for everyone, since I’ve heard people say they’ve had struggles with this puzzle on more than one occasion.

Something interesting I noticed: at the end of the quest, there’s an endermite named ??? near the head engineer. When you right-click it, it disappears, and a black concrete block appears below it. Was this the decay? If so, this is an interesting teaser and a cool detail for repeat playthroughs.

I love how the silverfish enemies here are called “bugs” btw.

Llevigar and Llevigar Plains:
Llevigar is a cool city with a unique layout, plenty of easter eggs and secrets, and a build style that flaunts wealth maybe more than Almuj did. The plains in Gavel provide a good contrast with Wynn plains, with farmhouses and orc camps replacing the ruins of Wynn’s war-torn fields. I do find it kind of odd that there are like orcs everywhere, including near farms and stuff, but I’ll give that a pass for the sake of gameplay.

Karoc Quarry is annoyingly mazelike, I don’t know if anyone actually has bothered to learn the layout of that place. Nonetheless, it works well to further the contrast between Wynn and Gavel, and the passage connecting it to Llevigar is cool too.

Gavel Lore (So Far):
The first two quests in Gavel take place in Llevigar, which gives off the impression of a utopia. I like this contrast to Wynn which immediately drops you in a millennium-long war. But upon exiting the city, I found a soldier NPC who called me a “small-nose” and mentioned the decay. I like this hint of a future threat I’d be dealing with, but I don’t like how apathetic he seems towards me. All villagers so far in Wynn were friendly, and the two provinces are supposed to have an alliance (I think), so why is he being mean to me?

Clearing the Camps:
Time for an unpopular opinion: I kinda don’t mind Clearing the Camps? It got some improvements in 1.20, which leads to two of the camps being a bit more than just “find the guy and kill him”. It’s nothing special at all, but it feels less than the most generic fetch quest in existence now.

I do have to talk about the story: it’s not particularly interesting, but it does do something which may or may not become a trend later: it makes the player seem like a cruel idiot. Captain Kymer says “defeat the orcs”. So naturally, I kill them because I want my XP and the game gives me no other options. And then Kymer says “that’s harsher than intended” ... like what else was I supposed to do?

Other Notes:

• It’s really cool how Bucie has a horse merchant!
• I feel like out of every level range, the 40-50 one might now be the most disliked. It’s been so long since I’ve played through it, and I’m going to try to figure out why this is the case. I’ll share my findings once I’m level 50.

Spoiler: LEVELS 39-43 (NESAAK)

Nesaak & Seaskipper:
I don’t have much to say about the Nesaak forest. It’s a nice open area that looks really pretty. I absolutely hate the frostbite mob though, but I think it’s fair for every videogame to have an annoying mob, like Terraria with its cave bats

I think the seaskipper to Nesaak is a very nice addition. It helps a lot with smoothing the transition between the gameplay aspect of playing in more than one province. What I’m not a fan of is the “Corkian-Powered Sail”, it feels like using “Corkian” as an excuse for everything is just a meme at this point, but I personally think it’s getting overused.

1.21 Nesaak Remake:
When I heard that Nesaak was being remade, I was skeptical at first. After all, there's nothing wrong with the town, or at least that's what I first thought. After thinking about it, Nesaak doesn't really have much of an identity compared to Wynn's other cities, or even its towns, apart from being frozen and relying on fish a bit. I hope that this rework can give it some more personality (which definitely seems to be happening!), and the builds look fantastic too.

Fate of the Fallen:
First off, I’m really happy there’s now a way to be teleported back to the temple of time repeatedly. Definitely a good addition, considering how many players seem to be confused on how to return if they die here. Adding a reminder to bring back Theorick’s staff would be good too I think, since that part also confuses people. Apart from this, another issue I had with the quest is that the survive section at the portal felt too easy (there was a bit of time there where I wasn’t doing much).

This quest has a very cool use of time travel! It’s interesting to actually be in Wynn during darker times in addition to seeing a warmer Nesaak region. The amount of amazing detail put into old Nesaak region is ASTOUNDING and helps elevate it to being my favorite dungeon quest by a significant margin. I felt incredibly compelled to wander around and find stuff.

And now, the story. Theorick is the first NPC I’ve seen thus far who actually has a solid story and personality (discoveries help with this too). He’s a man who’s become cynical and reckless, leading to his downfall… a fate of the fallen, you could say. But in the end, he seems to realize his mistake and what he needs to do to help Wynn, and realizes that maybe you can take up his mantle one day. This was the first character, piece of lore, and quest storyline that I actually felt invested in on this repeat playthrough.

Tower of Ascencion:
Oh boy. This is a flawed one. In terms of basic gameplay, it’s inferior to Qira hive IMO, and gets repetitive fast. In fact, it might be THE most tedious quest, at least in my opinion. But let’s talk about the other stuff: level ranges. This quest starts at level 40, but judging by surrounding mobs (in terms of levels above their head, not necessarily their power), players might be discouraged from going there or just try to brute-force their way in. And then there’s the recommended levels. They’re just outright misleading, and I expect new players to attempt what’s a level 75 quest finale at level 105 (but by that point they’ve probably learned the truth, to be fair).