It's very basic but I haven't seen it mentioned, make sure you are rested. Being wet already kills your stamina, don't need being unrested too.

If you have the swamp key you can build a campfire on the step just inside the door where the beasties can't get you. You can also build a little shelter on top of a crypt which is also reasonably safe.

Your first priority isn't iron, it's turnips, the yellow flowers. On the plus side, turnips can spawn in any swamp, even the small ones. On the minus side, they're rare, so finding them is very dependent on RNG. Obviously, they don't grow in water, so look around what little high ground you can find. If you're lucky it will be on the edge of the biome. Once you find one, do a happy dance, quietly, and get the heck out of there. Go home and farm them up until you have enough to upgrade your food. That will greatly increase your survivability.

Use campfires to suppress spawns in areas you're already cleared. They're also good for marking your path. They don't have to stay lit, and probably won't.

Mace is good for blobs and skellies, but the draugr are more likely to end your day. (Provided you are using your poison resist.) Use the bow any time you can. Otherwise the atgeir works great for staggering enemies and keeping them from hitting you. Normal draugr are easy with the atgeir.

Don't go at night. This is repeated often for good reason. You can ignore that advice after you are geared up, know what you are doing, and need to hunt wraiths for chains. Believe it or not, the swamp will seem easy by then.

Spawners are also hidden in stone ruins. Don't go in there. The buzzing fly noise is a warning. That is one of the worst places in the game to leave your tombstone.

dude, half of game sucks. that game - trick: first hours beautiful and chiil, next time - suck.

Originally posted by morrokain10587:

The most dangerous part of the swamp isn't the abominations its the clusters of dead body piles and bone piles that spawn an infinite number of draugrs and skeletons when aggroed.

If you see a cluster of stones in a circle-like structure then they probably contain them. They are often close to crypts. You can also use your ears to listen for the insect whine like when you are close to a beehive for the dead body piles. Those are a sickly green color and should be targeted first.

Try to see them before you aggro them and use a bow to destroy them at range. If you have aggroed them and you can't wade through the enemies to destroy the pile itself, just run away as fast as you can out of the swamp. Never attempt clearing them at night if you don't want two or three wraiths hearing the commotion and coming to crash your party.

Until you get your gear upgraded, absolutely run if a 2 star elite draugr spawns and be prepared to use a stamina mead. I had one chase me deep, deep into the meadows and kill me because it spawned when I was low on stamina and couldn't sprint. Every hit I parried took what little stamina I could gain from walking away. Eventually, I made a mistake and died. To put this in perspective, I have T4 iron weapons and T4 root gear and I still get really nervous around 2 star elite draugrs.

Also be aware that clusters can spawn close to each other and if you aggro more than one cluster you will likely die.

i died right on one of these in the varry start and its a big reason why i thought it was much harder then it really is

Yes. The body piles are the worst, and you're also going to find them in the crypts, where you have to deal with them, and you may not be able to hit the pile with a bow, since it will likely be behind a mud pile.

I prefer sword in the swamp and the body piles are one of the reasons. If I can't take them out with a bow, I use the bow on the stronger draugr until I just have a pair of no-star, non-elite, then I go aggressively at the pile. If you kill a draugr with the pile active, another will spawn, which could be worse, so take out the pile fast and then deal with the draugr.

The sword doesn't have a multi-target penalty like most weapons do, so it works well in these tight situations, where you might hit two draugr, a body pile, and a mud pile, all in the same swing.

Should also be said, if you can leave those spawners there they come in very handy later for farming and skilling up weapons. I try to avoid killing any overworld spawners i can because to me they = free repeatable resources.

The most dangerous part of the swamp isn't the abominations its the clusters of dead body piles and bone piles that spawn an infinite number of draugrs and skeletons when aggroed.

If you see a cluster of stones in a circle-like structure then they probably contain them. They are often close to crypts. You can also use your ears to listen for the insect whine like when you are close to a beehive for the dead body piles. Those are a sickly green color and should be targeted first.

Try to see them before you aggro them and use a bow to destroy them at range. If you have aggroed them and you can't wade through the enemies to destroy the pile itself, just run away as fast as you can out of the swamp. Never attempt clearing them at night if you don't want two or three wraiths hearing the commotion and coming to crash your party.

Until you get your gear upgraded, absolutely run if a 2 star elite draugr spawns and be prepared to use a stamina mead. I had one chase me deep, deep into the meadows and kill me because it spawned when I was low on stamina and couldn't sprint. Every hit I parried took what little stamina I could gain from walking away. Eventually, I made a mistake and died. To put this in perspective, I have T4 iron weapons and T4 root gear and I still get really nervous around 2 star elite draugrs.

Also be aware that clusters can spawn close to each other and if you aggro more than one cluster you will likely die.

Originally posted by DemDankels:

first time in the swamp and it sucks big time lol i know the main tips like use a hoe to make path ways stuff like that any more would be helpful

On my current playthrough, I make sure I have the best foods available, because stamina is at a premium. Make sure you listen to the sounds of the swamp, because you do not want to agro more creatures than you can handle. You start running and will pull more than you can take, which leads to an untimely demise.

Take your time dont rush and make sure your gear is upgraded

Heres some basic advice to get around the swamp more easily

1) You should expect an ambush when you first enter the biome, particularly if you run around and jump. After this initial wave of monsters the swamp will be calmer provided you do not run around. Walk around slowly and fight monsters 1 or 2 at a time.

2) You should use blunt weapons such as a fully upgraded club or a bronze mace

3) Consider starting with a scouting run where you do not try to fight anything and you do not bring good armor. You can leave all your gear at your base and then use the first boss ability to outrun monsters in the swamp. This way you can know what you are getting into when you explore it for real with your armor.

4) Make a forward base in a black forest or meadow that is close to the swamp

5) Alternatively, look for an abandoned building that is high off the ground in the swamp and make a forward base there, high up from the ground

Root helm gives poison resist making the blobs and other stuff like it trivial. So if you make any root armor i'd do that piece first.

Mace works on the majority of swamp biome monsters so until you have a frostner that will be your best go to weapon for most things. Abominations i'd suggest keeping your distance from early on and taking out with fire arrows. If you do melee them a slashing weapon is best, i honestly like going after them with daggers/knives.

Speed is often more important than total armor here so i recommend fully upgraded troll armor over bronze/iron armors.

Start making meads. Poison resist meads in particular if your not using a root helm. Stamina because your always wet in the swamp and stamina recovery sucks. Health for random oh **** moments.

Use the stagbreaker to kill things through walls in the crypts to stay safer.

Make some frost mead and once you have the iron pick axe try doing a little mountain exploration. You can find buried silver before killing bonemass by spotting it sticking out of the ground or using the stagbreaker to pound the ground and look for "too hard" messages like it bounced off something. If you can build a frostner you can tear the swamp and bone mass apart.

If you fight bonemass prior to getting a frostner and youre finding him too hard build yourself a treehouse near his spawner with a portal to base and use it to plink him with frost arrows until hes dead.

Not sure if you get poison resistance from root helm unless you complete the armor set. I read somewhere on one of the gaming sites you don't get the resistance or bonus arrow damage without full set. I've been wearing just the helm and still taking a good amount of poison dmg.

swamp is the most miserable biom in the game,

Originally posted by HOUSE_D:

Not sure if you get poison resistance from root helm unless you complete the armor set. I read somewhere on one of the gaming sites you don't get the resistance or bonus arrow damage without full set. I've been wearing just the helm and still taking a good amount of poison dmg.

You get the bonus. The full set bonus is 15 to bow skill. The poison bonus, like the pierce bonus on the chest piece for it is just on the piece itself not the set.

You may be thinking of the Fenris set, it requires the full set for its fire resist bonus.

My favorite current load out is the carapace helm for the high armor and no speed debuff, the root chest for the pierce resist, the fenris pants for the slight movement speed bonus and the feather cape for the featherfall effect. You're effectively at 1% increased speed and 60 some odd armor with pierce resist added in. You're faster than no armor at all by a hair, have decent armor, resist to one of the most used damage types and as long as you carry fire resist mead or just another pair of pants to swap into the fire vulnerability is no big deal.

Swamp you are always wet and have to account for the stamina effect.
otherwise its really no worse than anything else.
if you are prepared for the zone, then this will keep you alive:
- don't wade or swim unless farming leeches.
- don't play at night, until you have upped your gear
- avoid starred creatures and 'elite' draghr (they are fat, totally different look).
- blobs are a priority target when in melee range. Learn to bait them into gassing then kill them between cooldowns of it -- exactly the same as dwarf shaman breath is done.
- archers behave exactly like skeleton archers you already fought.
- melee are exactly like sword&board skeletons.
- abominations are slow and avoidable until ready for it
- surtlings are weak but fast, but avoiding the firey spawners, there is no reason to bother them right now (can farm later for cores and coal)

its really simple. starting out, locate crypts, which have green fire near them, and go in those. Once inside, use bow to kill stuff while keeping it blocked by the scrap piles (partial clear to make room to shoot is ok). After killing it all, clear scrap piles, smelt iron, and upgrade. After you have all your iron armor, the zone should be more or less tamed for you.