Elder and Bonemass taught me that preparation goes a very long way in a boss fight. Not only in making sure I am ready, but that the world itself is ready. Boss fights in Valheim are really attrition rather than tactics. Do you have the stamina/hp to survive a drawn out fight, and one that likely will other enemies join in.

Prep work focused on a few areas:

• Making sure all my gear is prepared and that the items I will use are relatively well upgraded.
  • Base frost armor is 20, and every increment add 2. Aside from Golems, the damage in the mountains is manageable, rank 1 for me.
  • The Draugr Fang bow deals pierce/poison damage. The damage increase is 3/5, which isn’t a whole lot. But the durability increases are massive (100/150/200/250). Rank 3 for me.
  • The Silver Shield has strong block power (75/80/85) which is incredibly powerful. Rank 2 at least.
• Making sure I have consumables!
  • 6 medium healing potions. These things have long cooldowns, so you want it to be BIG when you do use it.
  • 3x meat based foods. I don’t have Lox yet, so it’s sausages, cooked meat, and cooked neck for me.
  • 200 poison arrows. Same cost as obsidian arrows + 2 ooze (from slimes) per craft. Poison seems small, but it’s always active. It’ll probably be 20% of your total damage on a long fight.
  • Probably a good idea to use Bonemass’ power for any boss fight. It allows for you to make mistakes at the start.
• Making sure the world is ready
  • My portal cabin is close, without being too close. This makes sure I can run away if needed, but far enough that the boss wont accidentally crush it
  • I clear the general area around the boss summon so the ground is relatively flat (pickaxe + hoe) This includes trees.
  • Do not, ever, fight while Wet or without the Rested bonus. The stamina regen penalty will kill you.
  • Get a good night’s rest so you have a full day of sunlight. Night creatures as super deadly.

The Fight

3 eggs (200kg each!!) and then an extra click to summon Moder. It’s clear from the altar that she’s a drake, and sure enough she spawns in the air. By this point, you’ve probably killed a few dozen drakes and Moder is just a steroid version. She gets extremely close to you and shoots large ice bombs that will leave residue on the ground. Getting hit by one is close to 60 damage, so you want to avoid it as much as possible.

She generally shoots 2 times in the air, then comes down for some melee bits. This part seems buggy to me, as she both moves extremely slowly, and isn’t aggressive if you keep your distance. Golems chase you more. Anyhow, she has 2 other attacks here – one is a very (very) long-reach melee attack, and the second is a straight cold beam she shoots from her jaws. The swipe hits really hard, and the beam has a sort of ticking damage depending on how long you’re standing there.

From this, it should be pretty clear that you should not be in melee range with Moder.

With trusty bow in hand, I shot arrow after arrow into this dragon’s hide. While Moder is certainly LARGE, arrows have physics applied to them, so you really need to plan the shots in order to not waste stamina shooting into the air. I fully expected some Drake to show (they always show elsewhere), or some wolves… heck, there were no nearby golems either. Nothing though, so it was just me vs the dragon, and in any 1 vs 1 setting in Valheim, that is a massive advantage to you.

12 minutes later, Moder dropped. In mid-flight, from a poison tick no less.

After having taken down Bonemass, I have to say that Moder was a mile easier. The pathfinding portion certainly helps, but without a near permanent DoT and tons of adds, this is only slightly harder than the Elder. Now that I have some Dragon Tears I can make an Artisan Table. First though…

It is hard to describe the feeling of accomplishment (EA could learn something!) when looking at these altars. Looking at Elkthyr, it’s a great reminder of how far I’ve come in this world.

Next up – creating a new settlement.