Taking prisoners and deciding what to do with them as a vampre lord in V Rising is pretty tricky. But you do get a few options for what to do. You could turn the strong ones into Servants using the Servants Coffin. Outfit your most potent fighters with gear and have them defend your Castle Heart from attackers. But that’s not the only thing you can do. The Prison Cell is a unique production building that you can use to extract blood from low-level prisoners. If you have already gotten a few followers, this might be a good place to put a few extra captives.
When you encounter a foe you might want to recruit, here’s what to do. Turn on Dominating Presence and then use the Charm ability (default “R”) to charm a foe. They will then follow you back to your Castle. Keep in mind that they must be below 30% HP for them to be charmed. You can place them in a Servant Coffin or Prison Cell from here. But that presents an issue, Misery. That’s one aspect this guide will focus on, how to handle Misery in V Rising.
Be sure to check out our other guides on scrolls, and other materials like fish oil. Other upgrades like Whetstones are pretty useful as well. Other aspects of the game can help with your journey, like farming in V Rising and growing stuff from seeds. Seeds harvested from bosses can be used to grow unique items for crating intriguing new armor. Some of the best armor in the game is the Dark Silver gear, which is super powerful. And since you’re trying to get more powerful gear, leather can be helpful as well. Other items like Wool Thread and Clay are useful for early game crafting. There’s just so much to do in this game. Anyway, on to the point.
What is Misery in V Rising?
Misery in V Rising is basically a decay factor on your prisoners. When you place an NPC into the Prison Cell, they will start to accrue Misery. You have to deal with it soon, or they will expire. You don’t want to lose all of that precious Blood Essence, do you? You will want to keep your captives alive, especially if they have good Blood Quality, as you can drain them to keep your own blood pool filled and healthy. Be careful not to drain them too often, as it increases their Misery.
This means that the higher it gets, the higher chance there is that you’ll kill a full health prisoner, especially after it reaches about 60%. Every time you feed on an unhealthy prisoner, you could kill them. And with a high Blood Quality, that’s really bad news.
How to handle Misery in V Rising
The way in which you deal with this mechanic is to feed your prisoners. There are a few options when you click on an active Cell, and three of them are for feeding them different foods. The type of food you feed them will have an impact on how well they’re doing. Prisoners eat three different items:
- Rats – >5% Reduction
- Rainbow Trout – 5-10% Reduction
- Sage Fish – 15-30% Reduction
You could set up a Vermin Nest and get a steady supply of food. You produce one Rate with Plant Fiber 1×2 and Bone 12x per rodent. To build the Vermin Nest, you need 360x Bone and 120x Stone.
Just let them fill up with your extra junk materials and keep five rats on tap per building. You can then run by and grab enough to feed prisoners, and then let the building produce more automatically. The issue with Rats is that the reduction in Misery isn’t really helpful.
Another option is fish, and it’s far more effective. To fish, Vampires will need to unlock the Fishing Pole, a tool craftable at a Woodworking Bench. This workstation’s blueprint becomes available once Rufus the Foreman has been defeated. That boss can be found in the Bandit Logging Camp of Farbane Woods, southeast of the Forgotten Cemetery. You will also sometimes find fish as loot in crates and chests—especially in areas with bodies of water nearby, like the Brighthaven Docks.
