So I decided to challenge myself

So I love this game and have played a ton of it – Almost 500 hrs.

I've played on 3 previous servers, all with varying numbers of friends, however on my most recent playthrough, I decided to play a solo game and add an extra challenge or two to the game.

In my current game, I've decided to see if I can beat Yagluth without ever defeating any of the other bosses first.

• No fight with Eikthyr means no Antler Pickaxe,
• No fight with The Elder means no Swamp Key,
• No fight with Bonemass means no Wishbone, and
• No fight with Modor means no Dragon Tears.

And of course, no boss fights also means no Forsaken Powers.

In addition, I've also decided that I'm not allowed to build or use portals, nor am I allowed to tame animals (we all know how fast a pack of wolves takes down Yagluth). Lastly, I'm not using any mods or cheats of any kind.

So far, it's… been interesting.

I'm mostly stuck with bronze equipment, and in order to get my hands on a bronze pickaxe, I had to get a troll to mine copper and tin for me.

In order to get scrap iron, I had to farm oozers in the swamp. This was not easy. Oozers are extremely rare, and they only drop scrap iron 33% of the time. To date, I've only bothered to farm 2 scrap iron total (enough to build a stonecutter). I've considered going back for 8 more so that I can make enough iron nails to make a longship – the storage capacity is enticing – however, I instead decided to drop a cart onto the deck of my Karve.

For the longest time, my bronze armor was limited to level 3, simply because I couldn't get iron in order to upgrade my forge past level 3. Thankfully, the bronze buckler is one of the best shields in the game.

I also have only ever had a Karve to sail around in.

Luckily, I still have access to somewhat decent food. When/if I finally get to battle Yaagluth, I'll be eating sausages, serpent stew and cooked lox meat (sadly, pudding and pies require barley flour, which in turn requires dragon's tears).

I'm also able to make every mead/wine in the game. It's a good thing barley wine only requires barley and not barley flour. I'm going to need barley wine during my fight with Yagluth.

Lastly, while I could farm-grind enough scrap iron to get me an iron pick and then use it to farm obsidian, I don't feel there's any need as I can just make needle arrows fairly easily.

I'm currently about 70 days into this challenge and have only died three times(twice to wolves, once to a mean pack of draugr). I've found a Vegvisir pointing me to Yagluth and I'm in the end game now, with only two major tasks left to accomplish before I face him.

First, I need to move my base (including the upgraded forge and workbench) to a continent closer to Yagluth. Luckily I found one that has 4 of the 5 biomes (no mountain) and is next to Yagluth's continent, so I'm planning on setting up my new base in an old Black Forest tower I found on the water's edge.

Second… and this one's the really tough one… I need to raid Fuling villages for barley and Fuling totems. I'll need the barley to make barley wine, but more importantly, in order to summon Yagluth, I need to get my hands on five Fuling totems.

I've already spent a fair amount of time in the Plaines, which, with my bronze level gear, is f$#%ing terrifying. Lox, Fulings and Deathsquitos are all easy enough to kill… if they're alone and aren't leveled up. Not so much if they're in groups or leveled up.

While I can easily kill normal Fulings with my bronze spear and buckler, I can only kill leveled up Fulings with my bow. I've tried going toe-to-toe with a 1 star Fuling a couple times and have had to run away each time after he hit me for 70ish damage despite me perfect blocking his attack.

And of course, every Fuling village has a couple leveled up Fulings in it… not to mention a Berserker or three.

So I don't know if I'll be able to get my hands on those Fuling totems. I've considered putting on maxed out troll armor and trying to sneak into Fuling villages, but I don't know how well that will work. I've also considered running through naked (so that I don't lose any gear) and grabbing what I need. Again, I'm not sure how well that'll work.

If any of you have any suggestions on strategy, I'm all ears.