Valheim boss guide: how to summon and defeat every big bad boss

Valheim bosses can be tough to deal with if you're not properly prepared. Thankfully, you have plenty of time to farm resources for gear and food to keep you healthy before you tackle these deadly denizens of the Viking afterlife. There are six different bosses, and each appears in a different biome of the procedurally-generated world. Each boss also requires various resources to summon them to battle and different strategies to defeat them.

Beating a Valheim boss will provide you with a loot drop that lets you progress further in the game, allowing you to access new resources so you can grow tough enough to take on the next boss. And destroying each boss also gives you a special new power you can activate to give you a better chance of surviving the open world.

If you're ready to test your Viking's combat prowess, here's what you need to know about the Valheim bosses, including what you need to summon them and which boss powers you'll receive from each.

Valheim boss order 

As you progress through the Viking afterlife, you'll discover new biomes, and you'll need to defeat the boss that rules over it to help you survive your journey to the next one. While it is technically possible to defeat some of these bosses out of order, you'll have a hard time surviving the biome they reside in if you haven't unlocked the resources available up to that point.

Here are the Valheim bosses in order:

• Eikthyr
• The Elder
• Bonemass
• Moder
• Yagluth
• The Queen

How to summon and defeat Eikthyr

Valheim Meadows boss: Eikthyr

• Need for summon: Two deer trophies
• Boss power: Reduces stamina cost of running and jumping
• Rewards: Hard antlers (used to craft pickaxe), Eikthyr trophy

Eikthyr is the first boss you can summon in your starting biome, the Meadows. He's an enormous stag with chains wrapped around his antlers. To summon Eikthyr, you'll need to place two deer trophies (from hunting deer) on Eikthyr's altar.

Eikthyr has three different attacks. From a distance it has a ranged electrical attack, shooting lighting from its antlers. Up close, it will rear up and stomp its front legs down for an area of effect electrical attack. It will also ram with its antlers as a melee attack.

Strategy

Despite Eikthyr's size, you can effectively block its attacks with a small wooden shield, so make sure you've crafted one. You can have a bow crafted to shoot it from a distance, but focus on blocking with your shield and striking it with a melee weapon like a flint spear or axe between its attacks. No need to chase him, conserve your stamina and let him come to you.

After defeating Eikthyr, hang his trophy on the sacrificial stone at your starting point in the world, which will grant you the Eikthyr power, a buff to your stamina while running and jumping.

How to summon and defeat The Elder

Valheim Black Forest boss: The Elder

• Need for summon: Three Ancient Seeds
• Boss power: Faster wood cutting
• Rewards: Swamp Key (unlocks crypts in the Swamp), Elder trophy

The Elder is Valheim's second boss. You can discover its location by interacting with rune stones in Burial Chambers found in the Black Forest.

Summon The Elder by using three Ancient Seeds. These can be found in drops from greydwarf brutes and greydwarf shamans, and by destroying Greydwarf nests. Burning three Ancient Seeds on The Elder's altar in the Black Forest will summon it.

The Elder has three attacks. In melee, it will stomp on players with an area of effect attack, which does damage even if he doesn't step directly on you. It also has a ranged attack where it shoots vines as projectiles. It can also summon vines from the ground around players, which will lash out and attack.

Strategy

With the pickaxe available after defeating Eikthyr, you should be doing a lot of mining and smelting before taking on The Elder. You'll want to be prepared with brass armor, a quality bow, lots of flame arrows, and healing potions if you've unlocked them. Fire damage is the best way to bring down The Elder, and it's going to take a lot of flaming arrows, possibly hundreds.

You can also try placing campfires in his summoning area, because he may step on them while chasing you and take extra burn damage. Once summoned, use the pillars in his summoning area to block incoming vine projectiles, and pop out to hit him with arrows. Relocate when he summons vines from the ground, and move out of their reach. Try to avoid kiting him too far into the woods, because you may aggro additional nearby greydwarf or troll enemies. You don't need that headache, so stay close to his altar during the battle.

When The Elder has been defeated, placing its trophy on the sacrificial stone will give you a power that increases your wood cutting speed.

Read more: Our full Valheim The Elder guide

How to summon and defeat Bonemass

Valheim Swamp boss: Bonemass

• Need for summon: Ten Withered Bones
• Boss power: Higher resistance to physical damage
• Rewards: Wishbone (used to find silver ore), Bonemass trophy

Bonemass is Valheim's third boss, and he can be found in the Swamp. To discover his location, interact with a runestone found in swamp crypts, which you can access with the swamp key you got from The Elder.

Swamp crypts will also contain withered bones. You'll need to find 10 withered bones to summon Bonemass at his altar.

Bonemass has three attacks. He has a melee strike he'll use up close. He also has a toxic vomit attack which fills the air around him and does severe poison damage if you're caught in it. His third attack is summoning, and he'll summon skeletons, blobs, and oozers to join the fight. 

Strategy

Even though this is the third boss of five, it may actually be the toughest fight in the game. Bonemass is highly resistant to all forms of damage except up-close blunt attacks and frost arrows at range (though even those aren't particularly effective). You'll want to use iron armor and blunt weapons like maces and hammers (like Stagbreaker) against him, staying close enough to connect while avoiding his attacks. Bonemass also heals during a fight, so you need to keep up the assault constantly. Even if the frost arrows don't do much damage, they'll interrupt his healing.

With the toxic attack doing so much damage, you'll want to have plenty of poison resistance mead with you, so you should unlock the cauldron and fermenter long before you think about tackling this boss. Frost arrows require visiting the Mountains biome to gather the obsidian and freeze glands, so you'll also need frost resistance mead to survive the cold.

After defeating Bonemass, placing his trophy on the sacrificial stone will grant you a power that increases your resistance to physical damage.

Read more: Our full Valheim Bonemass guide

How to summon and defeat Moder

Valheim Mountains boss: Moder

• Need for summon: Three Dragon Eggs
• Boss power: Always tailwind when sailing
• Rewards: Dragon Tears (unlocks black metal crafting), Moder trophy

Moder is the fourth boss in Valheim, a dragon (or wyvern) who can be summoned at the top of a mountain in the Mountain biome. To find Moder's location, investigate stone buildings in the mountains, and look for a runestone to interact with. 

To summon Moder, bring three dragon eggs to her altar. Valheim dragon eggs can be found in drake nests in the mountains (and they weigh 200 pounds each, by the way, so you'll only be able to carry one at a time unless you're playing with pals).

Moder has several attacks. On the ground, she will swipe with her front claws for a melee attack. She will also use blizzard breath, which will slow players' movement severely by freezing them if it hits. While flying, Moder can launch projectiles from her mouth that crystalize on impact.

Strategy

You'll need cold protection in the Mountain biome in general, and especially against Moder. Wolf armor, which can be crafted after hunting wolves and using the wishbone from Bonemass to find silver, will protect you from the cold. Making frost resistance mead is a good idea as well.

Most of Moder's attacks can be avoided if you're quick with your dodging. You can spot Moder preparing for a breath attack and get out of the way. Her melee attack is also easy to see coming. The main challenge here is that she's got a massive amount of hit points and takes a long time to bring down.

Attack from range with the best bow you've got and arrows that do damage over time, especially poison arrows. Keep out of melee range while on the ground, but stay close enough that you can reliably hit her with your arrows until you defeat her.

Placing the Moder Trophy on the sacrificial stone will give you a power you can use while sailing to keep the wind at your back no matter which direction you're headed.

How to summon and defeat Yagluth

Valheim Plains boss: Yagluth

• Need for summon: Five Fuling Totems
• Boss power: Magic and lightning damage reduction
• Rewards: Torn Spirit (used to craft a wisp fountain), Yagluth trophy

Yagluth is the fifth boss in Valheim. He's an enormous skeleton wearing a crown. Yagluth has no legs or lower body, so he crawls after you using his big skeletal hands.

Yagluth's location will be added to your map using a tablet found near stone structures in the Plains—search for an arrangement of boulders that look a bit like Stonehenge. He can be summoned by using five fuling totems. Fulings are goblin-like monsters found in the Plains, and fuling shamans will sometimes drop totems when killed.

Yagluth has two fist attacks, one that causes damage in a radius of the attack, and the other that summons a shower of meteors upon the area. Yagluth also has a breath attack that acts like a flamethrower with a long range that sweeps the line of fire across a wide area.

Strategy

Before you fight Yagluth, make sure you're equipped with the best black metal gear and armor possible, with plenty of food and healing potions. That said, as a boss, he's pretty slow. He telegraphs his attacks fairly obviously, rearing his head back before using his fire breath. His hand will glow blue before using his fist smash and orange before summoning meteor strikes. Just keep your eyes open so you know what's coming next.

As with some of the other bosses, it's best to keep your distance and attack with bows at range, though if you're playing co-op and Yagluth is focused on another player, it's a great time to rush in for melee damage. The most effective arrows to use are frost arrows.

The torn spirits that Yagluth drops are used to craft a wisp fountain, which you'll need to build if you want to explore the next, newest biome: Mistlands. Placing Yagluth's trophy on the sacrificial stone will give you a power that reduces damage from elemental attacks like fire, frost, and poison.

How to summon and defeat The Queen

Valheim Mistlands boss: The Queen

• Need for summon: Sealbreaker Key (first time), three Seeker soldier trophies
• Boss power: Faster mining and increased Eitr regeneration
• Rewards: "Queen drop", Queen trophy

The Queen is the sixth boss of Valheim. She's an enormous insect found in her Mistlands lair with her brood of insect babies. Like Yagluth's formerly unnamed drop, the "Queen drop" item you win from her will likely have its true name and purpose revealed in a later game update, so stash it safely in your base for now.

Locating the Queen is a bit trickier than most other Valheim bosses, as her boss marker isn't just hanging around out in the world like it is with Yagluth or Moder. Like Bonemass, you'll need to find her marker by going underground to explore infested mines of the Mistlands. Then you'll need to unlock her fort with a special crafted sealbreaker key. You can find a full explanation on seeking her out in our Queen guide below.

The Queen's lair is full of mist and her smaller seeker brood insects that will hatch and attack you throughout the fight. Unlike her large size would suggest, the Queen lunges fast, so be on your toes when you unlock her home.

Strategy

You'll need a bit of gear prep to fight The Queen. For starters, you definitely need a wisplight to bring along with you. You'll also likely want a feather cape. Although the Queen is frighteningly quick, she does have to use the stairwells to get around her lair while you can jump down between levels with a cape that protects your fall.

Read more: Our full Valheim Queen guide