Originally posted by Cooperal:

One thing to add, if it hasn't already been mentioned in one of those longer posts. If you that sourcing more copper is a chore, feel free to take the troll set instead. It is only one point behind in defence per piece and you don't have to take time out of your other activities to find the materials. The materials will find you.

Also you retain more speed which is practical for everything that doesn't involve standing still. Also troll has a stealth set bonus but if you are big on opening fights with your bow you probably won't notice most of the time. You will probably want to be doing that a lot as you discover the dangers of the next biome.

It should also be noted that you can acquire troll armor without having to mine copper in the first place. If you're clever, you can actually get copper and tin while acquiring troll hide for the armor.

The only things I bother making out of bronze any more is the bronze mace (because undead are weak to blunt), the bronze axe (because it can chop birch), and a bronze buckler (because parry is OP).

With those 3 bronze items, a finewood bow, a couple stacks of fire arrows, and a set of troll armor, the swamp is "totally do-able"... and then you've got access to iron, which makes bronze obsolete.

Edited to add: I forgot nails, because Karve... but 4 bronze makes enough nails to build a Karve, so you still only need to fully dig out one copper deposit to get enough copper to get you all the stuff you need to get to the point where you can get iron... at which point you're going to be sailing in a longboat instead of a Karve, anyway.