FAQs – Frequently Asked Questions

The sails are controlled by W and S (WASD). Just press W a few times and the sail will drop to half-sail and then full-sail. Check out our full guide on sailing for more info.

Ships in Valheim don’t have anchors, but they also won’t start moving without you (ships will retain their motion). Bring your ship to a stop by paddling and then you can safely disembark. The ship will remain in the same position. Learn more about sailing.

You must defeat Eikthyr, the first boss, to get his antlers which can be used to make the first pickaxe.

Buildings in Valheim have a physics system and a weathering system.

Structures will fall apart if they don’t have enough supports. Usually, this happens on your roof and means you need to add more support beams or pillars to reinforce that section.

Structures will slowly be damaged due to exposure; workbenches protect buildings and exposure damage cannot reduce a block within its range below 50% health.

Tools can be repaired at a workbench or forge, depending on where the item was crafted. Repairing items does not cost any resources.

Fires will extinguish for two reasons: (1) The fire has run out of fuel and you must add more wood, or (2) the fire is being extinguished by the rain and needs a roof to protect it from the weather.

Meat is cooked on a cooking station under the “Crafting” tab of the hammer menu.

Watch out though, because it cooks fast and will burn. Throw some meat or neck tail on and wait for it to make a loud sizzle (same sound it makes when you first add meat) and that’s when you know it’s done.

You cannot remove anything before it is cooked.

Craft a hammer and then right-click with it equipped. This will open the hammer building menu. You can find the workbench under the “Crafting” tab.

Ancient Wood is an item gathered by cutting down Ancient Trees in the Swamp biome.

Every weapon in Valheim has pros and cons.

Everyone should have a Bow.

If you like the safety of a shield or have trouble dodging, use a one-handed weapon in the Axes, Clubs, Knives, Spears, or Swords family.

If you like reach or powerful attacks and don’t have trouble dodging, try out the Polearms or Greataxe

Farming is unlocked in the Bronze Age. You will need to defeat Eikthyr, mine some copper and tin, forge it into bronze, and then craft a Cultivator.

With the cultivator, you can prepare the soil and plant crops. If you have some vegetables already, you can plant seed versions of that vegetable. For example, a carrot can be planted as a seed-carrot which will drop several carrot seeds when harvested.

Portals are created with Fine Wood and Surtling Cores which you can acquire in the Bronze Age. Two portals are connected when they share a tag and only two portals can use the same tag. You cannot bring ores, metal bars, dragon eggs, or carts through portals and they will need to be transported separately.

You cannot swim underwater in Valheim.

Trolls are dangerous monsters that have devastating attacks. Your best bet is to use a Bow to whittle away the troll’s health. Check out our page on trolls for more intel.

Hunting deer is critical to your progression. You can throw a spear or use a crude bow and wood arrows to kill a deer. Bows are the easiest way to kill deer in Valheim.

Try sneaking up on the deer until you’re close enough to make an easy shot — sneak takes stamina, just stop moving to regenerate it and remain sneaky. If the deer notices you, don’t try and chase it, just walk after it until it stops being frightened.

You can increase your carrying weight in Valheim by finding the Trader and purchasing Meginjord (it’s a belt) and you can use vehicles to increase your inventory space. Carts are the easiest way to carry lots of items early in the game; Longships are the best way to carry lots of items.

Dungeons are one-time locations in Valheim. Any Burial Chambers, Troll Caves, or Sunken Crypts you conquer will not respawn any creatures. Yellow mushrooms are the only thing that will respawn in dungeons.

No. When you die in Valheim, you leave a gravestone at that location.

The grave will never despawn (until emptied) even if you die multiple times — the marker on your grave will change though, make sure you note the grave on your map!

If you dropped your items outside of a grave, there is a risk they will despawn. Items despawn in Valheim based on the number of items in a location. When there are too many items in a single location, they will start to despawn over time. Otherwise, they will stay there and never despawn.

For example, a trash pit in your base will keep despawning items as you fill it up, but a wooden shield lost in the woods will still be there after 100 days.

From our experiments, we have deduced that Valheim uses a system that combines and deletes items based on how many other items are nearby.

If you mine a giant pit of stone and leave the area, you will return to find the stone has consolidated into several stacks instead of many individual stones.

If you leave an object in the woods and no other items are around, it will not despawn and will still be there when you return.

If you throw lots of items into a trash pit, they will despawn as more items are added and more time passes.

Yes. Trolls will spawn in the Black Forest even if you’ve recently killed them. They will not respawn in Troll Caves, the same as all other dungeons.

Fishing is a great way to get food in Valheim. You will need to find the Trader and purchase a fishing pole and bait before you can start fishing.

You left-click to cast the line and hold down right-click to reel in the line. Start reeling in once a fish taps your bobber and you will see the message “Hooked.” At this point, just keep reeling the fish in.

Make sure you have plenty of stamina for fishing, it’s an exhausting activity.

Flint spawns in and around water in the meadows biome. Marsh-like areas with lots of shallow water and streams are the best place to hunt for flint. It spawns as small grey stones that can be dislodged and collected by pressing E.

Yes. Valheim maps are procedurally generated following a system of rules and attributes to generate an infinite variety of similar worlds.

Tin is found near water in the Black Forest. It spawns in small shiny deposits that are completely destroyed in a few hits. It will spawn near lakes, oceans, and rivers.

We recommend finding or creating a marsh-like area with lots of shallow water to farm lots of tin.

Copper is found in massive deposits in the hills of the Black Forest. It spawns as large deposits that look exactly like large stone deposits. Copper deposits spawn anywhere in the Black Forest except directly next to water.

Iron is found in Sunken Crypts and buried in secret deposits underneath the swamp. You need to mine muddy scrap piles to get iron scrap which is refined into Iron Bars at a 1:1 ratio.

Swamps and other mid-game biomes are found at higher frequency further from the spawn altar. The best way to find swamps is to make a ship and start exploring. You’ll notice swamps because they have unique dead-looking trees and the earth is a muddy-brown color.

Mountains can be found anywhere in the game, even very close to the spawn altar. Their silhouette can be seen from very far away and the easiest way to discover mountains is to sail around looking for them in the distance. Larger mountains will yield more rewards.

Plains are a late-game biome found at a higher frequency further from the spawn altar. After you travel a decent distance, you will start finding them everywhere.

Black Forests are early-game biomes that are found anywhere in the world. You will find them only a small distance from the spawn altar, so just head in one direction until you find the Black Forest.

You should build your first base in the Meadows biome somewhat near the spawn altar and Eikthyr’s altar. If you can find a coastline, it’s a great idea to build there because ships are an important progression step in Valheim. You should absolutely build your base near water if you don’t plan on moving anytime soon.