Originally posted by hallaloth:

Its really up to you when you choose to move on. I think I rushed Eikthyr today personally on day 11/12 but I did it to get into bronze. My last world I played up to the Elder and had almost everything fully upgraded and was dipping my toes into the swamp before I went to take him on. then life caught up and I didn't go beat him up. I had a lot of fun just building and planning out my base though up to that point and had been working on a secondary location by the swamp.

I find Valheim to be very much 'at your own pace' when I rather enjoy. There are plenty of people who put dozens of hours into the game before they even touch the bosses.

I heartily agree with the "at your own pace" viewpoint. So much so I just passed 2500 game days still in Bronze Age on my 1st seed. I have about 30 portaled bases, tamed boars and wolves, etc., etc. Sailing has not been a priority but I'm just about to run out of areas to which I can walk.

Good luck to the op!

Get yourself a stack of fire arrows and build some embankments/fortifications to fight the elder. Preferably on a small hill, clear some trees to get a good line of sight. Stagger some wooden walls, not long, just 1-2 sections. Doesn't have to be terribly elaborate nor should it. Dont bother with the spikes though, just the big wooden fort fence. You can duck behind them and give yourself time to regen stamina and dodge his attacks. Imho combat engineering is your strongest weapon.

And yea wolves are kinda janky...despawn a lot

Originally posted by Grailoch:

So, this is my first play through. With leather armor and a crude bow, Eikthyr dropped me 2 times before I was able to get behind a big oak tree and slowly start whittling him down from either side of it with the bow. Since then, I think I have got somewhat better at block/parry so likely would fair better if I rolled a new toon.

But, Here is where I am at. I have a converted meadow village base right at edge of the Dark Forrest. It is moated around and fully secure from the raids I have seen. I have cleared many of the crypts and have upgraded Troll armor and bronze weapons/tools as much as I can get them without having iron for the next workstation/forge upgrades. i have 2 small carrot gardens and have just started a boar farm with 2x 1 star boars. I found the trader and purchased the endurance belt.

Do I go for the Elder or just do things like skill up on dwarf spawners/crypts that I still have on starter Isle? Also, I do have a small mountain biome on my home island. I have tried a couple time to lure wolfs into a pit I made just outside the zone, but they seem to despawn when crossing the zoneline. I could set up camp just inside zoneline and try again.

I guess I should just do Elder and have the option of getting into iron age and stop p#$$&-footing around.

What do you think?

My first fight with elder(and I didn't die either), I earth walled elder's platform, lined with with spikes and the floor with fires. I build an earthen platform, walled in arrow range of elder's spawn and built a base on it with the base making it tight to not allow roots to spawn mostly. I built doubled wall barriers on either side of my shot spot to dodge behind his ranged attack.

Spawned him, and by the time I ran to my shot spot, he was already down a third of his health because of his spawn spots fires and spikes. I just arrowed him down from there.

I could've just as easily foregone the spikes/fires and just arrowed him where he was instead or just done the dodge behind pillar methods most YT folks do but I wanted to see how my attempt would go.

Originally posted by hallaloth:

Its really up to you when you choose to move on. I think I rushed Eikthyr today personally on day 11/12 but I did it to get into bronze. My last world I played up to the Elder and had almost everything fully upgraded and was dipping my toes into the swamp before I went to take him on. then life caught up and I didn't go beat him up. I had a lot of fun just building and planning out my base though up to that point and had been working on a secondary location by the swamp.

I find Valheim to be very much 'at your own pace' when I rather enjoy. There are plenty of people who put dozens of hours into the game before they even touch the bosses.

I heartily agree with the "at your own pace" viewpoint. So much so I just passed 2500 game days still in Bronze Age on my 1st seed. I have about 30 portaled bases, tamed boars and wolves, etc., etc. Sailing has not been a priority but I'm just about to run out of areas to which I can walk.

Good luck to the op!

Thank you for the responses everyone. I think I have decide to go "Hearth and Home" mode and not try to take out the next boss yet. I still sometimes die to Trolls (as I found out yesterday and this morning) if I am unable to get a good backstab in to start the fight. So I need to work on my blocking and dodging some more.

I think I will follow jonnin's advice and take on the first boss again before proceeding. That way I know I have improved upon my gameplay.

I did capture two non-star wolves this morning in my pit trap and tame them, yea! It did not work the way I intended, they did not follow me into it. So, I put floor panels over the pit, had them path onto the platform, then destroyed it. They made a baby that I left in the pit to use in the future when I go after a star wolf (not ready yet.)

Going to continue farming the Black Forrest for copper and other supplies. I'll upgrade my current base of operations, breed up the wolves, organize my storage better, and fight forest mobs to level my skills. Then I may head over to the Elder area, scout that out and set up a forward base for him and the nearby swamp. I think I will venture into the swamp and test my fighting skills on those mobs before going against Elder, since the raids will become those mobs after I kill Elder.

Thank you again for all the input, everyone here was very helpful and informative.

Its really up to you when you choose to move on. I think I rushed Eikthyr today personally on day 11/12 but I did it to get into bronze. My last world I played up to the Elder and had almost everything fully upgraded and was dipping my toes into the swamp before I went to take him on. then life caught up and I didn't go beat him up. I had a lot of fun just building and planning out my base though up to that point and had been working on a secondary location by the swamp.

I find Valheim to be very much 'at your own pace' when I rather enjoy. There are plenty of people who put dozens of hours into the game before they even touch the bosses.

the game is designed for you to spend time to fully upgrade each time before the boss.
The elder, you are expected to have a level 3 fine bow or bronze weaponry and fully upgraded armor and shield, as well as good foods made in a cooking pot and making use of the best ingredients you can get at.

That said you can cheese many of the bosses with good movement skills and a bow. You can rush the content and do it in not upgraded gear, whatever you like. The less effort you put in, though, the harder it will be, and while you can make up for that with skill (esp 2nd+ playthrough) it isn't recommended.

If the first boss killed you, you are not ready. You may even want to gear up a bit and do him again for practice (and a cool looking head trophy) before you go looking for harder fights.

Be sure to make use of all you have. If you beat boss 1 you can now make a pick, which is critical to progression...

You can also dig a ditch between you and the Elder and then slowly kill him with the bow.

I usually save the bosses until I've scouted the next level up because those mobs will be what raids you next.

Get some poison resist mead and start looking for a good swamp with crypts, which can be difficult because not every swamp has them. But even a small swamp might yield turnip seeds for better food. Look for the yellow flowers; they're very rare but could be anywhere in there. Once you have a general idea of how to get around the basic swamp creatures and have marked a few crypts on your map, then go for the Elder. You'll need him then.

I was looking at my map and 1 of the 2 Elder spawns I have found Is inland a small bit, but there are Meadows and a Swamp area just bordering it. I think I may set up shop in those Meadows, brave the edge of the swamp for leaches. Get some frost resist potions and see about getting a wolf pack first. IIRC elder can be taken out by a smallish wolf pack. Is a wolf pack good for anything else in the game? I guess I could kill him first solo using fire arrows, then just respawn it later to play with wolves after I get them, I have lots of seeds.

I used the elder to smash the forest down so much quicker than chopping
Also if you summon 2 or 3 they clear a trees fast

Originally posted by vanflyhightanzek:

I used the elder to smash the forest down so much quicker than chopping
Also if you summon 2 or 3 they clear a trees fast

That

is

hilarious.

I did Elder on a playthrough last night with a lvl 2 finewood bow loaded with fire arrows. Lvl 2 troll armor.

Provided you dodge the roots etc. thrown at you, it's a simple wear down. I might suggest using a stamina tonic and fire off the Eikthyr ability so you can jump and run around. It helps. Another neat trick is to light a heap of fires around the place, try drawing him into it. If you're good with parry and like a thrill, charge in occassionally with a bronze axe.

Just monitor your health and stamina and you should romp it in. GL