So, I died to Eikthyr. What am I supposed to do now?

[Krosis Priest]

Was the first boss, I had already made myself leather armor and some decent weapons, thought I could fight pretty well, decided to go for it. I didn't realise that a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ deer can run at supercar speeds and shoot lightning.

So, what now? He's literally camping at where I previously died, if I try to recover my gear of course I die if he farts in my general direction. It's also near water, and somehow swimming for more than a few seconds starts killing me (?????????).

Is there something I'm missing, or am I actually expected to start collecting branches from scratch and spend another 2-3 hours chasing deer with an axe to craft the gear I had? If yes, the answer is ♥♥♥♥ off because I enjoyed the game a lot so far, but I have zero tolerance for games that punish you for things you had no way to see coming, especially early on.

EDIT: well, this thread took an interesting (and actually good) turn later

[Benjamin]

Have one of your friends distract it while you grab your gear.

[Krosis Priest]

Originally posted by Benjamin:

Have one of your friends distract it while you grab your gear.

Playing solo.

edit: Okay, I found a way to restore a "backup" save from before I fought him. Still, this is... not beginner-friendly, to say the least, and I don't expect (or like) babysitting.

[Subsonic]

Block. If you have a wooden shield you can take little damage if you block melee and lightning attacks. Plus try not to stand in the AOE bubble when it goes off, but just block. Keep up good health and club/axe it to death. If you have leather armor and a wooden shield then you should be fine. Just remember to block.

[Suzaku]

Have a small base prepared with some food. A spare set of weapons and armor are recommended, but not necessary, certainly not this early on.

The boss doesn't hit that hard, and you get a damage resistance and healing buff for a short time after claiming your stuff from your grave. Eat something, run in, grab your stuff, equip it while the buff is active, then continue from there.

[LordBUM]

yeah before you even touch boss's it would be best to be very prepared for them build a base make the best food your biome can offer make the best weapons the biome offers and upgrade them also before summoning boss's alter the terrain to give you any kind of advantage in the fight.

[357 Magnum Ace]

Just kite it around terrain, logs, and trees and hit with a bow. You can get away with wood arrows, but just make a shore run for flint for better arrows just for him and save wood for hunting animals.

[FeLoNiouS]

Originally posted by Krosis:

Was the first boss, I had already made myself leather armor and some decent weapons, thought I could fight pretty well, decided to go for it. I didn't realise that a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ deer can run at supercar speeds and shoot lightning.

So, what now? He's literally camping at where I previously died, if I try to recover my gear of course I die if he farts in my general direction. It's also near water, and somehow swimming for more than a few seconds starts killing me (?????????).

Is there something I'm missing, or am I actually expected to start collecting branches from scratch and spend another 2-3 hours chasing deer with an axe to craft the gear I had? If yes, the answer is ♥♥♥♥ off because I enjoyed the game a lot so far, but I have zero tolerance for games that punish you for things you had no way to see coming, especially early on.

Are you on the official Valheim Discord? You could get much quicker response and help there, just fyi. And....yes, there's lots you're missing if you were doing what you were describing. In fact, that would be an example of how not to play the game. Don't worry, like all games, once you figure them out you'll look back and won't believe how bad you were when you first started.

[Drectar]

no way you actually tried to use an axe to kill the animals, I tried that once and immediately made a bow.

[Cap'n Bells]

having learnt the same sort of hard way.. i have a backup set of gear..(not same level and try a different strategy if one fails.. ie snipe n kite, block n roll or whatever comes to mind... no harm in running away either if your stamina drops or health is critical... he/she who runs away lives to die another day :-)

[slaavian]

Eikthyr is - well - a teaser. What you say simply means you re missing the point. Try different ways - have you tried a bow? What about tower shield? Eat well - do you have bee hives for free food source?

[KingKickAss]

You do roll, right? Because other than that, just use a flint spear and its easy.

[Suzaku]

Heck, you can basically fully face-tank this boss, too. Go in with cooked boar and deer meat, honey, and full leather armor, and you practically heal faster than the boss can hurt you. Then you just stab it with a sharpened stick 50 times and you win.

[Pantstron]

Doesn't matter if you die against eikthyr. Just go touch your gravestone and the corpse run buff will give you the staying power to just punch the boss if you want, die again and just keep doing that, I did this with a naked character and a flint axe so I'm sure you'll be able to this in less deaths. I wouldn't recommend this with any other bosses though, strength goes up considerably and corpse run buff won't protect you too well outside of blackforest.

[Theutus]

Bow, wooden arrows and kite him around stones. Stay out of reach and shoot him in the face.

[Daffy]

Originally posted by Krosis:

somehow swimming for more than a few seconds starts killing me (?????????).

others have helped with the general strat so i want to point this out,

You do not go swimming without food buffs and full stamina as when you get to 0 stamina you will start to take damage.

side note: first boss is not fast, get a little distance and you can walk him around, kite him around the big stones and put some arrows in him when you can, also shield is very nice to have in this fight to swap to.

Good luck.