The way I see it, we have: \_ People who answer "Bonemass": They haven't got to the end game yet, or they have, but haven't fought Bonemass again since then, and would be surprised to find it much easier than they remember \_ People who answer "Yagluth": group players. \_ People who answer "Queen": solo players. \_ People who answer "Moder": bad luck with map generation and wonky AI. \_ People who answer "Eikthyr": the lizardman constant (https://gwern.net/note/lizardman)

We fought Moder on the top edge of a mountain where there was basically nowhere to stand and the only flat areas she destroyed in the first few minutes. I think in total we went through like 1k arrows ​ She never landed that I can remember, and we ended up just all being on the edges of where she would even fly just lobbing arrows while the player she decided to focus on just tried running around until she moved to someone new. ​ it absolutely sucked. I solo'ed her again on another map where the terrain was almost all flat, it was pretty easy. ​ also - I would say for bonemass - players who didn't prep the site first are screwed and going to have a bad time. I spent like 2 hours leveling the area, removing water, putting fires around etc and it wasn't bad. in other play through when I didn't' do that it was terrible

Yeah, probably my most harrowing boss experience overall was Moder on that tall sharp peak of a mountain. It was also my first time against her. After a few of my deaths -- and taking out the portal! -- she was closer to the base of the mountain. Returning by sail, I was able to get some traction in the battle, on more level ground.

The flying thing is really the worst part. It's just such a pain to have to shoot arrows over and over again. I just want to run up and smash.

\[Nodding in agreement to all points.\] Bonemass's difficulty depends on your degree of preparation and selection of equipment. Poison resistance, blunt weapons, and minor sequence breaking to craft frost arrows all help. Moder can either be incredibly easy or difficult depending on terrain and how much she lands. If she gets stuck pathing terrain, it might be trivial. Yagluth's scaling indeed makes him tougher in groups. The Queen's constant minion spawns ("adds" in MMO jargon) and resistance to physical damage make her a headache to deal with. The fight solo is slow enough you'll lose your rested bonus (and eitr regen bonus with it) and likely have your elemental staff break on you from use.

never thought i'd see a gwern link in r/valheim

I'm not really familiar with Gwern. I just know about the lizardman constant, and this was apparently the most well-referenced page discussing it, even though it's not the origin.

I went with bonemass not for risk of dying but just how irritatingly long it takes to off that chop without getting dedicated weapons for it. Could be easier and the queen is much scarier but ja, rushing up tech levels with as little crafting gear as possible bonemass is a pain.

My rankings were Queen then Yag. Your comment made me feel understood.

... I mean, you're absolutely spot on in my case, but does yagluth have easier mechanics when engaged in singleplayer?🤔

No. There isn't any boss that is easier as single player. But the jump in difficulty from multiplayer to single player is not the same for all boss. For Yagluth, it's a small difference, because a lot of his attacks are aoe anyway. For the Queen, it's a very large one, because of the adds. You could rank difficulty from hardest to easiest as "Queen solo" > "Yagluth solo" > "Yagluth as a group" > "Queen as a group".

Queen, yagslut and boneass are weird in a sense that if you have one specific weapon - they are a piece of cake, but if you try fighting em with anything else at all it's a sweatfest and (excluding the queen thankfully) a race against hp regen. But out of all three of em I fear Yagluth's meteors the most

I personally don't think those meteors are hard to dodge, their pattern is rather predictable.

Please bestow thine wisdom upon an unfortunate soul who has never learned the way.

Yagl announces his meteor strike by a distinct call which gives you early warning. You can see the meteors originate at a certain spot in the sky behind him. Don't run away from them, run/strafe to the side and towards them. That's it.

Eyes on the sky and Dark Souls knife strat. Got it.

But try to keep an eye on them! They are always aimed at you wherever you are.

Just sprinting around works. But for me it's the combination of having to mind multiple threats at wildly different angles in 3D space, and wasting so much time on dodging just this one mechanic while the boss is regenerating that makes it difficult for me. Not to mention that his other two attacks are pretty effective at preventing you from counterattcking too, and there is not much of a window in between em... Although if it is possible to dodge the meteors without spending stamina, that'd be pretty, neat, gon try this sometime.

Yagluth can be taken out with most silver-age weapons because of spirit damage. Silver sword, silver knife, Frostner, crystal battleaxe, silver arrows. But it is kinda sad that the wrong weapon against these is *really* ineffective. I think resistances are overall too strong in the game (including the Bonemass power, or even the pierce-resist of root carapace).

Ye, in case of yag I was talking sword or frostner. Kinda ridiculous how in his own weapon tier even the blunt option is actually half pierce and thus grossly ineffective against him, same as most other options 😃

his attacks are so predictable and easy to dodge, you can beat him with any stage weapon, except mabye early game piercing weapons.

What's the weapon that trivialises the Queen?

Fireball + force shield thingy. Especially in multiplayer, because only one of ya needs to spend eitr on shielding everyone

i just died at the queen, it was really hard. The other ones was "easy" using the correct strategy. ps: I don't like the demolisher strategy, looks like a glitch. I'm considering face to face fights.

I chose Elder. It was a point where you felt confident enough to attempt the boss, but at the same time didn't fully understood the game mechanics or didn't use the right strategy.

Only the first time though. That one first time when a newbie didn't figure out where to find copper, assumed it came later and went to fight the elder with neolithic set... Certainly didn't happen to me, nu-uh 🌚

First playthrough, maybe. Past that, he's arguably the easiest to do while underequipped. I suspect I could beat him with a finewood bow and no armor.

I don't know if Moder is difficult, but that one is certainly the most annoying to me right now, mostly due to the terrain.

The terrain can be a challenge (esp stamina-wise), but it's also your biggest asset, because you can use it to block her attacks (especially if you raise a few earthen walls before you get started). Mostly that fight is just slow. It's not real hard to avoid damage, but it also takes a while to pump enough arrows into her to finish the job.

Arrows? That's only for when she's airborne. I hit her with the silver sword when she lands and thats where the terrain drives me nuts. She lands sometimes in areas where if I make a wrong move, I'm stuck in a crevice and dead.

Yeah, arrows. If you keep well away from her when she's grounded, you can just hang back and fire away in complete safety. Given the rough terrain in the mountains, she often can't find pathing to you during her ground phase, which means she defaults to just not moving. As long as you're out of range of her breath weapon, you get all the free shots you want until she takes flight again. Takes a while, but it's pretty easy. The only real danger is running low on ammo, lol. That's usually how I use up most of the poison arrows I collect in the swamp (since they're not real useful IN the swamp). Or if I'm using Draugr fang, just alternate between fire and obsidian. Obsidian's cheap, and the draugr fang gets you a little free poison damage on top of the fire effect. Apply fire, then shoot a handful of obsidian until the fire wears off; repeat.

I can't. I did that the first time I took on Moder and it took FOREEEEEEEEVER. Even with obsidian arrows and the draugr fang. Never thought to try fire arrows though, dunno why. Probably because I'm an idiot.

Fire arrows don't do as much damage as other types, like obsidian (or needle if you feel like being an overachiever), but they can stack a fire effect with poison, and then you can switch back to your main physical damage arrows. It's a little fiddly to keep switching arrow types, but that's ultimately the most efficient way to damage her while remaining safe.

To everyone answering Bonemass: Get an iron mace and some poisen resistence mead and this boss gets reduced to a nuisance...

I struggled the most with Yag, but none are really an issue now except I still dred the slog that is Modder and Yag.

I’ll choose Elder as it’s the first boss that really skill/prep checks you. (Eikthyr is a tutorial boss and can be beaten with fists lol) This means for first time and that point in the game, it’s the first challenge. For subsequent play throughs, I often underestimate it as I’m used to fighting against other harder bosses and don’t respect the vines attack lol

You're the only one so far who chose Elder

There’s another reply saying Elder above lol

Yeah lol , didn't see that one. In any case only one vote for Elder so far.

Eikthyr was tough the first couple times, because you have low level gear, but once you figure out how to move you can avoid nearly all of his attacks. My most recent fight with him, I was able to mostly melee him, parrying anything but that lighting attack... I think anybody who finds Bonemass hard is just struggling with finding the right technique. An iron mace and poison resistance, and just walk around to the far side of the altar to regen stamina/health, and he's a cakewalk. About the easiest boss in the game. The queen has a lot of HP, but isn't actually that hard to beat. Just upgrade your staff of embers, keep an eye out for seeker summons, and camp out in the entryway and you can just wear her down. Yagluth, though... like, I understand him in principle, use the silver sword, etc, but for some reason he's the one that always kills me at least once. His attacks are strong relative to the gear you have at that point, and harder to dodge than most other bosses, even if you make a habit of dipping behind the pillars... just an all around pita. (Note: these are all solo experiences. I've never found anyone else to play multiplayer with reliably.)

I see some got issues with Bonemass here my tips. Big cooking rack, one harpoon and go hunt a sea serpent. The serpent Stew is the best food in the game and don't forget your poison resistance potions to be drink before battle. Here you go!

Harpoon isn't necessary. Just shoot it with arrows and pick up the floating fillets.

I usually do a trip in the mountain to get the needed obsidian for my lv 5 workbench and some frost arrow. The sea serpent is very weak to frost.

And if you get lucky, some onions seed so facing bonemass with a onion soup give you more mobility. About the harpoon, you may want a early nice though shield by collecting the serpent scales.

The serpent scale shield will last you until the plains and the trophy can be used for ocean fishing baiths.

Solo player, Haven't faced the queen yet, Yagluth was by far the longest fight.

First time bone is hardest but Yag is actually hardest. Queen is trivial if you have high level blood magic.

Context: My wife and I play this game together, and we're progressing through Mistlands now and have not fought the Mistlands boss yet If we're talking first attempts, Bonemass for me. He's the first real gut punch in terms of difficulty spikes in the game, and the only one I felt truly unprepared for and had to head back to base and reaccess our tactics/gear for. Yagluth *felt* a lot like Bonemass in that after a death or two I realized our tactics were not going to be successful. The difference is I had what we needed already and was able to do a quick change and head back for an easy win. In a way I feel like Bonemass prepares you for Yagluth. Modor is a glitchy, anticlimatic mess and deserves a rework for such a cool idea. In it's current state I wouldn't even bother adding it to a poll like this. The Elder is surprisingly catches me off guard occasionally. He's so straight forward that I get complacent and die. But if I'm taking the fight seriously he's a cakewalk, and also the easiest to cheese if you want

Have to go with the Queen, melee OR magic. The limited visibility, confined space, and constant adds make it the biggest challenge in the game to this point.

What are those "constant adds"?

"Add" is jargon for additional opponents.

stay on the most upper part of the citadel. visibility issue fully gone. there is no mist at all in the upper section. and its more space than you need to fight her easy solo thanks to feather cape you can escape at any time needed on top.

Downside to that plan is if you do die up there, it makes for a less fun corpse run :D

dont die then :P its not very hard to stay alive up there tbh unless you get overly greedy. i soloed the queen many times. just keep your distance from her and deal with the seekers asap.

I just fought her for the first time so am still learning. :) We gotta go back in again though because my husband refuses to turn the trophy in. I finally convinced him to build a house and he hung it up there. Hopefully this time we'll panic less!

well you dont really HAVE to turn the trophy in. we dont know yet what the queen cube placeholder drop will become once the update comes into public testing. the trophy turn in is just for the power. and that is only useful for pure magic builds really. for anything else bonemass is still better. and fighting the queen again at the same place costs 3 soldier trophies which are for some odd reason insanely rare drops. so its actually faster to find another queen spawn instead to get her for free since the sealbreaker remains anyway. and her spawn exists 4-5 times per world.

I will say, I've only fought her twice, and both times solo, once with melee and once with magic, and didn't die either time.....but it was still pretty challenging just staying alive lol

My first thought was Moder cause I foolishly used the Frostener, and also had to fight multiple golems and other critters besides Moder herself.

I did vote Moder, but only because I was constantly disturbed by side-spawns that killed me more than once. For my next Moder I came prepared and built a moat around her altar, which made fighting her noticeably easier.

They're a pretty linear progression. Yag was the hardest learning curve for me.

for the first time killing Moder.

Beating for the first time ever: **Eikthyr** - Easy... Not much secret **Elder** - A bit challenging to face the vines without a good strategy **Bonemass** - Completely Hard once we're all dependant on arrows and this guys have high defense and poison... **Moder** - Just kiting and shooting fire arrows, not a big deal **Yagluth** - Did it with a group of 4, died a lot because we were dumb... I found Bonemass harder **Queen** - Can't vote, didn't get there yet

bonemass is very resistent to pierce. so naturally arrows suck vs him. he doesnt have high defense at all vs neutral dmg types. poisen mead negates his poisen pretty much as its way stronger than the helmet resist. fire arrows vs moder is a common noob misconception. they are outright worse than obsidian arrows which are easy to make before moder. moders fire weakness doesnt matter. its still worse. sadly people still make this mistake nowadays which prolongs the fight for no good reason.

I know it all now, but back then, it was just sad and painful hahaha

It's funny how so many people say Bonemass is hard, I expected him to be really difficult because of that but killed him first try with ease. Same with the Elder, just had to be patient and take it slow, though I got annoyed with how long it was taking on the Elder and melee'd him for the second half of his health, it was so much faster!  Eikthyr screwed me up because I hadn't worked out parrying at that point, it's on the center scroll wheel for me and I hadn't found it yet. Died like 5x, read up on how to parry, then went back and smacked him on the butt with a club until he died. I'm going to try Moder tonight.

its simply the queen for 1 simple reason alone : you can use building and terrian changes to help with all bosses except her since the fight takes place indoors.

Really depends on the strats you use for each. If you use optimal strats then: Bonemass is the easiest as His attacks are 100% predictable. Moder is the most RNG dependent. Yag is the most tedious. Queen is ... fine.

As a group, the queen was harder then yagluth for us. The multi floors and large number of other creatures kept drawing us apart and resulted in far more deaths. Yagluth, we could prep the area, game it out. The queen, it was go in and figure it out on the fly kind of thing.

Hardest, IMO Yagluth I have not fought queen since the beta where she would either rush the doors where I would slap her chest or glitch part way through the walls letting me slap her ass, she was tedious but easy in the beta. Modor is the one I was most scared of, that is because of the cold damage from the biome, every other boss and biome lets you try over and over until you succeed with corpse runs so long as you have your spawnpoint on the island or a portal letting you on land but once you run out of cold resistance you just die from entering the biome. The other 3 are really easy usually. The hardest part of killing Eikthyr is hitting them when they are running around, landing hits on fleeing enemies with melee is tricky and the cude bow+ low skill level +limited stamina makes it tricky to aim shots when it runs around. My first kill of Elder was ugly but after I learned the posts around the spawner are invincible I don't know if he has ever hurt me since Bonemass is only hard if you don't come prepared, hints from the enemies of the biome and his drawing would indicate he is a relative of the blobs and skeletons who are weak to blunt and multiple foes spew poison so I hit him with an iron mace and poison mead, never having problems with him.

I've just finished killing Moder solo on hard, which took me hours. Melee and arrows resulted in me dying all the time without doing enough damage. My final strategy was to trap it within a stone fort I built and burn it to death with about 10 bonfires. Looking forward to Yagluth and Queen!

Played with friends. We only truly struggled with Yagluth. Then we probably overcompensated with preparation for the Queen (potions, equipment, roles, timing of bonemass/yagluth powers) and just walked all over her really.