Eikthyr

Eikthyr is the first of the Forsaken, a lightning stag and the gate between your starting tools and the rest of the game. The fight is really a combat tutorial: it teaches you to move, punish, and parry against an enemy that cannot kill a prepared player. Win it and you can mine copper, which is the start of every metal tier that follows.

Where and when

Eikthyr lives in the Meadows, the starting biome and the safest one. It is the first boss in the intended order, fought once you have flint gear, a bow, and a stocked base. You summon it at a Mystical Altar somewhere in the Meadows. Hugin will usually point you toward an altar early on.

How to summon

Offer 2 Deer Trophies at the Mystical Altar. Deer roam the Meadows and drop the trophies as a chance off a kill, so hunt a few until you have the pair. Bring the trophies to the altar and place them to start the fight.

How to fight it

This is a melee tutorial. Eikthyr charges, throws a ranged lightning attack, and does a stomp. Keep moving, punish after its attacks, and use terrain and trees to break line of sight on the lightning. A Flint spear or the Stagbreaker both work well at this tier. Learning to parry here pays off for the entire game.

Never fight Eikthyr without three fresh foods and the Rested buff. Stand near a fire with a little furniture to earn Rested, eat your three best foods, then summon. This habit prevents most boss-fight corpse runs.

Drops and Forsaken Power

Eikthyr drops the Hard Antler, which you craft into the Antler Pickaxe. That pickaxe is the only way to mine the copper waiting in the Black Forest, so it is the progression-critical unlock here. It also drops the Eikthyr trophy. Hang the trophy on the Sacrificial Stones at the world spawn to activate its Forsaken Power: a 60 percent reduction in stamina drain from running and jumping, the best traversal power in the early game.

Next: The Elder in the Black Forest. For the whole run on one page, see the full-run progression cheatsheet.