Iron is the metal that comes after Bronze in Valheim. You collect Scrap Iron in Sunken Crypts after you have defeated The Elder. Sunken crypts are locked and you need the Swamp Key dropped by The Elder to enter them.
Once you have reached the Iron Age, you can craft a Longship.
Iron is smelted from Iron Scrap and unlocks the Iron Armor set and the next tier of weapons. Iron is the most useful metal in Valheim and you should gather as much as possible.
| Icon |  |
| Weight | 12.0 |
| Stacks | 30 |
| Can be Teleported | No |
| Requires | Antler Pickaxe, Swamp Key |
| Used In (items) | Ancient Bark Spear, Banded Shield, Battleaxe, Huntsman Bow, Iron Armor, Iron Atgeir, Iron Axe, Iron Mace, Iron Nails, Iron Pickaxe, Iron Sledge, Iron Sword, Iron Tower Shield, Ironhead Arrow, Padded Armor, Porcupine, Serpent Scale Shield, Silver Sword |
| Used In (structures) | Blast Furnace, Forge Toolrack, Iron Gate, Personal Chest, Reinforced Chest, Smith’s Anvil, Standing Green-burning Iron Torch, Standing Iron Torch, Stonecutter, Tool Shelf, Wood Iron Beam, Wood Iron Pole Iron Cooking Station |
Mining Iron
Iron items require more metal than any other items in the game, plus you’ll need iron for end-game items. In total, it takes over 1000 iron bars to craft every iron item in the game.
Since you will need tons of iron, we recommend scouting out many Swamps to find large clusters of Sunken Crypts. It’s totally reasonable to find 5 – 9 crypts in a single swamp (and then zero in 10 other swamps 😠).
Your mining trips to dense clusters of sunken crypts will be much more productive than scouting out new crypts only after the latest one has been emptied.
