I tried playing as long as possible in Bronze Age as you can upgrade food, weapons and armor enough to venture into higher tier biomes and pick up some good stuff. I'd gotten forge and workbench to level 5, was crafting in stone, eating well, tamed boar/wolf/lox and had a 42 portal transportation system spread over the map - most of it was by exploring on foot with only 3 ocean voyages. This is my 1st playthough so it was mostly learn-as-you-go.
I became stoked to go after the Elder as the small amount of scrap iron from oozers and muddy scrap piles doesn't go very far at all - it just gets you addicted lol.
I found an Elder altar in a good location and got all prepped up. My anticipation level was high and I didn't want to be producing an 'epic fail' video later. I'm thinking I prepped a bit more than was needed.....

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2811747084