iron is pretty easy to get a lot of, just find a swamp with tons of crypts, place all the loot in a boat and you can make a full set easily, plus you need 10 withered bones for bonemass anyway so you might as well do both

also for bonemass if you think you’d be able to skip iron but are also afraid of death fighting him up close wearing iron armor there’s clearly something wrong, just grab a mace and shield with a poison potion and beat the ♥♥♥♥ out of him, if you’re roaming the swamps with troll armor there’s 0 reason you should need to head to the mountains for frost arrows to kill him

I usually do not make bronze or iron armor. In the early game, metal is more useful for making good weapons and shields/bucklers. I used silver to make wolf armor for fighting Moder in the mountains but primarily for the cold resistance as opposed to physical protection.

One's best protection in Valheim lies in avoiding being struck not in withstanding blows. If an enemy does not hit a viking he cannot kill a viking. Of course, a viking will have to slug it out sometimes. When I am in that kind of situation I will slug away but my primary purpose is to create an opening for escape.

@electricdawn Yeah the portal is a given. I haven't explored whatever continent/island it's on but if there's meadows I'll build my portal in the border with the swamps.
My idea was to bow it down like I do with abominations. Hit it with fire arrows, move around without wasting stamina while fire dot expires and refresh it with another arrow while I keep kiting. But I think I'll play it safe with the iron armour.

@blankitosonic I'm convinced, yeah, I won't take the risk. I'm not rushing it's just that I hate swamps. Everything about them. But seeing the recommendations I might just delay the incursion and look for more iron north which I haven't explored too much yet. Maybe I get lucky there. I just want the wishbone because I've already been to the mountains without problems with the troll armour during the day. Only dungeons are a bit hard because it's harder to avoid damage and the "kill everything through walls" strategy doesn't work there.

@Nascarman I think (or thought, rather) I'd be able to skip iron if I kill him with the bow. If I build iron armour I don't have iron for the mace and viceversa. I explored my immediate vicinity and after spending some iron already (iron sledgehammer, hunter's bow and a few structures) I have 50 iron left and no more crypts (so I'll have to sail far anyway, either towards bonemass or another swamp). I can take on any single enemy with the bow and troll armour, even wolves and fenrirs, but boss + possible mobs worry me more.

Don't get me wrong, I know there's plenty of iron on the map somewhere, but I don't want to use the map tool on this world yet and I don't like swamps at all. But I'm worried because in the last world I was in this same situation: spent a lot of time stuck in the swamp "phase" and Bonemass was quite far away. Ended up too close to the plains and got soft stuck due to a couple of mistakes.

Thanks for the advice and your time, guys. I think I'll farm some more somewhere else.

haven't played for a while...but i think there were no major changes in progression.
i usually went straight to troll armor. then depending on the position of the mountains(and silver nodes) either picked up wolf cloak(or whole silver set, thus skipping bronze and iron). or if unlucky - then padded(which was the best armor at the time).

iron is more useful to craft weapons, then armor imho. that 2h hammer is a beast.

Originally posted by warrenchmobile:

If an enemy does not hit a viking he cannot kill a viking.

Wise words, hehe. I try to play by that motto. That's why I don't like to use shields, I prefer to avoid blows (specifically because there's no animation canceling in the game). Either by timing my sledgehammer well (usually I either start winding up as the walk up to me or I wait for them to wind up, move back and wind up myself) or using it from behind walls or by using the bow. But I really want to nope the heck out of swamps for good and I was worried that I'd do something stupid and be set back too many hours.

Root armor and a bow is all I use, if you shoot enemies from a distance, the only base damage you are going to take is pierce which the root armor is resistant to. So Deathsquitos are no longer an issue because they only do pierce damage. All range damage is either elemental or pierce damage. I dodge or take a resistance potion if needed for the elemental stuff. As for cold in the mountains, I have a Lox cape for that. Luck in battle!

Originally posted by Slynx Jewel:

iron is more useful to craft weapons, then armor imho. that 2h hammer is a beast.

Thought so too, that's why I went for the sledgehammer and bow. I wanted to save the rest for building purposes if I managed to kill bonemass without investing on armour. All I want is the wishbone, really. Haven't been able to find silver with the sledgehammer.

Originally posted by Pixelater:

Root armor and a bow is all I use, if you shoot enemies from a distance, the only base damage you are going to take is pierce which the root armor is resistant to. So Deathsquitos are no longer an issue because they only do pierce damage. All range damage is either elemental or pierce damage. I dodge or take a resistance potion if needed for the elemental stuff. As for cold in the mountains, I have a Lox cape for that. Luck in battle!

Thanks! I thought about root armour too! But not sure how abominations spawn so I have like 15 roots only and I want to minimize my stay in the swamps.

I only see opinions from archer/kitters players , the game isnt just that kind of gameplay
Root is pretty useless in mointain ( only if you have full set for damage buff , a golem will wreck you and u will take an eternity to kill them with arrows ) and a sure death if you try archer in a cave ( cultings will blast you because their fire attacks with a root set ) and not much place to over run 5-7 ulvs + 1-2 cultists
Believe me , just full an iron set and an iron mace , there is not risks of death with these gears

I'm half decent at kiting and I only made troll set and skipped bronze and iron sets.

Regarding bonemass, yes. Did it with troll armor, potions, and an iron sledge.

Went wolf set initially to stop needing to make frost potions in the mountains, but ended up being essential for plains because of how unforgiving sneaky deathsquitoes can be without some armor.

armor reduces poison damage a LOT. Bonemass, as you could probably guess from having spent more than 2 seconds in the swamp, does poison damage.
It is probably not wise to try to do him in weak armor, but you can certainly do that if you are willing to bow-cheese him (you can bow-cheese anything in the game, but some enemy heal slowly and can't be capped with wood arrows out of a starting bow) or use some other goofy trick like firepits or whatever.

I recommend you go farm iron. You will need a lot of iron anyway: its needed for many home items and upgrades, its needed for support beams if you decide to make a tall home, and its needed for not only iron armor but the next tiers of armor as well.

boating long ways is a risk. Be sure to put some portals along the coast as you go.

anyway, bottom line is, you can do it, but its a lot easier to just wear the *upgraded* iron armor.

Skip the bronze, go for iron. That's my advice. In fact, you can actually survive in the plains with iron (if needed, not necessarily recommended).

Thank you everybody for your answers.
I will most likely bow-cheese the boss. I have hunter's bow and plenty of arrows, I'd rather not risk close quarters with it considering how punishing it'd be to lose my character so far away (even with portals, the rain in the swamp + boss still alive would probably make it too hard to retrieve the corpse).

I think I'll play it safe and build iron armour, the problem is I depleted all sources of iron in my proximity (two islands beyond my continent) and I only have 50 so won't be able to upgrade it quite a while (and if I still die I will most likely be unable to farm more iron as I'd have to sail further possibly running into continents with plains which means death by squittos). I wanted to do like @killertowfoo and go straight to wolf set but I'm not confident with my ability with the controller first timing a boss.

I had a portal fairly close (ca. 30-50m) to the fight with Bonemass. Died once, hopped through the portal, picked me up and was back in the fight.

But good call on getting the iron armor. I actually fought Bonemass with mostly Root armor, but lvl 4 iron greaves, lvl 3 iron mace and lvl 3 iron banded shield.

I would not engage him with a bow, as he is resistant to pierce. Only blunt works reliably. You should not have any problem with it. And you should ALWAYS have a portal close by. Not to have one is literally cutting off your life line. It is stupid not to have a portal close by. I actually also have a small base close by. So no matter what, I can go and pick myself up.

Dont rush the game , go for iron and if you dont like long sailing trips you can it cheese putting iron on a chest in a second world , use a portal in your main world log out and go for the iron saved in your second world , go back again
As other said already , full iron make your life a TON easier in swamps and mountains , try to no skip the set , maybe weapons but iron mace will be you savior too in swamps and mountains haha