My Ideas for Valheim: Lokki End Game Boss

[sstella]

I would like to start by saying that I absolutely love Valheim - incredible game & game of the year - I am EXTREMELY excited for Hearth and Home and wish I knew how many months away it was.

Now, for the rest of my post - my list of unsolicited creative ideas that I think would enhance the world of Valheim:


LOKKI - END GAME BOSS

I am unsure how many bosses there are planned, however I would like to propose a final boss - the God Lokki


THE BASIC IDEA

Lokki has tricked Odin, imprisoning him and stealing his hammer. Now Lokki plagues the Player's world, Perverting biomes into twisted reflections of themselves. Players must defeat Perverse versions of the previous bosses in order to be in the best position to challenge Lokki's power. Players must also free Odin and retrieve his hammer from Lokki.


FINDING LOKKI

After defeating whatever boss comes before Lokki, the players receive a server-wide prompt or message that reads "A Traveller has Arrived". After this prompt a cosmetic change to Odin is made - Odin's eye will be green instead of blue - this is Lokki disguised as Odin who will begin appearing with increased frequency. When players approach him he won't immediately vanish - he will linger for a moment and players will be able to interact with him and "Welcome Traveller" - the second this happens Lokki lets out a sinister cackle and reveals his disguise, dropping Odin's objects on the ground and then vanishing. The objects are 1 full set of "Odin's Robes", 1 "Odin Stave" and 1 "Odin's Eye" - more on that later. Players may choose not to advance the Lokki-Arc by simply ignoring disguised Lokki when he appears.


AND SO IT BEGINS

After dropping Odin's items and vanishing, Lokki will take up residence at a Bonemass Altar in a Swamp Biome and Pervert it. This is caused by Lokki's Spire, a large massive tower which now stands where the boss Altar formally was. Every 10 or so days Lokki's Pervsion will spread to other boss altars. Odin will be held prisoner in the Spire. [more on Perversion in a sec]


THE BASIC PIECES

Lokki's Spire - a building of interest which players will have to locate and assault at some point. There are a few related entities:

Lokki - the Boss, who will travel around the world Perverting Boss Altars and Biomes. He will aggro on players who come within 50-100m of him, and will appear aggro'd when coming within 50-100m of Lokki's Spire. Can avoid detection by crafting "Lokki's Cloak" using Perverse Crafting Materials dropped by Perverted Bosses

Odin - who is imprisoned in Lokki's Spire, to be freed by players.

Perverted Boss Altars - As time progresses, Lokki will convert other boss altars into Perverted Boss Altars - a process that players must allow if they wish to kill Perverted Bosses and collect their trophies

Odin's Objects - A set of items dropped by Lokki once the players choose to advance the Lokki Arc and "Welcome Traveler":
1) Odin's Eye - This is an equipped item, like the Wishbone, when worn shows the location of Lokki, Perverted Boss Altars, and Lokki's Spire
2) Odin's Stave - This item is used to trap Lokki and potentially summon a normal boss to help fight
3) Odin's Robes - This will gives resistance against Perversion-related biomes and mobs. Could allow players to sneak up on Lokki [More on that later]


PERVERSION

Lokki isn't inherently malicious, but he is definitely an ill-intentioned prankster. Once Lokki is welcomed into the world he will begin perverting the biomes surrounding boss altars and transforming the scenery and mobs into opposites of themselves through the lense of Lokki's twisted sense of humor. Players will need to defeat the same bosses again, only this time as Perverted versions of themselves with new and different abilities. In general Perverted biomes should have opposite effects. The mountains should be fiery hellscapes and the ashlands frozen trundra. I do not have particular visions for how Perverted Bosses should look, however here is an example of my general vision of Perversion in the Swamp Biome:


THE PERVERTED SWAMP

Lokki's Spire will always spawn in a swamp in the location of a bonemass altar. It will convert the swamp into a "Mangrove" or "Island Paradise" biome. The leeches will become giant eels, the nasty swamp trees will become palm trees, sacks of guck will instead be full of sweet nectar, the gross green water will be clear-blue, full of fish and welcoming light toned sands. The Draugyrs will wear swim trunks skeletons will have haiwaii shirts. Perhaps the most interesting part of Perversion is the introduction of dozens of new perverted items - Palm trees may drop coconuts, Perverted Surtlings may drop "Frozen Cores" and Perverted Drakes drop "Flame Glands" - The Lokki Boss Story Arc presents the only opportunity for players to acquire to these new perverted items. Perhaps Perverse Guck Nectar is used to create potions that negate Pervse biome debuffs

 

[sstella]

PROGRESSING THE LOKKI-ARC

So, now that Lokki has vanished and players have advanced the Lokki story arc, the question remains, how does this arc progress?

Players begin with the knowledge of where important objects are located thanks to Odin's Eye - they will know where Lokki's Spire is (inside of which Odin is imprisoned). They will know where Perverted Boss Altars are located. And finally they will know where Lokki is - this is important because Lokki will move around the map between different boss altars and remain there for 10 or so days in order to Pervert them. If players approach Lokki's location or Lokki's Spire then it will interrupt this process, summoning Lokki directly to the player, who will begin to attack by spawning Perverted mobs, and deal devastating damage using "Odin's Hammer". Regardless, Players can advance the Lokki-Arc by locating and killing Perverted Bosses and their Altars. Defeating Perverted Bosses drops Perverted Crafting Materials and Perverted Boss Trophies. Importantly - Players need the Perverse Crafting Materials in order to craft Lokki's Cloak - allowing them to move freely without summoning Lokki, Perverted Boss Trophies are used to summon Lokki at his Spire


PRANK THE PRANKSTER

Now that players can approach Lokki and his Spire freely using Lokki's Cloak*, they can attempt to end the game through two routes - by 1) Receiving Odin's Blessing, or 2) Becoming a Legend of Valhalla. Here's how these approaches differ:
*[It is worth noting that Odin's Robes can act as an equivalent of Lokki's Cloak, still concealing Players from summoning Lokki's aggro.]


ODIN'S BLESSING (Easier Ending)

Once you sneak into Lokki's Spire, you can easily free Odin. Doing so requires his Robes, Stave, and Eye. It will grant players "Odin's Blessing" - a buff which counters perverted biome debuffs by causing health regeneration instead. Odin's Blessing also acts as a constant "Odin's Eye" - showing the location of Lokki and perverse boss altars at all times. Most importantly, now players can challenge Lokki with the help of Odin. If player's aggro Lokki while they have the "Odin's Blessing" buff then Odin will appear holding his stave and creating a force-field arena, trapping Lokki inside and allowing players to battle him. Most importantly, players can now summon Lokki by collecting Perverse Boss Trophies and placing them in Lokki's Spire - this will summon Lokki, which will in turn summon Odin to trap Lokki. Once Lokki is defeated Odin regains his hammer and leaves players with the Odin's Blessing Buff, now formally beating the game the "easy" way.


LEGEND OF VALHALLA (Brutally Hard Ending)

In the previous method we free Odin before defeating Lokki. In this method, Players take down Lokki first and free Odin afterwards. This will make the players literal Gods in the eyes of Odin, who allows them to keep Odin's objects. In this method, players must trap Lokki themselves - They will need to use Odin's stave to trap Lokki in the arena-forcefield. This involves either one player holding the stave constantly, or the object being placed on the ground or boss altar, where it may possibly be knocked over.

If the player successfully places Odin's Stave on the alter while Lokki is in the process of Perversion, then it may summon the regular boss as a friendly mob to help fight Lokki and his legions of Perverse mobs. If the player holding Lokki's Stave dies, or if the Stave is knocked over, then the forcefield goes down and Lokki escapes, fleeing to another boss altar and potentially summoning a perverse boss on the way out. Ultimately, Players end the game as "Legends of Valhalla" by locating and killing Lokki themselves without the "Odin's Blessing" buff, allowing them to keep Odin's legendary equipment.


THE DIFFERENCE IN ENDINGS AND WHY

The first ending with "Odin's Blessing" allows players to trap and kill Lokki in a single fight. If Players die they can return to the location where Lokki will still be trapped by Odin. Players will have serious buffs if they choose to summon Lokki at his Spire - the Spire is located in a Perverse biome, and "Odin's Blessing" allows constant HP regen in this Perverse biome. Approaching Lokki outside the spire usually means interrupting his process of Perversion, meaning you will be trapping him outside of a Perverse Biome without the regen of Odin's Blessing Buff. [Perhaps Odin's Blessing allows regen regardless of biome? I only proposed the regen option to reflect Odin responding to Lokki's "Pranks" with a prank of his own...]

Finishing the game with "Odin's Blessing" means forfeiting Odin's objects, [Robes, Eye, Stave, Hammer] and retaining the "Odin's Blessing" debuff after beating the final Lokki boss. Alternatively, players can just attempt to immediately locate and kill Lokki. Technically, killing Perverted bosses is optional - you no longer need to sneak around with Lokki noticing if you're fine with just fighting him head on - however this makes the boss fight a lot harder. If you manage to kill Lokki without freeing Odin and receiving the "Odin's Blessing" buff, then you can officially receive the "Legend of Valhalla" ending - after of course freeing Odin who will be surprised to learn you killed Lokki using his equipment and reward players by letting them keep that equipment. The only advantage to this method is the possibility of summoning a Boss as a friendly mob to help take down Lokki.

If you can sneak up to the Boss Altar Lokki is presently Perverting, you can then place Odin's Stave on the altar, trapping Lokki and potentially even summoning the Boss as a friendly mob to help fight. The arena-forcefield is a hard barrier, meaning players can not pass through it. If more than one person wants to fight Lokki, then they will also need their own Lokki Cloaks and sneak into the forcefield radius alongside the player placing the stave. It is possible for a single player to immediately trap and challenge Lokki at a boss altar and summon a friendly boss to help using Odin's equipment alone, however, if multiple players want to sneak up on Lokki they will need to first collect Perverse Crafting Materials by killing Lokki's Perverted Bosses and then craft them into their own Lokki Cloaks - otherwise they will never be able to enter the potential forcefield radius without aggro'ing Lokki, pulling him away from the altar and preventing the possibility of "Pranking" him and summoning a friendly a boss with Odin's Stave.

TLDR -There's two endings, an easy one, which allow players to fight Lokki with a powerful debuff after first collecting all perverted boss trophies, and a hard ending, where players manage to kill Lokki without Odin's help, but possibly with the help of a friendly boss instead.


OTHER IDEAS
I know one concept revolving around Odin's Hammer is perhaps being worthy enough to wield it, drawing into question whether or not Lokki can even use the hammer. This sort of lore knowledge is something developers are privy to determining.

I would also like to propose another biome-related debuff. I enjoy biome debuff scaling, ie - poison in swamps, freezing in mountains, and fire in ashlands - I would like to perhaps suggest adding "Perversion" related biome debuffs, requiring players to make "Purity" potions before entering Perverted lands so as to negate biome-related damage.

As a mob or a boss, I imagine Lokki to fly around and levitate a bit- probably using Odin's Hammer. This makes Lokki devastating in open outdoor environments, and further stresses the advantage of fighting Lokki in his spire - an enclosed space where he can't move as quickly or sporadically.

It is possible to free Odin and then battle Lokki at a Boss Altar, allowing players to defeat Lokki with both Odin's Blessing and the help of a friendly Boss - of course players will be outside of a Perverse Biome and not potentially regenerate HP

It is possible to make a friendly boss spawn and fight a perverted version of themselves - if you successfully summon a friendly boss, but Lokki manages to escape, he may summon a Perverse Boss during his escape, creating an epic battle for players to spectate.

It may be possible for players to inadvertently trap Lokki in an undesireable location using Odin. The present rules and arrangements do not really create the possibility of Lokki despawning or escaping, since Odin should keep him sufficiently trapped.



Well that's all. I am not sure who will be reading this, if ever, but I thank you for reading this far. I look forward to your feedback or thoughts on this.

 

[sstella]

Why I wrote this Post:

I initially wanted to propose that the final boss of Valheim be a sort of "Contagious Biome" - something which spreads and allows players to battle new versions of previously defeated bosses and mobs, as well as acquire new end-game items. I know a decent part of this game's scaling revolves around discovering new materials and biomes, so I figured I would propose that the final tier of bosses, mobs, and items be introduced through a contagious biome. I also wanted the final boss to be one which warrants significant travel - the Valheim world is vast and beautiful, and I strongly favor any mechanics which promote exploring this incredible world.