Valheim - How To Keep Your Base Safe
Bosses in Valheim can be extremely challenging for players who aren't used to fighting difficult monsters. Many of the bosses in this game hit extremely hard and require hours of preparation before you challenge them. You should make sure you bring the proper meads, a weapon(s) that the boss is weak to and enough Food to last through a 30min fight + deaths. I'd also recommend making a bed and Portal nearby just incase you die.
If you have done all of these things and you're still struggling with the boss, that's where my guide will come in. Eikthyr (Meadows) and The Elder (Black Forest) are both very forgiving fights and you can beat them with fully upgraded armor from that biome and a bow pretty easily. If you're struggling with melee on either of these bosses, try changing your strategy a bit to a more ranged fighting style. Even if you dislike ranged weapons, they will do better against these targets. Also, don't forget to get the Rested buff before the fight so you have increased Stamina regeneration.
The third boss of the game, Bonemass, is where the difficulty really starts to pick up. At this point in time Meads have been introduced into the game and you'll need to start using them for Bonemass. Let's start this guide with general advice
General Valheim Boss Tips:
- Raise the ground to make an indestructible wall. This can be a borderline cheese strategy depending on the boss, but it's a massive help. Bonemass has no ranged attacks so he is easily beaten by standing ontop of the wall and shooting him with arrows. Other bosses who do have ranged attacks (Moder, Yagluth), you can duck behind the wall to easily avoid them.
- Clear the surrounding area and place Workbenches to stop enemies from spawning while you're fighting the boss. Every biome has enemy spawners and/or clusters of enemies which you will want to deal with before fighting the boss.
- Research the fights and the bosses weaknesses
- Tame animals in the same biome or in a nearby biome and use them against the boss. This is a very time consuming method but it's almost a guaranteed way to beat the boss with very little skill requirement, it's just a time sink.
- Turn off the Camera Shake option in the menu. Bosses have an unneccesarry amount of Camera shaking when they first spawn and during some of their special attacks. If you're planning on meleeing a boss you should turn off the shaking instead of trying to deal with it.
Eikthyr (Meadows)
There isn't much I can say about this boss except knock down a bunch of trees in the surrounding area to make the terrain cluttered. If you're using a Bow you can use the cluttered terrain to your advantage since Eikthyr needs a clear path to you. Find a location in the fallen trees where you can bait Eikthyr into running around a large object to reach you. Then you can jump back and forth over the object to regain Stamina and shoot at him.
The Elder (Black Forest)
The Elder's Wiki
Weak to Fire damage
<Base Under the Elder>
You have two ways to make this fight easier, you can build a Portal/base under the Elder platform which will let you get the Rested buff easily and return to the fight incase of death. Alternatively, if you can lure Wolves down from the Mountain and into a wolf pit and tame them... You can use them to easily defeat The Elder. If I am being honest though, taming wolves at this point in the game is just as dangerous as The Elder fight if not more.
If you're interested in learning more check out my How To Tame Animals Guide.
Bonemass (Swamp)
Bonemass' Wiki
Weak to Blunt and Frost damage
Bonemass is when bosses start to get a spike in difficulty, a Poison Mead is basically a requirement for this boss and so is bringing weapons he is vulnerable to. I normally still use a Bow for this boss despite it being a really poor choice in terms of DPS. The upside of a Bow is you can remain at a distance & even avoid almost all damage from Bonemass by standing on raised ground. I demonstrate this strategy in this video here.
If you're going to go the Bow route you'll need to bring two with you because one will break during the fight. As far as Arrows, I recommend Frost since he is vulnerable to that. The best option for this fight though is to use the Iron Mace, since he is vulnerable to blunt.
Our #1 cheese option for this boss is to spend some time taming wolves nearby and then bringing them to fight Bonemass. In my opinion this is completely unneccessary for this boss though because a Poison Mead negates most of his damage anyway. To see a video of me using wolves check out How To Beat Bonemass With Wolves. Check out my How To Tame Animals Guide for more information about how to easily tame some wolves.
Moder (Mountain)
Moder's Wiki
Weak to Fire Damage
In my opinion Moder is actually an easier fight than Bonemass and she can be even easier depending on where her spawner is at. When her spawner is on the side of a steep cliff she won't have many viable places to land and whenever she does land she'll get stuck and be a sitting duck.
The best weapon to use against Moder is the Draugr Fang bow with some Fire Arrows (or Obsidian/Needle Arrows, either will work). Just like with Bonemass, my advice to make this fight even easier would be to tame some wolves nearby and unleash them on Moder during the fight. To see a video of how I did it with wolves check out Beating Moder With Wolves. Check out my How To Tame Animals Guide for more information about how to easily tame some wolves.
Yagluth (Plains)
Yagluth's Wiki
At first glance, Yagluth is a very difficult boss... but with just a little preparation you can make the fight pretty easy. For this fight you'll want to use the Frostner weapon and a fully upgraded Padded Armor + Cape. You'll also want to bring Fire Resistance Mead, Medium healing meads and Medium Stamina Meads.
In addition to this preparation, you'll also want to prepare the boss arena. You can do this in two different ways, the first is by taming some Lox in the surrounding area and the second is by raising the ground (pictured below). Lox are the most effective way to take out this boss, doing this method will require almost no skill and is a sure fire win. All you need to do is tame some Lox in the surrounding area (20 is the minimum) and use them to beat up Yagluth as you also beat him up.
Lox will both damage and distract Yagluth which gives you tons of time to beat on him with your Frostner. How many Lox you have determines your chances of success. With 20 Lox they normally do 75% damage to Yagluth before getting wiped out (worst case scenario). 30 or more Lox is a guaranteed win even if you stand back and do nothing. Getting 30 Lox into the immediate area around Yagluth will take awhile though since they can't breed if too many of them are stacked ontop of each other. This is why I recommend breeding some near Yagluth's spawner, some in a pen nearby and some in a field nearby. Basically, run around and find multiple packs of Lox and tame them all, then breed them all.
The next big piece of advice for Yagluth is to raise the ground similar to what you see in my picture above. Do this close to his spawner and pull him over to this location when the fight begins. Yagluth will often get confused trying to reach you and he'll end up getting stuck and giving you some free chances to hit him. Additionally, you can use the raised ground pillars to block most of his meteor attacks. It's not uncommon for one meteor to slip through but the wall will block most of them.
For the most protective wall you'll want to make it two tiles thick, meaning raise the ground as much as you can in one spot and then in another spot next to it. Some of the pillars you see in my picture above are 1x1 and others are 4x4. The 1x1 pillars stop 2 or 3 meteors but the rest will hit you; the thick pillars will stop all meteors. Basically, we'll be running in to hit Yagluth until he is about to do his meteor attack at which point we'll retreat behind the raised ground pillars to avoid damage. We'll also be hiding in our maze of pillars when we are waiting for our healing mead cooldowns to come up.
The Queen (Mistlands)