How to reduce misery in V Rising

Once you get to the mid-game sections of V Rising, you might get tired of running around looking for good, high-quality blood. Fortunately, you can get all the buffs you need at a moment’s notice from the safety of your own castle. All you need are some prison cells and a few charmed prisoners. The only problem at this point is keeping your captives fed and happy, so you don’t accidentally kill them with your late-night snacking.

Related: How to make scrolls in V Rising

What misery does

Misery is a status effect that builds up on your prisoners each time you draw blood from them, and the higher it gets, the more it multiplies the damage you deal with each feeding. This means that the higher it gets, the higher the chance you’ll kill a full health prisoner, especially after it reaches about 60%. In some cases, it may be worth the risk, but if you’re imprisoning a captive with high-quality blood, it could be worth the trouble to keep them alive. For this, you’ll need to do some fishing.

All ways to reduce misery

Unfortunately, your options in this regard are pretty limited, as only two varieties of fish will reduce misery: Rainbow Trout (by 5-10%) and Sage Fish (by 15-30%). On top of this, both fish are rare drops and will require braving some dangerous areas to obtain regularly. By far, your best option for farming them is to head to Brighthaven Docks, shown above, where you can catch them at fishing points in addition to looting them from crates and containers. Alternatively, you can send your servants to raid Brighthaven Docks, although it’s a fairly high-level area and likely comes with the risk of injury.

A roundabout method of reducing misery is to make sure your prison cells are in a room with prison flooring. While this doesn’t reduce the actual amount of misery, it does make misery less impactful. This is because it reduces the base damage you deal to your prisoners each time you draw their blood, meaning you can bring them to a higher misery threshold before you risk killing them in one shot.