Pickaxes are used to mine ores and terraform the earth in Valheim. You will need an Antler Pickaxe and an Iron Pickaxe the rest are optional.
The Antler Pickaxe is the first pickaxe in Valheim. You can craft it with Hard Antlers dropped by Eikthyr. With the Antler Pickaxe, you can begin mining Copper and Tin in the Black Forest.
Unlike Axes, pickaxes only have one skill that affects both mining and combat; you can raise the Pickaxes skill by mining any nodes in the game — stone, ore, even guck.
You probably shouldn’t be using the pickaxe in combat, but it’s possible. Pickaxes are terrible for combat as opposed to axes, which are great for combat and woodcutting. The pickaxe is far too slow and deals little damage, except to Stone Golems.
We recommend sticking to mining and terraforming with your pickaxes.
Table of Pickaxes
| Icon | Item Name | Required For |
|---|---|---|
 | Antler Pickaxe | Stone, Copper, Tin, Terraforming |
 | Bronze Pickaxe | |
 | Iron Pickaxe | Obsidian, Silver |
Upgrading Pickaxes
There’s a major reason to actually stick with the antler pickaxe even when you could craft the bronze pickaxe. The antler pickaxe can be repaired at a workbench, but a bronze pickaxe requires a forge.
Since you don’t need a forge, you can build makeshift outposts and keep repairing your antler pickaxe. We found this to be much easier than building portals or new forges each time we went on a serious mining expedition.
Mountains will require an iron pickaxe, which is strong enough to mine obsidian and silver. We recommend bringing your older pickaxes too so that you can unearth the silver with the weaker pickaxes and save durability on your iron pickaxe.
Tips For Using Pickaxes
Pro Tip: Pickaxes deal significantly more damage when striking from above. Position yourself above your target to mine faster.
Here is a video demonstrating the difference in damage when striking from the side and striking from above:
If you have noticed floating nodes, and ever wondered if you can somehow take advantage of that, you can! It’s possible to undermine nodes with a special technique that uses Valheim’s mining physics to instantly explode the entire node, raining stone and ore down upon you.
Pickaxes Skill
Pickaxes is a skill in Valheim which improves your character’s effectiveness with pickaxes. Raising your pickaxes skill will make you deal more damage to nodes while using a pickaxe. Click to learn more about Skills.