I get stumped in games sometimes. If it's bad design, there is inevitably a thread on it. (cough portal ores cough). But if there is no thread, it's inevitably something I'm missing. I couldn't get my bow to work. Couldn't hit a deer to save my Viking life. Nobody else was having the same problem. Turns out you just have to aim a little higher. That was all me. The game worked fine.

My first playthrough I had the exact problem you had. Eithkyr chased me to my shed. I was toast. Bottom line- he won. I failed. That toon got flushed and I started over. Odin found a sinker.

There are LOTS of ways to beat Eithkyr. Many have been discussed in this thread. My fave is to logroll some finewood, sack a few lean-to's for corewood and get the better bow, then come back and obliterate him with fire arrows.

Just wait til you get to stone golems. I hate those things.

1. Do not summon the boss near your home. Who does that and why? Make your home farther away.

New players. Many, many maps put the spawn in rocks, the first boss, and 'used homes' or decent locations all within a small radius. If you don't know better, why not -- its handy, right up to that OOPS moment when it blows everything up.

--------------
Oh boy....I would say that is bad game design! Getting killed every 60 seconds, all weapons broken, items scattered in 20 graves.
-----------
the next two areas increase the difficulty alarmingly. I suggest you stay in the meadows until you can beat this boss without any real effort, or you will find the next are unpossible.

I started a second character, so fortunately I knew what to expect. But I was still surprised that I could block Eykthir‘s attacks with a lvl3 round shield. Probably also helped that I was wearing two troll armor pieces *cough*.

No cheating, took them out with a lvl1 crude bow and flint arrows while wearing rags and was fed mainly on stamina food (berries and honey).

Sounds like my boss fight. LOL. He stomped the crap outta my house. I was able to lure him away and I finally died far enough away where he wouldn't chase me.

Alot of fire arrows and running around the platform spawn area :D

If that happen to me I would of used an alt character to lure the boss away from my body and then log out when the boss is far enough away. Then I could log into the main character equip and eat and retry. The alt character doesn't need any equipment but eating stamina food will allow them to run away better.

Another thing you could do is have your main charaacter go to a different world and get some things then return to the world where the boss is.

Or just have some strong guy log into your world and stomp the boss as others have said.

Since you're so early in, I'd suggest starting over. Takes me an in game week to prepare if I'm relaxing, four days if I'm being efficient.

Next time, make a shield. I'd recommend the tower shield if you're not used to the parry timing of the buckler, which you probably aren't yet. Then a flint axe will do, and two meats and a berry, or a honey if you have one. That shield is enough to block both his lightning and his antler strike with minimal damage. Then get a couple melee hits in between attacks. It takes a little while, but it will slowly wear him down.

Make sure there's nothing dangerous in the area that might join in, like if you're close to a Black Forest where the pine trees are.

Added: If you are intent on getting this to work, try going up, raise the ground, get on top of a rock, build up a tree, etc. That confuses all ground based mobs. Not sure what the range is on that lightning though.

Not to be like that, but I've killed the first boss with my fists 3 times.
But I would say, swim over some water, or anything that would "block" its momentum for you to fix what you need. I'd assume that one also follows the laws of steep slopes, meaning if it's steep enough, it can't get up it. Very useful.

Below is my boss fight about a month ago. Took less then 4 minutes to bring her down wearing leather armour, wielding a Crude Bow, and used less than one stack of regular wooden arrows. Skip to 1:08:06-ish for the boss fight near the end of the video.

https://youtu.be/Nsp99dV2x2U?t=4086

I ate Raspberry, Honey, and Cooked Boar Meat before the fight.

Tips:

1. Do not summon the boss near your home. Who does that and why? Make your home farther away.

2. Scout the area around you and see how you can use the terrain to your advantage.

3. If you're still at your first boss, just restart the game. The video above shows me playing for 5 in-game days before confronting the first boss.

Oh boy....I would say that is bad game design! Getting killed every 60 seconds, all weapons broken, items scattered in 20 graves.

Fortunately, I have a backup of my savegame so I can restore to the point before the boss.

I will try your tips, thanks!

P.S. Normally I would expect that the boss does not follow me 100 km to my house, this is ridiculous.

Why don't the devs make a zone where the boss is and outside this zone I can craft new arrows and repair my gear and when I enter the zone I can fight the boss.

Cut trees down to block his path

I hate to be that guy but 9-volt Reindeer is a real pushover. You need to learn to roll, manage your stamina, watch how it attacks, what its tells are for its attacks in order to time it right. Use trees and rocks to your advantage, build a bench and dig trenches.

Seriously though, i've never heard of anyone dying 20 times to battery-operated Bambi. You are clearly doing something wrong and repeating it. Whats your armor? What weapons are you using? Do you know how to use them? Whats your food?

It isn't bad game design, it's you. I strongly, STRONGLY suggest you do this solo and DO NOT get help. If you can't kill him yourself, you are basically screwed. Takes less than 50 fire arrows to put him away with a crude bow btw.

You can even just keep respawning and punch him to death, frustrating, but he WILL die eventually ;D


Alternatively see if someone can help you out, do you have a buddy that can log in and help kill it?

In life (and Valheim death) life sends you lessons.A lesson is repeated until learned. then you simply get another lesson.. i died a truckload my first game/world.. then i started playing defensively and everything changed so then i started my current world..take the boss fight a bit more seriously.. before you summon. maybe set bed spawn point further away and try the archery approach.. build a character skill..even blocking necks helps