Valheim isn’t just a crafting survival sandbox. It takes place in the Viking afterlife, and along with a variety of enemy creatures there are five special boss monsters, known as The Forsaken, that only appear if you deliberately summon them.
How to Summon and Defeat The Elder
- Biome: The Black Forest
- How to summon it: Sacrifice three Ancient Seeds at its altar
- Rewards: Swamp Key, which unlocks crypts in the Swamp biome, Elder Trophy, Elder Power
The Elder is Valheim’s second boss. You can discover its location by interacting with rune stones in Burial Chambers found in the Black Forest.
You can check other Valheim guides:
- Valheim How to Summon and Defeat Eikthyr
- Valheim How to Summon and Defeat Bonemass
- Valheim How to Summon and Defeat Moder
- Valheim How to Summon and Defeat Yagluth
- Valheim Item IDs & Spawning Guide
- Valheim Admin Commands for Your Server
Summon The Elder by using three Ancient Seeds. These can be found in drops from greydwarf brutes and greydwarf shamans, and by destroying Greydwarf nests. Burning three Ancient Seeds on The Elder’s altar in the Black Forest will summon it.
The Elder has three attacks. In melee, it will stomp on players with an area of effect attack, which does damage even if he doesn’t step directly on you. It also has a ranged attack where it shoots vines as projectiles. It can also summon vines from the ground around players, which will lash out and attack.
Strategy for The Elder
With the pickaxe available after defeating Eikthyr, you should be doing a lot of mining and smelting before taking on The Elder. You’ll want to be prepared with brass armor, a quality bow, lots of flame arrows, and healing potions if you’ve unlocked them. Fire damage is the best way to bring down The Elder, and it’s going to take a lot of flaming arrows, possibly hundreds.
You can also try placing campfires in his summoning area, because he may step on them while chasing you and take extra burn damage. Once summoned, use the pillars in his summoning area to block incoming vine projectiles, and pop out to hit him with arrows. Try to avoid kiting him too far into the woods, because you may aggro additional nearby greydwarf or troll enemies. You don’t need that headache.
When The Elder has been defeated, placing its trophy on the sacrificial stone will give you a power that increases your wood cutting speed.