The Elder

The Elder is the second Forsaken, a towering ancient treant rooted in the Black Forest. It is a ranged fight that rewards a bow and good cover, and its real prize is a key rather than a weapon. Beat it and you can open the Sunken Crypts that hold the Swamp’s iron, which is the next metal tier.

Where and when

The Elder lives in the Black Forest, the second biome, often close to spawn. You fight it after Eikthyr, once you have bronze gear and a decent bow. Summon it at its altar somewhere in the Black Forest.

How to summon

Offer 3 Ancient Seeds at the Elder’s altar. Ancient Seeds drop from Greydwarf Shamans and Brutes, and are also found in the Burial Chambers scattered through the Black Forest. Gather three, bring them to the altar, and place them.

How to fight it

The Elder is slow but hits hard. It stomps if you stand close, sends out homing vine shots, and summons roots to pin you. Treat it as a ranged fight: keep moving in a wide circle, use the stone pillars around the altar to block its vine attacks, and shoot it with fire arrows, which it is weak to. Bring plenty of arrows. Keep your distance, dodge the roots, and chip it down.

Clear the area before you summon. Greydwarves and the odd Troll will wander into the fight, and getting pinned by roots while a Troll closes in is how a winnable fight turns into a corpse run.

Drops and Forsaken Power

The Elder drops the Swamp Key, which opens the Sunken Crypts in the Swamp. Those crypts are where you mine iron, so the key is the progression-critical unlock. It also drops the Elder trophy. Hang the trophy on the Sacrificial Stones at the world spawn to activate its Forsaken Power: a 60 percent boost to tree-chopping, which speeds up every wood run from then on.

Next: Bonemass in the Swamp. For the whole run on one page, see the full-run progression cheatsheet.