Is that the start with the crow/parrot people? That was my favourite start so far. After clearing the gnome village, I just went to clear that human town in the west and the secret serpent cultists. I haven't had trouble running away from brown bears, personally. They don't seem that fast to me. And if you do have trouble running away, just use that cave between the human town and the gnome town to break line of sight.

Yeah, that path to the west has a chance of lots of brown bears spawning along it. Assuming we're talking about the same thing in the higher z-level part of the mountains

I did find that there's a fourth path into a dwarf keep, but that's also not an easy task for a level 2 devourer to tackle.

Yeah, I keep rolling this start and it's not that bad. Kill the gnome village, then the nearby human village, then kill the dwarves and goblins.

Originally posted by suejak:

Yeah, I keep rolling this start and it's not that bad. Kill the gnome village, then the nearby human village, then kill the dwarves and goblins.

So how do you deal with the 2-5 brown bears hanging around the cave descent towards the human village? I've tried sneaking around them, but they can see me from pretty far away, and they can outrun me pretty easily.

Hmm, I don't remember that specifically, but I was a nomad with Quick Step so it was pretty easy to run away.

Originally posted by The Grand Mugwump:

So how do you deal with the 2-5 brown bears hanging around the cave descent towards the human village? I've tried sneaking around them, but they can see me from pretty far away, and they can outrun me pretty easily.

The brown bears don't usually spawn, I've never seen one, I don't know that much about them but I saw them in a video around there. They are high level which I think helps them spot you easily. You can outrun them, but you're not wrong, you don't want to face them at low level. If I encountered a bear at low level I would either kite it or run away.

edit: I double checked and bears are significantly slower than humans and faster human variants, both of which are outrunnable, so it should be easy to lose a bear.

However you always get human soldiers and archers around the same area, just a little further south, so I don't think that start is that much harder than most starts. If you started in the lamato plains or mensfield granary you'd still be in the same area as the bears.

Honestly, this is the spawn I'm most comfortable in. Are you also hitting the bandits that are just off the tunnel that leads to the Dwarven outpost?
And, like Guide said, worst case scenario you can run past the bears. I've done it once or twice.

Originally posted by 404NotAFlounder:

Honestly, this is the spawn I'm most comfortable in. Are you also hitting the bandits that are just off the tunnel that leads to the Dwarven outpost?
And, like Guide said, worst case scenario you can run past the bears. I've done it once or twice.

I'm starting to wonder if I have a different seed or something. I don't run into bandits, but I get mauled by soldiers, giant toads, dwarf guards or bears combined with ranged enemies like huntsmen and cultists when I try leaving the gnome village.

Originally posted by The Grand Mugwump:

Originally posted by 404NotAFlounder:

Honestly, this is the spawn I'm most comfortable in. Are you also hitting the bandits that are just off the tunnel that leads to the Dwarven outpost?
And, like Guide said, worst case scenario you can run past the bears. I've done it once or twice.

I'm starting to wonder if I have a different seed or something. I don't run into bandits, but I get mauled by soldiers, giant toads, dwarf guards or bears combined with ranged enemies like huntsmen and cultists when I try leaving the gnome village.

Seems like the random seeds will switch out a few kinds of the wildlife in certain zones. I've seen what badgers in one start, around the beginner human town, then had bats the next for example.

Although those accursed bears have always been in the area.

I managed to screw around for awhile, in one run, to wait for a bear wandering around the climb-down from the gnome cave. Damn thing was just doing circles between the human and gnome starter towns for a bit. I went back in the cave and did some other stuff before coming back. He was still in the area but I got enough room to go down and run past to human-town. Fighting there was hairy to say the least, wondering if I'd end up with a bear on my back during a fight.

Originally posted by The Grand Mugwump:

I'm starting to wonder if I have a different seed or something. I don't run into bandits, but I get mauled by soldiers, giant toads, dwarf guards or bears combined with ranged enemies like huntsmen and cultists when I try leaving the gnome village.

For me, the bandits are always in the tunnel that leads to the dwarven outpost, before the outpost. You can miss their cave if you're not careful checking the walls though.

No bear spawn between Mechanical City and Noobtown this run. This time it was bees in that area. I suppose they're just one of the possible types for the animal spawns.

Originally posted by 404NotAFlounder:

Originally posted by The Grand Mugwump:

I'm starting to wonder if I have a different seed or something. I don't run into bandits, but I get mauled by soldiers, giant toads, dwarf guards or bears combined with ranged enemies like huntsmen and cultists when I try leaving the gnome village.

For me, the bandits are always in the tunnel that leads to the dwarven outpost, before the outpost. You can miss their cave if you're not careful checking the walls though.

Oh, I usually only get one bandit in that little cave. Never bandits plural.

Originally posted by The Grand Mugwump:

Oh, I usually only get one bandit in that little cave. Never bandits plural.

They tend to wander quickly, I end up killing half of them in the gnome village, depending on my pace. There should be at least 8-10 total, including the 'special' one.

Originally posted by Nefaro:

No bear spawn between Mechanical City and Noobtown this run. This time it was bees in that area. I suppose they're just one of the possible types for the animal spawns.

What/where is the Mechanical City?

Originally posted by 404NotAFlounder:

Originally posted by Nefaro:

No bear spawn between Mechanical City and Noobtown this run. This time it was bees in that area. I suppose they're just one of the possible types for the animal spawns.

What/where is the Mechanical City?

It is :

Just east of the human starter town, through a mountain tunnel just SE of humie-town and up a set of ladders. It's a Gnome town in the mountains, plus a further Dwarf mine south of it.