Valheim: So you defeat the ancient one and get into the swamp

 In the new survival game Valheim , more and more players defeat the boss “The Ancient One” and find the swampy key with him. OkayGotcha explains to you what to do with the key and how to find swamps.

What are swamps? The swamp is one of the biomes in Valheim and you will usually find it as the third area after the grassland and the dark forest. Stronger opponents like undead draugr, blobs, ghosts and giant leeches await here.

The enemies are already an indicator that players with little experience and poor equipment have no business here. If you are already further in the game, you have to visit the swamp to move forward.

Before doing this, you should kill the second boss of the game, The Ancient One in the Dark Forest. Otherwise the excursion into the swamp won't bring you much.

Find swamps in Valheim - that's how it works

Where can I find swamps? The map of Valheim is generated randomly for every player who starts a server. How the map looks is determined by its “seed”, i.e. the code for its layout.

So there is no fixed position at which you will emerge a swamp. Typically, however, swamps can be found near the water and somewhere between a dark forest and a grassland. Swamps are only very small areas and not as extensive as the other biomes.

The best way to search the shores of your island is to take a boat. If you see withered trees, brown spots or glowing green slime, you've found a swamp.

What do I need for that? Basically you should be well equipped. At least bronze weapons and tools are required, the armor should be troll skin armor or something similar. Poison resistance mead will also help you in battle.

You should also take the swampy key with you that you find on the ancient one. You need it so that you can fully exploit the riches of the swamp.

A boat is a good way to discover a swamp. This will make you safer and usually faster. It's best to build a carve and not a raft. The small boat is significantly more manoeuvrable, faster and can even carry four units of cargo.

A portal to the swamp is also useful, as it will probably be a long way from your base. You can't transport metals with it, but you can travel quickly to repair your equipment or add to your inventory.

Find and defeat the ancient one

Where can I find the ancient one? The Ancient One is the boss of the Dark Forest Biome. To find him, you must find his shrine in the dark forest. The shrine is a fire bowl on a large stone surface, surrounded by stone pillars.

If you can't find his shrine, look out for a Vegvisir in the ruins of the Dark Forest, which will show you where to find the boss. Have you found the boss, you need three ancient seeds that you have to sacrifice at his fireplace.

What can the boss do? The ancient is a tough opponent who can hit you both in close combat and at a distance. If you get too close, it can kill you almost instantly with powerful sweeping attacks and destroy all cover - even large rocks.

At a distance he fires long tendrils in quick succession, which you can hardly avoid and which cause great damage. He also summons vines from the ground that can harm you.

How do I defeat the boss? For the boss you should definitely fight during the day and prepare yourself well: With food and, if necessary, mead to buff yourselves.

Also pack fire arrows and your strongest bow. Clear enemies around you before summoning the boss.

In the fight itself you should then keep your distance and seek protection behind the pillars of his place of worship. He cannot destroy them and his tendrils cannot penetrate through them. Hide when he attacks and fire at him during the breaks.

If tendrils appear below you, you should change your position. In the video embedded here you can see how the fight goes:

Use the swampy key and find iron

What do I do with the key? When you have defeated the ancient one, you will receive both his trophy and the swampy key from him. You can use the key to open crypts sunk in the swamps that are otherwise locked. So definitely take it with you on your travels.

What do I find in the crypts? The sunken crypts are dungeons, similar to the burial chambers in the dark forest. You will find muddy piles of scrap here that you can and even have to mine with a pickaxe.

The piles block your way through the crypts and must first be removed. In them you will find among other things:

• rotten bones
• Snippets of leather
• and scrap iron, the most important things from the swamp biome

Scattered in the crypts are also boxes of scrap iron, ancient bark and some treasures. The crypts are protected by blobs and draugrs, which shouldn't be a problem for you if you can defeat the ancient.

Take what you can carry and store it in a small outpost until the crypts are all empty. Then you should make your way back. Iron is quite heavy, so you will have to do several tours.

What are biomes in Valheim?

Swamps are just one of the biomes you'll find in Valheim. The world is currently divided into six biomes. The biomes are:

• Grasslands - This is where you usually start your journey
• Dark Forest - The second area, here you will find the first metals
• Swamps - More dangerous areas with iron
• Mountains - Cold areas that you should only explore with frost protection mead
• Desert Plains - Sprawling plains with goblin-like enemies
• Oceans - The great water between the areas with rare materials

As the developers have already revealed, there are even more biomes coming, including Fog Lands . We don't yet know what you can find there.

Which biomes have you already explored? Have you already found and conquered your swamp? Write us a comment.