Is there any way to get through the game without hurting the deer?

[Ave Celestia]

I heard that there are skins and trophies, but are they mandatory to pass or can I find them for example?

[Suzaku]

Deer trophies can only be obtained from deer, and you'll need 2 of them to summon the first boss (which is also a deer), and he drops a material required to make your first pickaxe.

You could technically avoid personally attacking deer by waiting for skeletons to kill them for you, though you'd have to be pretty lucky for that to happen, and the trophy to drop.

And you could technically make a troll mine copper and tin for you by having it try to club you to death with a tree, but evade it so it hits copper and tin nodes instead, which can then be crafted into bronze to make a bronze pickaxe.

So while technically possible to avoid killing deer to advance in the game, it's waaaay more trouble than it's worth. Gird your loins. Slay the deer pixels.

[Middleclaw]

If you can get friends to give you the trophies, otherwise no. If they are set in a certain way, Some Mobs do fight each other and give drops, but as far as I know, there is no mob that hunts the deer.

[Ave Celestia]

Originally posted by Suzaku:

And you could technically make a troll mine copper and bronze for you by having it try to club you to death with a tree, but evade it so it hits copper and tin nodes instead, which can then be crafted into bronze to make a bronze pickaxe.

So the boss that requires deer trophies is not necessary? In the sense that there is no such thing that it is needed to access the next boss, for example?

I'd try to avoid it anyway, I just don't want to waste my time on a game that turns out to be softlocked for me. If the boss is evil, there shouldn't be a problem. Unlike deer trophies.

[Cap'n Bells]

Originally posted by Ave Celestia:

Originally posted by Suzaku:

And you could technically make a troll mine copper and bronze for you by having it try to club you to death with a tree, but evade it so it hits copper and tin nodes instead, which can then be crafted into bronze to make a bronze pickaxe.

So the boss that requires deer trophies is not necessary? In the sense that there is no such thing that it is needed to access the next boss, for example?

I'd try to avoid it anyway, I just don't want to waste my time on a game that turns out to be softlocked for me. If the boss is evil, there shouldn't be a problem. Unlike deer trophies.

I dont see a way to avoid gaining "deer trophies" you need the pick to progress in the game .. even building a alternative weapon Stagbreaker and hitting the ground in the very high mountains to find Silver.. by looking for the "too hard" message needs at least 5 deer trophies but you could avoid killing Eikthyr this way

[Zep Tepi]

Technically you can, but it would be a difficult challenge. Skeletons, Draugr and wolves will hunt deer. You could try sneaking around the edge of a mountain or a swamp and hope for the best.

In addition to Eikthyr, the deer boss, all the good mid-level bows and all the swamp armor uses deer hide. The wiki says you have a chance of getting some from chests in the troll caves and from some of the fuling buildings. But both of those would be more difficult for a new player.

You would need to get good at killing trolls for the troll armor, and using the crude bow for that is harder, but not impossible.

https://valheim.fandom.com/wiki/Deer_hide?so=search

[Ave Celestia]

Thanks for the detailed answers. If someone does answer me, I'm still confused: is the deer boss mandatory for the overall game play, or is it only needed to get a temporary advantage?

In the meantime, I will try to play with my friend, at least I will have time to make a refund :)

[Nerevar]

Originally posted by Ave Celestia:

Thanks for the detailed answers. If someone does answer me, I'm still confused: is the deer boss mandatory for the overall game play, or is it only needed to get a temporary advantage?

In the meantime, I will try to play with my friend, at least I will have time to make a refund :)

the deer boss is not mandatory IF you use a troll to mine copper and tin for you. but the later is difficulty to do without dying. however it IS possible. you could also ask your friend to give you an antler pickaxe as thats what you would get from the deer boss. HOWEVER. you NEED deer hides to make a ship later.

a ship is pretty much mandatory as you have to cross ocean on nearly any random world at some point. while deer hides can also be found in troll caves and in fuling villages without killing deer the later aint an option before you get the ship on most worlds and is very dangerous aswell early on and the former aka troll cave method is super tedious to do and your sources would be limited supply aswell.

but yeah. its technically possible to avoid killing deer yourself. however other enemies WILL kill deer sooner or later anyway. there is no way to prevent that form happening.

deer hide is also needed for nearly every bow in the game currently.

the only truely required boss to kill for progression overall currently is the mountain boss.

[brewedjuice]

in a technically sense, you can work around a lot of needs for the deer boss. to get the first pick-axe, you need deer trophies to summon a boss. but as mentioned there are ways to bypass it and get bronze without it. to make some boats, you need deer hide. though you personally needing to kill deer isnt a programmed requirement. so its completely plausable to find deer killed by skeletons in black forest or something.

if this is a problem, there are also hares whos scales are used in a LOT of armor patterns at the end that dont tend to get killed by other npcs so are much harder to find out and about.

[Humpenstilzchen]

They are just pixels. You can kill those pixel deers without feeling bad since you are not hurting real animals.

To your question, the deerboss is kinda mandatory since he will drop you his antlers which you can use to make your first pickaxe.

You could also lure a troll towards a copper and tin deposits and make him smash it so you can make bronze and then a bronze pickaxe, but that´s bit risky for someone new to the game.

[vinyblaster]

Originally posted by Humpenstilzchen:

They are just pixels. You can kill those pixel deers without feeling bad since you are not hurting real animals.

To your question, the deerboss is kinda mandatory since he will drop you his antlers which you can use to make your first pickaxe.

You could also lure a troll towards a copper and tin deposits and make him smash it so you can make bronze and then a bronze pickaxe, but that´s bit risky for someone new to the game.

In the same message yousay that the boss is mandatory but that there is also a workaround.

No, Eikthyr is not mandatory. It's actually the easiest boss to bypass. However, deer hides are required for sailing, and unless you're on a unicorn seed where everything exists on the spawn island, you're gonna have a bad time.

[Humpenstilzchen]

Originally posted by vinyblaster:

Originally posted by Humpenstilzchen:

They are just pixels. You can kill those pixel deers without feeling bad since you are not hurting real animals.

To your question, the deerboss is kinda mandatory since he will drop you his antlers which you can use to make your first pickaxe.

You could also lure a troll towards a copper and tin deposits and make him smash it so you can make bronze and then a bronze pickaxe, but that´s bit risky for someone new to the game.

In the same message yousay that the boss is mandatory but that there is also a workaround.

No, Eikthyr is not mandatory. It's actually the easiest boss to bypass. However, deer hides are required for sailing, and unless you're on a unicorn seed where everything exists on the spawn island, you're gonna have a bad time.

That´s why I wrote kinda mandatory..

This is the second time you annoy me. Gonne block you know to not have to read your snarky and useless comments anymore.

Cheers and have a nice day.

[RagnCharran]

Originally posted by brewedjuice:

if this is a problem, there are also hares whos scales are used in a LOT of armor patterns at the end that dont tend to get killed by other npcs so are much harder to find out and about.

I actually find one of the best ways to get hare skins and meat is to walk mistlands/plains borders and chase the hares out into the open, and let the skeeters do the hunting for me.

[Cooperal]

Originally posted by Ave Celestia:

Originally posted by Suzaku:

And you could technically make a troll mine copper and bronze for you by having it try to club you to death with a tree, but evade it so it hits copper and tin nodes instead, which can then be crafted into bronze to make a bronze pickaxe.

So the boss that requires deer trophies is not necessary? In the sense that there is no such thing that it is needed to access the next boss, for example?

I'd try to avoid it anyway, I just don't want to waste my time on a game that turns out to be softlocked for me. If the boss is evil, there shouldn't be a problem. Unlike deer trophies.

The first boss drops an item that is needed to make your first pickaxe and it is intended that you use it to start mining your first copper and tin, but you can also use enemies to break their respective nodes.

Other than that, defeating the first boss unlocks an ability that it very useful for long distance sprinting. And you are presumably going to need to defeat all bosses to reach the end sequence but that is a long way from being implemented.

[Master of the Universe]

I recommend you consider playing a different game. The entire point is to harvest all available resources to reach Valhalla. The Deer are there specifically for you to hunt and kill. I would assume, narratively, Odin expects you to do it.

[Zombits]

Op used a translator . He probably wanted to know other ways to gather deer trophies other than killing , as a new player without a bow i guess