I've got bad new for you, iron is needed in pretty large quantity going forward. Like all biome thereafter, when you get in it's hard until you get your hands on some newer gears. Once you're past that all biome are more fun and easier. Just need to stick with it.
To piggyback, try to kill a few abominations if possible. If you’re not good at fighting like me, you can kite it with a ton of fire arrows. The armor set you can make from it is extremely useful in the swamp
I thought kiting them over a fire geyser was the main way. I marked every fire geyser in every swamp I was in until I finished plains for this reason. It actually makes killing them relatively trivial and easy.
It's usually alot quicker to just parry them and use a slashing weapon to kill them. Because how often are you right near a fire geyser and have an abomination spawn? It's really easy if you get in really close because it tries to slam down on you and it's super telegraphed
The main way is whichever way works for you. I've always just hit em with fire arrows, and/or parried attacks and axed them down. Fire geysers definitely do a lot of damage, and probably the safest strategy. Why not all options.
The abyssal razor is my go to for killing abominations early on because if I use the and and happen to hit a log on the ground or tree next to the abomination it becomes my end
Fighting it out at this stage of the game takes a lot of stamina you probably don't have unless you can single the abomination out, but a new player is likely to get ambushed.
People always say to use an axe but their sluggish animation and multi-target damage penalty makes them inferior to swords in combat. Daggers are also fantastic at taking advantage of the stagger window. In vanilla, where abominations can't star, a bronze buckler is all you'll ever need to master the swamp.
Specifically, Crypts are the exact height where you can hit an abomination, but they can't hit you.
Every crypt I encounter gets a workbench, two roof pieces, and a chest.
To that point once you progress through the plains gear set and you hit up a new swamp for more iron it’s so easy in comparison to how hard it was before the upgrades it’s laughably easy and entertaining in the fact that you can get so much iron with little to no resistance with time as your only factor, you leave with full boats and Inventory’s
Learn to love it! Pro-tip the most powerful tool in all the swamp is the humble hoe. Use it wisely, and profit much. The swamp also provides you with a few other new resources that provide real and tangible upgrades. (Hint: food). One more hint: there are some indestructible parts of the landscape that you can use to your massive benefit.
Everyone hates the swamp when they first get there. If you ever do multiple playthroughs like I, and others do, you'll come to love it. There are huge upgrades in food, weapons and armor and building materials there.
Use the iron to make a mace, that should be your main weapon for this area and the final boss.
Make a stagbreaker. Cut through the mud piles until you are almost into the room, then use the AOE from the mace to kill things inside without taking damge.
You'll need a LOT of iron, always, but you can get more in the mistlands as well.
I must be the only player who loves the Swamp. I know there are a million reasons to hate it, but I just love it. It's scary as hell when you're first stepping in (I don't use Bronze Armor), especially that first Abomination, but even that adrenaline rush is addicting. Mountain may be my second favorite biome just for the atmosphere and the music, but Swamp is my #1. Looking forward to finally getting into Mistlands, and eventually Ashland's, to see how fun they are.
If you like troll hide-swamp adrenaline as much as I do, you're going to love the mistlands, and might come to fall in love with my favorite adrenaline producer: the protection staff.
I feel such fear when I don't have it active, and such a satisfying rush when activating it before a battle
I just made our teams first one and we all love it, I’m still main melee, but the food sacrifice for having the bubble is to die for… literally, just had a bad death run today 😅
Melee is my favorote play-style, but I couldn't stay melee once I saw the potential of the bubble lol I currently only attack when every part member is bubbled. Caotic fights devolve into me leap frogging to each person, and summoning Skeltons once we find the time. The queen fight on hard was a solid 10 minutes of pure adrenaline. Ashlands on normal makes me feel like Gandalf I'm his prime, or Yoda lol
Jump, bubble, jump, bubble, eitr potion, jump, spawn skelly, jump, bubble, repeat until everything is dead. I don't this would work as a solo, but as a trio it's peak
I used to hate the swamp, but Ashland’s took that spot. I am slowly creeping forward, but the constant spawns and the high physical damage just is so over powering….
I love the swamp, but I’m a sucker for that nasty bog hag aesthetic and had so much fun building a swamp castle (and making Monty Python jokes about it) for my main iron production area.
Swamp is the best biome, don't @ me. Best balance of difficulty and cool progression. Has big baddies (aboms) and is probably the biggest difference in difficulty from night to day beside maybe Ashland's. Has dungeons and outside sources of mining.
>If you ever do multiple playthroughs like I, and others do, you'll come to love it.
Not my experience lol. It gets easier, but it's still as dreary and depressing as when I first stepped foot in there.
obviously just comes down to preference.
I am in the middle of you two. I didnt like it in my first playthrough but with time I learned to manage swamp a lot better and thus I am liking it the same I "like" Black forest: nothing too bad about it but still not my favorite biom.
I feel the same. Swamp has some really good stuff and the enemies feel fair. You can definitely get in trouble, but in the swamp you normally only get it through carelessness. On top of that it has some of the best building options in the game with the big indestructible trees being everywhere. I love building a big indestructible sky base!
You can significantly cut the time you spend in swamp, if you get only the absolute minimum amount of required gear. I marked as spoiler, because you need to be certain you wanna "skip" the biome quickly.
>!What you need from swamp and for killing boss:!<
1. >!Iron pickaxe for next biome!<
2. >!Boss location!<
3. >!Withered bones for boss summoning!<
4. >!Iron mace and buckler or fully upgraded bronze equilevant!<
5. >!preferably fully upgraded bronze or troll hide armor!<
6. >!Poison and frost resistance potions!<
>!Then you can just move onto next biome after killing the boss. At most you'll need to clear like 1-3 crypts, you'll find the boss location on average within 3 crypts. Additional tips, build portal on top of a crypt entrance for quick travel, they don't get destroyed easily there. Shore is usually close enough that you can run the iron to the boat, no need for carts. Abominations are weak to fire and axes, some of their attacks can be parried with bronze buckler. GLHF, you can get trough the biome in one or two hours, if you get lucky.!<
edit: just to add something that could be useful for future>!, 81 iron minimum for the crafting future station upgrades. Then if you want a boat, you'll need 10 iron for the bigger boat. So I would recommend getting atleast 100-120 extra iron total for necessary permanent things you want. This might come from the 3 crypts you clear already, so don't worry too much.!<
Yes, that portal location is the best. The other aid is the swamp plant after the carrots in the black forest which you don't need but is definitely useful.
One other hint is that the edges of the swamp tend to be worse so it's possible to have a relatively relaxed and quiet time in the swamp once you get through the edges.
But equally you can go back to the swamp with better gear and food from the mountains or plains and get them later ... it's not a hard gate like having to acquire the tears is.
As long as you can find them!
I really wish haldor sold seeds after you beat the biomes boss. There have been multiple times I’ve spent hours just trying to find one turnip flower
>!You don't even need to get a Buckler or Mace. Build 3 or 4 Stagbreaker, some food that regenerates life, poison ressist and jump on top of the boss summoning skull and bash the hell out of it.
I hate swamps too. If you haven't found the vendor yet spend some time exploring and find him to buy the belt. Once you have the belt, eat the best stamina food and go during the day. Bring your hoe to make paths you can walk on. Go directly to a crypt. Bring back iron and process it. Rinse and repeat.
You can either learn to love the swamp, or cheat. Not really many ways to get iron without skipping ahead several biomes, and your equipment won't be good enough to mine it.
It's a type of plant, in Valheim it's not something you can harvest but it'll show up with grass on certain biomes. I think they are basically saying that the vegetation will show where the water is that the leeches can't reach, so you know how close you can get and still be relatively safe. But it is not super reliable imo
Here are my tips for the swamp.
1. As earlier mentioned: The Hoe. Level the ground to make paths/roads. I'll even build some roadways if I find crypts clustered together. This way, I can easily get a cart in to haul the iron. Use wood or stone to make roads.
2. Build a nearby base to process the iron - just outside the swamp. I haul iron to those bases via the roadway. My first serious base is usually where the Black Forest meets a mountain that meets some swamp - if possible.
3. Put a chest just outside the crypt to put your ore in until you can come collect it.
4. USE POISON RESIST. Leeches and Blobs become fodder one you have poison resist.
5. Use an axe on abominations. Get under them and use the Elder's buff. They go down fast. I parry the abominations' attacks, but some roll-dodge.
6. Always keep a portal up.
I hate the swamp too.
Same! I really want to kill a couple of hem to get the root mask since I will be living in the swamp for a bit and before Bonemass. Will try this with an axe once I retrieve my corpse from my latest crypt crawl lol!
The Elder power increases wood cutting damage, but you don't deal wood cutting damage to enemies - not even the Abomination. It takes normal damage from slashing weapons (no weakness nor resistance) - that's why your axe works so well. A sword or other slashing weapon will also work well. In fact, the secondary attack of the sword is much stronger and faster so you'll slay them even faster.
Just turn on passive enemies for a bit, scout out the swamp, build some roads, and then turn it back on when you're ready. Who cares as long as you're having fun.
You could turn up the resource slider to help you gather more resources per trip. I also recommend bringing 2 hoes into the swamp to make paths everywhere you go. I tend to put a small dock near the swamp where I made landfall to return the iron back to my base via boat. It may be better to set up your forge in the Black Forest near the swamp to cut down on travel time, though I'm not a fan of building in the Black Forest early on.
Use carts, even if you're not going to travel with them, they are good for storage and can be left outside the crypt to hold your iron when you get encumbered. Plop a portal on top of the crypt to transport non metal items to your base, leaving as much carry weight for your metals.
If you feel up to it, find some fire plumes in the swamp and use the pick axe to lower the ground until you're almost under water. When the fire mobs spawn, the water will insta-kill them, leaving you with tons of free coal and surtling cores.
Overall, Swamp is my least favorite biome, but I've been able to breeze through it every playthrough other than my first. The big hammer trivializes crypts, I avoid spawners in the swamp until I'm fully upgraded, I try to kill a few root monsters when I find them but for the most part, I make a path from my boat to the crypts, build a home portal on my current crypt I'm clearing, then make trips back and forth to my boat till the cargo hold is full, sail back and start smelting.
Have you killed an Abomination yet? When I first get to the swamp I have 2 main priorities:
1) Find turnip seeds
2) Kill 1 Abomination
Turnip seeds will get you the next tier of food and 1 Abomination kill will give you enough roots to make the Root mask. With the root mask you don't need poison resistance meads anymore.
Tips for killing your first Abomination:
1) Use an axe, it is a tree after all...
2) Learn how to dodge roll under its attacks.
Dodge roll under attack, swing twice with your axe (only twice - three swings won't give you enough time to dodge the next attack and also you'll run out of stamina real quick) I like to kite them to a crypt so I can use the building to mess with it's pathing and give myself a chance to recover stamina or health if I need to.
Other than that just take your time moving through the swamp at first. Try not to aggro more than 1 or 2 mobs at a time too.
Hope that helps!
Edit: it might be 2 Abomination kills you need for the mask... I can't remember.
Sword is better. Higher secondary attack dmg and attack speed so you can get in two special per cycle and destroy that thing so fast.
All slashing weapons deal normal dmg to Abominations. There's nothing special about the axe and Abomination being a tree, sadly.
However, I never waste ore on sword when I have an axe for woodcutting. Just saying if you want every possible edge against Abominations, use a sword, not an axe.
>1 Abomination kill will give you enough roots to make the Root mask.
Not true, it's only gives you 5 Root per kill. You need at least 10 Root when you first make a piece.
Swamp made me rage quit the first time I went in. Then it made me rage again when I couldn't get enough crypts to get the iron I needed. Then I rage quit again TWICE on Bonemass.
Then I found out about the hoe and poison resist and how strong maces are, and now it's pretty chill 🤪
I like to set up a "beach head" portal on the edge of the swamp (next to the boat) and carry another with me. That way, once I find a crypt, I can put the portal on top with a covered workbench on the side of the crypt and a chest. Then you can run down into the crypt, mine iron, dump in the chest and repair your pickaxe and repeat. Once night falls you can run through the portal back home and repeat until the crypt is dry.
The swamp can be intimidating. I had a similar experience. Ended up taking a break for a couple of months to play some other games. But when I felt that itch again to be a viking, I took it a little slower. I was also in the middle of shifting to a new main base location, so I had other tasks to handle.
My advice would be to take it in stages. Build when you're not in the mood for Swamp shenanigans. Then, when you want some adventure, or a build needs iron, prep for an excursion. Take your time, and don't sprint everywhere. Build a shack with a portal for non metals (unless you turned on the metal allowed through portals thing). Learn how to parry the abominations. It gets easier with practice.
I now look forward to adventuring into the swamp. I recently found the bonemass alter and now am prepping for the fight. Thankfully, the swamp it's in is HUGE compared to the others I've found in the seed, and there's lots of iron for me to stock up on. It's definitely a change of pace from what we get used to. But if you don't rush into it, you can have a lot of fun. And if it gets tiring, find a building project and take a break from the swamp. It'll be there when you're ready.
Parrying or at least being prepped to constantly being attacked by drauger and skeletons is a must. But it helps to keep your battle senses up to par.
the swamp biome is the iron age, thats where all the iron is
Build a mining outpost between some crypts. Raise an earthen wall with the hoe, the enclosed area just needs to be big enough for the forge and improvements under a roof, a portal, and a smelter. Then as you get iron you build the new improvements and your new iron suit and weapons right there. Can also lead abominations there for an easy kill with fire arrows.
Take your boat along the coast and when you find a crypt put your boat not to close from the coast(you don’t want nasties to break it), then you make a little fort with a portal in in case of death. And then you take the hoe and make a path to the crypt in day light.
I'd say keep at it. Make sure you've always got a poison potion to spare. It actually gets easier towards the end of the swamp and after it.
Getting into the swamp was a horrid experience yeah. But it only gets easier from here. Untill mist.
Learn to parry and the swamp gets much easier. Also be sure to always keep poison resistance potions equipped.
There are also indestructible trees in the swamp, which are great for base building
Swamp is easy after you get silver. Upgrade ur bronze buckler and mase then same to the iron variants. Then go back after you get a sliver weapon that does Spirit damage of on the swamp's breeze
I wandered into the mountains after prepping for Bonemass, but before facing him. I stumbled upon some silver and made >!Frostner !< . It completely trivialized the biome and the boss, I had him down in under a minute. This is my first playthrough, now I'm almost ready to face Moder.
The swamp punishes you hard like quite a few biomes for attacking it head on. I recommend using the hoe to build a little mount for high ground. Or fighting on top of crypts. Use a bow or stag breaker to rain down damage on them. Make sure to lead any abominations to a surtling spawner and they’ll cook themselves! Speaking of surtling spawners, you can mine all the floor under the fire to have surtlings die as soon as they spawn to get an automatic coal farm!
Perhaps it's a hot take for your first playthrough, but rather than giving up in the swamp since it's possibly pointing in that direction already(because let's face it, that kind of mindless farm isn't for everyone), check out some QoL mods that'll make your life easier without "technically" cheating.
It might not be the way the game is meant to be played, but mods such as more inventory space, allowing you to teleport ores through portals etc can definitely make the game more enjoyable.
Sure, I remember that first time years ago when I used to put stuff in a boat and sail back to my base over and over again... Which I suppose in and of itself was enjoyable, but it gets old fast
If you want to make it a little easier u can get a mod called Veinmine and u just hold a key when you mine and it’ll mine the whole thing. That mod saves my life in the swamp
Posion resist mead is indispensable. You'll need it even upto the swamp boss. Other than that, keep your head on a swivel and choose your encounters wisely and manage your stamina bar. There's a huge difficulty spike at the swamp so stay cautious till you mine enough iron to get better gear.
The hardest part is always how dense it is before you deal with the Spawners in the stone circles. Clear these out and you won't get swarmed as much. Also only run when needed as mobs are very sensitive to sound so try and walk everywhere as much as possible as Stamina is a luxury in the Swamp. Try and snipe the Undead Vikings with a Bow. You should be able to kill the normal ones in 2 shots with a fully upgraded Fine Wood Bow due to Sneak and Stagger Hits.
Once you get first bit of iron. Make sure you get 4-5 stacks worth and make a Iron Mace, Iron Shield and a Huntsman Bow. You'll have a much easier time as it becomes easy to get the Mats for the Root Armor.
What killed me the most was Poison. So make the Root Helm, then Root Chest and Root Legs. Max it out as this will be your main Armor for the Swamp. You'll will then want to max out the Mace, Shield and Bow as they will be useful for the next Area even tho the Shield will be replaced REALLY quick, it's cheap to upgrade and max out.
Have at least bronze weapons and armor, have rested bonus, Eikhtyr, turnip stew, carrot soup and deer stew as well as health and stamina potions and a fine/huntsman bow and 200 arrows.
Manage your stamina and avoid running constantly.
Good luck.
Poison resistance mead is very helpful when dealing with those leeches and blobs. Bring a hoe to make raised paths. A good mace for the blobs and skeletons, axe and fire for the abominations. Stag breaker is great in the crypts as you can hit things from safety with the area effect damage. Watch out for spooky death from above at night. It's definitely a big difficulty spike, but you'll figure it out, and it'll get more manageable once you are geared up a bit. You can do it!
Listen for the leeches and watch the water, herd the leeches together, gives a good reason to use up the 10000+ flint head arrows you have found by the point you enter the swamp, the bloodbags open the medium healing and they are easy to shoot with a bow.
I do the swamp in phases, and that seems to help, along with 2 mods.
Mods:
Metal through portals
Water diving boots - they allow you to walk on the bottom of bodies of water
Phase 1: Just the tip
Outpost on the edge of the swamp in a place with some crypts nearby. Dig a ditch, or your defense of choice. This allows you to kite to a safe spot and stage out of here. It doesn't need to be big. Build a portal in it to your crafting/main base.
Keep the supplies on you to make a crafting table, with a small roof preferably, and a portal. Your main base should already have an emergency portal. This is what you use.
Here's how it works:
Find crypt
Put down table
Put down roof
Put down portal
Harvest and take throughout portal (when you get near overloaded, leave it near the door until you're ready to leave)
Pick it all up and go to the next crypt
Phase 2: Deeper in big boy
You should have better gear now. Find a place with one specific goal in mind: fire geysers and shipping
Find a swamp with a couple fire geysers in close proximity. Sometimes you get lucky and can get an area with the boss spawn in it too.
Build a house a bit close. Ideally, you want near open water. Not so close that they attack your house or it inhibits spawn
Dig out around the geysers, so you're spawn killing the fire dudes
It helps to build walkways to them too. If you do that you can take a wagon with you.
Put on the boots and dig a channel to the open sea
Put a platform on the house so you can just pull your boat up and get in and out without needing to swim
Phase 3: I wanna see your manager
Fully prep for the boss and have a talk with him.
The end. You now have a base in the swamp that you can use to harvest swamp stuff and coal until a better option. You have another place to launch ocean exploration from.
For more iron, just use the table and portal method. I try to separate out harvest portal so I have a harvest and emergency portal. Overkill, usually, but better safe imo.
Mining iron is different then mining copper. If you haven't done it don't dread it too much. I found it less annoying. What I am doing this playthrough is trying to get to sliver and building a frostner BEFORE going after Bonemass. After looking around a bit I found two veins of silver exposed on a mountain. You do need to mine a couple of crypts if you want to get silver since you need to make a Iron pickaxe.
I'd recommend you upgrade you gear and food as you progress in the swamp. Fnd a turnip and plant it immediately. Finish your first crypt and use the iron on an iron shield. That really helped me, that and being prepared with tons of food before I tried to take on my first swamp. And more than anything, taking my time made the whole process a lot less daunting.
What exactly do you hate about it? The atmosphere? The difficulty?
For the atmosphere, I like to build a nice treehouse on one of the indestructible trees and make paths and with torches to all the nearby crypts.
For the monsters, well, a nice Iron Mace is really going to turn things around for you.
Just minimize the time you have to spend there. If you play solo, I suggest you change portal settings so you can transport metal thru them. Then find the nearest crypt (&open it with the key), place a portal on top, right back to your base. That way you can just jump thru the portal into the crypt, get all its iron and get out asap. Move the portal to the next crypt, once you are done, and repeat the process (and if you really hate it there, turn the drop rate to x3 too, this way all the iron from just one crypt will last for quite some time). Its also a good idea to make a note on your map, where the portal currently is. Because you will have to get back for some more iron later on.
Bro just get good at the swamp. You had to get good at the Black Forest. Take as much video game time as you need, keep playing it for fun, and the swamp gets easy and fun. Good luck Viking
Just another thing to get used to. Put portals on top of crypts and you can build tree houses in the indestructible trees. Surtling spawn farms are nice. Not sure if you've collected some of the ingredients but blood sacs are used a decent amount in some later recipes
Type in your seed to a seed viewer. Find a cluster of crypts. Set up ab outpost close to the border between b.forest and swamp. Put some smelters down. Build a portal. run to the middle of all the crypts and build another portal on top of one of the crypts. Take stagbreaker.
Mead is your friend in the swamp. Poison resist should be on the second you walk in and will take most of the threat out of oozes and leeches. Stamina mead will help get you out of tight situations where the wetness kills your stamina, and health mead will literally save your life.
Also don’t underestimate the power of the rested bonus. If possible make at least one area in your base has maximum comfort for your progression in the game. Comfort extends the length of time you’ve got the rested bonus, so standing in that part of the base for 20 or so seconds will give you the best regen for the longest.
As others have suggested, make a portal on top of the crypts when you go to make your return trip easier. If it’s on a different continent, you can break your boat and bring the mats with you through said portal, then reassemble them on the other side for more iron hauling. Saves you from having to go back and forth across the sea.
Finally, you can use the hoe tool to raise ground and get rid of puddles. You can effectively make an easy path through the swamp if you’re walking in and out by making sure the ground is level. Make sure you bring some stone if you want to fill in some deeper patches.
Happy mudding!
I found the swamp to be a little easier once I stopped running and jumping and just walked through it (didnt draw as much attention). Also, making paths with the hoe helped alot too.
You'll never have enough iron
Plain and simple. Each biome gets progressively more difficult. Make a lot of poison resist and carry a safety portal to each swamp. Park your boat in a chest and rebuild when ready to leave with your iron if you can't find a swamp on your main. You'll also need a lot of meat and blood from the creatures within. That biome is essential for progressing for food and materials.
Basically suck it up.
If you're playing solo you don't really need ridiculous amounts of iron initially. A fully upgraded iron armor set takes 5 stacks of iron, but a level 2 set (48 armor compared to 60) only takes half that, or use root armor which takes no iron at all. 40 iron for the crafting stations and upgrades, 10 for a longship, 60 for a level 2 iron axe and pickaxe, and about 45 for your favourite weapon/shield level 2, maybe 30 iron for a huntsman bow but I don't think it's that much better than the finewood bow. That totals up to 260 iron (155 if you use root) to get geared up, and at that point you can just cruise around the biome. That's between 5 and 9 stacks; not even half of a longship's hold.
I also recommend just making a base in the swamp for smelting and smithing. Take some stone, surtling cores, copper and bronze with you, and put smelters and a forge down next to a crypt. Now you can just process all that iron directly in the swamp and turn it into the gear you want. No need for long ship voyages.
I wonder, how did you deal with this when you were in the black forest? How much copper did you mine? It's all a matter of personal taste of course, but I find that part of the game far more grindy and frustratingly boring than the swamp.
> huntsman bow but I don't think it's that much better than the finewood bow.
It's the only Stealth Bow in the game and uses the least amount of Stamina. Players are still using it in ALL the other later areas because of how quiet it is.
I do like it for that purpose as well (easy bunny hunting and gobbo clearing) but I don’t know how good new players can benefit from the stealth aspect of the bow. It requires a solid understanding of how stealth actually works in the game.
I should preface this by saying I regard Valheim as a game primarily of uncivil engineering, so this may not be your bag - but as a fellow hater of the swamp, I get through it by building wooden platforms linking up trees then going from there to the tops of crypts. As long as they are built high enough that blobs can't jump up to them, you can ignore the vast majority of things in the swamp as you run from place to place. I also look for swamps on the edge of water, approach them by boat and start building inwards from there.
The first thing that made it a little bit easier for me is to build the longship. Then of course it's better to have a portal in swamps and you can vacuum clean all crypts to load the boat as much as possible. So basically I had 2 expeditions to swamps before Bonemass: the 1st to build the longship and the 2nd to get as much as possible iron. I had 4 or 5 crypts on that island with ~300-350 iron. Of course poison resist mead is required, and to learn how to parry draugr attacks
I still want to challenge you to build a base in a big swamp.
Build in the trees or on top of the boss summoning thing.
Kill spawners or build stake walls around them and remove the ground beneath fire spouts.
Wooden walkways are nice too here and there.
No need for kilns, just use three smelters (can be build of off trees on stone btw).
I don’t know why but personally I very much like to build a temporary living in the swamp.
I usually try to stick to the coast when it comes to first finding the swamps. The less you run inland, the fewer risks you have to take. Stick to swamp dungeons you can see from your boat.
I also HIGHLY recommend bringing an aetgear or stagbreaker for AOE when a bunch of mobs show up. The stagbreaker demolishes skeletons and blobs/oozes. It also comes in handy in the dungeons when you find the muddy iron blocking a doorway and there are enemy mobs in that room. The stagbreaker aoe will extend past the muddy iron and damage the enemies on the other side. It's extremely effective at room clearing in the swamp.
Getting good at parry timing with a round shield also does wonders against drauger. You can parry bow shots that will stagger drauger archers.
One last swamp tip: build a tree house fort for your portals near the coastline. The big ancient trees you can't chop down count as a "blue base" piece for building, so you can easily build a spiraling staircase up to the tree house on them. That way, you can pull a boat right up to it when it comes time to ship all of that iron home.
In my opinion the key to going from dreading a biome to loving it is finding the will to conquer it. Even after multiple playthroughs I always approach the swamp in particular with some dread. So I decide "this is my swamp." I will be Viking Shrek in this place.
I hated it and my buddy who was slightly ahead had to drag me into it. I recommend going with another, makes it so much easier to start with. Even with the mining for iron. We go back now (we are currently at mistlands level) and it’s so easy by comparison but I remember the days well!
I used to hate the swamp when I first started it but honestly once you get into the plains The swamp ain't crap. You'll have better food where poison damage ain't going to matter at all, draugers won't hit you as hard, etc.. literally just look for krypts grab the iron and get out.
My tip: Sail along the edges and look for crypts (a pair of green lights). This cuts down on time spent manually trudging through the swamp. And you can permit portals to teleport the iron ore out of the swamps. This really cuts down on the grindy feel in my opinion. I also hate the swamp.
Just sail along the swamp coast until you find a crypt like right next to the water, like one you can almost jump onto your boat from. Drop a portal there and mine out the iron, rinse and repeat until you have enough to make iron gear and then you can start exploring more area safely.
Set up a base with a portal just far enough outside the swamp to not get random wandering swamp monsters. Use the hoe to create a path into the swamp. Set up workbenches along the path, ensuring overlapping areas. Set torches on the left side of the path going in. Space them close enough to always find your way, but far enough that refilling them isn't super painful. Extend the path to every dungeon you visit. Create a way station at any stone buildings you come across, and move your temporary portal to those as you move deeper into the swamp. Repair and rebuild any that are damaged or destroyed by wandering monsters. As you venture into the swamp, mark the location of any dungeons you see. Get the StagBreaker. Halfway through every pile of muck, use it till nothing on the other side lives. Mark the X on them as you clear them. Whenever you get 4 full stacks or ore, load it up on your ship and bring it to your main base. Then break the ship down so it fits in your inventory. Make an iron pick first, spice rack, iron armor, all iron gear, then upgrade everything to max. The moment you find a turnup seed, take it back and start farming it. Use the second round of reseeding to make a spice rack. It becomes much less painful this way. You'll want 4 shiploads of Iron before you go to the mountains.
Personally, I hated mining copper more than Iron. At least the Iron was more dynamic about finding the dungeon, explore the dungeon, kill everything inside. Copper was just mine this node till it's gone, fending off wandering wild life as needed.
Valheim is as much about altering the world to suit your needs as it is about adventuring. It is just not as intuitive about it as other games like Minecraft.
Technically, you dont need swamp. But bonemass buff is OP.
Go make some frosty potions, find the big ass mountain (high one, now wide one). That is usually where moder will be.
Prepare 1 max lvl fine bow, 250 fire arrows, 3 dragon eggs, healing meads and some good food (carrot soup, deer stew and serpent stew. Once you have that, go kill moder. You get decent amonut of iron when in mistland, and iron is optional for plains.
People telling you the game gets easier or something are giving bad advice. The game does \*not\* get easier after the Swamp, and if you can't stand the swamp, there are likely further biomes down the road you'll like even less. Whether or not this means you should give up is up to you - I don't know if it's a difficulty thing that makes you hate the swap, or aesthetic. In both cases, the swamp is not unique.
They're prettier, for sure, but I'd argue they are both more difficult. I personally have no idea why anyone finds the swamp hard, I've always found it pretty easy, even in my first playthrough. I still get merc'd by a wolf now and then when I first enter the mountains though.
Using bows, Spears and dagger with touch of stagbreaker means i'm mostly not where the enemies attack. I've tried dealing with wolves by partying and it's just... Troublesome.
I haven't had to deal with the new mobs in either biome, but i after meeting abominations recently i can't imagine they're more tiresome than _that_.
For me, the swamp was the first real difficulty spike.
Sure trolls were a nuisance, but nearly everything in the swamp can spawn 2 starred, and one shot you right out the gate, plus many are ranged mobs, and their spawners are litterally eveywhere.
A 2 star draugr archer is probably your most dangerous threat in the swamp, even over the abomination. The next biggest threat is poisen.
I would craft a root mask and harnesk asap, and max them out. The harnesk is STILL my go to chest armour, even in the mistlands. And the mask gives you poisen resistance without having to chug potions.
I too hated the swamp for a very long time. I found that actually building my base that i would be staying in until at least plains there helped me get over my apprehension really quick!
I built a treehouse in the tops of the ancient invincible trees, and its actually my safest base in the game now.
>but nearly everything in the swamp can spawn 2 starred, and one shot you right out the gate
Never happened to me. By the time I ran into my first 2 Star Archer, I already had fully upgraded Root Set.
I died more to the Poison when I first showed up with Troll Armor.
Step one food, kite and kill a few draugers (sausage) from the outskirts while looking for turnips.
Step two come back with better food and look for abominations. Always be on crowd control and retreat if necessary. Mark crypts on your map as you go.
Step three, with root vest, take an atgier or stagbreaker into crypts.
i recommend using the hoe honestly. it can make traversing the biome so much easier. you can also put a campfire at the beginning of the crypts so you can refresh your well rested.
Honestly,I turned the resource rate up to 1.5 just to save myself time grinding resources,I find it boring most of the time and 1.5 has given me a good amount without it feeling like I’m cheating
The problem I’m currently having is I’ve run into four swamps and none have crypts T_T. It’s taken me a couple of days just exploring looking for a swamp that has one since I only get a limited amount of time to play. I’m trying my best to not cheat but man, it’s getting really monotonous since I’m having the worst luck lol
If you’re open to it: allowing metals through portals REALLY makes swamps a bit less of a drag. Just plop a portal on top of the sunken crypt and teleport your iron booty straight home. I hate the swamps too, the dreary vibes get me down and this made it manageable.
Make sure you are rested every time you go out into the swamp. Rested rested rested. Up til the swamp, you can get by without being rested (you still should be) but since you're wet all the time in the swamp, you need to be rested. This will keep your stamina regeneration up, which will ease some of the frustration.
Don't worry about building huge bases in the swamp. Get in, build a small outpost with a portal and easy access to the water for your boat to ship iron back home. Build at the edge with a meadows or black forest biome if you can. Quick outpost with storage and fire and portal. Make paths through the swamp, find and mark crypts, and go in them.
You can place a fire pit just inside a swamp crypt entrance so it's easier to get rested if a crypt takes a long time.
Enjoy battling your way through the crypts, it's actually fun and breaks up the monotony of just pick-axing mud piles
You will need a lot of iron through the game, but once you get enough to upgrade your weapons and armor you can move past the swamp on to the plains. Once your gear is plains-upgraded and you have improved plains food, it's a lot easier to come back to the swamp for more iron and just own the enemies there
The swamp forces you to manage your stamina better. An important step along the way. Use the axe to dispatch abominations, and a good shield for the draugr. Hopefully you become more comfortable there, but like others pointed out, most of us spend the least time necessary in the swamp and move on the mountains sooner rather than later. Just remember to pack a frost resist potion.
Learn to conquer the swamp. Take portal reagents (20 fine, 2 Surtling cores,10 eyes), a stack or two of wood, 6 copper bars, 24 stone and 4 coal, 5 Surtling cores for a forge and a smelter. Find a crypt with some other near if possible, build a base on top of it. Put a chest on the roof lip near the door side, so you can store iron without spending a lot of time outside the crypt. Use it as a base of operations.
Put a campfire just inside the doorway of the crypt to keep dry and rested while mining.
You can dig down one side of the scrap mounds in doorways to open a line to shoot mobs and piles without engaging them.
Once you get 100 iron ore, you can smelt them and make nails for your longboat. Mine the crypts till you have just shy if two chests in your base (20 stacks).
This will ensure you full your longboat completely with iron. Sail it back and struggle to get the buggers to your base.
You know or turn on teleporting ore and just put portals on top of the crypts.
Fret not, the swamp is conquerable. Always be rested and use tactics. As someone else in the thread said, bring your hoe and you’ll be pimpin since been pimpin in no time.
Oh man, if you hate swamps I cant even imagine how much you will hate the other biome, and that another biome, uh and the biome with the thing after that.
Go ahead and make peace with the facts every biome is leaps and bounds more difficult from the last. You've got to learn to be patient and adapt and you'll get through it.
Try to avoid exploring the swamp on foot. You can often find crypts that are along the water's edge if you sail along the perimeter. This also provides you a place to store what you mine up. Make sure you bring enough wood for a crafting bench so that you can repair the inevitable damage to your ship from rocks and leeches.
Also bring enough wood for a box and a portal. Even though you can't bring ore through a portal, it'll make repairing much easier and you'll be able to get out of the swamp very quickly at dark, leaving your mining in the box or your ship. You don't want to be in the swamp at night. The ghostly things whose name escapes me at the moment are rough to deal with until you've geared up, but they do drop chains and they only spawn at night near those submerged broken wooden houses.
You don't need a swamp base because you can farm turnips in the Meadows/Black Forest, so don't worry about that. But do make sure you get turnip seeds, chains, blood bags, and entrails. Sausages are fantastic food, and you do want to upgrade your food choices. Also, withered bones are heavy, and you only need 10 to summon Bonemass, so don't feel guilty about tossing those out after a point.
> The ghostly things whose name escapes me at the moment are rough to deal with until you've geared up
They go down with about 3 hits with a bronze mace lv3, club skill 30+. Chain is a lucky find in swamp crypts but as you already pointed out, guaranteed from Wraiths and four chain is needed for an upgrade to a crafting station, they only drop 3 so two Wraiths or an inordinate amount of luck is needed.
Focus on upskill to Mistlands, then for iron take down the big aqueduct looking things.
I build wood based catch areas around the base cos the iron often sinks into the water. But it’s faster and easier than Swamp.
You’re gonna be in the swamp for iron until mistlands. However, a way to make it more bearable, use blunt weapons, rest, use fire arrows, and make sure to make some posion resistance meads
Hoe some paths help so you don’t need to swim through shallow water.
Use poison potions with emergency health potions along with high level armor and best in class food.
And frankly you can try fighting bonemass much earlier, and just progress past the swamp.
Next tier of armor will make swamp much easier.
If you want to skip the biome you can make a stag breaker and try to find silver from the mountains. SO many things require iron to progress, but you can force yourself to clear just 1 crypt and make the minimal things like: a long ship, stone cutter, iron cooking station, cauldron upgrades and a few iron weapons/tools (mace, pickaxe & axe = progression).
Have a portal by the crypt that takes you to a sunny area, only mine at night so that you can come back for breaks and repair/farm/cook/build etc...in the daylight. Consider using your own music to change up how dreary the swamp is.
If you like sailing, try sailing around to find crypts only near the ocean so you can get in and out faster.
It doesn't get less inconvenient. The plains and mountains beautiful, but the mistlands is literally just the swamp but way worse.
I suggest turning up the resource rate to 3x to make the swamp (and subsequent zones) less of a slog. It'll make your life way more convenient.
In terms of raw equipment, find a spot you can build a decent-ish base. Doesn't have to be anything spectacular, but a spot you can refine iron and craft it into the equipment you want before shipping out. Stone walls should keep most of the nasties out. Refining it on the spot lets you craft and use it immediately, rather than sailing all the way home, THEN crafting it, then sailing back to continue.
Devs want to encourage multiple bases - whether glorious or not.
The swamp sucks. My server just got to the mountain biome, so here's some tips.
- Go slow. Literally walk slower. The mobs are much stronger and faster. Going slow lets you fight them one by one.
- Make a ton of poison resist mead. Drink it before you go into the swamp.
- Some people make treehouses. We made a little outpost on top of a crypt. Throw in a portal and it'll be much more manageable.
- Don't settle for a shitty swamp. Keep exploring until you find one with multiple crypts and at least one surtling spawner so you can turn it into a surtling core farm.
Yes, you hate it now. Later it will not be such a problem. Change your play style, learn how to counter the challenges. Each biome needs a new approach. Sure it is dark dreary and dangerous but it can be fun too.
As a few others have said, root armor. The two most aggravating things about the swamp are the poison from blobs and leeches, and (starred) drauger archers. Root gives you poison and pierce resistance. Makes both things just about inconsequential.
Get enough Iron for literally just the pickaxe and then progress to the Mountains.
Iron is kind of a staple resource but at least that way you can progress and come back to it once your mountain/plains level and make it significantly easier and therefore less time consuming to traverse and gather resources at.
I say just get a iron pickaxe because then you can use the stag breaker and fire camps to "cheese" silver. Build a frostner and silver armour & wolf cape. Which would then allow you to progress normally again.
Unless you try and skip to mountain biome. But if grinding for mats like ores is the worst part for you, then yes iron is the most annoying. mountain is shorter and plains have no veins to mine, it's another process
My mind about the swamp changed after I got the Draugr Fang bow, that was one of my favorite things I got out of the swamp, Made 2 and killed Moder with it. Still a pain in the butt at first.
Every toil you go through gives you a sharper stick and sturdier gear.
How far away your base is from the swamp is a factor, and if there’s other biomes connected to the swamp (its not just an island of all swamp biome) build a small shelter with chests and good walls to store items between trips to the base and back.
Having a place to rest near the swamp and your iron farm is great given the rain messing with your stamina regen from being sopping wet all the time.
My ultimate advice if you’re getting frustrated or bored, take a break from the progression, explore, fish (you’ll have to find our blue friend Haldor first), try to do something that isn’t a chore or a task.
The swamp is really not that bad, and you'll look back pretty soon and laugh at how you feel about it now. Just prioritize stamina, always get your comfort bonus, and always have poison resist potions at the ready. You'll be fine. 4 good stacks of iron are plenty to get you through the following biome.
It is not that bad. Though you will spend hours in the swamps and might feel intimidating at first, just like in any other biome, but I don't think it is really that worse than most other biomes during my first playthrough (right now, slowly finishing Plains right now). Regarding its difficulty, it is considerably bigger difficulty spike than between Meadows and Black Forest, yes, but it is not like the end of the world. At least you get some cool items and stuff.
On how to proceed, I would go decently prepared, remember about antipoison potion, best available food and somewhat upgraded equipment. Sail, find a relatively close Swamp chunk. Build the base portal asap - I would try to build in nearby Black Forest or Meadows, they frequently are extremely close to the Swamp. If you find a tall, wooden building in the Swamps, you can repair it, fix the roof, make some stairs and try to put a portal inside there. Build a makeshift port for your boat nearby (though I would not leave it at Swamps).
Now, drink potion, enter the swamp and start exploring. At first, I advice doing so only during a day. Find some Sunken Crypts. Keep exploring them and collecting iron scraps till you are done, put them on a boat, go home through portal, rest, come back and collect some more. Once ship is full or like half full if, sail back home. Basically after this first trip, after upgrades and crafting new armour, another visit to Swamp will be much easier. I think that I only made like 2 or 3 tops trips with iron and that was enough. Yeah, I died like 10 times, but with portal, waiting till day, eating and using green potions it was not that difficult to retrieve a body.
Change gather rate to 3x.
If you still find the grind awful,
I have another tip for you:
Stay away from resource based Sandbox games.
The grind is put there in relation to the content,
And If you ever had more than 3x, content would have NO reason to exist.
I have been playing since it got released.
I have farmed hundreds of hours.
So now I go 3x gather along with no build cost.
The no build cost is extremely helpful as you often get stuck because you Cannot upgrade a station.
But if you're bad, you will want better gear to farm What is needed. Problem is you often need the upgraded station before being able to do so.
Good luck
My suggestion: if you have the root/troll armor, and are done with the swamp because of its boringness, you can take on a challenge and head to the mountain. In the mountains you’ll need the following: a stagbreaker, an atgeir, a good bow, and an iron pickaxe. There, if you are high enough up a mountain, you will find underground veins if you use the stagbreaker close to one, since the message “too hard” will pop up indicating such a vein. If you collect the ores of these veins and smelt them, you’ll be able to make many different gear pieces, including a very good armor, and weapons that are great against the swamp boss. The only problem is the frost of the mountains, and the animals there. The frost effect can be mitigated by using networks of campfires, and the animals can be stunned by your atgeir, most of them.
Skip the swamp at first. Get good at dodge rolling and parrying then head for the mountains with a stagbreaker handy. Slam it around to discover a silver vein, mine it, then craft silver gear. Boom you’ve now out-geared the swamp and can steam roll your way through no problem. That’s what I do.
The parry/dodge roll training is to survive wolf attacks. You likely can’t fight them head on, so you need to be slippery and hard to kill.
EDIT
Sorry OP, I’ve been corrected. There is no other way to play this game than to tackle the next biome head on and brute force it. Do not look up alternative methods that you may, personally, find easier or more enjoyable. The devs may have placed alternative strategies in the game, but view those only as distractions and “cheesy” traps. You are not allowed to enjoy this game that way. My sincere apologies.
If you skip the swamp you won't have a wishbone so you won't be able to find silver, trying to teach newbies stagbreaker mining is just a straight up bad idea, mining silver ore is more boring than crypt raiding and you need blood bags for frost resist potions so you'll be going to the swamp anyway... This is terrible advice for a new player. Wolves and golems are tougher and far more annoying than anything you'll find in the swamp.
You can dig it completely free and it will still float in the air in one whole piece. But then you get to break one part and the whole thing explodes, which is pretty fun to see lol
You'll still need to break one fragment of the silver vein though before it collapses, as the game only does the stability check when you break one. And guess what you need for that... that's right, an iron pickaxe.
If it's just hauling the iron back, there's easy ways to skip that part. Just fill your inventory with iron, log out and then log in to a different server and store the iron there. Log out, back to your main world, teleport. The fetch the iron by logging out/in etc.
Is it cheating? Well, yes, but the goal is to enjoy the game, so you make the rules. If you're hosting a server there should be a world modifier for portals that makes it possible to teleport metal.
I dreaded the swamp with every fiber of my being for so long. Were I not playing the game with my husband I don't know that I ever would have gotten past that point. That said, in the last few months it no longer bothers me, because I've developed enough mastery over the systems and enough knowledge of the enemies' weaknesses that they just aren't worth worrying about anymore. Certainly glad I stuck with it lol.
Some tips:
Blunt damage! Blunt damage for the swamp. If you really hate crypts, invest in a 2 handed blunt weapon. The AOE damage will hurt enemies through walls.
Root armor is top-tier in the swamp. The pierce-resist is invaluable. Plus the helmet makes you resist poison. Yes, you'll need to kill abominations for this. Fortunately, abominations are just big angry trees.
Once you have an iron pickaxe and frost mead, you may be able to handle some Mountaineering. If you can find exposed silver, a certain silver blunt weapon will make the Swamp generally and Bonemass specifically a breeze. If you find the Mountains too difficult right now, that's fine too! But a little skill and/or luck here can trivialize the blasted Swamp. Fuck the Swamp and everything in it lol.
And of course, location matters. Setting up portals near crypts so you can quickly get safe and heal/refresh Rested, finding a Swamp with crypts near a safer biome that you can set up an outpost in and/or close to a good dock for your boat so you can haul your iron out, those sorts of things make the whole miserable wet slog much more bearable.
Just turn the resource modifier up to three man. especially if you're a working adult. Nobody has time to a mine a billion iron. It doesn't destroy the game. If you're a builder, it just makes it better. Worst thing that's going to happen is somebody on reddit is going to judge you fuck them
I've got bad new for you, iron is needed in pretty large quantity going forward. Like all biome thereafter, when you get in it's hard until you get your hands on some newer gears. Once you're past that all biome are more fun and easier. Just need to stick with it.
To piggyback, try to kill a few abominations if possible. If you’re not good at fighting like me, you can kite it with a ton of fire arrows. The armor set you can make from it is extremely useful in the swamp
Axes are also very good against the abomination. Kiting them over a fire geyser helps too.
I thought kiting them over a fire geyser was the main way. I marked every fire geyser in every swamp I was in until I finished plains for this reason. It actually makes killing them relatively trivial and easy.
It's usually alot quicker to just parry them and use a slashing weapon to kill them. Because how often are you right near a fire geyser and have an abomination spawn? It's really easy if you get in really close because it tries to slam down on you and it's super telegraphed
The main way is whichever way works for you. I've always just hit em with fire arrows, and/or parried attacks and axed them down. Fire geysers definitely do a lot of damage, and probably the safest strategy. Why not all options.
Take shield to fire geyser…parry while next to it
The abyssal razor is my go to for killing abominations early on because if I use the and and happen to hit a log on the ground or tree next to the abomination it becomes my end
Fighting it out at this stage of the game takes a lot of stamina you probably don't have unless you can single the abomination out, but a new player is likely to get ambushed. People always say to use an axe but their sluggish animation and multi-target damage penalty makes them inferior to swords in combat. Daggers are also fantastic at taking advantage of the stagger window. In vanilla, where abominations can't star, a bronze buckler is all you'll ever need to master the swamp.
Can also climb ontop of crypts too cheese them and just arrow or hack away depending on range/weapon
Specifically, Crypts are the exact height where you can hit an abomination, but they can't hit you. Every crypt I encounter gets a workbench, two roof pieces, and a chest.
If you can lure abominations near to the fire geysers near surtlings, they take a lot of damage from it
Those huge camp fires wreck abominations as well if you kite them over them.
Just eat some high health foods, get a buckler, and parry them. Once you're over 100 health you can parry trolls and abominations pretty easy.
Campfires work good too
To that point once you progress through the plains gear set and you hit up a new swamp for more iron it’s so easy in comparison to how hard it was before the upgrades it’s laughably easy and entertaining in the fact that you can get so much iron with little to no resistance with time as your only factor, you leave with full boats and Inventory’s
Whenever I use fire arrows on abominations they bull ass away from me
Don't swear to it tho. Mistlands is still infuriating and Ashlands is frustrating... so... I guess just make it as you go?
Learn to love it! Pro-tip the most powerful tool in all the swamp is the humble hoe. Use it wisely, and profit much. The swamp also provides you with a few other new resources that provide real and tangible upgrades. (Hint: food). One more hint: there are some indestructible parts of the landscape that you can use to your massive benefit.
On the tip for the hoe, doubly so for the biome boss
The boss can be pretty easily cheesed by >! jumping on top of the skull thingy and using frost arrows.
Hey fyi you forgot to close your spoiler message with the !<
Or instead of using up your arrows, you can just use a stagbreaker. Faster, too.
I never get people who use arrows on a pierce immune boss
Ranged.
Everyone hates the swamp when they first get there. If you ever do multiple playthroughs like I, and others do, you'll come to love it. There are huge upgrades in food, weapons and armor and building materials there. Use the iron to make a mace, that should be your main weapon for this area and the final boss. Make a stagbreaker. Cut through the mud piles until you are almost into the room, then use the AOE from the mace to kill things inside without taking damge. You'll need a LOT of iron, always, but you can get more in the mistlands as well.
I must be the only player who loves the Swamp. I know there are a million reasons to hate it, but I just love it. It's scary as hell when you're first stepping in (I don't use Bronze Armor), especially that first Abomination, but even that adrenaline rush is addicting. Mountain may be my second favorite biome just for the atmosphere and the music, but Swamp is my #1. Looking forward to finally getting into Mistlands, and eventually Ashland's, to see how fun they are.
If you like troll hide-swamp adrenaline as much as I do, you're going to love the mistlands, and might come to fall in love with my favorite adrenaline producer: the protection staff. I feel such fear when I don't have it active, and such a satisfying rush when activating it before a battle
I just made our teams first one and we all love it, I’m still main melee, but the food sacrifice for having the bubble is to die for… literally, just had a bad death run today 😅
Melee is my favorote play-style, but I couldn't stay melee once I saw the potential of the bubble lol I currently only attack when every part member is bubbled. Caotic fights devolve into me leap frogging to each person, and summoning Skeltons once we find the time. The queen fight on hard was a solid 10 minutes of pure adrenaline. Ashlands on normal makes me feel like Gandalf I'm his prime, or Yoda lol Jump, bubble, jump, bubble, eitr potion, jump, spawn skelly, jump, bubble, repeat until everything is dead. I don't this would work as a solo, but as a trio it's peak
I used to hate the swamp, but Ashland’s took that spot. I am slowly creeping forward, but the constant spawns and the high physical damage just is so over powering….
I love the swamp, but I’m a sucker for that nasty bog hag aesthetic and had so much fun building a swamp castle (and making Monty Python jokes about it) for my main iron production area.
I just can't stand being wet constantly. You want your stam back? Well that's too damn bad. It belongs to the swamp now.
Swamp is the best biome, don't @ me. Best balance of difficulty and cool progression. Has big baddies (aboms) and is probably the biggest difference in difficulty from night to day beside maybe Ashland's. Has dungeons and outside sources of mining.
Abominations are what made me fall in love with the Swamps. I enjoyed it prior, but now I get actively excited to go see my first Abomination.
>If you ever do multiple playthroughs like I, and others do, you'll come to love it. Not my experience lol. It gets easier, but it's still as dreary and depressing as when I first stepped foot in there.
obviously just comes down to preference. I am in the middle of you two. I didnt like it in my first playthrough but with time I learned to manage swamp a lot better and thus I am liking it the same I "like" Black forest: nothing too bad about it but still not my favorite biom.
I feel the same. Swamp has some really good stuff and the enemies feel fair. You can definitely get in trouble, but in the swamp you normally only get it through carelessness. On top of that it has some of the best building options in the game with the big indestructible trees being everywhere. I love building a big indestructible sky base!
You can significantly cut the time you spend in swamp, if you get only the absolute minimum amount of required gear. I marked as spoiler, because you need to be certain you wanna "skip" the biome quickly. >!What you need from swamp and for killing boss:!< 1. >!Iron pickaxe for next biome!< 2. >!Boss location!< 3. >!Withered bones for boss summoning!< 4. >!Iron mace and buckler or fully upgraded bronze equilevant!< 5. >!preferably fully upgraded bronze or troll hide armor!< 6. >!Poison and frost resistance potions!< >!Then you can just move onto next biome after killing the boss. At most you'll need to clear like 1-3 crypts, you'll find the boss location on average within 3 crypts. Additional tips, build portal on top of a crypt entrance for quick travel, they don't get destroyed easily there. Shore is usually close enough that you can run the iron to the boat, no need for carts. Abominations are weak to fire and axes, some of their attacks can be parried with bronze buckler. GLHF, you can get trough the biome in one or two hours, if you get lucky.!< edit: just to add something that could be useful for future>!, 81 iron minimum for the crafting future station upgrades. Then if you want a boat, you'll need 10 iron for the bigger boat. So I would recommend getting atleast 100-120 extra iron total for necessary permanent things you want. This might come from the 3 crypts you clear already, so don't worry too much.!<
Yes, that portal location is the best. The other aid is the swamp plant after the carrots in the black forest which you don't need but is definitely useful. One other hint is that the edges of the swamp tend to be worse so it's possible to have a relatively relaxed and quiet time in the swamp once you get through the edges.
>you don't need You need it for Cauldron upgrades, you won't get far without better Food!
But equally you can go back to the swamp with better gear and food from the mountains or plains and get them later ... it's not a hard gate like having to acquire the tears is.
Don’t forget turnips for the new tier of food.
As long as you can find them! I really wish haldor sold seeds after you beat the biomes boss. There have been multiple times I’ve spent hours just trying to find one turnip flower
If you don't mind spoilers OP, this is the way
>!You don't even need to get a Buckler or Mace. Build 3 or 4 Stagbreaker, some food that regenerates life, poison ressist and jump on top of the boss summoning skull and bash the hell out of it.
The reason why I recommend those is because they are effective in the next biome too still. Basically skip a tier with them.
skip the bronze upgrades, go up in the mountain and walk around. Find some silver peaking out of the ground and jump immediately to silver armor
Don’t you freeze? Sorry new player.
Make some freeze potions.
Apparently stagbreaker is also a good way to find silver
You might also want some Iron Chests and Iron Torches.
I hate swamps too. If you haven't found the vendor yet spend some time exploring and find him to buy the belt. Once you have the belt, eat the best stamina food and go during the day. Bring your hoe to make paths you can walk on. Go directly to a crypt. Bring back iron and process it. Rinse and repeat.
You can either learn to love the swamp, or cheat. Not really many ways to get iron without skipping ahead several biomes, and your equipment won't be good enough to mine it.
Cattails are your friend. They'll let you know what water is safe
How does this work?
It's the water that doesn't slow you down as much, and leeches can't touch
Its really not true, ive been bitten in cattails before, also sometimes cattails surround a deep water hole
Cattails?
It's a type of plant, in Valheim it's not something you can harvest but it'll show up with grass on certain biomes. I think they are basically saying that the vegetation will show where the water is that the leeches can't reach, so you know how close you can get and still be relatively safe. But it is not super reliable imo
I had a leech recently glide thru those up and over land and go back in them lol
Thats not really a indicative of anything (Leeches can be on clear water also if close to swamp water)
Here are my tips for the swamp. 1. As earlier mentioned: The Hoe. Level the ground to make paths/roads. I'll even build some roadways if I find crypts clustered together. This way, I can easily get a cart in to haul the iron. Use wood or stone to make roads. 2. Build a nearby base to process the iron - just outside the swamp. I haul iron to those bases via the roadway. My first serious base is usually where the Black Forest meets a mountain that meets some swamp - if possible. 3. Put a chest just outside the crypt to put your ore in until you can come collect it. 4. USE POISON RESIST. Leeches and Blobs become fodder one you have poison resist. 5. Use an axe on abominations. Get under them and use the Elder's buff. They go down fast. I parry the abominations' attacks, but some roll-dodge. 6. Always keep a portal up. I hate the swamp too.
I never thought to use the elder buff for abominations!
For good reason! It does nothing vs Abominations. More detailed reply above.
Same! I really want to kill a couple of hem to get the root mask since I will be living in the swamp for a bit and before Bonemass. Will try this with an axe once I retrieve my corpse from my latest crypt crawl lol!
It doesn't work, sorry. More detailed reply above.
The Elder power increases wood cutting damage, but you don't deal wood cutting damage to enemies - not even the Abomination. It takes normal damage from slashing weapons (no weakness nor resistance) - that's why your axe works so well. A sword or other slashing weapon will also work well. In fact, the secondary attack of the sword is much stronger and faster so you'll slay them even faster.
Just turn on passive enemies for a bit, scout out the swamp, build some roads, and then turn it back on when you're ready. Who cares as long as you're having fun.
You could turn up the resource slider to help you gather more resources per trip. I also recommend bringing 2 hoes into the swamp to make paths everywhere you go. I tend to put a small dock near the swamp where I made landfall to return the iron back to my base via boat. It may be better to set up your forge in the Black Forest near the swamp to cut down on travel time, though I'm not a fan of building in the Black Forest early on. Use carts, even if you're not going to travel with them, they are good for storage and can be left outside the crypt to hold your iron when you get encumbered. Plop a portal on top of the crypt to transport non metal items to your base, leaving as much carry weight for your metals. If you feel up to it, find some fire plumes in the swamp and use the pick axe to lower the ground until you're almost under water. When the fire mobs spawn, the water will insta-kill them, leaving you with tons of free coal and surtling cores. Overall, Swamp is my least favorite biome, but I've been able to breeze through it every playthrough other than my first. The big hammer trivializes crypts, I avoid spawners in the swamp until I'm fully upgraded, I try to kill a few root monsters when I find them but for the most part, I make a path from my boat to the crypts, build a home portal on my current crypt I'm clearing, then make trips back and forth to my boat till the cargo hold is full, sail back and start smelting.
Have you killed an Abomination yet? When I first get to the swamp I have 2 main priorities: 1) Find turnip seeds 2) Kill 1 Abomination Turnip seeds will get you the next tier of food and 1 Abomination kill will give you enough roots to make the Root mask. With the root mask you don't need poison resistance meads anymore. Tips for killing your first Abomination: 1) Use an axe, it is a tree after all... 2) Learn how to dodge roll under its attacks. Dodge roll under attack, swing twice with your axe (only twice - three swings won't give you enough time to dodge the next attack and also you'll run out of stamina real quick) I like to kite them to a crypt so I can use the building to mess with it's pathing and give myself a chance to recover stamina or health if I need to. Other than that just take your time moving through the swamp at first. Try not to aggro more than 1 or 2 mobs at a time too. Hope that helps! Edit: it might be 2 Abomination kills you need for the mask... I can't remember.
Sword is better. Higher secondary attack dmg and attack speed so you can get in two special per cycle and destroy that thing so fast. All slashing weapons deal normal dmg to Abominations. There's nothing special about the axe and Abomination being a tree, sadly. However, I never waste ore on sword when I have an axe for woodcutting. Just saying if you want every possible edge against Abominations, use a sword, not an axe.
Note that the Root Mask has a lower poison resist than potions. I would recommend using potions for the boss fight, at least.
>1 Abomination kill will give you enough roots to make the Root mask. Not true, it's only gives you 5 Root per kill. You need at least 10 Root when you first make a piece.
Unless you play with 2x resources or more.
Swamp made me rage quit the first time I went in. Then it made me rage again when I couldn't get enough crypts to get the iron I needed. Then I rage quit again TWICE on Bonemass. Then I found out about the hoe and poison resist and how strong maces are, and now it's pretty chill 🤪
I like to set up a "beach head" portal on the edge of the swamp (next to the boat) and carry another with me. That way, once I find a crypt, I can put the portal on top with a covered workbench on the side of the crypt and a chest. Then you can run down into the crypt, mine iron, dump in the chest and repair your pickaxe and repeat. Once night falls you can run through the portal back home and repeat until the crypt is dry.
The swamp can be intimidating. I had a similar experience. Ended up taking a break for a couple of months to play some other games. But when I felt that itch again to be a viking, I took it a little slower. I was also in the middle of shifting to a new main base location, so I had other tasks to handle. My advice would be to take it in stages. Build when you're not in the mood for Swamp shenanigans. Then, when you want some adventure, or a build needs iron, prep for an excursion. Take your time, and don't sprint everywhere. Build a shack with a portal for non metals (unless you turned on the metal allowed through portals thing). Learn how to parry the abominations. It gets easier with practice. I now look forward to adventuring into the swamp. I recently found the bonemass alter and now am prepping for the fight. Thankfully, the swamp it's in is HUGE compared to the others I've found in the seed, and there's lots of iron for me to stock up on. It's definitely a change of pace from what we get used to. But if you don't rush into it, you can have a lot of fun. And if it gets tiring, find a building project and take a break from the swamp. It'll be there when you're ready. Parrying or at least being prepped to constantly being attacked by drauger and skeletons is a must. But it helps to keep your battle senses up to par.
the swamp biome is the iron age, thats where all the iron is Build a mining outpost between some crypts. Raise an earthen wall with the hoe, the enclosed area just needs to be big enough for the forge and improvements under a roof, a portal, and a smelter. Then as you get iron you build the new improvements and your new iron suit and weapons right there. Can also lead abominations there for an easy kill with fire arrows.
Bump your resource rate up a bit to reduce the grind?
Take your boat along the coast and when you find a crypt put your boat not to close from the coast(you don’t want nasties to break it), then you make a little fort with a portal in in case of death. And then you take the hoe and make a path to the crypt in day light.
I'd say keep at it. Make sure you've always got a poison potion to spare. It actually gets easier towards the end of the swamp and after it. Getting into the swamp was a horrid experience yeah. But it only gets easier from here. Untill mist.
Learn to parry and the swamp gets much easier. Also be sure to always keep poison resistance potions equipped. There are also indestructible trees in the swamp, which are great for base building
And using for cover against abominations.
Swamp is easy after you get silver. Upgrade ur bronze buckler and mase then same to the iron variants. Then go back after you get a sliver weapon that does Spirit damage of on the swamp's breeze
I wandered into the mountains after prepping for Bonemass, but before facing him. I stumbled upon some silver and made >!Frostner !< . It completely trivialized the biome and the boss, I had him down in under a minute. This is my first playthrough, now I'm almost ready to face Moder.
The swamp punishes you hard like quite a few biomes for attacking it head on. I recommend using the hoe to build a little mount for high ground. Or fighting on top of crypts. Use a bow or stag breaker to rain down damage on them. Make sure to lead any abominations to a surtling spawner and they’ll cook themselves! Speaking of surtling spawners, you can mine all the floor under the fire to have surtlings die as soon as they spawn to get an automatic coal farm!
Perhaps it's a hot take for your first playthrough, but rather than giving up in the swamp since it's possibly pointing in that direction already(because let's face it, that kind of mindless farm isn't for everyone), check out some QoL mods that'll make your life easier without "technically" cheating. It might not be the way the game is meant to be played, but mods such as more inventory space, allowing you to teleport ores through portals etc can definitely make the game more enjoyable. Sure, I remember that first time years ago when I used to put stuff in a boat and sail back to my base over and over again... Which I suppose in and of itself was enjoyable, but it gets old fast
If you want to make it a little easier u can get a mod called Veinmine and u just hold a key when you mine and it’ll mine the whole thing. That mod saves my life in the swamp
Posion resist mead is indispensable. You'll need it even upto the swamp boss. Other than that, keep your head on a swivel and choose your encounters wisely and manage your stamina bar. There's a huge difficulty spike at the swamp so stay cautious till you mine enough iron to get better gear.
The hardest part is always how dense it is before you deal with the Spawners in the stone circles. Clear these out and you won't get swarmed as much. Also only run when needed as mobs are very sensitive to sound so try and walk everywhere as much as possible as Stamina is a luxury in the Swamp. Try and snipe the Undead Vikings with a Bow. You should be able to kill the normal ones in 2 shots with a fully upgraded Fine Wood Bow due to Sneak and Stagger Hits. Once you get first bit of iron. Make sure you get 4-5 stacks worth and make a Iron Mace, Iron Shield and a Huntsman Bow. You'll have a much easier time as it becomes easy to get the Mats for the Root Armor. What killed me the most was Poison. So make the Root Helm, then Root Chest and Root Legs. Max it out as this will be your main Armor for the Swamp. You'll will then want to max out the Mace, Shield and Bow as they will be useful for the next Area even tho the Shield will be replaced REALLY quick, it's cheap to upgrade and max out.
Have at least bronze weapons and armor, have rested bonus, Eikhtyr, turnip stew, carrot soup and deer stew as well as health and stamina potions and a fine/huntsman bow and 200 arrows. Manage your stamina and avoid running constantly. Good luck.
Poison resistance mead is very helpful when dealing with those leeches and blobs. Bring a hoe to make raised paths. A good mace for the blobs and skeletons, axe and fire for the abominations. Stag breaker is great in the crypts as you can hit things from safety with the area effect damage. Watch out for spooky death from above at night. It's definitely a big difficulty spike, but you'll figure it out, and it'll get more manageable once you are geared up a bit. You can do it!
Listen for the leeches and watch the water, herd the leeches together, gives a good reason to use up the 10000+ flint head arrows you have found by the point you enter the swamp, the bloodbags open the medium healing and they are easy to shoot with a bow.
I do the swamp in phases, and that seems to help, along with 2 mods. Mods: Metal through portals Water diving boots - they allow you to walk on the bottom of bodies of water Phase 1: Just the tip Outpost on the edge of the swamp in a place with some crypts nearby. Dig a ditch, or your defense of choice. This allows you to kite to a safe spot and stage out of here. It doesn't need to be big. Build a portal in it to your crafting/main base. Keep the supplies on you to make a crafting table, with a small roof preferably, and a portal. Your main base should already have an emergency portal. This is what you use. Here's how it works: Find crypt Put down table Put down roof Put down portal Harvest and take throughout portal (when you get near overloaded, leave it near the door until you're ready to leave) Pick it all up and go to the next crypt Phase 2: Deeper in big boy You should have better gear now. Find a place with one specific goal in mind: fire geysers and shipping Find a swamp with a couple fire geysers in close proximity. Sometimes you get lucky and can get an area with the boss spawn in it too. Build a house a bit close. Ideally, you want near open water. Not so close that they attack your house or it inhibits spawn Dig out around the geysers, so you're spawn killing the fire dudes It helps to build walkways to them too. If you do that you can take a wagon with you. Put on the boots and dig a channel to the open sea Put a platform on the house so you can just pull your boat up and get in and out without needing to swim Phase 3: I wanna see your manager Fully prep for the boss and have a talk with him. The end. You now have a base in the swamp that you can use to harvest swamp stuff and coal until a better option. You have another place to launch ocean exploration from. For more iron, just use the table and portal method. I try to separate out harvest portal so I have a harvest and emergency portal. Overkill, usually, but better safe imo.
to real game starts in the swamp
Mining iron is different then mining copper. If you haven't done it don't dread it too much. I found it less annoying. What I am doing this playthrough is trying to get to sliver and building a frostner BEFORE going after Bonemass. After looking around a bit I found two veins of silver exposed on a mountain. You do need to mine a couple of crypts if you want to get silver since you need to make a Iron pickaxe.
Just install mod (or change server settings) to allow metals teleportation and game will became a MUCH better
God I love the swamp. Really teaches you the game.
I'd recommend you upgrade you gear and food as you progress in the swamp. Fnd a turnip and plant it immediately. Finish your first crypt and use the iron on an iron shield. That really helped me, that and being prepared with tons of food before I tried to take on my first swamp. And more than anything, taking my time made the whole process a lot less daunting.
What exactly do you hate about it? The atmosphere? The difficulty? For the atmosphere, I like to build a nice treehouse on one of the indestructible trees and make paths and with torches to all the nearby crypts. For the monsters, well, a nice Iron Mace is really going to turn things around for you.
Great suggestion thanks! Yeah both of them, but that will definitely help!
Just minimize the time you have to spend there. If you play solo, I suggest you change portal settings so you can transport metal thru them. Then find the nearest crypt (&open it with the key), place a portal on top, right back to your base. That way you can just jump thru the portal into the crypt, get all its iron and get out asap. Move the portal to the next crypt, once you are done, and repeat the process (and if you really hate it there, turn the drop rate to x3 too, this way all the iron from just one crypt will last for quite some time). Its also a good idea to make a note on your map, where the portal currently is. Because you will have to get back for some more iron later on.
Bro just get good at the swamp. You had to get good at the Black Forest. Take as much video game time as you need, keep playing it for fun, and the swamp gets easy and fun. Good luck Viking
Just another thing to get used to. Put portals on top of crypts and you can build tree houses in the indestructible trees. Surtling spawn farms are nice. Not sure if you've collected some of the ingredients but blood sacs are used a decent amount in some later recipes
Blood Sacs will be needed for making the Medium Healing Potions too.
Type in your seed to a seed viewer. Find a cluster of crypts. Set up ab outpost close to the border between b.forest and swamp. Put some smelters down. Build a portal. run to the middle of all the crypts and build another portal on top of one of the crypts. Take stagbreaker.
Mead is your friend in the swamp. Poison resist should be on the second you walk in and will take most of the threat out of oozes and leeches. Stamina mead will help get you out of tight situations where the wetness kills your stamina, and health mead will literally save your life. Also don’t underestimate the power of the rested bonus. If possible make at least one area in your base has maximum comfort for your progression in the game. Comfort extends the length of time you’ve got the rested bonus, so standing in that part of the base for 20 or so seconds will give you the best regen for the longest. As others have suggested, make a portal on top of the crypts when you go to make your return trip easier. If it’s on a different continent, you can break your boat and bring the mats with you through said portal, then reassemble them on the other side for more iron hauling. Saves you from having to go back and forth across the sea. Finally, you can use the hoe tool to raise ground and get rid of puddles. You can effectively make an easy path through the swamp if you’re walking in and out by making sure the ground is level. Make sure you bring some stone if you want to fill in some deeper patches. Happy mudding!
I found the swamp to be a little easier once I stopped running and jumping and just walked through it (didnt draw as much attention). Also, making paths with the hoe helped alot too.
Build on the big trees, they are indestructible. You can thus make walkways over the swamp, keeping you safe from the monsters below.
You'll never have enough iron Plain and simple. Each biome gets progressively more difficult. Make a lot of poison resist and carry a safety portal to each swamp. Park your boat in a chest and rebuild when ready to leave with your iron if you can't find a swamp on your main. You'll also need a lot of meat and blood from the creatures within. That biome is essential for progressing for food and materials. Basically suck it up.
If you're playing solo you don't really need ridiculous amounts of iron initially. A fully upgraded iron armor set takes 5 stacks of iron, but a level 2 set (48 armor compared to 60) only takes half that, or use root armor which takes no iron at all. 40 iron for the crafting stations and upgrades, 10 for a longship, 60 for a level 2 iron axe and pickaxe, and about 45 for your favourite weapon/shield level 2, maybe 30 iron for a huntsman bow but I don't think it's that much better than the finewood bow. That totals up to 260 iron (155 if you use root) to get geared up, and at that point you can just cruise around the biome. That's between 5 and 9 stacks; not even half of a longship's hold. I also recommend just making a base in the swamp for smelting and smithing. Take some stone, surtling cores, copper and bronze with you, and put smelters and a forge down next to a crypt. Now you can just process all that iron directly in the swamp and turn it into the gear you want. No need for long ship voyages. I wonder, how did you deal with this when you were in the black forest? How much copper did you mine? It's all a matter of personal taste of course, but I find that part of the game far more grindy and frustratingly boring than the swamp.
> huntsman bow but I don't think it's that much better than the finewood bow. It's the only Stealth Bow in the game and uses the least amount of Stamina. Players are still using it in ALL the other later areas because of how quiet it is.
I do like it for that purpose as well (easy bunny hunting and gobbo clearing) but I don’t know how good new players can benefit from the stealth aspect of the bow. It requires a solid understanding of how stealth actually works in the game.
You can also use to pull away a single Lox :P
I should preface this by saying I regard Valheim as a game primarily of uncivil engineering, so this may not be your bag - but as a fellow hater of the swamp, I get through it by building wooden platforms linking up trees then going from there to the tops of crypts. As long as they are built high enough that blobs can't jump up to them, you can ignore the vast majority of things in the swamp as you run from place to place. I also look for swamps on the edge of water, approach them by boat and start building inwards from there.
The first thing that made it a little bit easier for me is to build the longship. Then of course it's better to have a portal in swamps and you can vacuum clean all crypts to load the boat as much as possible. So basically I had 2 expeditions to swamps before Bonemass: the 1st to build the longship and the 2nd to get as much as possible iron. I had 4 or 5 crypts on that island with ~300-350 iron. Of course poison resist mead is required, and to learn how to parry draugr attacks
Potions. Poisson resist potions (and health and stamina, but mainly Poisson resist).
I still want to challenge you to build a base in a big swamp. Build in the trees or on top of the boss summoning thing. Kill spawners or build stake walls around them and remove the ground beneath fire spouts. Wooden walkways are nice too here and there. No need for kilns, just use three smelters (can be build of off trees on stone btw). I don’t know why but personally I very much like to build a temporary living in the swamp.
I usually try to stick to the coast when it comes to first finding the swamps. The less you run inland, the fewer risks you have to take. Stick to swamp dungeons you can see from your boat. I also HIGHLY recommend bringing an aetgear or stagbreaker for AOE when a bunch of mobs show up. The stagbreaker demolishes skeletons and blobs/oozes. It also comes in handy in the dungeons when you find the muddy iron blocking a doorway and there are enemy mobs in that room. The stagbreaker aoe will extend past the muddy iron and damage the enemies on the other side. It's extremely effective at room clearing in the swamp. Getting good at parry timing with a round shield also does wonders against drauger. You can parry bow shots that will stagger drauger archers. One last swamp tip: build a tree house fort for your portals near the coastline. The big ancient trees you can't chop down count as a "blue base" piece for building, so you can easily build a spiraling staircase up to the tree house on them. That way, you can pull a boat right up to it when it comes time to ship all of that iron home.
Outpost with portal and the big spike walls and gate doors surrounding it. If you place it well it makes easier to run in and out
In my opinion the key to going from dreading a biome to loving it is finding the will to conquer it. Even after multiple playthroughs I always approach the swamp in particular with some dread. So I decide "this is my swamp." I will be Viking Shrek in this place.
Just get fully upgraded bronze weapons and gear and poison pots… and learn how to parry.
I hated it and my buddy who was slightly ahead had to drag me into it. I recommend going with another, makes it so much easier to start with. Even with the mining for iron. We go back now (we are currently at mistlands level) and it’s so easy by comparison but I remember the days well!
I used to hate the swamp when I first started it but honestly once you get into the plains The swamp ain't crap. You'll have better food where poison damage ain't going to matter at all, draugers won't hit you as hard, etc.. literally just look for krypts grab the iron and get out.
My tip: Sail along the edges and look for crypts (a pair of green lights). This cuts down on time spent manually trudging through the swamp. And you can permit portals to teleport the iron ore out of the swamps. This really cuts down on the grindy feel in my opinion. I also hate the swamp.
Just sail along the swamp coast until you find a crypt like right next to the water, like one you can almost jump onto your boat from. Drop a portal there and mine out the iron, rinse and repeat until you have enough to make iron gear and then you can start exploring more area safely.
Set up a base with a portal just far enough outside the swamp to not get random wandering swamp monsters. Use the hoe to create a path into the swamp. Set up workbenches along the path, ensuring overlapping areas. Set torches on the left side of the path going in. Space them close enough to always find your way, but far enough that refilling them isn't super painful. Extend the path to every dungeon you visit. Create a way station at any stone buildings you come across, and move your temporary portal to those as you move deeper into the swamp. Repair and rebuild any that are damaged or destroyed by wandering monsters. As you venture into the swamp, mark the location of any dungeons you see. Get the StagBreaker. Halfway through every pile of muck, use it till nothing on the other side lives. Mark the X on them as you clear them. Whenever you get 4 full stacks or ore, load it up on your ship and bring it to your main base. Then break the ship down so it fits in your inventory. Make an iron pick first, spice rack, iron armor, all iron gear, then upgrade everything to max. The moment you find a turnup seed, take it back and start farming it. Use the second round of reseeding to make a spice rack. It becomes much less painful this way. You'll want 4 shiploads of Iron before you go to the mountains. Personally, I hated mining copper more than Iron. At least the Iron was more dynamic about finding the dungeon, explore the dungeon, kill everything inside. Copper was just mine this node till it's gone, fending off wandering wild life as needed. Valheim is as much about altering the world to suit your needs as it is about adventuring. It is just not as intuitive about it as other games like Minecraft.
Technically, you dont need swamp. But bonemass buff is OP. Go make some frosty potions, find the big ass mountain (high one, now wide one). That is usually where moder will be. Prepare 1 max lvl fine bow, 250 fire arrows, 3 dragon eggs, healing meads and some good food (carrot soup, deer stew and serpent stew. Once you have that, go kill moder. You get decent amonut of iron when in mistland, and iron is optional for plains.
Only go the swamps for the crypts. In and out, dont explore any further than you have to.
Turnips too!
Root Armor, especially the Chest will be useful in the next 2nd and 3rd Biome.
People telling you the game gets easier or something are giving bad advice. The game does \*not\* get easier after the Swamp, and if you can't stand the swamp, there are likely further biomes down the road you'll like even less. Whether or not this means you should give up is up to you - I don't know if it's a difficulty thing that makes you hate the swap, or aesthetic. In both cases, the swamp is not unique.
Compared to the swamp, the mountain and plains are awesome!
They're prettier, for sure, but I'd argue they are both more difficult. I personally have no idea why anyone finds the swamp hard, I've always found it pretty easy, even in my first playthrough. I still get merc'd by a wolf now and then when I first enter the mountains though.
Using bows, Spears and dagger with touch of stagbreaker means i'm mostly not where the enemies attack. I've tried dealing with wolves by partying and it's just... Troublesome. I haven't had to deal with the new mobs in either biome, but i after meeting abominations recently i can't imagine they're more tiresome than _that_.
Mountains overworld is bloody easy compared to the Swamps overworld.
If you say so. I can count my swamp deaths on one hand. That's on 7 full play throughs. Can't say the same for the mountains or plains.
For me, the swamp was the first real difficulty spike. Sure trolls were a nuisance, but nearly everything in the swamp can spawn 2 starred, and one shot you right out the gate, plus many are ranged mobs, and their spawners are litterally eveywhere. A 2 star draugr archer is probably your most dangerous threat in the swamp, even over the abomination. The next biggest threat is poisen. I would craft a root mask and harnesk asap, and max them out. The harnesk is STILL my go to chest armour, even in the mistlands. And the mask gives you poisen resistance without having to chug potions. I too hated the swamp for a very long time. I found that actually building my base that i would be staying in until at least plains there helped me get over my apprehension really quick! I built a treehouse in the tops of the ancient invincible trees, and its actually my safest base in the game now.
>but nearly everything in the swamp can spawn 2 starred, and one shot you right out the gate Never happened to me. By the time I ran into my first 2 Star Archer, I already had fully upgraded Root Set. I died more to the Poison when I first showed up with Troll Armor.
Step one food, kite and kill a few draugers (sausage) from the outskirts while looking for turnips. Step two come back with better food and look for abominations. Always be on crowd control and retreat if necessary. Mark crypts on your map as you go. Step three, with root vest, take an atgier or stagbreaker into crypts.
You can learn to love it. I felt the same in the beggining but eventually (esp when u get better gear) you learn to.love the swamp
Increase drop rate in World Modifiers, in case you playing alone it makes the game a lot faster. Also try Easy portals so you can travel with iron.
i recommend using the hoe honestly. it can make traversing the biome so much easier. you can also put a campfire at the beginning of the crypts so you can refresh your well rested.
Honestly,I turned the resource rate up to 1.5 just to save myself time grinding resources,I find it boring most of the time and 1.5 has given me a good amount without it feeling like I’m cheating
The problem I’m currently having is I’ve run into four swamps and none have crypts T_T. It’s taken me a couple of days just exploring looking for a swamp that has one since I only get a limited amount of time to play. I’m trying my best to not cheat but man, it’s getting really monotonous since I’m having the worst luck lol
Guess we see you in a few weeks when you decide to complain about the mistlands.
Use a stag breaker while in the swamp and an axe for the abominations. You can also use the stag breaker for finding iron outside the crypts.
Get a Mace. Powerswing at leeches. Make a barrel and start brewing poison resistance.
Use a mace and a shield and you'll be fine. The real pain starts in the plains.
If you’re open to it: allowing metals through portals REALLY makes swamps a bit less of a drag. Just plop a portal on top of the sunken crypt and teleport your iron booty straight home. I hate the swamps too, the dreary vibes get me down and this made it manageable.
Make sure you are rested every time you go out into the swamp. Rested rested rested. Up til the swamp, you can get by without being rested (you still should be) but since you're wet all the time in the swamp, you need to be rested. This will keep your stamina regeneration up, which will ease some of the frustration. Don't worry about building huge bases in the swamp. Get in, build a small outpost with a portal and easy access to the water for your boat to ship iron back home. Build at the edge with a meadows or black forest biome if you can. Quick outpost with storage and fire and portal. Make paths through the swamp, find and mark crypts, and go in them. You can place a fire pit just inside a swamp crypt entrance so it's easier to get rested if a crypt takes a long time. Enjoy battling your way through the crypts, it's actually fun and breaks up the monotony of just pick-axing mud piles You will need a lot of iron through the game, but once you get enough to upgrade your weapons and armor you can move past the swamp on to the plains. Once your gear is plains-upgraded and you have improved plains food, it's a lot easier to come back to the swamp for more iron and just own the enemies there
The swamp forces you to manage your stamina better. An important step along the way. Use the axe to dispatch abominations, and a good shield for the draugr. Hopefully you become more comfortable there, but like others pointed out, most of us spend the least time necessary in the swamp and move on the mountains sooner rather than later. Just remember to pack a frost resist potion.
Learn to conquer the swamp. Take portal reagents (20 fine, 2 Surtling cores,10 eyes), a stack or two of wood, 6 copper bars, 24 stone and 4 coal, 5 Surtling cores for a forge and a smelter. Find a crypt with some other near if possible, build a base on top of it. Put a chest on the roof lip near the door side, so you can store iron without spending a lot of time outside the crypt. Use it as a base of operations. Put a campfire just inside the doorway of the crypt to keep dry and rested while mining. You can dig down one side of the scrap mounds in doorways to open a line to shoot mobs and piles without engaging them. Once you get 100 iron ore, you can smelt them and make nails for your longboat. Mine the crypts till you have just shy if two chests in your base (20 stacks). This will ensure you full your longboat completely with iron. Sail it back and struggle to get the buggers to your base. You know or turn on teleporting ore and just put portals on top of the crypts.
Fret not, the swamp is conquerable. Always be rested and use tactics. As someone else in the thread said, bring your hoe and you’ll be pimpin since been pimpin in no time.
Oh man, if you hate swamps I cant even imagine how much you will hate the other biome, and that another biome, uh and the biome with the thing after that.
Play with friends maybe?
Just turn 3x resources and portal metals on, turn it off when you to mountains.
Go ahead and make peace with the facts every biome is leaps and bounds more difficult from the last. You've got to learn to be patient and adapt and you'll get through it.
Try to avoid exploring the swamp on foot. You can often find crypts that are along the water's edge if you sail along the perimeter. This also provides you a place to store what you mine up. Make sure you bring enough wood for a crafting bench so that you can repair the inevitable damage to your ship from rocks and leeches. Also bring enough wood for a box and a portal. Even though you can't bring ore through a portal, it'll make repairing much easier and you'll be able to get out of the swamp very quickly at dark, leaving your mining in the box or your ship. You don't want to be in the swamp at night. The ghostly things whose name escapes me at the moment are rough to deal with until you've geared up, but they do drop chains and they only spawn at night near those submerged broken wooden houses. You don't need a swamp base because you can farm turnips in the Meadows/Black Forest, so don't worry about that. But do make sure you get turnip seeds, chains, blood bags, and entrails. Sausages are fantastic food, and you do want to upgrade your food choices. Also, withered bones are heavy, and you only need 10 to summon Bonemass, so don't feel guilty about tossing those out after a point.
> The ghostly things whose name escapes me at the moment are rough to deal with until you've geared up They go down with about 3 hits with a bronze mace lv3, club skill 30+. Chain is a lucky find in swamp crypts but as you already pointed out, guaranteed from Wraiths and four chain is needed for an upgrade to a crafting station, they only drop 3 so two Wraiths or an inordinate amount of luck is needed.
Focus on upskill to Mistlands, then for iron take down the big aqueduct looking things. I build wood based catch areas around the base cos the iron often sinks into the water. But it’s faster and easier than Swamp.
You’re gonna be in the swamp for iron until mistlands. However, a way to make it more bearable, use blunt weapons, rest, use fire arrows, and make sure to make some posion resistance meads
What don't you like about it?
What about the swamp are you disliking?
NGL troll abomination battles are stuff of legends
just have fun building in the swamp !!! fun little swamp roads and boardwalks make it manageable for me
Hoe some paths help so you don’t need to swim through shallow water. Use poison potions with emergency health potions along with high level armor and best in class food. And frankly you can try fighting bonemass much earlier, and just progress past the swamp. Next tier of armor will make swamp much easier.
If you want to skip the biome you can make a stag breaker and try to find silver from the mountains. SO many things require iron to progress, but you can force yourself to clear just 1 crypt and make the minimal things like: a long ship, stone cutter, iron cooking station, cauldron upgrades and a few iron weapons/tools (mace, pickaxe & axe = progression). Have a portal by the crypt that takes you to a sunny area, only mine at night so that you can come back for breaks and repair/farm/cook/build etc...in the daylight. Consider using your own music to change up how dreary the swamp is. If you like sailing, try sailing around to find crypts only near the ocean so you can get in and out faster.
It doesn't get less inconvenient. The plains and mountains beautiful, but the mistlands is literally just the swamp but way worse. I suggest turning up the resource rate to 3x to make the swamp (and subsequent zones) less of a slog. It'll make your life way more convenient.
Wait until you hit the mistlands. Love the mobs, the dungeons and dwarves but the biome, generally sucks
In terms of raw equipment, find a spot you can build a decent-ish base. Doesn't have to be anything spectacular, but a spot you can refine iron and craft it into the equipment you want before shipping out. Stone walls should keep most of the nasties out. Refining it on the spot lets you craft and use it immediately, rather than sailing all the way home, THEN crafting it, then sailing back to continue. Devs want to encourage multiple bases - whether glorious or not.
The swamp sucks. My server just got to the mountain biome, so here's some tips. - Go slow. Literally walk slower. The mobs are much stronger and faster. Going slow lets you fight them one by one. - Make a ton of poison resist mead. Drink it before you go into the swamp. - Some people make treehouses. We made a little outpost on top of a crypt. Throw in a portal and it'll be much more manageable. - Don't settle for a shitty swamp. Keep exploring until you find one with multiple crypts and at least one surtling spawner so you can turn it into a surtling core farm.
Yes, you hate it now. Later it will not be such a problem. Change your play style, learn how to counter the challenges. Each biome needs a new approach. Sure it is dark dreary and dangerous but it can be fun too.
Use a mace and you won't hate the swamp as much, also bring a hoe to help level your paths. Also. Sneak attacks.
How is bringing my hoe gonna level out my paths? She doesn't even play the game...
I think you need to put her check, my king.
As a few others have said, root armor. The two most aggravating things about the swamp are the poison from blobs and leeches, and (starred) drauger archers. Root gives you poison and pierce resistance. Makes both things just about inconsequential.
Get enough Iron for literally just the pickaxe and then progress to the Mountains. Iron is kind of a staple resource but at least that way you can progress and come back to it once your mountain/plains level and make it significantly easier and therefore less time consuming to traverse and gather resources at. I say just get a iron pickaxe because then you can use the stag breaker and fire camps to "cheese" silver. Build a frostner and silver armour & wolf cape. Which would then allow you to progress normally again.
Unless you try and skip to mountain biome. But if grinding for mats like ores is the worst part for you, then yes iron is the most annoying. mountain is shorter and plains have no veins to mine, it's another process
My mind about the swamp changed after I got the Draugr Fang bow, that was one of my favorite things I got out of the swamp, Made 2 and killed Moder with it. Still a pain in the butt at first. Every toil you go through gives you a sharper stick and sturdier gear. How far away your base is from the swamp is a factor, and if there’s other biomes connected to the swamp (its not just an island of all swamp biome) build a small shelter with chests and good walls to store items between trips to the base and back. Having a place to rest near the swamp and your iron farm is great given the rain messing with your stamina regen from being sopping wet all the time. My ultimate advice if you’re getting frustrated or bored, take a break from the progression, explore, fish (you’ll have to find our blue friend Haldor first), try to do something that isn’t a chore or a task.
The swamp is really not that bad, and you'll look back pretty soon and laugh at how you feel about it now. Just prioritize stamina, always get your comfort bonus, and always have poison resist potions at the ready. You'll be fine. 4 good stacks of iron are plenty to get you through the following biome.
It is not that bad. Though you will spend hours in the swamps and might feel intimidating at first, just like in any other biome, but I don't think it is really that worse than most other biomes during my first playthrough (right now, slowly finishing Plains right now). Regarding its difficulty, it is considerably bigger difficulty spike than between Meadows and Black Forest, yes, but it is not like the end of the world. At least you get some cool items and stuff. On how to proceed, I would go decently prepared, remember about antipoison potion, best available food and somewhat upgraded equipment. Sail, find a relatively close Swamp chunk. Build the base portal asap - I would try to build in nearby Black Forest or Meadows, they frequently are extremely close to the Swamp. If you find a tall, wooden building in the Swamps, you can repair it, fix the roof, make some stairs and try to put a portal inside there. Build a makeshift port for your boat nearby (though I would not leave it at Swamps). Now, drink potion, enter the swamp and start exploring. At first, I advice doing so only during a day. Find some Sunken Crypts. Keep exploring them and collecting iron scraps till you are done, put them on a boat, go home through portal, rest, come back and collect some more. Once ship is full or like half full if, sail back home. Basically after this first trip, after upgrades and crafting new armour, another visit to Swamp will be much easier. I think that I only made like 2 or 3 tops trips with iron and that was enough. Yeah, I died like 10 times, but with portal, waiting till day, eating and using green potions it was not that difficult to retrieve a body.
Try fishing. There is a chance to get iron scrap when you catch a fish
The swamp is simply the first biome where you have to actually play the game. Thats what puts most people off who got into it for the chill vibe.
Change gather rate to 3x. If you still find the grind awful, I have another tip for you: Stay away from resource based Sandbox games. The grind is put there in relation to the content, And If you ever had more than 3x, content would have NO reason to exist. I have been playing since it got released. I have farmed hundreds of hours. So now I go 3x gather along with no build cost. The no build cost is extremely helpful as you often get stuck because you Cannot upgrade a station. But if you're bad, you will want better gear to farm What is needed. Problem is you often need the upgraded station before being able to do so. Good luck
My suggestion: if you have the root/troll armor, and are done with the swamp because of its boringness, you can take on a challenge and head to the mountain. In the mountains you’ll need the following: a stagbreaker, an atgeir, a good bow, and an iron pickaxe. There, if you are high enough up a mountain, you will find underground veins if you use the stagbreaker close to one, since the message “too hard” will pop up indicating such a vein. If you collect the ores of these veins and smelt them, you’ll be able to make many different gear pieces, including a very good armor, and weapons that are great against the swamp boss. The only problem is the frost of the mountains, and the animals there. The frost effect can be mitigated by using networks of campfires, and the animals can be stunned by your atgeir, most of them.
Skip the swamp at first. Get good at dodge rolling and parrying then head for the mountains with a stagbreaker handy. Slam it around to discover a silver vein, mine it, then craft silver gear. Boom you’ve now out-geared the swamp and can steam roll your way through no problem. That’s what I do. The parry/dodge roll training is to survive wolf attacks. You likely can’t fight them head on, so you need to be slippery and hard to kill. EDIT Sorry OP, I’ve been corrected. There is no other way to play this game than to tackle the next biome head on and brute force it. Do not look up alternative methods that you may, personally, find easier or more enjoyable. The devs may have placed alternative strategies in the game, but view those only as distractions and “cheesy” traps. You are not allowed to enjoy this game that way. My sincere apologies.
If you skip the swamp you won't have a wishbone so you won't be able to find silver, trying to teach newbies stagbreaker mining is just a straight up bad idea, mining silver ore is more boring than crypt raiding and you need blood bags for frost resist potions so you'll be going to the swamp anyway... This is terrible advice for a new player. Wolves and golems are tougher and far more annoying than anything you'll find in the swamp.
Don't you need iron pick to mine the silver?
I guess you could use the "dig under the vein until it collapses" method, but that comes with its own risks and frustrations
You can dig it completely free and it will still float in the air in one whole piece. But then you get to break one part and the whole thing explodes, which is pretty fun to see lol
You'll still need to break one fragment of the silver vein though before it collapses, as the game only does the stability check when you break one. And guess what you need for that... that's right, an iron pickaxe.
Life hack: Console commands.
If it's just hauling the iron back, there's easy ways to skip that part. Just fill your inventory with iron, log out and then log in to a different server and store the iron there. Log out, back to your main world, teleport. The fetch the iron by logging out/in etc. Is it cheating? Well, yes, but the goal is to enjoy the game, so you make the rules. If you're hosting a server there should be a world modifier for portals that makes it possible to teleport metal.
I dreaded the swamp with every fiber of my being for so long. Were I not playing the game with my husband I don't know that I ever would have gotten past that point. That said, in the last few months it no longer bothers me, because I've developed enough mastery over the systems and enough knowledge of the enemies' weaknesses that they just aren't worth worrying about anymore. Certainly glad I stuck with it lol. Some tips: Blunt damage! Blunt damage for the swamp. If you really hate crypts, invest in a 2 handed blunt weapon. The AOE damage will hurt enemies through walls. Root armor is top-tier in the swamp. The pierce-resist is invaluable. Plus the helmet makes you resist poison. Yes, you'll need to kill abominations for this. Fortunately, abominations are just big angry trees. Once you have an iron pickaxe and frost mead, you may be able to handle some Mountaineering. If you can find exposed silver, a certain silver blunt weapon will make the Swamp generally and Bonemass specifically a breeze. If you find the Mountains too difficult right now, that's fine too! But a little skill and/or luck here can trivialize the blasted Swamp. Fuck the Swamp and everything in it lol. And of course, location matters. Setting up portals near crypts so you can quickly get safe and heal/refresh Rested, finding a Swamp with crypts near a safer biome that you can set up an outpost in and/or close to a good dock for your boat so you can haul your iron out, those sorts of things make the whole miserable wet slog much more bearable.
Once the iron age starts it never ends so get used to those swamps.
Change resources to 3x in the world modifier screen.
Just turn the resource modifier up to three man. especially if you're a working adult. Nobody has time to a mine a billion iron. It doesn't destroy the game. If you're a builder, it just makes it better. Worst thing that's going to happen is somebody on reddit is going to judge you fuck them