Valheim doesn't hand you a quest log or a map marker telling you where to go next. Instead, the whole game is built around a hidden ladder: seven bosses — the game calls them the Forsaken — each locked behind a biome, each dropping the material that unlocks the tier of gear you need to survive the next biome. Learn that order and Valheim stops feeling random and starts feeling like a plan.
This guide lists every Valheim boss in the correct order, what you need to summon each one, how much health it has, the permanent power it grants, and how the progression actually works. Everything here applies to the current Default branch, patch 0.221.12 (released 2026-02-19). We'll also cover the eighth boss arriving with the Deep North at the game's 1.0 launch on September 9, 2026.
Quick answer: The Valheim boss order is Eikthyr → The Elder → Bonemass → Moder → Yagluth → The Queen → Fader. That's seven bosses across seven biomes, from the starting Meadows to the volcanic Ashlands. Each boss you defeat unlocks the next crafting tier and grants a Forsaken Power you can toggle on. An eighth boss ships with the Deep North biome at 1.0 on September 9, 2026.
The Valheim boss order at a glance
Here is the full list, in order, with the summoning offering, boss health, and the Forsaken Power each one grants. All values are verified against the Valheim Wiki and current as of patch 0.221.12.
| # | Biome | Boss (the Forsaken) | Summon offering | Boss HP | Forsaken Power |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Meadows | Eikthyr | 2 × Deer trophy | 500 | −60% stamina cost for run, jump & swim |
| 2 | Black Forest | The Elder | 3 × Ancient seed | 2,500 | +60% chop & pickaxe damage, +30% health regen |
| 3 | Swamp | Bonemass | 10 × Withered bone | 5,000 | −25% physical damage taken, −100% block stamina cost, +5 stamina per block |
| 4 | Mountain | Moder | 3 × Dragon egg | 7,500 | Constant sailing tailwind, +300 carry weight, +10% move speed, −50% frost damage |
| 5 | Plains | Yagluth | 5 × Fuling totem | 10,000 | −50% lightning damage, +25 Farming skill, +10% damage |
| 6 | Mistlands | The Queen | Sealbreaker (or 3 × Seeker soldier trophy) | 12,500 | +100% Eitr regen, −100% sneak stamina, −50% poison damage |
| 7 | Ashlands | Fader | 3 × Bell | 25,000 | +100% Adrenaline gain, −50% stagger buildup, −50% fire damage |
That is a 50× jump in boss health from Eikthyr to Fader, which tells you how much the gear ladder matters: you are not meant to fight Fader in bronze armor.
How Valheim boss progression actually works
Before the boss-by-boss breakdown, understand the four systems that tie the whole ladder together. Get these and you'll never be lost.
Bosses are summoned, not found. Each boss has a fixed summoning altar somewhere in its biome. You bring the required offering, place it on the altar, and interact to spawn the boss. There are multiple altar locations for every boss in every world, so if one is inconveniently far, sail out and look for another.
Runestones point the way. Scattered mystical Runestones — and the vegvisir stones at your starting Sacrificial Stones — reveal a boss's altar and auto-mark it on your map when you read them. This is the game's built-in "where do I go next" system, replacing the quest marker you don't get.
Every kill grants a trophy and a power. Each boss guarantees a trophy on death. Hang that trophy on the Sacrificial Stones at your world's spawn point and it unlocks that boss's Forsaken Power — an activatable buff you toggle with a hotkey (F by default) that lasts a short time on a cooldown. You can swap between any powers you've unlocked at will.
Killing a boss raises world difficulty. Behind the scenes, each boss kill sets Global Keys that make the world's enemies tougher and unlock new spawns — and, critically, drops the material that unlocks the next crafting tier. Beat Eikthyr and you can finally mine copper and tin; beat Bonemass and iron becomes usable; and so on up the chain. This is why the order matters: skip a boss and you're missing the gear the next biome demands.
Boss 1 — How do you beat Eikthyr in the Meadows?
Eikthyr is a giant electrified stag and your first Forsaken. Summon it with 2 Deer trophies (dropped by the regular deer you'll kill for hide and food in your first hour). With only 500 HP, Eikthyr is a tutorial boss you can beat in flint or bronze gear using a bow and a shield to block its lightning charge and ranged bolt attacks. Its trophy unlocks the Eikthyr power (−60% stamina cost for running, jumping and swimming), which almost everyone leaves on early because it makes exploration far less exhausting.
Boss 2 — How do you summon and beat The Elder?
The Elder is a towering ancient tree-guardian in the Black Forest. To summon it you need 3 Ancient seeds, which drop from the Greydwarf brutes and shamans found around Burial Chambers. At 2,500 HP The Elder is a stationary, ranged fight: it hurls vine projectiles and stomps, so bring fire arrows (it is weak to fire), keep pillars between you and it, and don't get pinned. Its power boosts chopping and mining — handy when you're tearing through Swamp trees next. The runestone at its altar carries the boss's signature verse: "First of the Forest, King-in-the-Wood."
Boss 3 — How do you beat Bonemass in the Swamp?
Bonemass is the poison-belching third boss and the difficulty wall most new players hit. Summon it with 10 Withered bones looted from Swamp Sunken Crypts (you'll need iron gear from those crypts to reasonably fight it). Bonemass has 5,000 HP, resists physical damage, and blankets the area in poison — so a poison-resistance mead is close to mandatory, and blunt weapons are the community-standard approach. Its Forsaken Power (−25% physical damage taken and near-free blocking) is the best defensive tool in the game and the go-to power for every fight after it.
Boss 4 — How do you beat Moder on the Mountain?
Moder is a frost dragon and the star of our hero image above. You'll summon it with 3 Dragon eggs carried down from Mountain nests (each egg is heavy, so plan the trip). The Mountain biome itself will freeze you to death without frost-resistance mead or wolf armor, so survival gear comes first. Moder has 7,500 HP and alternates between grounded bites and airborne frost-breath barrages that you dodge with cover. Its power is a quality-of-life game-changer: a permanent sailing tailwind plus +300 carry weight, which transforms how you haul ore across the map.
Boss 5 — How do you beat Yagluth in the Plains?
Yagluth is a colossal undead hand-and-skull that rises in the Plains. Summon it with 5 Fuling totems taken from Fuling villages — the same villages guarded by the two-star warriors and Deathsquitos that make the Plains lethal, so bring padded armor and black-metal weapons. At 10,000 HP, Yagluth hammers the ground with fire meteors and a sweeping fire beam; fire-resistance mead and constant repositioning carry the fight. Its power grants lightning resistance and a flat +10% damage bonus, a solid all-purpose offensive toggle.
Boss 6 — How do you beat The Queen in the Mistlands?
The Queen is the Seeker matriarch hidden deep in the Mistlands infested dungeons. She is summoned differently from the earlier bosses: you assemble a Sealbreaker from Sealbreaker fragments (or use 3 Seeker soldier trophies) to open her sealed tower. With 12,500 HP in a tight, pillar-filled arena, this is the game's most mechanically demanding fight — you'll want carapace armor, a Mistwalker sword or a magic build powered by Eitr, and food that maxes the right stat. Her power boosts Eitr regeneration, which is why mages keep it on permanently.
Boss 7 — How do you beat Fader in the Ashlands?
Fader is the seventh and currently final boss, added with the Ashlands update (patch 0.218.15, May 2024). It's summoned with 3 Bells and sits at a punishing 25,000 HP — five times Bonemass. By the time you reach Fader you should be in Flametal gear built around the Call to Arms combat systems: Adrenaline, Trinkets, and Perfect Block / Perfect Dodge Roll. Fittingly, Fader's Forsaken Power grants +100% Adrenaline gain and −50% fire damage, rewarding the aggressive, well-timed combat the Ashlands demand.
Is there an eighth Valheim boss? Deep North and 1.0
Not yet — but one is coming. Valheim is still in Early Access today, and its 1.0 launch is set for September 9, 2026. That update ships the game's eighth and final biome, the Deep North, which Iron Gate describes as bringing "new enemies to kill, bases to build and weapons to craft" (valheimgame.com). An eighth boss is expected as part of it.
Iron Gate has not published a 1.0 changelog, so there is no confirmed name, offering, health value, or Forsaken Power for the Deep North boss — anyone stating specifics is guessing. What is confirmed: 1.0 also brings the game's first PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch 2 versions and full crossplay across all platforms. We'll update this guide with the eighth boss the moment it's live. (Note: the current in-game "Deep North" is an empty placeholder that gets replaced at 1.0 — and patch 0.221.13, if you've seen it mentioned, is a Public Test build only, not the live version.)
Which Forsaken Power should you keep active?
You can only have one Forsaken Power active at a time, so pick for the job:
- Exploring / hauling: Eikthyr (early) or Moder (once unlocked — the tailwind and carry weight are unbeatable for logistics).
- Tanking a hard fight: Bonemass — the −25% physical damage and free blocking is the single strongest survival buff.
- Chopping/mining runs: The Elder — clears Swamp and Mistlands wood far faster.
- Aggressive combat (Ashlands): Fader — feeds the Adrenaline economy that the modern combat system runs on.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many bosses are in Valheim? There are seven bosses — the Forsaken — in the game right now: Eikthyr, The Elder, Bonemass, Moder, Yagluth, The Queen and Fader. An eighth boss is expected with the Deep North biome when Valheim 1.0 launches on September 9, 2026.
What is the correct Valheim boss order? Eikthyr (Meadows) → The Elder (Black Forest) → Bonemass (Swamp) → Moder (Mountain) → Yagluth (Plains) → The Queen (Mistlands) → Fader (Ashlands). This follows the biome progression outward from the center of the map.
Do you have to kill the bosses in order? Effectively, yes. Each boss drops or unlocks the material and crafting tier you need to survive the next biome — for example, you can't mine iron efficiently until Swamp crypts open up, and you can't survive the Mountain without gear the earlier tiers provide. Skilled players can skip or sequence-break some fights, but the intended path is the order above.
Can you fight Valheim bosses more than once? Yes. You can re-summon any boss as many times as you like by bringing another set of the required offering to an altar. Each boss only drops its unique trophy once for the Sacrificial Stones, but repeat kills still drop other rewards like Eikthyr's antlers or dragon tears.
What happens when you defeat a boss in Valheim? You get a trophy to hang on the Sacrificial Stones at spawn (unlocking that boss's Forsaken Power), the world's difficulty ratchets up via Global Keys, and the next crafting tier unlocks. Bosses also drop a unique material used for a key craft — Eikthyr's antlers make the first pickaxe, Moder drops the tears that build the artisan table, and so on.
Should I start Valheim now or wait for the 1.0 launch on September 9? You can start now. Bosses one through seven are unaffected by the update, and your existing character and world are expected to carry into 1.0, with unexplored northern zones generating the new Deep North. Iron Gate hasn't published full migration details, so back up your world file before September 9 to be safe — but there's no reason to wait to start climbing the boss ladder today.
This guide covers Valheim on the Default branch, patch 0.221.12 (2026-02-19). Boss stats verified against the Valheim Wiki; 1.0 and Deep North details per valheimgame.com and the Steam news feed for app 892970. We'll refresh this article at the 1.0 launch on September 9, 2026.
