The second boss in Valheim is The Elder. He can be a tough tough boss, especially if you are ill-prepared.
How to Prepare for The Elder
The most important thing you’ll need to fight The Elder is 3 ancient seeds. These are used to summon him and initiate the fight.
So, if you have to travel several islands to get to your Elder summoning area, don’t forget the seeds like we did!
Ancient seeds drop from Graydwarf nests and occasionally drop from tougher Graydwarf enemies.
I would also suggest creating a small base near the summoning area, as The Elder has some pretty unforgiving attacks if you get hit by them.
If you are traveling a large distance to your Elder summoning area, have a portal set up at your base with a new tag and bring along the materials to craft a second portal in your new base to make the trip back easier.
I really can’t suggest going into this fight with the idea of killing The Elder with melee weapons.
While his main ranged attack does a lot of damage if you’re hit by it, his melee ground stomp does even more damage and tears through your stamina even if you block it.
We found arrows to be the most effective weapon in this fight. So be sure to craft several hundred and possibly a second bow if you don’t want to run back mid-fight to repair your main bow.
Protip: Fire arrows are your friend here.
The Elder’s Attacks
The Elder’s attacks are pretty brutal, but easy enough to dodge once you see how they work.
He will use an AOE sort of spell in which he summons roots in an area. These roots will hit you if you are close enough, however, this attack is probably his easiest to avoid.
The ranged attack he uses is a hard hitter, but somewhat easy to avoid as long as you aren’t surrounded by obstacles.
He shoots vines out of his hands towards you. Once you see him start to shoot them, choose left or right of the attack’s direction and start running until you see him stop the attack.
His final attack is his melee attack.
He will stomp the ground if you get close enough to him to attack with a melee weapon. This attack is probably his heaviest hitter, and while it can be blocked, it will drain your stamina incredibly fast.
I had an issue managing stamina in this fight, so I avoided using melee weapons as he was constantly getting damage through my shield after my stamina would deplete.
Reward for Defeating The Elder
Once you defeat The Elder, he will drop a swamp key as well as his trophy. Like the first boss, the trophy can be put at the starting area to get a new ability.
The Elder’s ability allows you to cut wood faster.
The swamp key is essential to starting on your next tier of armor and tools.
Wrapping Up
The Elder gave us more trouble than we anticipated initially, but once we took a break to stock up on arrows, the fight was pretty straight forward.
We’re excited to find a use for the swamp key soon.
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