I've always wondered what the bonfires did to him,,, anyone try that?

Bonemass telegraphs his attacks, and has a regular interval between them. This makes him very predictable to fight if you take your time and don't panic.

To defeat him, I brought an Iron Mace and Banded Shield, as well as an Iron Sledge. I used the shield and mace to fight him head on; attacking when there was an opening and parrying his attacks for a counter. I used the Iron Sledge to destroy his skeletal minions using its AoE attack, which often took care of them in one blow.

Throughout it all, I maintained a Poison Resistance mead.

If you switch between fighting Bonemass and AoEing his skeletons, it's pretty straightforward. When he does his AoE attack is typically a good time to AoE the skeletons.

If you interrupt his puking there are no skeles. Banded shield is a bit old and tattered. Would suggest upgrading to iron. Just cuz you can do something doesn't mean you should. And a newer player, one who doesn't know the fight is better off with the best gear he/she can get at that point. Sledge is pricy ironwise, but the stagbreaker is cheap and effective.
Same with meleeing him head on, why not from the side where you aren't in his aoe and take little to no damage... Just saying. But then, there is some fun in face tanking.

I once went to the extreme effort of building a roof over the entire bonemass area so I could fight him while dry. Of course he spawned on TOP of the roof... :P

If there's a next time my advice is find 2-3 indestructible trees nearby and prep the ground/build your roof around them and just lure him over to the area after you spawn him. Dont forget at least 1 campfire to dry you out after you get back with bonemass.

my first run, he was surrounded by sunken cripts and there was a convenient fallen tree next to one that i could climb up on.

so i made a whole bunch of stagbreakers (cus i killed ekthier like 4 times) so i could AOE him and his blobs but they couldn't hit me.

took a while, but it worked.

now i just parry him with my dank shield and porcupine for EZ

Alternatively, if you want to cheese it, build a platform high up in a nearby tree (the big ones that can't be chopped down), get ye some frost arrows (lots) and shoot the bugger until he's done. We do this semi-regularly on our playthroughs because we hate the swamp and only go in on a needs-must basis.

Yes, he does generate skellies and yes, he also throws blobs at you.

When I fought bonemass, this was just after the game launched, and I built an entire fort directly on top of his summoning skull. Did the whole fight from on top of it, and hardly took any damage.

Apparently they fixed that, and bonemass does some horrible thing that launches you into the air like being shot out of cannon.

But it still might be worth building some kind of raised platform. See if you can build something around the trunk of one of the big permanent (unchoppable) trees in the swamp. just don't build it directly on top of his summoning skull/alter.

Bonemass is considered by many to be the hardest boss in the game. It's probably not a good idea to fight him using an iron sword. A mace works better because he is weak to blunt damage. The skeletons are his minions and are also weak to blunt damage. Try to take them out quickly with your mace. You're going to need poison resistance potions and good food.

Flatten the area so you have space to run. Use poison resist at all times. Good food and gear, and the best blunt weapon you can get.

Run him in circles around the skull. Learn what his melee attack looks like and dodge it, then smack him a few times. Use the skull to block him when you need to smack the adds or get your stamina back.

first, bonemass is vulnerable to bashing damage, VERY resistant to piercing, and i think just resistant (but maybe very) to slashing. So...use a mace.

Second, bonemass has 3 attacks.
1) he digs into his armpit and pulls a glob that he chucks off a bit. Summons 2-4 total of some combination of oozes and skeletons.
2) he grabs his stomach and rears back and vomits onto the ground. Makes a big poison cloud that continually refreshes poison duration. If you're over-geared (like high level iron armor, good shield, high end foods that have lots of regen) and have a poison resistance mead, you can just sit in it and smack him through it....otherwise run when he rears back and kite him out of the cloud.
3) he pulls back one arm or the other and does a smack. No poison damage.

Third, to prep the area, you should probably make a portal, a workbench, and use the hoe to flatten/raise the ground so that there is a large area out of the water...you don't want leeches chiming in on your fight, or to be slowed.


- when he does attack #1, run to the glob's landing spot and kill the enemies while bonemass is moving to you. You don't want to have the adds punching you around while you're trying to position for bonemass.
- when he does #2, run back, well out of the cloud and make him follow you. Use this time to regen stamina or pop him with fire arrows (they don't do much, but its progress)
- when he does #3, either dodge backwards or block, then you can unload 2 consecutive 3 hit combos before you need to block/move again.

- Always use bludgeoning damage.
- Always deal with the adds fast - especially skeleton archers. (if he tosses a glob on top of the altar he's summoned from, the skeletons will be stuck, but the oozes can get down).
- don't be afraid to back off and wait for some health regen if you missed some dodges or blocks or the poison got too bad....the adds make him a very annoying boss to corpse run to.
- fight him at dawn...its a long fight
- make sure you have enough poison resistance mead...its a long fight.

Iron mace, iron shield, iron armor, a good long rested buff, poison resist mead, healing mead, tasty mead. Two health foods and one stamina.

Run out of his poison cloud. Block his haymakers. Kill any adds first. Keep a stamina reserve. Avoid rolling except to save your life.

Remind the dead what it is to fear.

bonemass is actually weak to ice damage. farm a few drakes with Frost Mead and make ice arrows. couple hundred should do.

Turn the area into putting green. You will still be wet from the atmosphere. Can't be helped. Find a place, NOT too near to make your portal.
Make a line of fires all the way to your portal (one of the circle buildings is good if you are lucky). Make an area under random trees for more fires, not that you will use them...
There is a reason you have all those skele pieces. Make the big stagbreaker. Or you can make the iron sledge. Interrupt his puking in particular. watch your stam, don't get excited, only use it when you need to. The aoe also kills adds, kills blobs, makes skeles explode, you never get poisoned tho it shouldn't matter cuz you have on your abomination gear, or at least the one piece, &/or potions. Really, pounding the ground makes it all go fast. Watch his movements. He telegraphs for a long time what he is going to do next. Iron mace and shield if you get bored and decide to melee him a bit, only from the side tho, so you don't have to roll out of his aoe. just walking to the side is free, rolling is costly as is hopping around or running. Use the alter for LoS.
Enjoy.

The best swamp weapon to invest in is the mace. All other weapons are a waste of iron, don't waste your iron and focus on anti boss gear to get the next tier.

Bonemass is largely about trusting the speed of your standard power walk. Sprinting around will burn far too much stamina and you'll run out when it counts. Walk in, whack whack whack, walk out. It's scary but it works.

Use the Hoe to flatten the arena. Removing water is hugely important to eliminate the automatic weapon unequip that happens in waist high water, and it also removes leeches from the battle.

Of course, use the highest quality food (turnips, sausages, etc.) and poison resistance mead is pretty much mandatory. Bonus points for having a few healing potions and stamina restoring stuff.

It's a good idea to have a small portal base somewhere near the boss arena. Things happen, and you might want to fight the boss more than once for reasons, so a portal is nice to have.

Just skip bonemass, get silver by hitting the ground and come back to him at the end. It will be easy :)

Otherwise other comments already covered it: all iron, mace and poison potion.

I've always found bonemass very easy. I was terrified the 1st time after reading a lot of comments saying he was the worst boss but even the 1st time I killed him easily. Just take the time to upgrade your gear.