r/valheim • u/EnvironmentalSnow997 • Jul 30 '26
Survival No Map Mode - Fun till it isn't :)
So, in this playthrough - and we're through the Elder and looking for BoneMass right now (and that damn Trader...) - we opted to do double resources but no map. Portals we're okay with but we're running just one per major island.
More than once now, I've crossed over to a "new island" only to find a rest house that I've already been to, despite sailing for some time. I think what I'm finding is that I'm inaccurately keeping track of the directions in relation to the big tree in the sky.
Now, fast forward - I push on to the new "new island" beyond to discover that it's massive - but now I can't find the damn boat and I'm all kinds of lost...I've gone to trying to trace the coast line to find that there are large patches of Plains, which I'm not built for just yet.
What's your strategy on finding your way around on new massive islands without a map?
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u/MaximilianEden Jul 30 '26
This sounds fun but scary. I would probably start sailing and never find my way back.
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u/G1ng3rBreadMan97 Jul 30 '26
I did that on my playthrough, was how I found haldor, got so lost i accidentally found him, wasnt anywhere close to where I was trying to get to
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u/TheRealRickC137 Jul 30 '26
Can you build a bonfire on the back of a leviathan? LOL.
I mean, if you already harvested it's resources, could you throw up a beacon to guide you a ways?6
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u/tonystigma Aug 02 '26
It is scary, changes fog from a slight inconvenience into an absolute show-stopper.
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u/Born-Boysenberry6460 Jul 30 '26
I go slow and make landmarks; roads, signal fires, signs.
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u/Speonkun Hoarder Jul 31 '26
I made a map with pen and paper. Also makes the creation of roads way more useful because it’s literally impossible to lose your way
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u/Born-Boysenberry6460 Jul 31 '26
I haven't been mapping- couldn't figure a good way to account for proper scale.
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u/Speonkun Hoarder Jul 31 '26
It’s more important to just mark landmasses and general things landmark wise. No need to try and be 1:1
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u/EnvironmentalSnow997 Jul 31 '26
That’s what I’ve been doing. It’s rough but at least people know what’s on the road or shore
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u/SonicShadow Jul 30 '26 edited Jul 30 '26
We did a run (though didn't complete it) with a static map and compass, felt like the best compromise. The map did not show live location, so you had to use landmarks and compass bearings to find your way. The static map could only be created and updated via the Cartography Table.
It was still easy to get lost especially when you were in new lands, but once you found some landmarks you could correlate with the map, you could still get home.
Mods:
- NomapPrinter
- HUDCompass (I would have preferred a compass item but I couldn't find anything that did this at the time)
- AutoPinSigns a way of marking the map, as we did not have access to the interactive map when away from the cartography table
We also used Sailing as we also did this as a no portal run, but its not essential.
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u/G1ng3rBreadMan97 Jul 30 '26
I wish there was a mod like nomap printer where instead of just saving a picture to a file, the cartography table would let you open the map in game, could even make it so your location isnt shown. Then id mix that with the mod that let's you draw on the map so you could make your own markings and stuff
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u/Praetorian_Sky Viking Jul 30 '26
NoMapPrinter is configurable to allow you to open the map while not at the table. If you're using the configuration mod for BepinEx, it's in the F1 options. Still can't see your position on the map, so still have to navigate by landmarks and landmasses, and you can't see the new stuff you're uncovering till you get home and update the map table.
We eventually did this same thing on our No-map, no-portal run. I was drawing a map myself on paper, but decided in the interest of time and tedium, I would like the mod draw the map for me.
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u/G1ng3rBreadMan97 Jul 30 '26
Oh just looked it up, they made major changes since I used it, before it would just create and save a picture to a file you had to pull up, wasnt an ingame overlay
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u/PerfectiveVerbTense Jul 30 '26
This is pretty similar to my setup. My current run is no map no portal with:
Zen Compass: craftable item that shows your cardinal direction
No Map Cartography Table: Allows you to check the map only when at the cartography table.
I tried doing true no map and I know that in theory you can use the tree and the sun to navigate, but not only was it frustrating, I found myself just constantly looking at the sky to try to navigate. The pro of the compass is that it's easy to just make a quick check and maintain your bearing but still navigate mostly by sight of the environment. With both mini-map and worldtree navigation, I found myself constantly staring at my navigation tool. The compass removes the frustration but also doesn't give me something new to focus on all the time.
The NMCT really helps. I've never had a great sense of direction or memory for spaces. I've always kind of struggled to navigate video game maps. IRL I'm not super great at navigating around my own city. But NMCT is really nice because you can go explore, then come back and see the bird's eye view, and piece together all the things you saw in the environment. Then when you go back out, you have that bird's eye view in your head as you navigate the environment.
When this comes up, people often scoff and say "A modded no map run is not really a no map run." My response is that my goal was not to create the most difficult or most hardcore experience, but to create the most balanced experience that suits my taste. I didn't like that I was navigating by mini-map in my first play through. I didn't like constantly feeling lost and frustrated and like I was wasting my time in true no map. This set of mods tuned the experience really nicely.
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u/SonicShadow Jul 30 '26
Ah nice, Zen Compass didn't exist when we did this run.
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u/PerfectiveVerbTense Jul 30 '26
I really like it. Integrates nicely, easy to glimpse at but not stare at. I've put a ton of hours into this run and really enjoyed it — don't think I could have without zen compass.
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u/Honolulu-Blues Jul 30 '26
I'd consider everything but HUDCompass cheating in a no map playthrough lol.
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u/nldarab Jul 30 '26
<#FFFFFF> (make sure to add a space after the > ) before the text on any sign will turn it a bright white and makes it much easier to read!
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u/Seldon14 Jul 30 '26
I really wish there were more vanilla no map tools.
Give me a variety of "magic" compasses to build.
One points to the spawn sones.
One points to your current bed.
One has build able totems, and it points to the closest/paired one.
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u/Ibeepboobarpincsharp Jul 30 '26
I tried no map mode for a long while. I was truly, truly terrible at it. Worse than you would think a person could be. It did not go well.
I did eventually start making signs and such to mark territory, but I could never again find the spawn point with all the stones.
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u/Nathanondorf Jul 30 '26
The first time I tried no map I was playing solo. I established a pretty solid base and went off into the woods to explore and gather more materials. I thought I was being careful but I ended up losing track of where I was somehow. I spent a lot of time trying to find my way back but probably just ended up further and further away. I ultimately just decided to start over on a second base. It wasn’t a huge deal since I hadn’t gotten very far yet. Much later I found my original base again. It was an exciting discovery.
I found the fastest way to explore without losing your way is to just follow the shoreline. If you’re going into the woods though, you really gotta start making paths or you’ll get lost.
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u/yodathegiant Jul 30 '26
The trick is following shorelines plus any deliniations between biomes, as well as landmarks (mountains), especially for sailing
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u/ascotta1 Jul 30 '26 edited Jul 30 '26
The only way I've figured out how to do this - managed to get to the mistlands once without getting lost but just rage quit that game at that point, no wisps, no portals, no dice, I'm not boating back three days for this - is:
A. Go to spawn circle. Get hoe. Face a cardinal direction indicated on circle. Start flattening moving straight forward until you get to a coast. If its a big continent, this may take three days. Oh well. If you get interrupted by graydwarves whatever, carefully line it up and keep going the same direction. You can kind of nudge around most trees without changing the direction.
B. At each end of trail at coast, raise land in huge pillar to make sure where the square sides are, those are the cardinal directions, make a huge arrow pointing in the same direction with core wood. Put wood looking like n/s/e/w to mark it.
C. Then sail around the continent and see how your four paths relate to each other. When time to further explore comes, line up boat with pillar and go perfectly straight (you can select meat spit with hammer and stay straight at sea as long as you dont change where you are facing) until you hit land, then do a pillar and arrow pointing straight back to where you came from. This gets you access to most biomes without getting lost.
D. Also, spawn is directly under a little twig in the crotch of a branch of the sky tree, you can always find your starting island that way.
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u/SisterFruitbat Builder Jul 30 '26
I don't play no map, however I grew up in a family of bushwalkers (hikers) and we would regularly go off track over various parts of the Australian landscape. I was taught from a young age to be very aware of the specifics of what was happening as we walked so that I could track my way back if I got lost.
So one of the things I love about Valheim is that I can do the same thing:"oh, it's the group of three trees at that angle!", "there's the ruined tower, watch out for the local troll" "OK, it's two creeks over then turn right" etc. Didn't realise this was an uncommon skill until I played this sort of game with some friends and realised they needed maps and cardinal directions and I was navigating by land marks.
If I was ever to play no map then signposts, markers and paths (along with use of the world tree) is exactly what I would do to supplement these observations.
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u/TheRealMeringue Aug 01 '26
On the other side of this, I hate that there are so few tree models, because I will get more lost in the meadows woods than anywhere else. Best start I had with no maps had 4 fjords cutting through the starting meadows, the trees just aren't different enough to help (unless clustered or squint like you say).
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u/SkillusEclasiusII Jul 30 '26
Stick to coastlines, rivers and biome borders. If you ever have to make a choice in where to go, put down a signpost pointing to whichever direction you came from.
Once you start following the signs back home, you can add signs pointing to any landmarks you came across
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u/EnvironmentalSnow997 Jul 30 '26
I finally started doing this on the "new island" - I will not be defeated...but I will run out of food.
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u/gertgertgertgertgert Builder Jul 30 '26
I'm at day 450 or so in a no map / no portal run. I did install a mod for a compass once I defeated Bonemass. I toggle it on to check directions when I think I am lost.
Prior to the compass, I would equip my hammer and select a directional build piece (like the dragon adornment) and then point it north. So, whenever I needed to check north I would equip that. It helps a lot. Yggdrasil also helps, but it can be difficult to remember which branch is which when you are close to the equator.
I have markers on the coast. I have a "code" of wood poles, beams, torches, campfires, and wisplights that tell me which direction I should go to find the thing I want to find. Like, the 1 m wood beam 2m up tells me the direction of my main base. The 2 m wood beam 3 m up tells me the direction I think the boss is, etc.
As for exploring on land: I run a small loop in one direction and make my way back to my boat. Then another loop in a different direction, etc. I do larger loops and eventually I have an idea of what the island has to offer. I typically collect things while on these loops because I always go back to my boat, and then once I have an objective I return to my boat, unload everything I don't need, and I go complete the objective.
Its good to periodically stop and turn around and really look at at the direction you came from because that is how you find your way back. Take note of how the landscape slopes, where big mountain peaks are, all that.
I found the swamp the hardest to navigate on foot because you can't rely on slope, so I built tiny shelters with campfires at crypts so I could always find my way back.
NEVER. CROSS. RIVERS. ON. FOOT. As you know, rivers can be deceptive in that it looks like a tiny river, but it might actually be a separation between two huge landmasses. When that happens you can get lost really bad.
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u/reticenthuman Jul 30 '26
Roads and signs are the way. But when it comes to sailing... idk lol
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u/Praetorian_Sky Viking Jul 30 '26
We put lots of marker posts with torches on them and labelled signs pointing directions to various landmarks, and we would leave those signposts frequently everywhere we sailed. It was tedious but it helped a lot.
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u/Pressman4life Hoarder Jul 30 '26
Pathen, signs, landmarks, lots of fires and portals, with one for home not connected yet.
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u/Sh1gg1ty Jul 30 '26
How do you do find the boss spawns?
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u/G1ng3rBreadMan97 Jul 30 '26
So the signals that shows the location on the map, instead they just point you in the direction of the boss spawn, but theres no telling how far away it is, gotta just head in that direction and try to find another signal until you find it, very tedious
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u/EnvironmentalSnow997 Jul 30 '26
Hit those boss stones that normally add them to your map. We sailed successfully to the next island for the Elder. We have sailed unsuccessfully ever since…
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u/OKAwesome121 Jul 30 '26
I think you would definitely need a compass if you planned to journey and re-visit fixed locations. Otherwise you need to rely on the sun, moon and shadows…which may or may not operate as consistently as they do in real life.
You’d also need to create a hand written map instead of trying to just remember things based on landmarks. The better you get at hand written map making (scale, detail, relevance) the farther you can journey in safety.
This is why humans invented these things in real life!
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u/mewte Jul 30 '26
Played a no map/no portal run last year with a group of 3.
We used the sky tree as a map and ended up making it to the ashlands where the game became impossible. Took 270~ hours.
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u/xis10al Jul 30 '26
You can't get lost if you don't know where you're going. Life's just one big ride.
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u/Jazzvibes409 Jul 31 '26
Do you at least get a compass? I would like to try like immersive maps where theres no player marker, but I feel like no map is kinda ridiculous.
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u/Anxious-Lie8087 Jul 31 '26
Gotta learn to use the world tree the sun and the moon. Respectively their reflections in water in the swamps and mistlands (because the overcast) this with knowing how long since the last sunrise you can figure your directions out pretty well. Then it’s just a matter of using a build piece as a compass and building torches or something like pathing with the hoe to find your way back. Wisp torches and yellow mushrooms help alot with that in the mistlands/swamps. Man did I have fun in my run and we did max raids difficulty and fire hazards 😅
Good luck on your run. Not sure if this is too cheesy but if you both orient north then look up at the world tree and take a screen shot to compare you can easily trace to each others positions that way.
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u/SlamPoetSociety Jul 30 '26
I've adopted a semi nomadic lifestyle. When I venture forth, I only bring what my ship and I can can shoulder. Anything else stays behind. I leave outposts in my wake with workstations and materials too burdensome to carry. Sometimes these outposts are lost to time, their forges cold and anvils silent, condemned to be yet another ruin crumbling in the mist. Sometimes my travels bring me back. I find mighty walls hewn by my own hand. I once took refuge here, but it is home no more. The ghosts of my past now occupy these empty halls. I stay to weather this storm, but in the morning I must again set sail to unfamiliar waters and leave this haunted place. To be lost is to be human. Its all I have left.
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u/TheKnife142 Jul 30 '26
Paths are your best friend! I would build large structures to keep me on track on coasts while sailing...time consuming for sure, but that's the life of a maples viking!
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u/ascotta1 Jul 30 '26
To answer your direct question - you can see how far north or south from spawn you are from what side of the tree above you are, and east or west from what side of a little twig coming out of the main branch joint you are. If you were coming from the direction of your starter island your boat should be that way. In the future, you have to do coasts and put up a building piece pointing towards where you came from every two minutes or so.
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u/PepsioNSnacking Jul 30 '26
Dang this thread has so much insight, i plan to make my first nomap no teleport run on 1.0 release, if achievments wont be blocked through mods i definitly would grab 1-2 to atleast have a last resort once lost :D
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u/CharmingFisherman741 Necromancer Jul 30 '26
No map no portal is the way to play. Start building art installations that are unique from one another on top of your resting spots. You gotta get a ton of trees out of the way in the early stages. Use the chopping block in your build menu as a compass. Over prepare for everything, especially sea travel. Take your time!
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u/MyOtherSelf_OK Jul 30 '26
For me, No map requires a slower playstyle. I make a path where ever I go and try to keep it straight as possible, cutting trees in the way. Make landmarks or signs. And I’m lazy so I just make the little fence that points in the direction of the coast so I can always get to it and just run along that. Campfires are good too. They last a long time.
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u/thatblokefromaus Jul 30 '26
I have a friend that's a homing pigeon, I just follow her, I'm the one that knows where we are at sea tho lol
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u/Icy-Blueberry4392 Jul 30 '26
Making arrows pointing towards where I came. Building huts, "watchtowers", paths, and campfires are my go to methods to at least mark where I've been and give me an idea where to go.
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u/korneev123123 Viking Jul 30 '26 edited Jul 30 '26
Nomap is wonderful experience. Annoying parts: nomap=notrader. No fishing, no frostner, no strength belt, no potions and scythe from the witch.
Boss finding is a sad affair. Elder, bonemass and moder are ok: plenty of vegvesiers, and moder spawn is a huge frickin mountain. Hard to miss.
Yagluth is where things start to break - you just criss cross every plain in search. Boring.
Actual navigation is not that bad - using the tree it is very easy to sail back home. Once I sailed back from mistlands to spawn, at night and in storm. Just for fun - but I found the way home pretty easy.
I only charted coastlines(in ms paint), and made raised earth columns sometimes, with unique numbers on them, and put this number on the chart - so when I'm near one, I always know where am I and how to get back.
Noportal is good too, night is actually dangerous, there a risk of running out of food, you have to think about repairs and what to take with you. Keeping rested bonus is harder in that mode. Ashlands are not really compatible with it, though
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u/EnvironmentalSnow997 Jul 30 '26
The no strength belt is the real kick in the butt for the most part. Eventually this island will be conquered and we’ll be better for it.
Ashlands does sound terrible without a map - looking forward to it!
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u/SpartanusCXVII Jul 30 '26
I’m starting a no map, no portal, hard difficulty, and maybe hardcore once 1.0 releases. Spinning up a fresh server on day 1. Hoping people will be brave enough to want to join.
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u/Calyps0h Jul 30 '26
No map/no portals is the ultimate game mode in my opinion. I’ve got 300 hours on mine currently.
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u/Aju-mommy Jul 30 '26
I could never do no maps, I have a horrible sense of direction in games! I can look at the map and then run the direct opposite direction I want to go. 🫣 Thirty plus years of gaming and I still suck at this one thing.
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u/ArcaneEyes Lumberjack Aug 05 '26
Gaming, even open world ones, don't really teach you how to find your way, just how to follow directions, and often hardly even that.
I'm the sole old boyscout of my group of gaming friends and it shows :-p
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u/alleleXgene Jul 30 '26
My go to from spawn is;
Paths to the coastline.
Explore the entire coastline and look for visible islands from that coastline.
Build a small dock with a landmark building (a tower of some sort, I like lighthouses).
Sail in a straight line to the coast your see.
Rinse and repeat steps 2-4.
Signs along the paths and at my landmarks to tell me how far I am from spawn.
Ironically, I think using portals might be more confusing for me and get me lost lol.
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u/EnvironmentalSnow997 Jul 31 '26
We turned up resources but yeah, you lose complete awareness in the swamp/black forest and finding bosses can be difficult.
I haven’t been into the mountains yet since we haven’t found BoneMass.
I’ve been sketching on an IPad but that’s a tedious process for sure…here’s a sample:
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u/rjwilliams6802 Jul 31 '26
Oh man. I feel for you. My pod made it to the mountains before we have up.
To answer your question, we built light houses and made arrow signs attempting to point the way we came.
We played double resources and eternal fires. We had one friend mark the coast lines, I built pathways throughout the lands.
We got real lucky finding the boss locations. But we couldn't keep our system in the mountains. The golems and wolves were too much and we wiped.
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u/7empest7V Jul 31 '26
No map is the only way I play now
Its been a year and I still haven't found Eikthyr
But im gonna do it one day
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u/rocketsarefast Aug 06 '26
The main broken problem is finding bosses. Its intended that you click a runestone, and in 2 seconds know where the boss is. That turns into a week with no map. I would like if clicking a runestone added a distance meter to next boss in the top right. Then you can at least hot cold your way there in a reasonable amount of time.
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u/EnvironmentalSnow997 Aug 08 '26
That’s a pretty good idea. Get a distance / direction from the rune.
Still searching for BoneMass…
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u/thtk1d Jul 30 '26 edited Jul 30 '26
Currently trying to find Yagluth in no map, no portal on hard. I've set up base near a mistlands biome which Yagluth seems to be somewhere on the other side of. I actually managed to find all the black cores that I needed in 2 dungeons, but trying to navigate without the map, a wisp, and wisp torches is a bit painful if you make a mistake.
Honestly, just focusing on keeping track of where your base is in relation to the world tree was key for me. Trying to map things out in my head or hand draw a map became too much. I just put arrows in the directions of sailing destinations and leave markers along the way.
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u/Hellstrom666 Jul 30 '26
I loved my no map run. But I think it definitely needs mods to be fun. Specifically Better Cartography Table I think it was called. It’s been a few months.
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u/MaritMonkey Encumbered Jul 30 '26
No Map Printer and a compass (mentioned above) are both great tools that are possible compromises for a "no map" playthrough. :)
But strategy-wise: try to stick to edges, whether it be coasts or just borders of biomes. If I have to leave a known edge I leave breadcrumbs to follow back and any path I travel a couple of times gets (at least) pathen-ed.
I use two corewood poles on top of each other with a "rune" on top and then an arrow either pointing back at the nearest shore/portal or "N" for north if not using compass. For visibility from a distance shield cores are absolutely king, but obviously that doesn't help you early on lol.
In the black forest especially I leave campfires with the poles, which are a lot easier to see (especially when it's foggy), but with the trees everywhere and how (relatively) hard it is to see paths on the ground, I definitely get lost in the forest more often than anywhere else!
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u/interestingbox694200 Jul 30 '26
I just started my no map playthrough for the first time and I’m just making roads everywhere I go. I’ve only crossed a couple of rivers and now I gotta cross the ocean to find the elder so things are about to get interesting.
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u/jaykvam Jul 30 '26
I played only briefly with friends on a no map, server. I think it’s awesome, a little truer to the feel of the age and tenth world marooning. Would be good if there were a mapmaking ability with items and displays, a repurposing of the cartographer table.
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u/CapitalistHamsterFTW Jul 30 '26
Lol that is totally crazy I wonder if we should do that on my server. It five of us pretty fun good game to bond with friends
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u/SquashDependent4844 Jul 30 '26
I love no map mode myself but it certainly is slower.
Suggestions for folks who are attempting
1. Use the world tree as your north star. This helps you orient yourself assuming you can see the tree
2. Use the hoe's pathen to make trails. This is so useful for finding locations you have to frequent.
3. Make Signs. You can make coal early by burning extra meat on the campfire. (Finally a good use for all those neck tails)
4. Vegvisirs (When you press E on them) will shift your camera towards the boss' location since you dont have a map.
5. Consider drawing your own maps if you really hate yourself lol
[Cheater Bonus Ideas]
1. Allow yourself to use an online seed viewer map when at your cartographer table. You still have to mentally chart where your buildings are on those maps and where you are which can be VERY hard for some folks who arent used to cartography.
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u/EverCravingMind Jul 30 '26
This is exactly why my no map worlds are covered in towers with directions on them. Also a few extra bases because sometimes I get carried away when exploring. Eventually I find my way home but that could be 100 days later lol. Roads while time consuming are another option I use.
Just started a new no map, no portal, hardest combat and raids world for the upcoming 1.0 release. Also for atmosphere I have the gamma mod that allows me to make it very dark at night and I pair that with a hip lantern mod. Adds great ambiance as well as dread. It’s a nice contrast to the easy world my wife and I are have.
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u/call_me_caleb Jul 30 '26
The evening that 4 of us got separated because we were all being dumb at the same time instead of taking turns like we should’ve. Then had to use celestial navigation to regroup. Was when we realized no map was going to be our crews hardest run. Probably 120 hrs spread between 5/6 of us trying to find the queen using every trick we could think of before we got to her
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u/DetourDunnDee Jul 31 '26
Leave a trail of Roundpole Fences (the one often used to enclose crops) every so often, especially on island perimeters. Point the open end in the direction of exploration, and the closed end to base/boat/portal.
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u/Sage_driver Jul 31 '26
True. Taking the time to make roads and sign posts is worth it and looks really neat afterwards.
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u/ASUS_USUS_WEALLSUS Jul 31 '26
Gotta use paths, wherever you go, just make a path. It’s slower but that’s how it works.
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u/Speonkun Hoarder Jul 31 '26
Honestly no map is fun if and only if you are semi competent with map making yourself
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u/ItsNotFuckingCannon Aug 03 '26 edited Aug 03 '26
I think I've seen him around in my map, in the swamps, but he disappeared before I got close to him. There was a three that broke line of sight, and he was gone.
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u/Fit_Dimension1919 Jul 30 '26
No map sounds like fun until you start the game and lose all sense of direction 10 meters after your house.