Slowly but surely, you’ll familiarize yourself with Valheim‘s world and its mechanics. Eventually, you’ll get to farm bronze (via copper and tin), as well as fine wood and core wood. Here’s our guide to help you out.
Note: Valheim is currently an Early Access title. As such, mechanics and content may change in due course. For more information, check out our Valheim guides and features hub.
Valheim forging guide: Bronze, copper, tin, fine wood, and core wood
From the basics of crafting with your Workbench to creating your starter gear set, Valheim‘s progression is gradual. Heck, given the nature of the game’s sandbox, you might even hold off on exploring the unknown since you’re having too much fun in the Meadows biome.
Eventually, though, you’ll end up fighting Eikthyr, the game’s first boss. With the stag defeated, you’ll get the hard antler material so you can craft the Antler Pickaxe (10x wood, 1x hard antler).
Copper and tin
With the Antler Pickaxe, you’ll be able to mine rocks to get stone (useful for crafting sturdier buildings). But, if you want to obtain bronze, you’ll need to find copper and tin first.
Both copper deposits and tin deposits are found in the Black Forest biome. For the former, head deep in the forested region and mouse over some mounds with a greenish tinge. You’ll notice that these are copper deposits.
Copper deposits are huge mounds, so you can expect lots of resources once you’re done mining the whole thing.
As for tin deposits, these are found at the shoreline of the Black Forest region. Unlike copper deposits, tin deposits have a silvery glow.
Note 1: Lugging around tons of ore would be bad for your character’s back, so I suggest saving up on coins so you can purchase the Megingjord belt from Haldor. Likewise, you can open Valheim‘s world map, click on an icon, then double-click on a spot to place a marker. These markers would let you remember ore deposits in case you need to return later.
Note 2: In addition to the above, ores and their smelted counterparts, including copper and iron, cannot be brought along when using a Portal.
Note 3: Ore respawn rates can be downright perplexing. In fact, it might be better to farm lots of nodes in your current world, then load a new map seed so you can start mining in a brand new realm. Although you can bring your character’s inventory, including the Antler Pickaxe, you’ll need to explore and look for ore deposits once more.
Smelting time and building a Forge for bronze
The copper and tin ores you’ve acquired would be useless unless you can turn them into materials that can be forged. To do this, you’ll need the following build near a Workbench:
- Smelter (20x stone and 5x Surtling Cores) – This will turn ores into bars. You do need coal as fuel.
- Charcoal Kiln (20x stone and 5x Surtling Cores) – This will turn wood into coal to fuel the fires of the smelter. An alternative to obtaining coal is by overcooking meats, and that’s wasteful.
Note: Surtling Cores are often found in Burial Chambers.
Since you have copper and tin, you’ll need a Forge (10x wood, 4x stone, 4x coal, and 6x copper). You’ll then be able to create bronze bars (2x copper and 1x tin).
Fine wood and core wood
The weapons and armor pieces that you can create via the Forge can last you all the way to Valheim‘s endgame. For now, though, consider crafting a Bronze Axe.
This weapon is used to chop down more trees:
- Oak and birch trees (one example is seen in the image below) are found in the Meadows biome provide you with fine wood.
- Pine and fir trees found in the Black Forest biome provide you with core wood.
Note: If ever you encounter trolls, you can have them rampage around the area. They’ll end up destroying trees and you can pick up the resources without having to chop them down manually.
Anyway, these materials are used for some really decent weapons, furniture, structures, ships, and even the Cultivator which lets you plant seeds and grow crops. Gathering these new types of wood, as well as bronze from copper and tin, will become a common activity as you enter Valheim‘s mid-game progression.
Valheim is available on Steam as part of the Early Access program. For more information, check out our guides and features hub.
