Once you hit swamp trolls arent that much to deal with, especially if you have a good knife or spear and the iron buckler, they turn to mince meat.

Originally posted by Sono:

Once you hit swamp trolls arent that much to deal with, especially if you have a good knife or spear and the iron buckler, they turn to mince meat.

Individually sure, but... permadeath - you have to think worst case - so three or four trolls in event that spawns just as you cross the 'within 40 meters of 3 or more player base structures' line, while its raining, and your rested buff is either already gone or just about to run out. You may also be stuck with the worst case food mix compared to what you would want for your preferred method of fighting multiple trolls.

I mean, unlike normal play, you die, it's delete char and world - game over.

Add to that its a no portals run so... you really can't be building massive troll proof defenses since you'll be moving bases much more often.

For me, the answer is to put a simple palisade around the base for other mobs, clear underbrush around the base, and prepare a well marked kiting track around the base possibly with some traps/troll-obstacles. It's light 'em up with fire arrows to both get agg and so you can more easily see them and if good conditions switch to whatever arrows you've been finding a lot of (flint or iron most likely).

During the swamp phase, its really safer and easier to move your base into the swamps up in a tree as soon as you get stone slabs. Alternatively, if there are abominations in the area, just use the top of a crypt (or two or three) and when the trolls come, help the abominations take care of them.

Don't worry, it ain't that bad. lol

The conditions are both having at least 1 troll die in the world (death can be unrelated to the player) and killing the elder. You may try to avoid killing trolls but if some troll spawns near a mountain biome and a drake fights it and kills it you will get troll raids in your world

actually I'm doing a permadeath noportals run and was wondering if there was a way around needing to add troll defenses. Just have to do some extra scouting before setting up camps and maybe put in some kiting path markers, clear some underbrush, that sort of thing.

Don't want to be building moats and ramparts everywhere lol. Do have an odd idea of creating something like early 20th century "dragon's teeth" but vs trolls instead of tanks. That's probably too much time and trouble except for smelting sites.

I think, and that is a opinion...

You need to kill 2 trolls and the Elder to cause the event.
This is usually a typical activation as its rare to get to the elder without killing a few trolls , especially if you like the gear.. I love the hood and cape at least.

I suppose its possible to avoid all trolls and kill the elder, and thus logically avoid the troll event. but then you would get more swamp events.
I would GUESS its a kill elder then get trolls event, as its expected you would have nabbed a few trolls before.

Originally posted by Chaoslink:

If two trolls die, it can happen. Until then, as far as I know, it can't. It isn't related to boss progression.

Ok, now I'm confused, you're saying the wiki is wrong? It says the troll event is enabled by Elder and Trolls (deaths).

It probably requires both conditions be met...two trolls dead and the Elder dead.

Two trolls enter, one man leaves
Two trolls enter, one man leaves
This is Thunderheim!

ah well thanks to both of you, was hoping (fleetingly) that troll deaths after elder wouldn't trigger it but yeah I think you all are correct. Thanks again!

Welcome!
Btw for anyone interested, here are the 'global keys' for the game:
defeated_eikthyr
defeated_gdking
defeated_bonemass
defeated_dragon
defeated_goblinking
KilledTroll
killed_surtling
KilledBat

If two trolls die, it can happen. Until then, as far as I know, it can't. It isn't related to boss progression.