Valheim Eikthyr
Valheim Eikthyr

If you’ve played or seen Valheim, you may have heard of Eikthyr, the intimidating Stag boss with chains and lightning bolts, you must face them before you get past the starting biome. If caught off guard, it’s easy to kill yourself – but after reading our battle guide, you’ll have the knowledge to find, summon, and defeat the first of the Forsaken.

Valheim Eikthyr location

Eikthyr is the first boss you meet in Valheim. Each leader must be summoned to use their specific type of mystery altar, and the only way to find out the location of such altars is to interact with the Vegvisir runestones, those little glowing red stones that are often found near structures made by the man on the map.

With Eikthyr, though, you don’t have to go searching. The Vegvisir of Eikthyr is always at spawn, and forms part of the circle of stones that represents the Forsaken at the center of the world. Simply interact with this little red runestone and a map marker will be placed on the mysterious altar of Eikthyr.

How to summon Eikthyr in Valheim

To summon Eikthyr, you need to find the altar and place 2 deer trophies on it. To do this, you can place Deer trophies on the hotbar and then use the corresponding number keys while pointing the cursor at the altar. Deer trophies are obtained by hunting and killing deer in the grass, the deer is the starting biome of Valheim.

This is not a descent guarantee so you may need to kill more than two deer to get two deer trophies. More elite deer (with 1 or 2 stars next to their health bar) are more likely to drop the deer trophy. Once you have 2 such deer trophies, place them on the mystery altar to summon Axel. After a few seconds, Eikthyr will appear and the boss fight will begin.

Eikthyr boss fight walkthrough

If you are not ready for Eikthyr then the boss will walk by your side, but if you are ready this is actually a very simple battle. I suggest you wait until you have flint spears and shields, round or tower-shaped things, it doesn’t matter. You also want to have as much health and stamina as possible, so eat some cooked meat, a Grilled Neck Tail, and mushrooms before taking Eikthyr.

And in case you do get hit, it is better to wear leather armor. As for how to beat Axel, this is really very easy. It has 3 attacks: a hit to the head and two lightning attacks, one is cone-shaped and the other is a circle around it. You can hit these three weapons simply by blocking them with a shield.

The key to easy combat is to block all attacks. Therefore, do not try too eagerly and prick more thorns with a spear, than you have time for. Play safe and don’t let your stamina drop to zero. Block, stab, shoot and repeat until Eikthyr explodes into a pile of loot.

How to mount Eikthyr Trophy

Two things fall in the death of Eikthyr. The first is his head: the Eikthyr trophy. Return it to the foundation stone at spawning time and hang it from the hook. Then interact with the stone to obtain the first power of the Forsaken in Valheim.

If having trouble using the Eikthyr Trophy: interact specifically with the hook on the stone in order to mount the trophy!

Forsaken Powers are abilities that you can use whenever they are off cooldown. Each forgotten power can be activated every twenty minutes and lasts for 5 minutes after activation. Eiktyhr’s Forsaken Power is particularly useful: when activated, the stamina consumed during running and jumping is reduced by 60%.

Another very important item dropped is a small pile of hard antlers. These unique materials are what you need to make your first pickaxe, so don’t lose them!