Originally posted by AEWFreak:

I can't upgrade my stations until I get iron. Can't get iron until I get the swamp key. Can't get the swamp key until I beat the Elder.

One small problem: with all of my bronze armor, weapons, and my finewood bow maxed out, I can't survive the trip through the mountains to even get to the Elder, much less beat him up. Wolves eat 45-50hp alone. Now, I'm stuck in a loop of running naked through the swamp to the mountains just so I can recover the stuff off of my dead body, only to die before I can get to it.

Anyone have any tips? I feel like I'm losing my grip on this game, and the penalties for dying are just too harsh.

This is case of you going, somewhere that you had NO business being, at your stage of the game, EVEN if it was just to travel through to get to the other side.

The way this game is designed, there is a progression to follow, when it comes to biomes, and if you wander into a new biome, before you are fully geared and ready, Valheim will kill you dead and hold all your gear hostage.... As you have found out.

The way this works is, that you start in the meadows and STAY in the meadows, which contains all the resources and materials you need to get geared up and craft items to prepare you to fight Eikthyr, and THEN move on to the next biome which is Black forest, which contains all the resources and items, and foods, to help you upgrade your gear and tools and weapons, and prepare to kill the Elder, THEN move on to the swamps, etc.

Each biome contains everything you need to prepare for the next biome, and each new biome get's substantially harder and harder.

Yes it's a big open world and you are free to go wherever you want, but when you wander through a biome, 'out of order' or skip past the progression, even just traveling through, you are setting yourself up for a quick and brutal death, and makes it almost impossible to recover, without getting help or using console commands.

If you have to travel, (such as your case) to get to a boss altar, try to find a route which stays within biomes you have already conquered, and avoid going in, or near, new biomes, because your characters' life depends on it.