Seeker: How to Fight, Farm & Use Their Drops in Valheim's Mistlands

What Are Seekers?

Nothing quite prepares you for your first Seeker. These massive insects are the backbone of the Mistlands, and they will wreck you if you arrive with the wrong gear. They are eusocial: they serve a colony led by The Queen, and they forage, patrol and defend. Vikings are on the menu.

Three variants

• Seeker: the winged worker and the most common Mistlands threat.
• Seeker Soldier: a hulking, flightless brute.
• Seeker Brood: tiny larvae found inside Infested Mines.

Each needs a different approach, and starred versions can end a run. You cannot brute-force the Mistlands with Plains gear: knowing their resistances and attacks is the difference between farming Carapace efficiently and losing your grave behind three angry 2-star bugs in a dungeon corridor.

Resistances and Damage Types That Work

The most important fact about Seekers: they resist every physical damage type. Blunt, Pierce and Slash deal half damage, and they are immune to Spirit, Chop and Pickaxe. Your fully upgraded Black Metal Sword hits at half strength, and so does the physical part of the Porcupine.

Elemental damage is the answer

Fire, Frost, Lightning and Poison all deal normal damage. That is why veterans enter the Mistlands with Frostner: despite being a Mountain-tier weapon, its Frost damage ignores their physical resistance. The slow is the real secret, though. A slowed Seeker is a manageable Seeker.

The Soldier's weak point

Seeker Soldiers share the same resistances but have a weak abdomen. Hits from behind deal 1.5x Blunt, Pierce, Slash, Fire, Frost and Lightning damage, so flanking is the core strategy. In co-op, one player tanks while the other circles behind. Solo, parry or block, then reposition to the rear.

Fighting Seeker Soldiers: The Abdomen Is Everything

Soldiers are a completely different fight. With 1,500 base HP (4,500 at 2 stars) they are absolute tanks. The good news is that they cannot fly. The bad news is that their Ram adds Chop and Pickaxe damage to its Blunt hit, so they smash structures and resources around you.

The rotation

Hits on the abdomen deal 1.5x damage from all physical and elemental types except Poison and Spirit. Grey damage numbers from the front turn yellow from behind. The loop demands discipline:

1. Parry or block their attack.
2. Sprint behind them.
3. Land two or three hits on the abdomen.
4. Reposition before they turn, and never get greedy with stamina.

Frostner and co-op

Frostner shines again: the slow stops the Soldier from turning to face you quickly, so you stay behind it longer. In co-op, one player holds a tower shield and absorbs hits from the front while the damage dealer works the abdomen.

Seeker Broods and Infested Mines

Seeker Broods are the colony's larvae, found inside Infested Mines (and rarely at night in the Mistlands after you defeat The Queen). They have 20 HP and a fast 60 Pierce attack on a 3-second cooldown, so any Mistlands weapon kills them in one hit. Their value is the drop: Royal Jelly at a 50% rate.

Break the eggs

Stepping on or destroying Seeker eggs in Infested Mines has a 75% chance to spawn a Brood. Do it every time: Royal Jelly goes into Seeker Aspic, the best Eitr food of the Mistlands, and can be eaten raw in a pinch.

Mine tactics

• Expect Seekers, Seeker Soldiers, Ticks and Broods in tight corridors separated by wooden barricades.
• Move slowly and clear one room at a time.
• Keep an escape route through a doorway. Seekers struggle to fit through dungeon doors, so retreat and pelt them with arrows or Ooze Bombs from the other side.

Where Seekers Spawn

Standard Seekers

• Day: up to 2 in the middle zones of the Mistlands, at most 1-star.
• Night: up to 6, at most 2-star.
• Fixed points: one-time spawns near Mistlands structures.
• Infested Mines: some spawn points respawn every 4 hours.

Seeker Soldiers

Soldiers are rare in the open world, with a limit of 1 in the middle zones. They are far more common at fixed points near structures and inside Infested Mines, so farm mines if you need Mandibles, which only Soldiers drop.

Outside the Mistlands

After you defeat The Queen, 0-star Seekers can rarely spawn at night in the Meadows, Black Forest, Swamp, Mountains and Plains, and despawn at dawn. Before you defeat her, the "They sought you out" raid can send waves of Seekers and Seeker Broods at your base.

What Seeker Drops Are Used For

Seeker drops are the foundation of Mistlands crafting.

Carapace

The single most important material you farm from Seekers, and you need a lot of it. Unlike other heavy armor materials, it can go through portals. It is the main component of:

• the Carapace armor set (Carapace Helmet, Carapace Breastplate, Carapace Greaves)
• the Carapace Buckler and Carapace Shield
• the Carapace Spear
• Carapace Arrows and Carapace Bolts
• the Pulsating Earrings

Mandible

Mandibles drop only from Seeker Soldiers and go into the Carapace Helmet, Carapace Spear, Himminafl (the Lightning atgeir) and the Resounding Shackle. Soldiers are rare and tough, so Mandibles are usually the bottleneck.

Seeker Meat

Cook it on an Iron Cooking Station for Cooked Seeker Meat, a strong health food (60 Health, 20 Stamina, 5 healing per tick for 20 minutes). Raw Seeker Meat also goes into Seeker Aspic, the top Eitr food of the Mistlands, and the Meat Platter, a top-tier health food.

Trophies

Seeker Trophies (5% drop rate) are needed to summon The Queen again after your first kill, 3 per summoning at her Hive Seat.