The Elder is the second boss in Valheim. It’s a massive animated tree that lives in the Black Forest and is summoned with Ancient Seeds. You will need to conquer several Burial Chambers to find the runestone that allows you to register The Elder’s location. The next step is to gear up and make the journey to its summoning altar.
Ancient Seeds are used to summon The Elder. You can collect these seeds by killing Greydwarf Brutes or Greydwarf Shamans, but the best source of ancient seeds are Greydwarf Nests. Destroying a greydwarf nest will drop an ancient seed 100% of the time.
You must defeat The Elder to enter Sunken Crypts in the Swamp biome.
Recommended Equipment
You can defeat The Elder with Bronze or upgraded Troll Armor, a Finewood Bow, a fat stack of Fire Arrows, and three decent food items. Better food will make this fight much easier.
| Trophy | 3 Ancient Seed (required for summoning) |
| Weapons | Finewood Bow, 60+ Fire Arrows |
| Armor | Bronze Armor or Upgraded Troll Armor |
| Food | Cooked Meat, Grilled Neck Tail, Queens Jam (or Honey) |
| Potions | Minor Stamina Mead, Minor Healing Mead |
Strategy
Attacks
The Elder has two special attacks and a melee attack:
- Stomp
- Volley of Tendrils
- Summon Roots
Stomp
The Elder will lift its foot and stomp down dealing high damage in a circular AOE.
If you’re meleeing The Elder, you will need to dodge this attack because it’s fast and deals a lot of damage. If you are just kiting or tanking the boss, you can bait out the Stomp attack by playing around the edge of its range. Keep doing this to allow your team to fill The Elder with fire arrows.
Volley of Tendrils
The Elder will wind up and throw its hand forward unleashing a continuous volley of tendrils that travel in a straight line toward the player. You can avoid this attack by using one of the four pillars as cover. We recommend firing from behind a pillar until The Elder forces you out of hiding with Summon Roots.
Summon Roots
The Elder will make a scooping motion with his hand beckoning the roots to appear. They will summon randomly around the target. As the roots are summoning, they will block your path. The roots will whip any players that get near them and it can be quite dangerous when surrounded by the entire swarm of roots.
How to Beat The Elder
The Elder relies heavily on the roots to deal damage and is best defeated with fire arrows from a distance where you can avoid the most dangerous attacks.
Position yourself behind a pillar, pop out to loose an arrow, then duck back behind the pillar. Repeat this process until The Elder gets too close or summons roots around your position. When this happens, run over to the next pillar.
With this strategy, you can safely attack The Elder and should never face too much danger. Now, it’s time to grab your gear and your mead to go kill The Elder!
Forsaken Power
The Elder’s forsaken power grants increased damage to trees. It makes woodcutting easier but not as much as you would hope. It’s still worth using if you need to restock your wood supply.