Peak's new Roots biome dropped yesterday, adding a forest of redwood trees and gigantic bouncy mushrooms that will inevitably spell your untimely demise. But tucked among the trees and mushies is a lot more challenge than the rest of the game really offers—despite the icy winds, scorching heat and rising fog that other biomes throw in your way. But now, thanks to the games' new update, there's a lot more for you to navigate.
I naively thought that the only hurdle we'd have to overcome as part of this update were the spiders teased in the trailer. Even then, I didn't think they'd spawn as frequently as they do. But my God, having now forced my partner to navigate the perils of the Roots update with me, I've seen that there is actually a lot more than just spiders and the standard status effects to worry about. Climbing through Roots is not for the faint of heart.
The first challenge is the environment itself, as you have to rely on vines and bouncy mushrooms to get where you need to go. In the map we made our way through, there were plenty of caves to get lost in before realising there's no way out, and a significant number large, hot pink clouds of spores that inflict the spore status effect on you the more time you spend there.
Of course, you've got the spiders too. These spring down from whatever ledge they're hiding on and pick up any unsuspecting scouts, wrap them in a web, and force them to mash the space bar to break free. Sounds easy, but you aren't exactly suspended over a safe location, so you're free, but at the cost of half of your stamina bar turning into damage. If these were the only two things you had to worry about, I'd probably get used to mapping the best path to avoid all possible damage and make it to the campfire safely. But they aren't.
One thing Aggro Crab and Landfall failed to mention in advance of the update was the addition of zombies. That's right, zombified Last of Us-inspired scouts that will hunt you down and take a bite as soon as they get too close. Even if you think you can outrun or out climb one, trust me when I say you simply can't. Not only are they fast, they're feisty. In fact, I was taken out by zombies more than anything else in the entire game, because of just how hard they are to deal with since you don't exactly have any means to defend yourself.
Fortunately, I'm not the only player who has struggled with overcoming these enemies. Shortly after Peak's Roots update rolled out, a patch nerfing the zombies swiftly followed. In the announcement shared to Steam, the team stated "We'll be continuing to balance things during the coming days, but the big immediate thing on our radar is tweaking the zombies' stats. We want them to feel properly terrifying, but they're clearly feeling like too much of a constant run-ender in the area and deserve to be nerfed a bit and show up significantly less often."
The tweaks include reducing the number of zombie spawn points, reducing the walk and sprint speed, and increasing the amount of time a zombie will take to recover after lunging at you. Most of the issues I had with them in the first place, which is probably a good thing for me. With that said, the amount of damage they cause with a bite hasn't changed, and it has been altered so zombies will attack any skeletonized players responsible for using the Book of Bones.
Hopefully these changes make a run in the Roots biome a little bit easier, though you've still got all the spores, spiders, and status effects to worry about. Not to mention the giant beetles that flip you off the mountain if they reach you. Whether or not any of these elements will be tweaked in the coming weeks, I can't say. But hopefully by that point I won't feel as hopeless each time I have to step foot in the area. At this rate, I'm starting to wonder if the Tropics was slightly more forgiving.
