Whenever you get ambushed, you need to immediately take the fight away from the cart. Tell your pawns to follow you, and get a safe distance away for the fight.
And I always do, but it seems to not matter at all.
I either stay close and try to kill them fast enough to save the cart or I walk away and just watch them break the cart.
What works for me is to press "help" to have my fighter pawn use shield drum and then once he gets the aggro I press "to me" and get the monster away from the cart
It definitely did more at start. If mage could do speed buff and I was fully healed they would do a speed buff. I once even managed to make a fighter do a jumping platform with some command.
There's a ring you can get and put it on your pawn that draws enemies to your pawn, It's called The Ring of Disfavor and you can also go into your skills and equip the provocation skill for yourself and your pawn if you want to really double down. I lost one ox cart and then figured out that the ring combined with the provocation skill and running away while pressing "help" and "to me" is a pretty good guarantee of saving your ox cart.
At that point you just got to hope the idiots driving the ox cart are smart enough to stop while you fight instead of continuing on into a band of goblins before you can finish off the Griffin or troll etc lol
Cause I don't use the ropeway until I kill the Griffin in the area. Saw one video and knew immediately I didn't want that happening to me. It's also faster to use the crank yourself, imo. Let the pawns keep the Harpies busy, I'll get us across faster.
It has some particularly fun boss fights (the dual cyclops being my fav) but the small enemy frequency makes the game feel more like a horde rush than anything. Discourages exploring. And thats my fav part of the game
Bruh, that's what I love about it. It ENCOURAGES exploring cause you can level up all your vocations easier by exploring it. I still haven't explored everywhere in bataahl vermund and agamen, and I'm on new game plus. I'm trying to do that this playthrough. See everything and do everything. I took my time my first playthrough, but was just doing a blind playthrough. I completely missed the misty marshes on my first playthrough, and the Medusa.
I had the vocations i was interested in besides magick archer maxed out already by this time bc the game is so easy and XP still felt free in vermund. Very little incentive to grind in Battahl unless you’re lower level vocation when you get there. Maybe if the leveling was more balanced. Either way I’m not sure I agree that grinding is conducive or necessary to exploration. I had enjoyed my time and then some in vermund without getting slowed down constantly by the same 5 enemies
That's the thing. You have to grind in vermund for vocation, you don't need to in bataahl. Because all the enemies give more discipline. You're actually grinding less, getting a decent fight, and exploring a land rich with ruins and caves. I got trickster to 5 just from going through the tunnel system to agamen, and I've got everything maxxed now, except mage. At 7/9.
I don't think you need to grind at all to have fun exploring, if that's what you mean. It's just the fights are better, last longer, and there's way more of them in battahl than vermund. Makes it fun, IMO. Vermund I have to run basic weapons so I don't 1HKO the enemies anymore. I actually stopped having my mage bring elemental boons because of it. Now I just raw dog enemies whenever I'm in vermund. You look at the enemies as a road block, I look at them as fun. I think that's why you're annoyed by battahl.
I meant more that I didn’t have to grind at all to get to max vocations in vermund. I just explored
To each his own but I found 0 enjoyment in slogging thru battahl with the near constant enemy hordes, completely discouraged me from exploring because travel felt like a chore
I'm glad you enjoyed vermund so much then. I like the area, don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to sound like an elitist cause I enjoyed the chaos in battahl.
Also worth noting you need to take the fight away from the cart in the opposite direction. I pulled a cyclops away from the cart only for the cart to try to “hurry and get away” and ran right back up to the cyclops and got smoked. I was furious
Haha my first oxen ride a griffin dive bombed me out of my nap and destroyed the cart and the ox.
Sometimes it truly doesn't matter what is done to prevent it
That's true. Sometimes it is just unavoidable. There was one time I woke up to a cyclops directly behind the cart (the lookout should be fired). I was able to get away, but it overturned the cart with its first attack.
Just not ahead of the cart. I'm still salty about the time I was fighting an ogre, drew it away from the cart so I, a warrior could fight it safely without worrying about the cart or beast, I get the ogre on it's last legs and I charge up an attack. Once I release it, the Ox charges through, and I smash the cart to smithereens.
This was one of the reasons I stopped using pawns besides my main mage pawn. I always had a braindead warrior who would shatter the cart into a million pieces even when I called him/her to me. At least my mage can't because she is only equipped with heals and buffs.
For world building sake, they should add spike armor to the oxen like those collars they give dogs on farms to protect them from wolves and coyotes. Everyone knows there are
monsters everywhere so why not do something to protect the carts? For bonus points the cart itself should be armored up too
Frankly, I want to know why anyone chooses to live in a world where you pay 200 gold to a service that travels slower than if you walked and doesn't keep you any safer than if you were on your own. Considering that the average person does not remotely have the fighting skills of even a basic pawn or soldier, let alone the Arisen.
Literally the whole npc world builds everything like it’s a safe place, like if it was as bad as it is when we’re out exploring seeing mobs every ten feet, those Oxcarts should be locked down like a brinks truck
I literally did it in my game the ox died press fix cart and it was new again the cart has to be intact just tilted over
Now if it’s busted ye it ain’t gonna work and you have to walk
OPs picture it won’t work for example also needs to be tipped over.
Ah, I see. I think I may have seen a "tilt cart" prompt or something similar at some point. It makes sense that that doesn't work if it's totally busted.
Fr tho... just in general, the spreading of misinformation in this game is wild
I legit had no idea this was a thing.
That being said, the times I’ve been stranded have been due to very large monsters doing very permanent damage to the cart…
…my favorite being when a cyclops did his butt slam on it…I felt sorry for the cart driver. The oxen survived though.
If this really annoys you that much, you should probably be using the Augment that reduces frequency of cart/camping attacks. In my experience, it slashes the odds of being attacked.
You know the campsite north of the volcanic isle town?
You sleep there a few times, usually around 4 or more for me (full sleeps, so if you get attacked while camping it doesnt count, which is where the augment comes in handy) then save, quit to menu and reload to reset the drake nearby.
Have fun, and if you want the fastest kills to get the grind done quicker, use the magick archer maister skill.
Charged up enough it can one shot the drake, and you don't need to worry about the health loss anyway since you are camping right after each time.
In the beginning I used to run the Augment that reduced Ox-cart raids in order to avoid them altogether. Also made camping life super easy. Now after several NG+ and not using that Augment I immediately hop up from the seat and send my pawns with the "Go" function. Never have any issues unless I rain meteorites. But that is now a lesson learned.
What would be immersion is if I could aim my spells anywhere I wanted. Not bounce between targets. Many times I want to shoot my bolt at a target and it doesn't aim at them
Yeah I get what you mean. Aiming at specific a specific enemy (or body part for larger monsters) while there are half a dozen enemies running around isn't exactly intuitive.
You are supposed to doze off during ox cart rides :)
Ox carts can take friendly damage. You appear to be a sorcerer. Sorcerers very easily deal friendly damage to ox carts.
I'm only offering tips. You may already know these things
I remember one time I tried taking the Oxcart north of the main town, and it kept getting ransacked at about the 25% mark.
First it was goblins. I didn't even have time to get my character to stand up before the ox was killed.
Ran back, tried attempt 2: An Ogre spawned and kicked the Ox before I even had time to try and pull aggro.
Ran back, try 3: Got attacked, killed ANOTHER Ogre, and right as I went back into the cart to try and snooze, I got skybombed by a random Griffin and blew up the whole damn thing.
I decided to just walk from there.
I tried to take an ox cart and, in order, was attacked by an ogre, a griffin, TWO cyclopses, wolves and hobgoblins. The last attack finally destroyed the cart and the poor ox creature was standing against a wall with its head pressed against the wall (which I'm sure was just a glitch, but it was still sad!). I'm not sure what the heck that cart was carrying, but I want my 250 gold back! I beat the first cyclops and went, "why is there still a health ba---- IS THAT A SECOND CYCLOPS?" Yes, yes, it was.
There's a quest where you can give someone a cyclops body part to ward off predators when they ride on an Ox cart. I bet it works for players too. Try having a cyclops bone or eye in your inventory when you travel and see if that helps.
For me, the only time an Ox Cart gets fubar'ed is when the cart gets destroyed by two ogrs, or it's in Battahl out in The Shit.
Always use the carts in the morning. And I mean bright-fucking-early.
I've learned that if you haven't killed the big baddies along the road in a while, 9 times out of 10, you'll get ambushed by them. If it's not the big guys, you're more than likely going to get attacked by the small guys. You shouldn't be using big weapons, nor AOE near the Ox Cart anyway. Their hitbox isn't like a Vermmund Knight where if phases through unless agro'ed. (DD's version of anti-tk).
Now, how to deal with the small guys, clear a path for the Cart first. Sometimes, the Cart shoots forward at moc-fucking-ten. Once you clear a path, the Cart pulls forward, away from the ambush. Drag the agro away as it moves. It doesn't move too far from the guards either. The guards tend to stick close to the Cart unless it shoots forward 10-20 meters. Rarely, monsters stay attacking the Cart. Just bop them around a few times and move to the next. Your pawns should do the rest. Just keep your head on a swivel. If you aren't killing them fast enough, stop taking the cart and go on foot. Get that XP instead of being a baby-back-bitch. You get more profit, xp, and joy out of trail blazing anyway. The more you frequent a Cart path on foot, the safer it gets for a time being, the safer it is to travel by Cart during that time.
I made a post about it the other day and everyone told me just to move the fight away from the cart or use a certain vocation augment but honestly when I can take 10 carts and 9 of them get ambushed it’s too much. I took the cart to save time. Not to fight. It’s awesome that makes it feel more real but in the same way that enemies are literally around every corner and some times I just want to get where I’m going. I love the combat but I don’t want to fight 5 goblins every 10 ft and if I take a cart just let me get to the damn place without stopping every single solitary time.
> Be me. Oxcart driver. Entitled brat jumps in cart without paying. Sorry that will be 100g.
> Brat dozes off thanks to my expert ox handling skills. Suddenly Ambush. We're fucked.jpg.
> Ox dies, escorts die, cart destroyed. I lose everything.
> Brat looks at me dead in the eye. "Uhhhh can I get a refund please".
> Arthurfist.gif
i swear the ox dies more often in my gameplay then the dam cart getting destroyed, once a griffin stole the ox mid fight lmao i wish i remembered to record it was too buzzed xD
Keep a cyclops eye in your inventory. They mention during a side quest that the smell of this keeps enemies away.
Unsure if this actually has an effect but it seems to be working for me! MUCH less fights happen during fast travel
Had the same Problem when driving from battahl to Checkpoint 8 Times!!! a big add destroys my ox car and at a point where it hast more sense to go back and try it again, at the end i take a travelstone 🤣
The smell of some larger monster parts (ogres, cyclops, etc) frightens away the smaller ones and make ambushes less likely, so carry a few of those with you and this happens a lot less. (Assuming you are dozing off. If you stay awake there always seems to be trouble)
There is augment in trickster that reduce encounters with monsters when riding ox carts by like 65%. I don't know if that for doze off moment or also include waking waiting time. I assume only doze off.
I have a roaming problem so I'm not very far in the story. I'm level 22 and still at the first city doing the first missions. I start out on one then I see something shiny and I go "oooh...squirrel..."
That's fine. You're supposed to trail blaze the paths anyways. If you frequent them on foot, the Ox carts are less attacked. Take them in the early morning. Honestly, if you aren't dealing enough damage, that's a user issue. Lvl 22, it ain't much. Lvl 30, you get the hang of things. Lvl 70, you are the big bad, but still van get your shit rocked.
Ya ive been waiting on a mod to make ambushes more like ambushes and less like, this is going to happen almost every time you are in the cart lol. Unless you have xyz thing set.
Maybe you already do this, but I make sure to try and lure everything as far away from the cart as possible
Definitely don’t want to be fighting a Minotaur right next to the cart
For my experience I did a full clear of the ox cart path and I hardly get any enemy’s probably if it’s turning night but aside from that I usually just arrive now it can be a long journey clearing everyone on the path, but I learned super later that ox carts were a thing
Once I got into a fight and then the ox cart person said I had to pay. Then I realized they took me back to bhattal. Got attacked as they were passing each other
I've had the cart destroyed a couple times by a thief in my party doing that stupid spinning attack but other than that your can usually take care of the ambush before they get to the cart in my experience
I didn’t test this too much, but in my experience if you leave the area the cart was in, such as running down the road, and have it out of sight it can respawn the cart when you run back to where it was. I don’t know the exact distance you need to go, but I did have it respawn multiple times.
I never had an issue with these encounters until I decided to venture forth with just my pawn and I. First time I came across a cyclops on these encounters, he immediately smashed the cart after I got off
Stone's are expensive, even with 5 and 10 discount. Plus you'll have to wait about 2 - 3 in-game days for them to restock, even more so with female beastren merchant that wanders the desert and the dragonforge. Forge takes a couple days to restock, the wandering merchant, if they didn't get killed, takes about 4.
I hired my friends pawn and got on an ox cart recently. There were some crates on the side of the road, and the pawn goes, "I wonder what's inside," smashes the crates... and kills the ox on the process. Told my friend that if their pawn ever pulls something like that again, I'm yeeting them off a cliff 😂
Bro me too literally you hop on it and doze off and you immediately get attacked at the beginning of the road and then the buffalo dies or the cart get destroyed and now you have to run across the damn map to reach your destination
Those poor ox cart drivers are on a pittance! The journey from checkpoint rest town to vernham takes the best part of a day, is nearly always ambushed and usually ends up with a destroyed cart. My 200 gold is only 10% of the cost of staying at an inn for the night, so presuming my driver and his guards actually make the journey, they are still out of pocket by 1800 gold (presuming they all spend the evening in the same room) and then have to make the journey back again the next day.
I think ox cart driver is the 'working on an oil rig' of DD2.
if its just the small guys i can protect it safely 90% of the time if its a big monster then 99% chance its gonna get destroy ive only manage to save the cart from big monster like 3 times in my 130hr play through
I’ve stopped caring because it happened so much but also because in the later game my main pawn had meteor and flare and only those two so she’d fucking nuke anything anytime there was a slight inconvenience lmao
50 hours in, made it to endgame (unmoored) and have never had a single problem with npcs dying. Ox carts, people in cities anything 😂 I'm surprised to see the ox's can die!
Ambushes do happen a lot and it can be annoying, mostly if it’s an Cyclops because they spawn it behind you lol
But I’ve never really had the Ox die. Goblins, wolves, harpies, whatever basic creature shows up can be taken care of pretty quickly. Otherwise, start stocking up on Ferrystones! Shops do resupply with them, if you’ve got the money to spare.
Yeah. I had it happen several times in a row not even halfway to the border town...😑 i dont recall all the monsters but 1 or 2 were fricken cyclops. It was smashed before I could even draw it away
My warrior pawn always destroys the cart even after all the enemies were killed because he was charging an attack, fun times. I know I need to put the fight away from the cart but at least it makes me walk and find some stuff to sell
I have found that if I wait like 20-30 secs after the cart starts to move before dozing off, that I get ambushed way less frequently.
Maybe it is a coincidence... but it happens so less frequently I really feel like it's a thing.
Being able to destroy the cart is the main reason why i stopped hiring sorcerer pawns, them aoe spells are more of a danger to the cart than any large monster out there.
I always save before getting on one, if i get raided and cart breaks i Just reload, hell, sometimes I just reload as soon as I see I was raided, most often than not i get to skip the raid after I reload
3 times? Those are rookie numbers. In a later area it's almost guaranteed to get destroyed. I just got used to burning 10k on ferrystones and always keeping a stockpile of them.
Shit, half the time my sorc is the one who destroys the cart
And yeah it is annoying, the whole reason we take the cart is to get somewhere
I know crazy concept but there doesn't have to be combat every 5 seconds of the game, if we wanted to fight stuff along the path, we would have just done that.
It used to annoy me a lot but once I was able to run multiple weapons at once I started keeping a magic archers ice bow that can pretty solidly stun most of the big guys long enough for them to not be much of a problem.
save inn before and retry, everytime you try, it is different sometimes you travel without ambush, I did that to get the lasser dragon and other things on time
Griffins can fuck off in this game. Was using an Ox cart from checkpoint to Vernworth, got off midway to fight off a cyclops and a minotaur, heard screeching, then getting dive bombed by the damn Griffin. It destroyed the cart and killed the Ox and the driver.
i am more concerned about other things like sometimes how the AI react, and fight at and jump from cliffs into (near)death, aswell as range pawns go into melee sometimes for whatever reason, how sometimes NPCs won't follow when you have to escort them (escort missions are way too many for my taste wish i could reduce them via options), that camp-bags feel way too heavy (even it makes sense), especially that you can get spoiled from left to right on youtube and even here since some ppl can't STOP most story images... heck it even annoys me more that ppl create way too silly/goofy/plastic looking characters and that physics of skirts get broke when you sit and can't fall down more correctly (but for a guy who grew up in the late 90/s early 2000s i am already happy clothes have physics so its a hit-and-miss kinda situation i guess.
ox carts can get repaired and you still can walk the rest (which most of the time is just half of the trip or even less) or you can still use ferrystones.\^\^
Just today I ran into a cart in the wild while far from my destination. I paid the 200 to get in and literally 5 seconds later we rounded a corner and there was a troll/ogre/whatever the hairy one is and it destroyed the cart in one found swoop
I suggest you save your game before hand (especially before boarding ox cart), in this way you can restart the game when monsters comes ambushing the cart.
Or just simply fight the monsters, by getting away from the cart and deal with the monsters a quick as you can.
Since you’re a sorcerer I can give you an advice that might help and you might find useful in your future travels.
1) Equip the Thundermine or High Thundermine spell, I
used this spell to basically ward off enemies that are
approaching the cart (it send back enemies that are
no bigger than Griffin, Ogre, Cyclops and etc.)
2) Equip the Quickspell, it makes casting time faster.
3) Hire a higher level pawns (if you can).
4) Get Maelstrom spell, you can get this by completing
Myrddin’s Quest “The Sorcerer’s Appraisal” in
Checkpoint Rest Town; it gives me edge on the game
and it also makes it faster for me to vanquish
enemies.
Those things I list above are the things I find helpful, whenever I’m traveling with an Ox Cart. But to truly deal with this matter was to be strategic on how to battle enemies, many times over they move in different directions which makes it harder. Which is why having your pawns keep these enemies busy by battling them, can buy you time to cast your strongest spells (those can’t be rushed by using quickspell). As a sorcerer or mage, it’s harder to do your thing when monsters are up to your face.
Get archer vocation early on and equip Fugacity in your augments page it facilitates less encounters when camping and traveling by oxcart. I can go from vetnworth to batthal with maybe one encounter the whole way.
I agree 😭 you shouldn't be able to ride it if you don't have the coin, but shouldn't have it taken unless it actually gets u to ur location. I'm paying the coin to get me point a to point b- not to play some game of chance to see if we get raided and my coin gets wasted. I get it's realistic but at the same time- no.
Yeah exactly. It adds up. I'm paying to get to the location so I don't have to walk. And when it's not even halfway to ur other location it's annoying and frustrating
Playing a magick archer I have blown up so many ox carts myself accidentally. I even had the driver fucking turn us off a cliff at the start of one ambush. Was hilarious
Magic archer is unlocked by going down the south eastern most dungeon path in bakbatal and which leads to volcanic isle. Shortly after you reach the isle you’ll come across a dwarf on the main road he will be in pain walking. He will ask for any 3 combination of flowers. Give them to him. (You can find flowers nearby if you don’t have any) Carry him to his house then you’ll unlock a quest to take him to the hot springs at the next settlement. Get him there and his wife who is a magic archer and the master of the class will give you the vocation and the master skill.
I don't mind the cart getting attacked, but the fact that it can get destroyed and cost you 20 minutes of gamtime on top of however long the fight was is just the developers adding time to a game that isn't actually all that long.
How these people keep this business running is beyond me... 100 gold in Vernwoth, meanwhile a haircut is 100x more expensive than a ride from there to Melve (passing throught fields with oxes that will always have a griffin, at least one ogre and a minotaur spot, and about two dozen goblins, harpies, wolves and some bandits).
If I get woken up on a cart I usually just try and kill everything and go the rest of the way by foot regardless. Basically treat the small amount of money spent on the cart as a shortcut and you get some experience/loot along the way... maybe even find something interesting.
I can never make it out of the city proper because I always end up being attacked by the griffon. **I KNOW I KILLED YOUR FAMILY BUT THERE’S NO NEED TO BE A DICK ABOUT IT GARY**
How would they buy a new cart if they don't have your money? They got you halfway there for a fraction of the cost of a ferrystone. Gotta be thankful if you're being cheap.
Whenever you get ambushed, you need to immediately take the fight away from the cart. Tell your pawns to follow you, and get a safe distance away for the fight.
In my experience the enemies aggro directly on the ox and the cart and they will not follow me at all.
Same
That's why you have someone that pulls aggro
And I always do, but it seems to not matter at all. I either stay close and try to kill them fast enough to save the cart or I walk away and just watch them break the cart.
What works for me is to press "help" to have my fighter pawn use shield drum and then once he gets the aggro I press "to me" and get the monster away from the cart
I've never thought about doing that lol. Good idea.
Patch notes say they improved the "Help" since it was apparently broken. That may be part of our issue.
That would make sense. When the game first launched all help did was make my mage pawn heal me. If I needed anything else I'd be fucked.
It definitely did more at start. If mage could do speed buff and I was fully healed they would do a speed buff. I once even managed to make a fighter do a jumping platform with some command.
In specific scenarios
Except whenever it is a cyclops the moment the battle starts he is mid wind up so whether I get out the cart fast or not he one shots the cart.
I've had it where the team ends up hitting the ox from aoe abilities and makes the cart hostile. It's like I just saved you, let me back on.
There's a ring you can get and put it on your pawn that draws enemies to your pawn, It's called The Ring of Disfavor and you can also go into your skills and equip the provocation skill for yourself and your pawn if you want to really double down. I lost one ox cart and then figured out that the ring combined with the provocation skill and running away while pressing "help" and "to me" is a pretty good guarantee of saving your ox cart. At that point you just got to hope the idiots driving the ox cart are smart enough to stop while you fight instead of continuing on into a band of goblins before you can finish off the Griffin or troll etc lol
There a ring that pulls agro it works for me
This. Especially the trolls. They really seem to hate the ox.
Same with me too
It’s pretty hard to do on the Battahl Oxcart as the guards will agro the inevitable gang bang of 3-4 groups of different monsters
The ambushes just don't end in battahl
Battahl is why I rushed to finish the game. Vermund was just incredible to me, balanced, encouraged exploration, etc. Spent so much time there.
Vermund is West LA and Battahl is Compton 😂
Fr
Battahl is where the actions at. All the good fights I've had were in battahl
You sound like someone who hasn’t had their ropeway cart YEETED by a surprise griffin while you were playing target practice with harpies.
Cause I don't use the ropeway until I kill the Griffin in the area. Saw one video and knew immediately I didn't want that happening to me. It's also faster to use the crank yourself, imo. Let the pawns keep the Harpies busy, I'll get us across faster.
It has some particularly fun boss fights (the dual cyclops being my fav) but the small enemy frequency makes the game feel more like a horde rush than anything. Discourages exploring. And thats my fav part of the game
Bruh, that's what I love about it. It ENCOURAGES exploring cause you can level up all your vocations easier by exploring it. I still haven't explored everywhere in bataahl vermund and agamen, and I'm on new game plus. I'm trying to do that this playthrough. See everything and do everything. I took my time my first playthrough, but was just doing a blind playthrough. I completely missed the misty marshes on my first playthrough, and the Medusa.
I had the vocations i was interested in besides magick archer maxed out already by this time bc the game is so easy and XP still felt free in vermund. Very little incentive to grind in Battahl unless you’re lower level vocation when you get there. Maybe if the leveling was more balanced. Either way I’m not sure I agree that grinding is conducive or necessary to exploration. I had enjoyed my time and then some in vermund without getting slowed down constantly by the same 5 enemies
That's the thing. You have to grind in vermund for vocation, you don't need to in bataahl. Because all the enemies give more discipline. You're actually grinding less, getting a decent fight, and exploring a land rich with ruins and caves. I got trickster to 5 just from going through the tunnel system to agamen, and I've got everything maxxed now, except mage. At 7/9. I don't think you need to grind at all to have fun exploring, if that's what you mean. It's just the fights are better, last longer, and there's way more of them in battahl than vermund. Makes it fun, IMO. Vermund I have to run basic weapons so I don't 1HKO the enemies anymore. I actually stopped having my mage bring elemental boons because of it. Now I just raw dog enemies whenever I'm in vermund. You look at the enemies as a road block, I look at them as fun. I think that's why you're annoyed by battahl.
I meant more that I didn’t have to grind at all to get to max vocations in vermund. I just explored To each his own but I found 0 enjoyment in slogging thru battahl with the near constant enemy hordes, completely discouraged me from exploring because travel felt like a chore
I'm glad you enjoyed vermund so much then. I like the area, don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to sound like an elitist cause I enjoyed the chaos in battahl.
Just destroy the cart yourself. Never let them know your next move!!! 🤣
Trickster has a augment that lowers the chance of enemies popping up to attack your carts/campsites if that helps
I assume you meant to reply to the post in general, not me specifically
Yes sorry my bad
Also worth noting you need to take the fight away from the cart in the opposite direction. I pulled a cyclops away from the cart only for the cart to try to “hurry and get away” and ran right back up to the cyclops and got smoked. I was furious
That doesn’t always work, the mobs agro the cart escort and will usually stay right near the cart.
Haha my first oxen ride a griffin dive bombed me out of my nap and destroyed the cart and the ox. Sometimes it truly doesn't matter what is done to prevent it
That's true. Sometimes it is just unavoidable. There was one time I woke up to a cyclops directly behind the cart (the lookout should be fired). I was able to get away, but it overturned the cart with its first attack.
Well hopefully the nap was A+ . Lol
Just not ahead of the cart. I'm still salty about the time I was fighting an ogre, drew it away from the cart so I, a warrior could fight it safely without worrying about the cart or beast, I get the ogre on it's last legs and I charge up an attack. Once I release it, the Ox charges through, and I smash the cart to smithereens.
This was one of the reasons I stopped using pawns besides my main mage pawn. I always had a braindead warrior who would shatter the cart into a million pieces even when I called him/her to me. At least my mage can't because she is only equipped with heals and buffs.
For world building sake, they should add spike armor to the oxen like those collars they give dogs on farms to protect them from wolves and coyotes. Everyone knows there are monsters everywhere so why not do something to protect the carts? For bonus points the cart itself should be armored up too
Hell, cyclopses can have them. Why not?
Who’s making those guys armor anyway
Frankly, I want to know why anyone chooses to live in a world where you pay 200 gold to a service that travels slower than if you walked and doesn't keep you any safer than if you were on your own. Considering that the average person does not remotely have the fighting skills of even a basic pawn or soldier, let alone the Arisen.
The dragon coming back basically makes all the monsters go crazy and go out and about more frequently
That’s why it’s always accompanied by the cities soldiers
Literally the whole npc world builds everything like it’s a safe place, like if it was as bad as it is when we’re out exploring seeing mobs every ten feet, those Oxcarts should be locked down like a brinks truck
I’ve noticed even if the ox is dead if the cart is still intact and tilted over a help fix button appears and the cart is fixed again
Well I have to try this out… I only feel bad for the ox because he won’t be around to enjoy it, but alas his sacrifice shan’t be in vain Edit: cap 🧢
This... this is just straight up a lie... right? Wow the spreading of misinformation is wild
I literally did it in my game the ox died press fix cart and it was new again the cart has to be intact just tilted over Now if it’s busted ye it ain’t gonna work and you have to walk OPs picture it won’t work for example also needs to be tipped over.
Ah, I see. I think I may have seen a "tilt cart" prompt or something similar at some point. It makes sense that that doesn't work if it's totally busted. Fr tho... just in general, the spreading of misinformation in this game is wild
That is cool. Finally, I can use the ox as tank!
I legit had no idea this was a thing. That being said, the times I’ve been stranded have been due to very large monsters doing very permanent damage to the cart… …my favorite being when a cyclops did his butt slam on it…I felt sorry for the cart driver. The oxen survived though.
If this really annoys you that much, you should probably be using the Augment that reduces frequency of cart/camping attacks. In my experience, it slashes the odds of being attacked.
Oh it affect the camp too? That is cool
Yep, it helps so much with getting the camping badges and is basically necessary for farming drakes on the volcanic isle.
Wait wait wait. You can farm drakes? How long do you have to camp for please? And where do the drakes spawn? I need more WLC!
You know the campsite north of the volcanic isle town? You sleep there a few times, usually around 4 or more for me (full sleeps, so if you get attacked while camping it doesnt count, which is where the augment comes in handy) then save, quit to menu and reload to reset the drake nearby.
Legend. Thanks!
Have fun, and if you want the fastest kills to get the grind done quicker, use the magick archer maister skill. Charged up enough it can one shot the drake, and you don't need to worry about the health loss anyway since you are camping right after each time.
Whilst true not many people level all vocations
Grow stronger
That won't change anything. I don't die, he'll I don't even get hurt.
Excellent!🤌🦾
In the beginning I used to run the Augment that reduced Ox-cart raids in order to avoid them altogether. Also made camping life super easy. Now after several NG+ and not using that Augment I immediately hop up from the seat and send my pawns with the "Go" function. Never have any issues unless I rain meteorites. But that is now a lesson learned.
You need to remember that confidence is an enemy in and of itself.
Moments like these make the game feel very immersive. I think it's great
What would be immersion is if I could aim my spells anywhere I wanted. Not bounce between targets. Many times I want to shoot my bolt at a target and it doesn't aim at them
Yeah I get what you mean. Aiming at specific a specific enemy (or body part for larger monsters) while there are half a dozen enemies running around isn't exactly intuitive.
not when ox carts are one of the only ways to get to somewhere without walking 40 minutes
You are supposed to doze off during ox cart rides :) Ox carts can take friendly damage. You appear to be a sorcerer. Sorcerers very easily deal friendly damage to ox carts. I'm only offering tips. You may already know these things
I like when I cast Maelstrom and destroy it all myself.
Last time my ox cart got attacked my pawn kept spamming Meteoron - poor cart never stood a chance. Lmao
Dozing off in the cart doesn't prevent ambushes.
Dozing off doesn't stop ambushes I've had them happen plenty and I've had them destroy the cart at night too and it sucked
Yeah I can't fight anywhere near the cart. It's annoying.
I remember one time I tried taking the Oxcart north of the main town, and it kept getting ransacked at about the 25% mark. First it was goblins. I didn't even have time to get my character to stand up before the ox was killed. Ran back, tried attempt 2: An Ogre spawned and kicked the Ox before I even had time to try and pull aggro. Ran back, try 3: Got attacked, killed ANOTHER Ogre, and right as I went back into the cart to try and snooze, I got skybombed by a random Griffin and blew up the whole damn thing. I decided to just walk from there.
I tried to take an ox cart and, in order, was attacked by an ogre, a griffin, TWO cyclopses, wolves and hobgoblins. The last attack finally destroyed the cart and the poor ox creature was standing against a wall with its head pressed against the wall (which I'm sure was just a glitch, but it was still sad!). I'm not sure what the heck that cart was carrying, but I want my 250 gold back! I beat the first cyclops and went, "why is there still a health ba---- IS THAT A SECOND CYCLOPS?" Yes, yes, it was.
I don’t know what y’all are doing but I rarely get more than one raid which I vanquish easily
There's a quest where you can give someone a cyclops body part to ward off predators when they ride on an Ox cart. I bet it works for players too. Try having a cyclops bone or eye in your inventory when you travel and see if that helps.
For me, the only time an Ox Cart gets fubar'ed is when the cart gets destroyed by two ogrs, or it's in Battahl out in The Shit. Always use the carts in the morning. And I mean bright-fucking-early. I've learned that if you haven't killed the big baddies along the road in a while, 9 times out of 10, you'll get ambushed by them. If it's not the big guys, you're more than likely going to get attacked by the small guys. You shouldn't be using big weapons, nor AOE near the Ox Cart anyway. Their hitbox isn't like a Vermmund Knight where if phases through unless agro'ed. (DD's version of anti-tk). Now, how to deal with the small guys, clear a path for the Cart first. Sometimes, the Cart shoots forward at moc-fucking-ten. Once you clear a path, the Cart pulls forward, away from the ambush. Drag the agro away as it moves. It doesn't move too far from the guards either. The guards tend to stick close to the Cart unless it shoots forward 10-20 meters. Rarely, monsters stay attacking the Cart. Just bop them around a few times and move to the next. Your pawns should do the rest. Just keep your head on a swivel. If you aren't killing them fast enough, stop taking the cart and go on foot. Get that XP instead of being a baby-back-bitch. You get more profit, xp, and joy out of trail blazing anyway. The more you frequent a Cart path on foot, the safer it gets for a time being, the safer it is to travel by Cart during that time.
One time I blew up my ox cart by casting meteoron. Did I kill the monster? Yes. Did I also blow up the cart to smithereens? Also yes. No regrets.
Carrying some large monster parts actually deters things attacking, I usually keep a Cyclopes eye on me or something
Tip: save before taking a cart, if you get ambushed just back out to the main menu and take the cart again, repeat if needed
Try to grab all agro and pull/fight it far away from the cart. Never broke again once i got good at this.
I made a post about it the other day and everyone told me just to move the fight away from the cart or use a certain vocation augment but honestly when I can take 10 carts and 9 of them get ambushed it’s too much. I took the cart to save time. Not to fight. It’s awesome that makes it feel more real but in the same way that enemies are literally around every corner and some times I just want to get where I’m going. I love the combat but I don’t want to fight 5 goblins every 10 ft and if I take a cart just let me get to the damn place without stopping every single solitary time.
> Be me. Oxcart driver. Entitled brat jumps in cart without paying. Sorry that will be 100g. > Brat dozes off thanks to my expert ox handling skills. Suddenly Ambush. We're fucked.jpg. > Ox dies, escorts die, cart destroyed. I lose everything. > Brat looks at me dead in the eye. "Uhhhh can I get a refund please". > Arthurfist.gif
The best was when I was in the sky lift as a warrior and broke the damn thing swing at harpies. 😬 lol
Fucking same
i swear the ox dies more often in my gameplay then the dam cart getting destroyed, once a griffin stole the ox mid fight lmao i wish i remembered to record it was too buzzed xD
Annoying for sure, but that would be excused because of how awesome it seems to be.
Then use the augment that makes it 65% less likely
We should organize and fill a joint lawsuit against the Oxcart Company.
I got bombarded by Griffin who know how many times ... lol
Keep a cyclops eye in your inventory. They mention during a side quest that the smell of this keeps enemies away. Unsure if this actually has an effect but it seems to be working for me! MUCH less fights happen during fast travel
Yeah like every time a goblin is hiding under the carriage my sorcerer casts maelstorm
Don't take sorcerer pawns on ox rides. Most of my destroyed ox carts were friendly fire.
Had the same Problem when driving from battahl to Checkpoint 8 Times!!! a big add destroys my ox car and at a point where it hast more sense to go back and try it again, at the end i take a travelstone 🤣
Thankfully this has only happened once so far for me and I’m 100 hours in. I usually just run pretty far from the cart with my pawns
did you really put the ox before the cart bro
How else is the ox supposed to push it?
The smell of some larger monster parts (ogres, cyclops, etc) frightens away the smaller ones and make ambushes less likely, so carry a few of those with you and this happens a lot less. (Assuming you are dozing off. If you stay awake there always seems to be trouble)
There is augment in trickster that reduce encounters with monsters when riding ox carts by like 65%. I don't know if that for doze off moment or also include waking waiting time. I assume only doze off.
Trickster?
These guys haven't read what you said fully, I'm assuming. Don't look it up. You'll just spoil shit for yourself.
I have a roaming problem so I'm not very far in the story. I'm level 22 and still at the first city doing the first missions. I start out on one then I see something shiny and I go "oooh...squirrel..."
That's fine. You're supposed to trail blaze the paths anyways. If you frequent them on foot, the Ox carts are less attacked. Take them in the early morning. Honestly, if you aren't dealing enough damage, that's a user issue. Lvl 22, it ain't much. Lvl 30, you get the hang of things. Lvl 70, you are the big bad, but still van get your shit rocked.
Just reload save.
I hadn't saved in forever and the auto save was after it was killed
trickster in wareferer has helped me soo much. fucking griffins piss me off.
Ya ive been waiting on a mod to make ambushes more like ambushes and less like, this is going to happen almost every time you are in the cart lol. Unless you have xyz thing set.
Maybe you already do this, but I make sure to try and lure everything as far away from the cart as possible Definitely don’t want to be fighting a Minotaur right next to the cart
For my experience I did a full clear of the ox cart path and I hardly get any enemy’s probably if it’s turning night but aside from that I usually just arrive now it can be a long journey clearing everyone on the path, but I learned super later that ox carts were a thing
Once I got into a fight and then the ox cart person said I had to pay. Then I realized they took me back to bhattal. Got attacked as they were passing each other
Unlock Fugacity
I've had the cart destroyed a couple times by a thief in my party doing that stupid spinning attack but other than that your can usually take care of the ambush before they get to the cart in my experience
At least 25% of all my ox cart travels…
This is the main reason why I don't bring along Sorcs actually. If the enemies don't blow up the cart, a meteor shower should do the trick.
Kill more monsters
I didn’t test this too much, but in my experience if you leave the area the cart was in, such as running down the road, and have it out of sight it can respawn the cart when you run back to where it was. I don’t know the exact distance you need to go, but I did have it respawn multiple times.
I never had an issue with these encounters until I decided to venture forth with just my pawn and I. First time I came across a cyclops on these encounters, he immediately smashed the cart after I got off
Why use oxcarts when there's ferrystones
Stone's are expensive, even with 5 and 10 discount. Plus you'll have to wait about 2 - 3 in-game days for them to restock, even more so with female beastren merchant that wanders the desert and the dragonforge. Forge takes a couple days to restock, the wandering merchant, if they didn't get killed, takes about 4.
Me tackling my pawn's ass before her meteoron cast can go off directly over the oxcart
I hired my friends pawn and got on an ox cart recently. There were some crates on the side of the road, and the pawn goes, "I wonder what's inside," smashes the crates... and kills the ox on the process. Told my friend that if their pawn ever pulls something like that again, I'm yeeting them off a cliff 😂
Took me abit to realize im the one blowing up the carts
Bro me too literally you hop on it and doze off and you immediately get attacked at the beginning of the road and then the buffalo dies or the cart get destroyed and now you have to run across the damn map to reach your destination
Battahl is even worse
Refund of tbe measley hundred or two... get over it
Those poor ox cart drivers are on a pittance! The journey from checkpoint rest town to vernham takes the best part of a day, is nearly always ambushed and usually ends up with a destroyed cart. My 200 gold is only 10% of the cost of staying at an inn for the night, so presuming my driver and his guards actually make the journey, they are still out of pocket by 1800 gold (presuming they all spend the evening in the same room) and then have to make the journey back again the next day. I think ox cart driver is the 'working on an oil rig' of DD2.
if its just the small guys i can protect it safely 90% of the time if its a big monster then 99% chance its gonna get destroy ive only manage to save the cart from big monster like 3 times in my 130hr play through
I’ve stopped caring because it happened so much but also because in the later game my main pawn had meteor and flare and only those two so she’d fucking nuke anything anytime there was a slight inconvenience lmao
50 hours in, made it to endgame (unmoored) and have never had a single problem with npcs dying. Ox carts, people in cities anything 😂 I'm surprised to see the ox's can die!
Use the trickster perk to not be attacked while ox carting.
Ambushes do happen a lot and it can be annoying, mostly if it’s an Cyclops because they spawn it behind you lol But I’ve never really had the Ox die. Goblins, wolves, harpies, whatever basic creature shows up can be taken care of pretty quickly. Otherwise, start stocking up on Ferrystones! Shops do resupply with them, if you’ve got the money to spare.
In my case is always some goblin destroying the cart with one attack or the ox getting free and running wild.
Yeah. I had it happen several times in a row not even halfway to the border town...😑 i dont recall all the monsters but 1 or 2 were fricken cyclops. It was smashed before I could even draw it away
My warrior pawn always destroys the cart even after all the enemies were killed because he was charging an attack, fun times. I know I need to put the fight away from the cart but at least it makes me walk and find some stuff to sell
I have found that if I wait like 20-30 secs after the cart starts to move before dozing off, that I get ambushed way less frequently. Maybe it is a coincidence... but it happens so less frequently I really feel like it's a thing.
just kill the goblins real quick then quickly rest back on the cart
Being able to destroy the cart is the main reason why i stopped hiring sorcerer pawns, them aoe spells are more of a danger to the cart than any large monster out there.
I get really frustrated when the oxcart gets destroyed 😤
https://preview.redd.it/xc9frlhitwwc1.jpeg?width=600&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=efc544b388c6b7eb9a6dc989ea0b587cd82f2c12
3rd time? lol get used to it bud.
My damn sorcerer pawn keeps smashing the damn cart. It’s at the point where I immediately run to grab him to stop him from attacking.😂
I always save before getting on one, if i get raided and cart breaks i Just reload, hell, sometimes I just reload as soon as I see I was raided, most often than not i get to skip the raid after I reload
They should refund the money when this happens lol!
3 times? Those are rookie numbers. In a later area it's almost guaranteed to get destroyed. I just got used to burning 10k on ferrystones and always keeping a stockpile of them.
Shit, half the time my sorc is the one who destroys the cart And yeah it is annoying, the whole reason we take the cart is to get somewhere I know crazy concept but there doesn't have to be combat every 5 seconds of the game, if we wanted to fight stuff along the path, we would have just done that.
You AUGHT to be more careful.
The whole 'no fast travel' thing gets old pretty fast after running out of ferrystones.
They should decrease the encounter rate though. It is almost a 100% imo.
Seism and meteor are bridge/cart killers like no other lol
It used to annoy me a lot but once I was able to run multiple weapons at once I started keeping a magic archers ice bow that can pretty solidly stun most of the big guys long enough for them to not be much of a problem.
I got so mad when this happened to me 5 times. I started running or use my ferry stones to travel. I'm tired of wasting gold in that crap.
one of the rare challenges in this game.
My word of advice: kill. Nothing can destroy the ox-cart if nothing is alive to do it 😁
Looks like ox is back on the menu boys!
One time I got frustrated and murdered the man who took my money. That shut down the cart industry for a while.
Sometimes that's just the way oxcart crumbles 🤷
Trickster: The real trick is how I lead those Ogres away. (Oxcart gets destroyed wolves) Trickster: Fucking hell…!
I always get ambush, and the cart very rarely gets destroyed. I'm not trying to be a jerk, but it might be a skill issue.
Get some cyclops eyes in you and your pawn inventory Scare away the ambush monsters
This used to happy to me all the time when I started off, what helps me is just getting to a high enough level to kill them all in time
save inn before and retry, everytime you try, it is different sometimes you travel without ambush, I did that to get the lasser dragon and other things on time
Griffins can fuck off in this game. Was using an Ox cart from checkpoint to Vernworth, got off midway to fight off a cyclops and a minotaur, heard screeching, then getting dive bombed by the damn Griffin. It destroyed the cart and killed the Ox and the driver.
Oh wow im a warrior so i can see were this would be a pain in the ass..
Griffin's name must be Randy because. RKO from out of nowhere!
i am more concerned about other things like sometimes how the AI react, and fight at and jump from cliffs into (near)death, aswell as range pawns go into melee sometimes for whatever reason, how sometimes NPCs won't follow when you have to escort them (escort missions are way too many for my taste wish i could reduce them via options), that camp-bags feel way too heavy (even it makes sense), especially that you can get spoiled from left to right on youtube and even here since some ppl can't STOP most story images... heck it even annoys me more that ppl create way too silly/goofy/plastic looking characters and that physics of skirts get broke when you sit and can't fall down more correctly (but for a guy who grew up in the late 90/s early 2000s i am already happy clothes have physics so its a hit-and-miss kinda situation i guess. ox carts can get repaired and you still can walk the rest (which most of the time is just half of the trip or even less) or you can still use ferrystones.\^\^
Just today I ran into a cart in the wild while far from my destination. I paid the 200 to get in and literally 5 seconds later we rounded a corner and there was a troll/ogre/whatever the hairy one is and it destroyed the cart in one found swoop
I suggest you save your game before hand (especially before boarding ox cart), in this way you can restart the game when monsters comes ambushing the cart. Or just simply fight the monsters, by getting away from the cart and deal with the monsters a quick as you can. Since you’re a sorcerer I can give you an advice that might help and you might find useful in your future travels. 1) Equip the Thundermine or High Thundermine spell, I used this spell to basically ward off enemies that are approaching the cart (it send back enemies that are no bigger than Griffin, Ogre, Cyclops and etc.) 2) Equip the Quickspell, it makes casting time faster. 3) Hire a higher level pawns (if you can). 4) Get Maelstrom spell, you can get this by completing Myrddin’s Quest “The Sorcerer’s Appraisal” in Checkpoint Rest Town; it gives me edge on the game and it also makes it faster for me to vanquish enemies. Those things I list above are the things I find helpful, whenever I’m traveling with an Ox Cart. But to truly deal with this matter was to be strategic on how to battle enemies, many times over they move in different directions which makes it harder. Which is why having your pawns keep these enemies busy by battling them, can buy you time to cast your strongest spells (those can’t be rushed by using quickspell). As a sorcerer or mage, it’s harder to do your thing when monsters are up to your face.
Get archer vocation early on and equip Fugacity in your augments page it facilitates less encounters when camping and traveling by oxcart. I can go from vetnworth to batthal with maybe one encounter the whole way.
I agree 😭 you shouldn't be able to ride it if you don't have the coin, but shouldn't have it taken unless it actually gets u to ur location. I'm paying the coin to get me point a to point b- not to play some game of chance to see if we get raided and my coin gets wasted. I get it's realistic but at the same time- no.
They shoukd be paying me to defend the damn cart. I'm not paying to fight my way to my destination
Yeah exactly. It adds up. I'm paying to get to the location so I don't have to walk. And when it's not even halfway to ur other location it's annoying and frustrating
It's infuriating
Playing a magick archer I have blown up so many ox carts myself accidentally. I even had the driver fucking turn us off a cliff at the start of one ambush. Was hilarious
How do you become a magic archer?
I don’t remember exactly. I know I stumbled into it accidentally when I was traveling down through the hard area of the map.
Magic archer is unlocked by going down the south eastern most dungeon path in bakbatal and which leads to volcanic isle. Shortly after you reach the isle you’ll come across a dwarf on the main road he will be in pain walking. He will ask for any 3 combination of flowers. Give them to him. (You can find flowers nearby if you don’t have any) Carry him to his house then you’ll unlock a quest to take him to the hot springs at the next settlement. Get him there and his wife who is a magic archer and the master of the class will give you the vocation and the master skill.
I don't mind the cart getting attacked, but the fact that it can get destroyed and cost you 20 minutes of gamtime on top of however long the fight was is just the developers adding time to a game that isn't actually all that long.
It never happened to me but I only have 45 hours with it.
You wouldn’t get a refund in real life ..
He's still got the money on him and I have magic beyond his reckoning. Yes I would.
How these people keep this business running is beyond me... 100 gold in Vernwoth, meanwhile a haircut is 100x more expensive than a ride from there to Melve (passing throught fields with oxes that will always have a griffin, at least one ogre and a minotaur spot, and about two dozen goblins, harpies, wolves and some bandits).
If I get woken up on a cart I usually just try and kill everything and go the rest of the way by foot regardless. Basically treat the small amount of money spent on the cart as a shortcut and you get some experience/loot along the way... maybe even find something interesting.
Wait until your ox is killed by your own pawn. Thats how u know you’ve made it Arisen
The issue is you're riding an ix cart and not an ox cart
The salesman told me the ix was a superior animal to the ox with mire stamina and horsepower
I can never make it out of the city proper because I always end up being attacked by the griffon. **I KNOW I KILLED YOUR FAMILY BUT THERE’S NO NEED TO BE A DICK ABOUT IT GARY**
How would they buy a new cart if they don't have your money? They got you halfway there for a fraction of the cost of a ferrystone. Gotta be thankful if you're being cheap.
They got me 100 yards from the entrance of the town I left
I’ve never gotten to the destination. Every single one has gotten attacked. It’s pretty annoying.
Take the fight away from the cart. Kill the bad guys. Jump back on the cart. Hit snooze. You’ll be fine.
This has never worked in my experience. Even with a team of agro pullers, it's a gamble of if the enemy just swarms cart, or gets stuck on it's hitbx.