Eikthyr

0:00 Eikthyr is the first of the Forsaken, the boss creatures of Valheim, and the only one that lives in the Meadows. He is a giant stag with antlers of glowing iron and lightning crackling between them, summoned at a ring of standing stones by an offering of two Deer Trophies. With 500 health and three slow, well-telegraphed attacks he is designed as a tutorial fight, but he gates the whole game: his Hard Antlers are the only source of the Antler Pickaxe, without which no ore can be mined in the Black Forest, and his trophy unlocks the first of the Forsaken Powers.

Quick facts

Name and lore

The name comes from Eikþyrnir, the stag of Norse mythology that stands on the roof of Valhalla and eats from the tree Læraðr; in the Grímnismál and Snorri's Prose Edda the water dripping from his antlers feeds the spring Hvergelmir, source of all rivers (Eikþyrnir, Wikipedia). The game keeps the stag but makes him a hostile spirit bound to Odin's purgatory, one of the enemies of the gods that the player is sent to Valheim to kill (Lore and Setting).

His stone at the Sacrificial Stones, the smallest of the ring, carries the verse that describes him: "His antlers are branches of iron / They crack the rocks and bring down mountains / His hooves are the sound of thunder / His voice a howling gale" (Sacrificial Stones, Valheim Wiki). The "branches of iron" line is literal: the antler attack carries 1,000 chop and 1,000 pickaxe damage, so a swing that misses the player flattens trees and boulders around the altar (Eikthyr, Valheim Wiki).

Finding the altar

0:16 Every world starts with a Vegvisir, a small glowing runestone among the Sacrificial Stones at the center of the map. Reading it marks the nearest Eikthyr altar with a map pin. The altar itself is a circle of standing stones with a rack of hooks at its center, always in the Meadows and usually within a few hundred meters of spawn (Getting Started, World Map, Generation and Seeds). The wiki calls it a Forsaken Altar; the Physgun boss checklist gives its in-game name as the Eikthyrnir altar (Physgun).

Summoning

Deer are the offering. They are skittish 10-HP animals that flee at the first sound and drop a Deer Trophy 50 per cent of the time (Deer trophy, Valheim Wiki), so two trophies usually means four or five kills with a Crude Bow, a Flint Spear or a well-placed boulder (Meadows and Black Forest Creatures). Placing both trophies on the hooks starts the summoning.

1:22 After the sacrifice, motes of light gather to a single point in front of the altar and the stag materializes there in a burst of lightning.

The fight

0:26 Eikthyr has three attacks, each with a clear tell. He lowers his head before the antler swing, a horizontal arc in front of him; he rears back on his hind legs before the charge, a fan of lightning that reaches 20 meters; and he stands fully upright before the stomp, a lightning shockwave that covers a 10-meter circle around him (Eikthyr, Valheim Wiki).

Source: Eikthyr, Valheim Wiki.

1:23 The lightning matters more than the numbers suggest: it fills the stagger bar as physical damage does, so a Viking who eats a charge and then a stomp can be staggered and take double damage from the next hit (Combat). Sidestepping the charge and leaving the stomp circle avoids almost all of it; the antler swing can simply be blocked.

Source: Eikthyr, Valheim Wiki.

Preparation and strategy

0:42 The standard Meadows kit is enough: Leather armor, a Wood Shield, a Crude Bow with fifty to a hundred Flint or Fire Arrows, and three foods such as Cooked Deer Meat, Cooked Boar Meat and Honey (Armor and Capes, Bows, Crossbows and Arrows, Food and Cooking). Being rested adds regeneration (Rested, Comfort and Sleeping). Because Eikthyr has no resistances, whichever weapon has the highest raw damage is the right one (Physgun).

0:54 Melee players block or parry the antler swing with a wooden shield, which stops almost all of his damage, and attack from his flank while he turns. Archers stay outside the 10-meter stomp and the charge cone, circling and shooting whenever there is stamina to spare, the safest route for a first-time player (Weapons and Shields). Fighting by day, after clearing nearby Greylings and boars, keeps the arena from filling with extra enemies.

1:16 The fastest method is the speedrunners' campfire kill. Fires placed under the boss as he spawns burn him continuously, and because he keeps turning to face a player who circles him he never leaves the flames; a ring of five or six campfires ends the fight in seconds. The technique underpins the "Level: Eikthyr" category on speedrun.com (Valheim leaderboard).

Drops and the Antler Pickaxe

2:37 Eikthyr drops one Eikthyr Trophy and three Hard Antler (Physgun). The trophy's description reads "This severed head oozes power. Offer it to the Sacrificial Stones" (Trophies, Valheim Wiki). Hard Antler has a single recipe, but it is the one that opens the rest of the game.

1:07 The Antler Pickaxe is crafted at a level 1 Workbench from 10 Wood and 1 Hard Antler. With 18 pickaxe damage and 100 durability it is the weakest pickaxe in the game, but it mines stone, Copper and Tin, the Muddy Scrap Piles that hold iron in the Swamp, and Abyssal Barnacles, and it can be repaired at any level 1 Workbench (Antler pickaxe, Valheim Wiki). Its one hard limit is Silver, which needs an Iron Pickaxe (Tools, Metals and Smelting). It is possible, though slow, to skip the boss by letting a troll smash copper nodes.

Sources: Antler pickaxe and Hard antler, Valheim Wiki.

Forsaken Power

6:31 Hanging the trophy on Eikthyr's stone at spawn and interacting with it grants Eikthyr's power, the first of the boss powers that a Viking can carry. Like all of them it is activated with the power key (F on PC), lasts five minutes, shares a 20-minute cooldown with every other power, and applies to every player within 10 meters of the one who activates it (Forsaken power, Valheim Wiki). Its in-game text reads "The grace of the mighty stag flows through you. Your ability to move around is improved, be it on land or in water."

6:41 For most of early access the effect was a 60 per cent reduction in the stamina cost of running and jumping. That already made it the power most players kept equipped through the Black Forest and Swamp, since it stretches every sprint and lets a Viking bunny-hop across terrain and away from trouble (Death and Corpse Runs).

14:22 The Call to Arms Update rebalanced all seven powers to fit its new adrenaline system, and Eikthyr's was the only one not touched in its existing numbers: the patch notes list it as "60% reduced stamina usage for running, jumping, and swimming", adding swimming to the old pair (Patch 0.221.4 – Call To Arms, Steam news; Game Rant patch notes). The change reached the public-test branch as patch 0.221.3 on Aug 20, 2025 and went live as 0.221.4 on Sep 9, 2025. Valheim 1.0 did not alter it (Valheim 1.0 Release).

Sources: Physgun boss checklist; Forsaken power, Valheim Wiki.

After Eikthyr

5:38 Eikthyr's death changes the world. The first raid, "Eikthyr rallies the creatures of the forest", which sends two boars and two necks against any base of at least three structures for 90 seconds, is retired from the raid pool, and the Greydwarf raid "The forest is moving..." takes its place; Greydwarfs also begin to spawn in the Meadows at night (Eikthyr, Valheim Wiki; Raids and Events). The next objective is The Elder in the Black Forest, whose altar is marked by a Vegvisir found in Burial Chambers.

Since the 1.0 release on Sep 9, 2026 killing him also unlocks the Steam achievement "Eikthyr – Defeat the Lightning Stag" (Game8 achievement list). Iron Gate's FAQ uses him as the example of how the new system works: statistics are tracked only from the moment 1.0 is installed, so "an achievement connected to killing Eikthyr, for example, will require you to kill Eikthyr again, even if you've already killed him 500 times previously" (Valheim 1.0 FAQ). Spawning him with console commands flags the world as cheated and blocks achievements (Console Commands, Cheats and Mods).

Frequently asked questions

How do you summon Eikthyr? Place two Deer Trophies on the hooks at his altar, the ring of standing stones in the Meadows marked by the Vegvisir among the Sacrificial Stones. Deer drop a trophy half the time, so two usually means four or five kills.

How much health does Eikthyr have? 500, with no resistances of any kind, so whichever weapon has the highest raw damage is the right one. He is immune to stagger.

What does Eikthyr drop? One Eikthyr Trophy and three Hard Antler. The antler makes the Antler Pickaxe at a level 1 Workbench, and the trophy hung on his stone unlocks the first of the Forsaken Powers.

What is Eikthyr's power? A 60 per cent cut in the stamina cost of running, jumping and swimming, lasting five minutes on a twenty-minute cooldown shared with every other power. Swimming was added by the Call to Arms Update in September 2025.

Can you skip Eikthyr? Only awkwardly. The Antler Pickaxe is the only way to mine ore, but a troll lured onto copper nodes will smash them open, which is slow. Spawning him with console commands flags the world as cheated and blocks achievements.

Sources

• Eikthyr, Valheim Wiki (weirdgloop)
• Forsaken power, Valheim Wiki (weirdgloop)
• Antler pickaxe, Valheim Wiki (weirdgloop)
• Hard antler, Valheim Wiki (weirdgloop)
• Deer trophy, Valheim Wiki (weirdgloop)
• Sacrificial Stones, Valheim Wiki (weirdgloop)
• Valheim boss checklist, Physgun
• Patch 0.221.4 – Call To Arms, Iron Gate Studio (Steam news)
• Patch 0.221.3 – Call To Arms (Public Test), Iron Gate Studio (Steam news)
• Valheim August 2025 update patch notes, Game Rant
• Valheim 1.0 FAQ, Iron Gate Studio
• All Achievements, Valheim 1.0, Game8
• Valheim leaderboard, speedrun.com
• Eikþyrnir, Wikipedia