I mentioned this in another thread, but each Biome is designed to teach (And punish you for not learning) certain mechanics.

The Swamp is all about Debuffs and buffs. The swamp is an absolute nightmare for the unpepared, you will need Poison resist meads, and you will need to get very accustomed to maintaining 100% uptime on the "Rested" buff. In the swamp, you have no access yet (At least in normal progression) to a warm cloak (Wolf, Lox or Feather) so night is especially brutal. The constant wet debuff and the cold debuff mean stamina regeneration is almost completely nullified.

Always keep materials to make a fire on you (2 wood, 5 stone, you can retrive the stone) but also learn where you can and can't make fires, and where you can rest. It may seem like with the constant rain you can only rest inside Crypts (And this is a valid strategy) but basically any object that occludes the sky will protect your fire and yourself from the rain. So plop a fire under a log ( With enough room for the fire to breath) and squat next to it for 30 seconds. Get your rested buff, and move on.

To a lesser extent, the biome also teaches you about weapon resistances and weaknesses. A mace will save you a lot of grief in the swamp, as most of the enemies are weak to blunt.

Originally posted by Hobo Misanthropus:

It may seem like with the constant rain you can only rest inside Crypts (And this is a valid strategy) but basically any object that occludes the sky will protect your fire and yourself from the rain.

Good that you bring this point up as it is very important. When I do swamps I ALWAYS carry stuff to make a fire and I always place it in the entrance of the crypts before I enter it to get that wet debuff away and also for refreshing my rested bonus if it runs out.

I brought a lot of wood and slowly pushed my way into the swamp. Building small walk ways and torches so I knew a clear path back to safety.

The welcome committee on the edge of the biome is a bit denser than the normal spawns once you're inside. Once you pick those off, it will get easier. Try to pull them one at a time if you can, outside the biome and kill them. Once it is relatively safe, put down some campfires to keep the area a bit clearer. They don't need to stay lit.

Then while inside, use the hoe to make paths. Any water shallow enough to grow cattails will rise enough for a dry-ish pathway. You can also walk across those without losing your weapon, but the leeches can still get to you, so paths are better.

Use a mace for skellies and blobs. Atgeir works great on most draugr. Spin attack before they touch you and then skewer. (Don't mess with the elites.) Use the bow at a distance whenever possible.

Always have poison resist active and leave before it runs out until you know what you are doing. It does you no good after you have been poisoned. Also get out of there before nightfall.

Your number one goal in the beginning is to find the very rare yellow turnip flower. You can look for them in any swamp whether it has crypts or not.

bring a hoe and win the entire game and be the king of cheese

You can follow the reeds to find shallows to cross the water without being slowed down as much or having to expend stamina on swimming.

Use poison resist meads (you have to use them before you take the damage they don't help retroactively but they do run for several minutes before they need renewed). Stay rested, explore only during the day. Run around in the small strip swamps first. Find turnip seeds, take them home and plant and reseed for a few cycles to build up a supply of them so you can upgrade your cauldron and get better foods.

Use the small strip swamps to farm dragur and leeches (leeches do practically nothing to you if you are using poison resist meads). Watch out for body piles and use your bow to kill those from outside dragur perception range.

If you are being chased by multiple foes you don't have to have troll help you can retreat to an adjacent biome and get help from what ever happens to be there. The dragur will attack those creatures instead of you which can give you a chance to snipe the dragur. Boars, neck, and deer don't do any damage to the dragur but graydwarves will soften them up a bit for you. A troll will wipe them out and the good news is the troll will have very little health left which will make it easy for you to finish him off.

Originally posted by General_Strom:

So I just start walking into the swamp and I get....swamped. I must be carrying a call monster cursed item and it is a non stop monster attack. I run out of stamina and it seems the hit point regen is practically zero. I have over 100 hp with food and wearing either full troll gear or full bronze updated as high as I can. I can not get into the swamp far before I either die or have to run out. Any suggestion?

If you know where a crypt is, use your hoe to make tracks , I normally pop a portal on top of the crypt I'm working, so you can drop off all the other stuff. Have a longship docked in a safe spot BEFORE you start, swamps are uggo but doable vanilla.

Sneaking and sniping is your friend in swamps.
Also either wear root armor headgear or have poison resistance mead with you. (You don't really need both, just choose one option).

Mace is the best weapon as it deals better damage to oozes and leeches.

Do have fire arrows if you accidentally disturb abomination and decide to fight it.

add: dont run, save stamina and walk is better way

I only experimented this on a thin patch of swamp, but felling down ancient trees on the boundary between swamps and (e.g.) black forest attracts locals and you can fight them in the other biome (prepare a campfire).
Another twisted way is to attract a strong troll (by felling trees), and let the two peoples settle their matter.
Whatever, this region of swamp becomes more sane for some time.

Btw, in troll armor, basic draugar are easily taken one by one, but elite ones are better fought from afar.

Take it slow.
Be rested.
Day only.
Snipe dragur, they're slow and stupid.
Lots of people like using the hoe to make things flatter (helps with stam) and reduce risk from leeches.

If all else fails look for another swamp, you might just be unlucky with spawners/geography.

Make a mace.

Poison resist potion is good to have. Go in fully rested in the morning. Take it slow and move out before you get swamped. Use health and stamina potions if you're in trouble.

Bring poison resistance mead. Snipe Draugr or be good at parrying, they are incredibly easy too parry. Take it slow and head directly to the crypts for the iron then make better armor and weapons first before you keep exploring the swamps. Also try to find turnip seeds, they can be found in the swamps but are quite rare. They look almost like those carrot flowers just in yellow.