Yggdrasil is a perfectly balanced game with no exploits whatsoever.
Or at least, that's what I would have said—
if it wasn't made by thirteen of Todd Howard's most loyal disciples.
You see, while this may be the MMORPG—revolutionary, genre-defining, life-consuming—they made one fatal mistake.
They let me be a beta tester.
Now, does that mean I reported every bug, glitch, and game-breaking oversight I found?
Of course not. What am I, ethical?
No.
What's fun is finding every bug. Pushing every limit.
Seeing just how far I can bend the rules before I get banned.
And obviously, I wouldn't want to get kicked before the game even launched, right? That'd just be poor sportsmanship.
So today, we'll look at a minor bug I found.
Quite tricky to pull off.
And absolutely impossible to discover unless you're specifically trying to break something.
What am I talking about?
Item duping, of course—the vanilla of all exploits!
Now, Yggdrasil's inventory system is… weird.
Technically, it's just a boring box with a grid.
Looks fancy in full-dive, sure—but under the hood, it's nothing special.
What does make it special?
The AI-based auto-sorting system the devs included to "enhance player experience."
Yes, ladies and gentlemen!
Today, we won't be breaking the game ourselves.
Oh no no no.
The game will be breaking itself—for us.
And how, you ask?
Cheese.
Or more specifically: what eats the cheese.
And a copious amount of stealth.
What most players see as a harmless rat—a low-level mob, maybe a speck of exp to vacuum up while passing through a dungeon—
I see as an opportunity.
You see, the thing about Yggdrasil's inventory system is that, while yes, it does a fine job of keeping track of all 300 of my cheese wheels...
It gets a little confused when we introduce pickpocketing to the equation.
More specifically:
Pickpocketing rats.
And picking them up as items—at the same time.
If you get the timing just right...
Voila!
I now have a rat in my pocket.
What's this? The rat's inventory is also open—while it's inside my inventory?
Oh, how delightful.
Now, for demonstration purposes, let's take this divine-tier spatula I happened to find lying around last week—don't ask where—and place it inside the rat's inventory.
Oh dear!
The spatula's vanished from both inventories! How tragic! What ever shall I do?
Guess I'll just release the poor rat.
It attacks me.
How rude. Ungrateful little thing.
Well then... guess I'll just pull out one of my weapons and—
Oh look at that, ladies and gentlemen!
The spatula is magically back in my inventory!
Perfectly balanced.
One divine spatula slap later, the rat crumples into a twitching heap—
—and then promptly explodes into data crystals.
Let's see what loot it drops, shall we?
Oh? What a surprise!
Who could have possibly guessed that a level 1 rat would drop a divine-tier item?
Such incredible luck we're having today, ladies and gentlemen!
A truly rare drop indeed—one might even say… perfectly balanced.
I'd raise a nice cup of Yorkshire Tea to celebrate this blessed moment...
If only the devs had the foresight to implement the beverage of the gods into the game.
But alas.
They are cowards.
And Yggdrasil, for all its glory, remains flawed.
Now, what other exploits can we find in the remaining 6 months of this closed beta?
(To be continued?)
Heads Up Before You Dive In:
This story is simple:
A professional game-breaker joins Yggdrasil. His stealth stat is so absurdly high, even the devs don't know he exists. And the exploits he uncovers? They turn him into a walking bug report with god powers.
How will the player base react?
How long before the economy collapses?
And how pitiful will the New Worlders be when they meet the guy who once pickpocketed a divine-tier spatula from a rat?
This project is my chaos sandbox—a fun side piece I'll fall back on whenever I need a break.
There will be no consistent upload schedule. Please don't ask for one. I will cave. And then I'll half-ass it. And then nobody's happy.
That said:
If this somehow blows up and overshadows my main story... or if we eventually reach the end of that one...
Well, I might just give this all the attention it deserves.
Until then: expect exploits, dry humor, glitch abuse, and zero morals.
Perfectly balanced, as all things shouldn't be.