I have used troll armor all the way until I unlocked silver, and was fine, including in the swamps. If you upgrade it and eat the right foods (sausages, carrot soup, and either queens jam or turnip stew paired with poison resistance) it’s cake, all the way through bonemass (3rd boss). Just use bronze/iron weapons, and shield. Parying is your best friend in combat

Do you want to sneak and run faster, use troll.

Do you prefer not to get 1shot by anything in the swamps, mountains, or plains, use armor.

Bronze bar are a pain since they take 2 copper and one zinc to make one bar.

Most people get Bronze tools etc but bypass the Bronze armor and go straight to Iron. A full troll set will be fine until you get to Iron (early swamp)

Troll armour will not cut it in the plains tho. (maybe if using max food)

I was fine using troll armor in the swamps until getting iron. I think if you skip any tier it should be bronze armor

you´ll need bronze armor for the next biom Swamp
I kept the troll armor for hunting deer and boar, its faster than metal armors

I have used troll armor all the way until I unlocked silver, and was fine, including in the swamps. If you upgrade it and eat the right foods (sausages, carrot soup, and either queens jam or turnip stew paired with poison resistance) it’s cake, all the way through bonemass (3rd boss). Just use bronze/iron weapons, and shield. Parying is your best friend in combat

I ran with troll armor until I got iron armor for the same reason. Entry-level bronze armor is only as good as upgraded troll armor, and you have the movement penalty to deal with. And the next level up doesn't seem worth the difference.

However, armor progression is not linear in Valheim. A few points of extra armor can make a huge difference due to the opaque armor/damage system. If you can stand the grind of mining copper and tin, then getting high-tier bronze armor will surely make your early swamp experience easier. But it's not necessary: you can play carefully with troll armor in the swamp until you have gathered enough iron to craft yourself a set.

Funny enough throughout the entire game I kept a set of troll armor around for whenever I wanted to make a run gathering raspberries, mushrooms, blueberries and thistles (OH GOD THE THISTLES) in the woods. With Eikthyr, it feels you're running on wind!

Originally posted by Vrost:

you´ll need bronze armor for the next biom Swamp

Not really. Troll armor works just fine there.

Also troll armor level 2 is easy and you should have it when you get to swamp already and its already like lvl1 bronze.

It really comes down to personal preference. I'd rather maintain more movement speed so I don't use bronze armour, I stayed with Troll armour on both characters I play. One has a bronze shield, but that's it. I only have a bronze axe to chop trees, I rarely use it as a weapon. The tier two troll armour (one upgrade per piece only) upgraded club, upgraded bone spear, and fine bow have been working just fine for me even through many players fully upgrade a full set of bronze before really tackling the swamps. It all depends on how you play and whether a bit more protection is more important to you than mobility.

The speed penalty (10%) from Bronze armor sucks, especially when you're only getting 5 more points of defense. Iron armor has the same movement penalty and more than double the defense as Troll armor. Skip bronze and upgrade your troll armor until you've got iron.

Bring a shield, a mace, bow, and poison resist to the swamps and you'll be fine.

troll armor is fine just make a bronze shield and mace

Agree with most above. Stick with troll. Get the best shield you can. A parrying shield is the first thing I've made out of any of the new resources unlocked and it is far better than armor.

From my experience the shield is your primary defense. If you're good with it you can walk the plains naked and be fine. Armor is there for when you're surprised, overwhelmed or mess up.

The swamp is very much doable with bronze shield, sword/mace and troll armor.

I found myself not really using my bronze armour, but once I got iron it seem very much needed for anything beyond the swamp.

From my experience, stay with Troll. Just get bronze weapons/shield. Of course, bronze armor would make it a little easier in the next biome, but at least for me, the armor difference (and the reduced movementspeed) doesn't justify the effort to get hands on the necessary bronze.

Better be a little more careful with your first explorations and think about a propper peperation until you get the iron armor.

@Marauder, I agree with you on the power of shields, still some armor is helpful, especially if you get hit trough the block.

I used Troll until I got Iron. It is doable but depends on your playstyle. Try both and see how you like it, just make sure if you wear troll armor that you have the best shield you can get and fully upgrade it :)