How to Beat Eikthyr in Valheim (Offering, Attacks & Strategy)
Eikthyr has 500 health — one twentieth of Yagluth's — and every one of its three attacks can be blocked with a Wood Shield. It is designed as a tutorial with antlers, and the most common way to lose is to fight it at Level 1 with no food buffs rather than anything the boss actually does. What matters far more than the fight is what it unlocks: the Antler Pickaxe, which is the only thing standing between you and copper.
On sourcing. Iron Gate do not publish creature stat blocks. The health, damage, cooldown and resistance figures below come from community datamining and can change with any patch.
Eikthyr at a Glance
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Health | 500 |
| Biome | Meadows — one of three altars within 1000 m of the world centre |
| Offering | 2 Deer Trophies |
| Immune to | Stagger, Chop, Pickaxe |
| Resistances | None |
| Drops | 1 Eikthyr Trophy, 3 Hard Antlers |
Read the resistance row again: none. Eikthyr is the only boss in Valheim that does not resist a single damage type. It is technically susceptible to Spirit damage, but no Meadows-tier weapon deals Spirit, so in practice use whatever you have — there is no wrong choice.
Getting there is trivial. Its three altars all sit within 1000 metres of the world centre, and you spawn at the centre. The first boss is never a voyage.
The offering is 2 Deer Trophies, which drop from ordinary Deer at a low rate. That is genuinely the slowest part of the whole encounter — expect to kill quite a few.
Its Three Attacks
| Attack | Damage | Range | Cooldown |
|---|---|---|---|
| Antler Swipe | 20 Pierce | 4 m | 5 s |
| Charge Beam | 15 Lightning | 20 m | 25 s |
| Stomp | 15 Lightning | 10 m radius | 40 s |
These are small numbers. For comparison, Moder's Cold Breath does 200 Frost in a single hit. Eikthyr's biggest attack is 20.
The Antler Swipe is the only one on a short cooldown at 5 seconds, and it is the one you will block most. The two Lightning attacks are on 25 and 40 second timers, so they punctuate the fight rather than define it.
A Wood Shield blocks all three. That is not an exaggeration — at this damage level, a basic shield and any parry timing carries the whole encounter.
The real hazard is the Lightning status, not the damage. It slows you briefly, which is awkward if you are already at low stamina. Manage stamina rather than health and this fight is straightforward.
What to Bring
- Weapon: a Flint Spear or a Finewood Bow with Flint arrows. Neither is resisted, because nothing is.
- Shield: a Wood Shield. It blocks everything Eikthyr has.
- Armour: Leather, or Troll hide if you have already killed trolls.
- Food: three different foods. This is the single biggest thing new players skip, and it roughly triples your health and stamina pools.
- Do not bother with fire, frost or poison resistance mead. None of Eikthyr's damage types are covered by them.
Clear the arena first. Eikthyr's altar sits in open Meadows, and Greylings or Boars wandering in during the fight cause more deaths than the boss does. Kill what is nearby before you place the trophies.
Bring a second player if you have one, but know the trade. Bosses gain health per nearby player, so a duo is not half the fight — it is a shorter fight with more incoming attacks to track.
The Reward: Why You Actually Came
The 3 Hard Antlers are the point of this fight. They craft the Antler Pickaxe, the first pickaxe in the game — and without a pickaxe you cannot mine copper or tin, which means no Bronze, no Forge upgrades and no progression at all. Eikthyr is a hard gate, not an optional boss.
The Eikthyr Trophy grants a Forsaken Power:
60% reduced stamina usage for running, jumping and swimming.
That is a single-line power in a game where the others now carry two or three effects, and it is still one of the most-used in the game — because early Valheim is almost entirely a stamina problem. Long overland runs, river crossings and mountain climbs all cost less with it active.
Do not forget to hang the trophy. The power is not granted by killing the boss. You must take the Eikthyr Trophy to the Sacrificial Stones at the exact centre of the map and hang it on its stone. Plenty of players finish the fight and never claim the reward.
And the altar is reusable. If you are playing in a group, resummon so that everyone gets a trophy — powers are per-player.
How to Beat Eikthyr
- Farm 2 Deer Trophies. Expect this to take longer than the fight.
- Find a Vegvisir to mark an altar, or simply explore — all three are within 1000 m of spawn.
- Eat three different foods before you summon. Nothing else moves the needle as much.
- Clear nearby Greylings and Boars out of the arena.
- Bring a Wood Shield and block; the swipe is the only fast attack.
- Take the trophy to the Sacrificial Stones and hang it.
Practical tips
- 500 HP and zero resistances — use whatever weapon you own, none of it is wasted.
- A Wood Shield blocks all three attacks. Bring one even if you prefer a bow.
- Three different foods matter more than your weapon tier here.
- The Charge Beam and Stomp are on 25 and 40 second cooldowns — you have time between them.
- The 3 Hard Antlers are the real reward: the Antler Pickaxe unlocks copper and tin.
- Hang the trophy or you never get the power. Resummon so the whole group has it.
Running your own Valheim server
Boss kills are world state — the altar, the global keys, the progression flags belong to the world rather than to whoever hosted it that evening. A gamever Valheim server keeps that world available around the clock for up to 10 players, so a group can farm deer trophies on Tuesday and fight on Thursday without waiting on one person to be online. One-click backups and automatic updates keep client and server versions from drifting apart.
Conclusion
Eikthyr has 500 health, no resistances to any damage type, and three attacks — Antler Swipe (20 Pierce), Charge Beam (15 Lightning) and Stomp (15 Lightning) — every one of which a Wood Shield blocks. Summon it with 2 Deer Trophies at one of three Meadows altars, all within 1000 metres of the world centre. Bring Flint-tier gear and three different foods, and clear the arena first, because wandering Greylings kill more players here than the boss does. The reason to fight it is the 3 Hard Antlers — they make the Antler Pickaxe, without which copper and tin are unreachable — and the Forsaken Power, which cuts stamina use for running, jumping and swimming by 60%. Hang the trophy at the Sacrificial Stones, or you do not get it.
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