The Elder is Valheim’s second Forsaken, and he does not show up until you feed his altar. The whole summon comes down to one offering item, one altar, and one button press, but each of those pieces sits inside the Black Forest, which is where most players get slowed down.
Quick answer: Put 3 Ancient Seeds on your hotbar, stand in front of the burning bowl at The Elder’s Forsaken altar in a Black Forest, aim your crosshair at the bowl, and press that hotbar key to burn them.
The Elder summon requirements
Nothing else is gated behind a quest or a crafting station. You need the seeds and you need to be standing at the right altar.
| Requirement | Detail |
|---|---|
| Offering | 3 Ancient Seeds, burned in a single offering |
| Where | The Elder’s Forsaken altar, always in a Black Forest |
| How to find it | Activate a Vegvisir in a Burial Chamber or a ruined stone structure |
| Altar inscription | “Burn their young.” |
| Repeatable | Yes, 3 Ancient Seeds per attempt, no limit |
Note: a world can generate more than one Elder altar, so a second Vegvisir may point you at a completely different spot. The marked altar is often on another landmass, so expect to sail.
Where to get Ancient Seeds
Ancient Seeds only come out of the Black Forest, and the reliable source is the Greydwarf Nest. These are the purple, smoking spawner structures that look like a small bonfire. Destroy one and it drops an Ancient Seed every single time, so three nests is the shortest path to a summon.
Greydwarf Brutes are the backup source. They roll for a seed on death, and starred Brutes drop more of them at better odds. Greydwarf Shamans can also cough one up, though you should not plan around it.
| Source | Seeds | Chance |
|---|---|---|
| Greydwarf Nest (destroyed) | 1 | 100% |
| Greydwarf Brute (Lv. 1) | 1 | ~33% |
| Greydwarf Brute (Lv. 2) | 2 | ~66% |
| Greydwarf Brute (Lv. 3) | 4 | 100% |
Nests have 100 HP and take extra damage from fire, but they resist blunt and pierce. A slash weapon or fire arrows will chew through one far faster than a club will.
Tip: leave one nest standing somewhere you can reach safely. It keeps producing Greydwarfs and Brutes, which makes it a renewable seed farm if you plan to fight The Elder more than once.
Finding The Elder’s altar with a Vegvisir
Stumbling onto the altar by accident is possible but slow. The intended route is the Vegvisir, the glowing runestone that marks a boss location on your map.
You will know the altar when you see it. It is a raised stone platform with four large pillars and a burning bowl in the center, and the runestone beside it reads “Burn their young.”
Burning the 3 Ancient Seeds at the altar
The offering is not a menu. You feed the bowl straight from your hotbar, which is why the setup matters more than the press itself.
Why the summon does not trigger
If the fire does nothing when you press the key, it is almost always one of three things.
- You are carrying fewer than 3 Ancient Seeds. The altar takes the full offering or nothing.
- The seeds are sitting in your inventory instead of the hotbar, so the hotbar key has nothing to burn.
- Your crosshair is not on the burning bowl. Step closer until the burn prompt shows before pressing anything.
Summoning The Elder again
The altar never burns out. As long as you bring another 3 Ancient Seeds, you can call The Elder back as many times as you want, which matters in co-op because he drops one Swamp Key per player and a single Elder trophy per kill. Groups that want a spare key or a trophy for the sacrificial stones simply farm three more seeds and repeat the offering.
Because the summon starts instantly, it is worth clearing nearby nests and camping the area before you make the offering. A Troll or a wandering Greydwarf pack joining the fight is the difference between a clean pull and a corpse run back through the Black Forest.
