Shield (your choice, but I like banded)
Pickaxe
Nails for longship (but I like the sailing aspect of the game, and I like getting a couple hundred iron out of the swamp in one fell swoop- the iron pickaxe helps that too)
Mace

I like to make an iron mace pretty quickly as that's the best early weapon to use in the swamps. Then I can use that mace to smash baddies while I get more iron for everything else.

Depends ...

If I have a high enough mountain near by I will just make the banded shield and Iron pickax.

Upgrade the shield
Also want two iron for stone cutter for grinding stone upgrade

Go to mountains and get silver

No killing Bonemass means no wolf hunt.

Make wolf chest first


If I have to sail for a mountain I will make the boat first.

Iron pickaxe, then upgrade it to max, then bow, then buckler.

Ship most definitely the extra storage space means taking less trips.

My first thought would be shield, then sword [protection & damage], but i rarely sail so a bigger ship isn't much of a concern to me

I always make the banded shield first, since it will parry/block anything in the swamp, then a sword, since it's my go-to weapon, and, combined with the shield, it will 1-shot anything (other than the abomination, of course, and maybe a 2* elite).

The ship, is also a top priority, but I doubt you would need it right away, so I think other things should be higher priority until you need it.

I stick with the finewood bow until I have silver and can build a draugr fang.

After shield and sword I build a suit of armor. With that you're pretty much set through plains if you want to be, although upgrading makes things easier, of course.

I went with shield, then items that increase rested bonus, then nails for the larger ship. After that I made a better weapon and then better armor.

Definitely shield. How good a shield you have is one of the primary factors in determining which enemies you can and cannot take in a stand up fight. It's your best tool for surviving the dangers of the swamp.

Thank you all for the suggestions!

Armor-wise thinking going with the light ones. troll then root and lastly fenring -i heard that is a thing now? Good shield is a must have but atgeir is tempting as went last time with shield and mace. Does atgeir have decent parry against mosquitos or does one just swipe them into oblivion with it?

Axe doubles as a weapon and treefeller so there's that. Sword or mace, really like the smashing effect against carving up my opponents. Do both work well against multiple enemies?

Ship lets me to ferry 4 stacks right now, the longboat has, what, 8 slots? Don't really know this one as one as one shipment with karven basically gives me one upgraded something and really don't mind sailing against the wind, BUT if you tell me that proper ship is better at handling and faster, then i might bite.

Can't remember what i did with the bows last time but can remember it was a good addition

Originally posted by sneakyweazel:

Ship lets me to ferry 4 stacks right now, the longboat has, what, 8 slots? Don't really know this one as one as one shipment with karven basically gives me one upgraded something and really don't mind sailing against the wind, BUT if you tell me that proper ship is better at handling and faster, then i might bite.

The longship has 18 cargo slots, and it's a totally different experience. Handles way better and is faster, and much more resistant to sinking.

Longboat first of all
You are good at parrying ? Then a iron buckler if not just iron banded shield
After that the iron mace , will help you the entire way into swamps and mountains because all monster get all the damage from it ( abomination the only exception )
After that the iron set and last the huntsman bow
Builds that needs iron are just blackmith upgrades and stone workbench ( to make stone buildings )

Boat and then whatever weapon of choice you use, i usually go for an atgeir as imo, it's probably one of the best and funnest weapons. Still am hoping they add a long spear.

Originally posted by sneakyweazel:

Thank you all for the suggestions!

Armor-wise thinking going with the light ones. troll then root and lastly fenring -i heard that is a thing now? Good shield is a must have but atgeir is tempting as went last time with shield and mace. Does atgeir have decent parry against mosquitos or does one just swipe them into oblivion with it?

Axe doubles as a weapon and treefeller so there's that. Sword or mace, really like the smashing effect against carving up my opponents. Do both work well against multiple enemies?

Ship lets me to ferry 4 stacks right now, the longboat has, what, 8 slots? Don't really know this one as one as one shipment with karven basically gives me one upgraded something and really don't mind sailing against the wind, BUT if you tell me that proper ship is better at handling and faster, then i might bite.

Can't remember what i did with the bows last time but can remember it was a good addition

Axe is pretty slow and does slash damage. Sword is much faster and also does slash damage. Mace is slower than sword but more things in the swamp are vulnerable to it as is Bonemass. The stone golems in the mountains have no resistances to it but have resistances to pretty much every other type of damage. The long boat has 18 cargo slots so it holds all most twice the amount that 2 chests hold. That saves lots of time and travel. You can clear out 2-4 crypts and carry all of the scrap in one trip.

The long boat is faster, sturdier, and turns more smoothly. The only issue it has is that you can sometimes lose too much speed when tacking to catch the wind on the other side of the boat and you might have to paddle for a few seconds. Its fast enough that if you see a serpent coming up from behind you, you can kill it with your Huntsman's bow and flint arrows before it can reach you.

Longboat, any upgrades to workstations. Pick, Huntsmans bow actually has hidden stats (it fires silently - only one) Then armor , weapons etc.