in my recent playthrough i wanted to see mistland in it's entirety. So i got past swamp stage with just copper sword (max tier) and bone shield. iirc that shield would be a tower shield? i only had to use it because of the draugr archers. they hurt man.

Mind you, my main focus was how far i was from my portal and water level. It's been in the game for awhile now, but areas with those long reed grass poking out of the water means you can walk on it without your weapon being automatically sheathed. I also bring along enough wood to build a crafting table and my original hoe to flatten out areas for a road (not a real road because that costed stone). I also marked the road on my map and sometimes in dark places i put torches to light the new road.

move slowly, fight whatever you agroed, break line of sight to force archers to come closer if they're under water. Oh yeah don't go out at night. Even if you do and the ghosty bois kill ya, come back later because they'd despawn. Oh not sure if they helped my portal stay alive but it was in a core log cabin.