Originally posted by electricdawn:

Well, I guess they planned for it and then saw that it would allow you to bypass killing 9V bambi. Thus, they decided to take it out.

Not sure what is hard to understand about that. Why would you need that thing anyway? You can't craft with stone yet, you can't use a smelter yet.

It would only be good as to bang at some rocks and gather a lot of stones. *shrug* I mean, ok, if that's what you want to do... ;)

That makes sense, but you can still bypass Eikthyr anyway - it just makes your playthrough a bit less efficient until you get enough bronze bars to make a bronze pickaxe.

Originally posted by Quintium:

There is a good reason of why they do this. Game progression

...

And stone really isn't needed until you hit iron age (Swamps) and you get the stone crafting table. Sure, campfires, but can easily be done by picking up stone from the ground. And there are spots in Meadows that provide a good amount of them.

In the end, just kill boss 1 and get the antler pickaxe.

I've already done a few runs of the game without killing Eikthyr just because I like the free meat event and I don't like starting the greyling invasion event. I also like to clear boulders and change land elevation before I start making a starting base, which means I have to wait until I find a troll so that I can make a bronze pickaxe. Despite knowing that they have tied the antler pickaxe to the boss, I still think having a boulder smasher from the start would make sense and wouldn't be more confusing or game breaking than not having access to one.

Originally posted by blankitosonic:

And one can do terraforming without stone , it needed just for spam elevations ...

I like to clear out boulders and set the elevation to my desired height, but if the developers' intention is to make it uncomfortable to build bases until the player has beaten Eikthyr (or made a bronze pickaxe) then fair enough I guess.

Originally posted by Zeppion:

Maybe they didn't want you digging holes before killing Eykthyr? He would be easy to trap in a trench or ditch. Maybe they realized that players will always do what they didn't expect them to do.

That's entirely possible, but so is completing the game without even fighting Eikthyr. Maybe the developers don't want people to cheese bosses, but honestly I don't think most people would bother as most of the bosses are quite easy.

Anyway, I guess the consensus is that a stone pickaxe is not necessary (which I somewhat agree with), so unless a developer chimes in I think we've pretty much solved the case.