The swamp is def tougher.

I would advise you to not land your ship directly at the swamps. Park at an adjacent Black Forest and go in on land. it's much easier to make your way when you can start on dry land, and have somewhere to fall back to.

Swamps at night is the only time the flying reaper dudes hang around, so try not to be there at night.

Also, you will always be wet in swamps. Always. Night time makes it worse because then you're wet and cold. That combined with waist deep water means you'll get chased down and ganked easily.

My suggestion would be to use your hoe tool to raise land as you progress, so you at least have a higher position to fight from (and no leeches to dodge).

Good luck!

That seems like an unusually high amount of spawns but for your first swamp experience I don't recommend you sail straight into the swamp and instead cross into it by foot from a black forest / meadows biome to get used to the mobs.

Also the grim reaper flying bro spawns at night so don't be there at night until you can handle yourself. All of the mobs can be parried and easily beaten once you are comfortable but first time........ I still remember mine and it was a similar experience to yours. Go slower

You have to land into a swamp with top BF food ( carrot soup , minced meat sauce and deer stew ) and rested buff and anti poison me/ad, if you really know parry with bronze buckler normal swamp mobs are not a problem , only stared draugr are

As others have said, the swamp is a significant step up in difficulty and probably requires an adjustment in how you approach it.

Find nearby Black Forest or Meadows and build a small base there, then head into the swamp on foot each time. This should also have access to the water so you can easily transport ore somewhere else if needed. Don't go in at night until you've upgraded your equipment a fair bit and have a better feel for the area. Mace is very nice for the swamp. Take in the best food you can and make poison resist potions when you can.

you can often find a crypt near the shore if you sail around abit ,,,,leeches can break the karve .....scope swamps in the day only , bring a mace for skellys and ooze, a pick for the crypt , bow and sword also work on swamp people , there are spawn pools in the swamp , they glow and buzz , you can take those out ...you can scout swamps from the boat , you need a crypt first and foremost to get a longboat

i go slowly and do a lot of building into my first swamp.. paths and walls, bonfires, forts.. go in with your hoe and hammer and civilize the place a little.. there are no special swamp building permits.. the big trees are free indestructible building supports, so abuse that..

then every swamp after my first, i still go slowly and do a lot of building if i want the iron

Originally posted by MrMojoRisin57:

I turned on god mode just to get to a corpse after x amount of deaths and there were like 20 draugr, a grim reaper flying bro, and an abomination, all in one area.

A grim reaper? You must have tried to get your corpse at night. It was a Wraith and they are nocturnal.

I had the same problem too, when I landed my ship at the edge of Swamps. It was a bad way to explore them and establish a foothold. I got my butt beat a few times, with multiple monsters camping my portal.

To make it easier, and more enjoyable, find another area of Swamps that are attached to a lesser biome, like Dark Forest. Establish a foothold there and then you can wade slowly into Swamps. As you get more comfortable in them and know how to prepare, you will be able to dominate the Swamps.

Was there a spawner stonehenge nearby maybe?

There's a structure that appears in the swamp that is a giant stone platform with henges (upright stones) around it. Inside it, in between the stones is usually three undead spawn piles. Draugr and skeletons. If you're near one of those they will just begin pouring out like a firehose.

The tip about using a hoe to level the ground that was posted above is... just... brilliant. I am dumbfounded by how brilliant that is. and I'm going to do that immediately to a few of the swamp areas I farm for resources.

The best suggestion is build some safe house throughout the swamp. if you have to, build raised walkways, or paths through trickier areas. Build raised stairs up the sides of the bigger non-destructible trees, so you have look out platforms.

And if I find any sunken crypts, I automatically build a little mini-fort on top of them, and build a portal inside. that way I can come and go while clearing out the crypt.

Post-Elder is when the tutorial really ends. Learn about meads, find the better ingredients, take your rested bonus seriously, dock your boat at a safer biome (if you can), plan out your portals etc. You could easily neglect many of those aspects and get by at a sane rate earlier, but in the swamps they will all do their own big part in shaving off hours of time where you would be dying, recovering or taking everything you do even more cautiously.

Also spamming a hoe to level the ground in front of you as you move around the swamp has a very good chance of saving you later. Not only does lifting the ground above water this way obstruct the movement of leeches, it also means that retracing your steps backwards will always lead to a solid escape path where you don't have to worry about wading, swimming or jumping over deeper water. Do a little bit of crisscrossing as you explore and your paths will link up in a way that will enable you to navigate around that swamp almost as efficiently as earlier biomes.

If you got that many draugr wandering around there is probably a spawner. Play it safe when you are using last biomes gear and just shoot those things out.

Speaking of last biomes gear I would personally recommend swapping to the troll set for faster movement with only a minor defence penalty. It is by no means a requirement, but on top of the movement speed penalties from wearing the bronze set you are now facing a constant stamina regeneration debuff from the rain, and together they are likely contributing reasons as to why the draugr are keeping up with you and overwhelming you. If outrunning is still difficult and you aren't capable of a good block, better movement will help you conserve the stamina you need for rolling and everything else that stamina is used for.

Seriously enemies move in all sorts of ways in the swamps. They charge, they swim along the water-edges, they bounce, they hover, or they snipe you from where they stand. Most of them are not movement-impaired by the same minimum depth of water that it takes to slow you down. Optimizing your ability to manoeuvre until you get to iron gear is a solid play.

How I prepare for a swamp:

Pregame: Brew antidote meads and be sure to have a mace.

First drop two portals at the base. "temp" and "swamp"

Second bring portal mats and drive a boat to the nearest meadow/BF to the swamp

Third place a workbench and a portal in the meadow/bf and label it "temp"

Fourth go back through the portal and stow any valuable equipment/items at base

Fifth run like a madman through the swamp and get an idea of where crypts are while also scouting a good place for a centralized outpost. Don't fight anything. Left the good gear back at base

Sixth get the materials to build a centralized outpost near the most crypts as possible. Along with more portal materials.

Seventh build a small base with a couple storage chests and place another portal. Label it "swamp".

Eighth: Dive crypts, collect iron, store it at the outpost until full.

Ninth: Bring mats back to base.



There's no real reason to fight anything in the open world in the swamp, if you can avoid it (at least starting out in the swamp). Getting poisoned will cost you a valuable antidote mead.... or your life if you don't have any.

Be incredibly careful of starred draugers. They can do a lot of damage, even when blocked or parried.

Be patient in your first few crypts. They can be quite challenging with drauger spawners. Carving a thin path through the muck can make it so that you can shoot them with arrows, but they can't get through to you.

The game tends to rapidly increase in difficulty as you progress to the next biom. This means that you will have a similar experience when moving to other areas in the future, not just swamps.

New enemies don't know how to fight against them. Some enemies have to be pulled out, some have to be blocked with a shield, and some have to be attacked first. So it takes time to get used to it.

Therefore, if you are inexperienced in this game, it is best to draw enemies from a safe area, learn some combat patterns, and faithfully replenish your equipment.

Don't go out at night until your gear is full. This game is a game with huge enemy spawn at night.

If you see a spawner, run away from it and go back. Big-size enemies in each area, beware of mini-bosses (like trolls. I won't mention other enemies by name because of spoilers).

Above all else, eat well. This game is a really powerful game with food.

Like Dark Souls, once you've gained some experience, all your enemies will look too slow and weak.

Rules for swamp:

1) Never land your boat in the swamp until you're in silver or better. Do whatever it takes to land in Black Forest (or Meadows if you're close enough to the middle of the map) and work your way in.
2) Carry poison resist meads and keep the buff up when you're in the swamp. Don't wait until you see blobs or leeches.
3) Use your hoe to create paths so you don't get stuck swimming or have leeches biting your ankles.
4) Don't run in the swamp until you're in silver or better. Same for going out in the swamp at night.
5) (Optional) Use your pick to lower the ground around surtling spawns into the water

Like in my current game my Bonemass spawn was all the way on the edge of the map on an island I couldn't safely land on. I landed in some nearby black forest and built a cart-capable bridge into the swamp (since I still needed a lot of iron and there's always tons of crypts around Bonemass).

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2819651739

The spawns were relentless, I think due to a combination of distance from the center and proximity to plains and swamps. I was wearing bronze armor at the time and it was rough going, so I built a fortified dock in the black forest with a smelter and a level 2 forge so I could craft iron armor in something resembling peace. I got the copper for the forge from a nearby copper node, the iron for a stonecutter from a crypt, and used a grinding wheel to upgrade my forge. I think I built it there but you can take grinding wheels through portals, which is one of those obscure-but-occasionally-super-useful things to know.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2819652920
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2819651791

Land near swamp in black Forrest or beginner biome.

Build a hut & teleport immediately.

Slowly progress through swamp, focus on making a beeline to crypts to get iron

As soon as you get to a crypt build a workbench and another teleport.

You will most likely make mistakes and die. I would suggest using troll armor rather than bronze or at least having a backup set of armor and weapons or maybe two.

Originally posted by Maelstrom:

Rules for swamp:

1) Never land your boat in the swamp until you're in silver or better. Do whatever it takes to land in Black Forest (or Meadows if you're close enough to the middle of the map) and work your way in.
2) Carry poison resist meads and keep the buff up when you're in the swamp. Don't wait until you see blobs or leeches.
3) Use your hoe to create paths so you don't get stuck swimming or have leeches biting your ankles.
4) Don't run in the swamp until you're in silver or better. Same for going out in the swamp at night.
5) (Optional) Use your pick to lower the ground around surtling spawns into the water

Like in my current game my Bonemass spawn was all the way on the edge of the map on an island I couldn't safely land on. I landed in some nearby black forest and built a cart-capable bridge into the swamp (since I still needed a lot of iron and there's always tons of crypts around Bonemass).

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2819651739

The spawns were relentless, I think due to a combination of distance from the center and proximity to plains and swamps. I was wearing bronze armor at the time and it was rough going, so I built a fortified dock in the black forest with a smelter and a level 2 forge so I could craft iron armor in something resembling peace. I got the copper for the forge from a nearby copper node, the iron for a stonecutter from a crypt, and used a grinding wheel to upgrade my forge. I think I built it there but you can take grinding wheels through portals, which is one of those obscure-but-occasionally-super-useful things to know.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2819652920
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2819651791

You sounds some unskilled to say silver or better... , you can blast the swamp with full iron already , with full BF gear if you are well prepared ( top food and anti poison )
About the landing part just wait a little on your boat and snipe any draugr/leech/skellie/blob closer ,its suicidal to just jump off your boat when you reach a swamp coast

There was a large and imo fun difficulty spike when you reached the swamp a year ago. Now they've nerfed poison damage and a couple of other mobs in the swamp and the difficulty increase is barely noticeable. I'm mad.

There was a large and imo fun difficulty spike when you reached the swamp a year ago. Now they've nerfed poison damage and a couple of other mobs in the swamp and the difficulty increase is barely noticeable. I'm mad.

Rules for swamp:

1) Never land your boat in the swamp until you're in silver or better. Do whatever it takes to land in Black Forest (or Meadows if you're close enough to the middle of the map) and work your way in.
2) Carry poison resist meads and keep the buff up when you're in the swamp. Don't wait until you see blobs or leeches.
3) Use your hoe to create paths so you don't get stuck swimming or have leeches biting your ankles.
4) Don't run in the swamp until you're in silver or better. Same for going out in the swamp at night.
5) (Optional) Use your pick to lower the ground around surtling spawns into the water

Like in my current game my Bonemass spawn was all the way on the edge of the map on an island I couldn't safely land on. I landed in some nearby black forest and built a cart-capable bridge into the swamp (since I still needed a lot of iron and there's always tons of crypts around Bonemass).

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2819651739

The spawns were relentless, I think due to a combination of distance from the center and proximity to plains and swamps. I was wearing bronze armor at the time and it was rough going, so I built a fortified dock in the black forest with a smelter and a level 2 forge so I could craft iron armor in something resembling peace. I got the copper for the forge from a nearby copper node, the iron for a stonecutter from a crypt, and used a grinding wheel to upgrade my forge. I think I built it there but you can take grinding wheels through portals, which is one of those obscure-but-occasionally-super-useful things to know.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2819652920
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2819651791

Land near swamp in black Forrest or beginner biome.

Build a hut & teleport immediately.

Slowly progress through swamp, focus on making a beeline to crypts to get iron

As soon as you get to a crypt build a workbench and another teleport.

You will most likely make mistakes and die. I would suggest using troll armor rather than bronze or at least having a backup set of armor and weapons or maybe two.

Originally posted by Maelstrom:

Rules for swamp:

1) Never land your boat in the swamp until you're in silver or better. Do whatever it takes to land in Black Forest (or Meadows if you're close enough to the middle of the map) and work your way in.
2) Carry poison resist meads and keep the buff up when you're in the swamp. Don't wait until you see blobs or leeches.
3) Use your hoe to create paths so you don't get stuck swimming or have leeches biting your ankles.
4) Don't run in the swamp until you're in silver or better. Same for going out in the swamp at night.
5) (Optional) Use your pick to lower the ground around surtling spawns into the water

Like in my current game my Bonemass spawn was all the way on the edge of the map on an island I couldn't safely land on. I landed in some nearby black forest and built a cart-capable bridge into the swamp (since I still needed a lot of iron and there's always tons of crypts around Bonemass).

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2819651739

The spawns were relentless, I think due to a combination of distance from the center and proximity to plains and swamps. I was wearing bronze armor at the time and it was rough going, so I built a fortified dock in the black forest with a smelter and a level 2 forge so I could craft iron armor in something resembling peace. I got the copper for the forge from a nearby copper node, the iron for a stonecutter from a crypt, and used a grinding wheel to upgrade my forge. I think I built it there but you can take grinding wheels through portals, which is one of those obscure-but-occasionally-super-useful things to know.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2819652920
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2819651791

You sounds some unskilled to say silver or better... , you can blast the swamp with full iron already , with full BF gear if you are well prepared ( top food and anti poison )
About the landing part just wait a little on your boat and snipe any draugr/leech/skellie/blob closer ,its suicidal to just jump off your boat when you reach a swamp coast

The game tends to rapidly increase in difficulty as you progress to the next biom. This means that you will have a similar experience when moving to other areas in the future, not just swamps.

New enemies don't know how to fight against them. Some enemies have to be pulled out, some have to be blocked with a shield, and some have to be attacked first. So it takes time to get used to it.

Therefore, if you are inexperienced in this game, it is best to draw enemies from a safe area, learn some combat patterns, and faithfully replenish your equipment.

Don't go out at night until your gear is full. This game is a game with huge enemy spawn at night.

If you see a spawner, run away from it and go back. Big-size enemies in each area, beware of mini-bosses (like trolls. I won't mention other enemies by name because of spoilers).

Above all else, eat well. This game is a really powerful game with food.

Like Dark Souls, once you've gained some experience, all your enemies will look too slow and weak.

How I prepare for a swamp:

Pregame: Brew antidote meads and be sure to have a mace.

First drop two portals at the base. "temp" and "swamp"

Second bring portal mats and drive a boat to the nearest meadow/BF to the swamp

Third place a workbench and a portal in the meadow/bf and label it "temp"

Fourth go back through the portal and stow any valuable equipment/items at base

Fifth run like a madman through the swamp and get an idea of where crypts are while also scouting a good place for a centralized outpost. Don't fight anything. Left the good gear back at base

Sixth get the materials to build a centralized outpost near the most crypts as possible. Along with more portal materials.

Seventh build a small base with a couple storage chests and place another portal. Label it "swamp".

Eighth: Dive crypts, collect iron, store it at the outpost until full.

Ninth: Bring mats back to base.



There's no real reason to fight anything in the open world in the swamp, if you can avoid it (at least starting out in the swamp). Getting poisoned will cost you a valuable antidote mead.... or your life if you don't have any.

Be incredibly careful of starred draugers. They can do a lot of damage, even when blocked or parried.

Be patient in your first few crypts. They can be quite challenging with drauger spawners. Carving a thin path through the muck can make it so that you can shoot them with arrows, but they can't get through to you.

Originally posted by MrMojoRisin57:

I turned on god mode just to get to a corpse after x amount of deaths and there were like 20 draugr, a grim reaper flying bro, and an abomination, all in one area.

A grim reaper? You must have tried to get your corpse at night. It was a Wraith and they are nocturnal.

I had the same problem too, when I landed my ship at the edge of Swamps. It was a bad way to explore them and establish a foothold. I got my butt beat a few times, with multiple monsters camping my portal.

To make it easier, and more enjoyable, find another area of Swamps that are attached to a lesser biome, like Dark Forest. Establish a foothold there and then you can wade slowly into Swamps. As you get more comfortable in them and know how to prepare, you will be able to dominate the Swamps.

Was there a spawner stonehenge nearby maybe?

There's a structure that appears in the swamp that is a giant stone platform with henges (upright stones) around it. Inside it, in between the stones is usually three undead spawn piles. Draugr and skeletons. If you're near one of those they will just begin pouring out like a firehose.

The tip about using a hoe to level the ground that was posted above is... just... brilliant. I am dumbfounded by how brilliant that is. and I'm going to do that immediately to a few of the swamp areas I farm for resources.

The best suggestion is build some safe house throughout the swamp. if you have to, build raised walkways, or paths through trickier areas. Build raised stairs up the sides of the bigger non-destructible trees, so you have look out platforms.

And if I find any sunken crypts, I automatically build a little mini-fort on top of them, and build a portal inside. that way I can come and go while clearing out the crypt.

Post-Elder is when the tutorial really ends. Learn about meads, find the better ingredients, take your rested bonus seriously, dock your boat at a safer biome (if you can), plan out your portals etc. You could easily neglect many of those aspects and get by at a sane rate earlier, but in the swamps they will all do their own big part in shaving off hours of time where you would be dying, recovering or taking everything you do even more cautiously.

Also spamming a hoe to level the ground in front of you as you move around the swamp has a very good chance of saving you later. Not only does lifting the ground above water this way obstruct the movement of leeches, it also means that retracing your steps backwards will always lead to a solid escape path where you don't have to worry about wading, swimming or jumping over deeper water. Do a little bit of crisscrossing as you explore and your paths will link up in a way that will enable you to navigate around that swamp almost as efficiently as earlier biomes.

If you got that many draugr wandering around there is probably a spawner. Play it safe when you are using last biomes gear and just shoot those things out.

Speaking of last biomes gear I would personally recommend swapping to the troll set for faster movement with only a minor defence penalty. It is by no means a requirement, but on top of the movement speed penalties from wearing the bronze set you are now facing a constant stamina regeneration debuff from the rain, and together they are likely contributing reasons as to why the draugr are keeping up with you and overwhelming you. If outrunning is still difficult and you aren't capable of a good block, better movement will help you conserve the stamina you need for rolling and everything else that stamina is used for.

Seriously enemies move in all sorts of ways in the swamps. They charge, they swim along the water-edges, they bounce, they hover, or they snipe you from where they stand. Most of them are not movement-impaired by the same minimum depth of water that it takes to slow you down. Optimizing your ability to manoeuvre until you get to iron gear is a solid play.

The swamp is def tougher.

I would advise you to not land your ship directly at the swamps. Park at an adjacent Black Forest and go in on land. it's much easier to make your way when you can start on dry land, and have somewhere to fall back to.

Swamps at night is the only time the flying reaper dudes hang around, so try not to be there at night.

Also, you will always be wet in swamps. Always. Night time makes it worse because then you're wet and cold. That combined with waist deep water means you'll get chased down and ganked easily.

My suggestion would be to use your hoe tool to raise land as you progress, so you at least have a higher position to fight from (and no leeches to dodge).

Good luck!

That seems like an unusually high amount of spawns but for your first swamp experience I don't recommend you sail straight into the swamp and instead cross into it by foot from a black forest / meadows biome to get used to the mobs.

Also the grim reaper flying bro spawns at night so don't be there at night until you can handle yourself. All of the mobs can be parried and easily beaten once you are comfortable but first time........ I still remember mine and it was a similar experience to yours. Go slower

You have to land into a swamp with top BF food ( carrot soup , minced meat sauce and deer stew ) and rested buff and anti poison me/ad, if you really know parry with bronze buckler normal swamp mobs are not a problem , only stared draugr are

As others have said, the swamp is a significant step up in difficulty and probably requires an adjustment in how you approach it.

Find nearby Black Forest or Meadows and build a small base there, then head into the swamp on foot each time. This should also have access to the water so you can easily transport ore somewhere else if needed. Don't go in at night until you've upgraded your equipment a fair bit and have a better feel for the area. Mace is very nice for the swamp. Take in the best food you can and make poison resist potions when you can.

you can often find a crypt near the shore if you sail around abit ,,,,leeches can break the karve .....scope swamps in the day only , bring a mace for skellys and ooze, a pick for the crypt , bow and sword also work on swamp people , there are spawn pools in the swamp , they glow and buzz , you can take those out ...you can scout swamps from the boat , you need a crypt first and foremost to get a longboat

i go slowly and do a lot of building into my first swamp.. paths and walls, bonfires, forts.. go in with your hoe and hammer and civilize the place a little.. there are no special swamp building permits.. the big trees are free indestructible building supports, so abuse that..

then every swamp after my first, i still go slowly and do a lot of building if i want the iron