Valheim, like other popular survival games is a sandbox where the player may choose to progress through the game at their own pace. There is so much to see and do already in this early access title that it may be a little overwhelming when starting, especially for players new to the survival crafting genre.
In Valheim you have a pretty clear goal but can go about it at your own leisure. The goal of the game is do defeat the forsaken. The forsaken are Odin’s greatest enemies.
The Main Goal of Valheim
The main goal of Valheim ties directly in to the way you will progress in the game. Your goal is to defeat Odin’s greatest enemies, known as the forsaken. These can also be called the ‘bosses’ of Valheim. Before being able to advance to the next tier of equipment and unlock new materials, you will generally have to defeat the next forsaken.
Your goal is to defeat all of these creatures however you can and bring their trophies back to the sacrificial stones. There, you will sacrifice the trophies of these creatures and will be granted a blessing from the gods in the form of forsaken powers.
(You can read a guide on forsaken powers here including a full list of all forsaken power in the game.)
Players will be defeating these creatures alone, or with a friend and advancing and upgrading their equipment and armor to defeat the next opponent. The general gameplay loop is that you will be defeating a forsaken, unlocking a new tier of equipment, grinding these resources to make good gear and seeking out and destroying the next boss. Although this is the main gameplay loop of the game, many players are taking their time building up their bases, collecting other items in the game or just trying to explore the entirety of the map. With so many things to see and do already in the game, you don’t have to just seek out the bosses and get straight to it. Getting distracted building a mega castle is going to happen to most.
Early Game Progression
At the start of Valheim you will begin your journey at the sacrificial stones. These stones are where you will bring back the trophies of the forsaken in order to sacrifice them to the gods. You will see 5 different stones with hooks in the current version of the game. There are 9 biomes each with their own forsaken planned for the final version of the game. As the game is in early access these will be added gradually as the games development continues.
You will see a small red runestone known as a Vegvisir. These stones will provide you with the location of where you can summon a forsaken. The first forsaken is known as Eikthyr. This is the forsaken creature for the meadows. To begin the game, you should try to gather some resources to make your first set of items. Find some wood and stone to make some crafting items and a small shelter for yourself. You should focus on crafting a workbench and setting yourself a spawn point.
Defeating the First Forsaken, Eikthyr
Then, gather materials and build yourself a weapon and some armor. Defeat boars and deer to get items that can be used to craft your first armor pieces. Then, once you have gotten a good grasp of the game and think you have combat under control it’s time to go to Eikthyr’s location and defeat it.
Read this guide in order to see how to summon Eikthyr and get a good grasp over it’s attack set. After you have defeated the first boss you will be given an item known as Hard Antler. With hard antler you will be able to make your first pickaxe in the game and start mining some metal. Mining up copper and tin will give you access to the forge and bronze. Using this you will be able to advance to the next progression step in Valheim and set yourself up for beat the next forsaken, The Elder.
Mid-Game Progression
At the mid-game point you are probably going to be grinding a lot of materials. As you need 2 units of copper and 1 unit of tin to make bronze, you are going to be collecting vast quantities of each in order to craft a lot of items. At this tier you will also be able to craft yourself a Bronze axe which will give you the ability to collect Fine Wood. This type of wood will allow you to build your first actual decent ship in the game and an array of furniture for your house which will raise the comfort level of your living space.
If you are someone enjoying the building and design that the game has to offer you will probably find yourself getting into a lot of the furniture at this point of the game as you will be unlocking a lot of things here.
As aforementioned, bronze can be collected in order to make a new good set of metal armor and metal weapons in the game. It is the first metal you will flint that you can actually work into some weapons. You can also figure out which weapons you like to use the most as you will now have access to a good sword, mace and spear. Along with these melee weapons, a good bow is available to create using core and fine wood called the Finewood Bow. Crafting yourself a good bow and making a good supply of fire arrows is going to be your best method of defeating the second forsaken, The Elder.
The biome you will be spending most of your time in now is the Black Forest. You can explore areas known as burial crypts in order to get yourself a good amount of Surtling cores which you will need in order to create the stations to process metal and create coal from wood. Get as many of these as you can find as you will also need 2 cores in order to create a portal which can be used for fast travel.
The trader can also be found in the Black Forest biome, although finding him is purely based on luck as he could be in any black forest biome on the map.
Defeating the Black Forest Boss The Elder
Finding the Vegvisir for The Elder is probably going to come passively whilst exploring in the Black Forest. It can be found either in burial crypts or in random landmarks in the Black Forest like towers and ruins. Once you have defeated The Elder you are given a swamp key which grants you access to the sunken crypts in the Swamp biome. You can now advance to the swamp.
You can read a Guide to The Elder here.
Mid-Game Progression – The Iron Age
Along with defeating The Elder and being granted the power to cut down trees a bit faster, (yes, really), you will be given an item called the Swamp Key. You can use this key in the swamps to unlock the sunken crypts. This is your ticket to the next advancement in materials and weapons as it will allow you to unlock Iron.
By digging up the muddy scrap piles found in sunken crypts you will get scrap iron. This can be smelted, like the copper and tin ore, in the smelter. It is worth noting that none of the metals or ores can be transported through the teleporters in-game. You are going to have to either make a smaller base near the swamp biome with a forge and workshop to process your materials, or bring it all back home to work on it.
Upon getting yourself some Iron you will unlock another fast array of weapons, armors and buildings. If you’re an avid building, one of the first things you should consider crafting is the stone working crafting station. With this you will be able to make structures out of stones and even make paved roads in your towns. With Iron you will also unlock the best ship in the game currently, the Longship. This ship is made using iron nails and also ancient bark, which can be found by cutting down ancient trees in the swamp. You will need at least a copper axe to be able to cut these trees down.
This advancement is one of the bigger ones in the game and iron will be used for crafting basically all the way until the end of the game. Some of the best armors in the game are made using iron so you are going to want to get a lot of iron for building and for weapon and armor crafting. Iron will help your progress and advance throughout the whole journey of Valheim. It isn’t just used in building and construction.
Iron may seem a lot easier to get at first seeing as you only need to get scrap iron to get a processed iron, but once you figure out how much you are going to need, you will realize it isn’t so different to the bronze age. Copper and Tin may have been more time consuming than mining copper but they are relatively safe to get. The swamps are dangerous.
Defeating the Swamp Boss Bonemass
The third forsaken of Valheim is the swamp creature known as Bonemass. This will be your toughest enemy yet. A large green slimy creature. To find this forsaken, explore sunken crypts until you find the vegvisir for Bonemass. This will mark the spawn location on your map which is a large skull. Bringing 10 Withered Bones and throwing them in the boiling pit here will summon Bonemass.
You can read a Guide to Bonemass here.
Defeat Bonemass to get yourself the next forsaken trophy and your next helpful item, the Wishbone. The Wishbone is going to be used in the next biome, The Mountains. You can equip the Wishbone and it will tell you where to dig underground in order to find silver veins and buried treasure in the Mountains.
Valheim Mid-Late Game Progression
Once you have defeated Bonemass you are at the halfway point of content in the current version of Valheim. Keep in mind even though you may be getting finished for now, the game is in early access and there are going to be 9 forsaken and biomes in total to explore. This could even turn in to possibly more as the game is experiencing an unprecedented level of success that the developers never even saw coming. For now though, you have reached the 4th forsaken of the game.
The mountains are harsh. They are going to be your harshest weather event so far. You are going to have to craft special gear in order to even survive the temperatures in the mountains. By killing wolves, or even dipping your toes into the plains to kill a couple of Lox, you will be able to craft yourself a nice pelt cape which will protect you from the elements up in the mountains.
A few pieces of Wolf leather or lox will keep you from constantly dying. There is also a type of armor that you can craft to help protect further from the cold such as the wolf armor set. To craft this you are going to need some silver and ingredients from wolves, however.
The mountains has some tough enemies such as wolves, drakes and golems. Drakes are going to be the first flying creature you encounter in the game and can be impossible to kill without a lot of luck and jumping skill or a decent bow. Drakes, with their ranged ability that slows the player can be very tough to deal with, especially if any other enemies decide to join the fight. Wolves will only use melee attacks but can overwhelm the unprepared player easily by fighting in numbers. Be wary.
You can tame wolves in order to have some bodyguards for this point in the game. Read this guide in order to find out how you can have some wolf companions follow and protect you.
You will spend most of your time in the mountains digging up the ground looking for silver in order to make some new armor. By equipping the wishbone, the player will be shown the general location of silver veins underground. The Wishbone will flash on the player and make noises as they are getting closer to a silver vein. The most often the wishbone makes a noise, the closer you are to a silver vein. If it is ‘pinging’ constantly dig down to find yourself something. Silver ore is your ticket to progressing to the plains.
The 4th Forsaken, Moder
The Vegvisir of Moder can be found in any of the generated structures that can be found in the mountains. These structures will look like small stone towers and will generally have some Draugr or Skeletons living inside so be aware of that. Once you have found the Moder Vegvisir you will reach the location of Moder.
To summon Moder you will will need to bring three dragon eggs to the summoning platform and sacrifice them. From time to time in the mountains you will see small nests with a bright egg inside. These eggs are extremely heavy, so even if you have upgraded your carrying capacity you will need to make multiple trips in order to summon Moder.
You can read my guide to Moder, here.
Moder is a mostly air bound creature which uses frost ranged attacks and a devastating melee claw attack. You will want to bring a decent ranged weapon and some good gear here. To stand your best chance against this enemy, lead Moder out of the mountain biome as being cold will be terrible for your stamina recovery.
Once you have managed to defeat Moder you will be granted a material known as Dragon Tears. These can be used to craft the next set of crafting items in the game.
The Late Game: Plains, Black Metal and Beyond
The final stage of the current version of the game will take place in the plains biome. Home to the strongest creatures you will come across yet. In the plains you will find another type of metal that can be used to make another set of weapons and tools.
The enemies that you will find in the plains includes the Fuling. These green humanoid creatures make use of advanced weaponry including ranged spear throwing and melee weapons. They are extremely tough, even for players with a large health pool and very good armor, so be wary. There are many different variations of Fuling including 3 main types. This is the regular Fuling, a Fuling Beserker which shares similarities to the Greydwarf Brute adn the Fuling shaman. All of them, tough.
Along with the Fuling there are 2 other types of fauna to be found here ready to destroy you. The first of which is the Lox. Lox, are generally passive creatures unless they are provoked by the player. If the player attacks a Lox or comes to close to one, they will be provoked into attacking the player. They have a very large health pool and can be tough to bring down. Although manipulating the terrain and using ranged weaponry can guarantee you a win without too much danger. Their meat can be used to raise your health to very high levels both in cooking recipes and by merely cooking it over a campfire. You can use the pelt for a rug or to make yourself a nice cape.
Another enemy in the plains is known as the Deathsquitos. They are large mosquito characters that do a ton of damage to the player. They fly around and will generally attack once every 10 seconds. Although they can one-hit characters with a mid-level health pool and fly quickly towards they player they have very little health and can also be destroyed with one hit. This type of enemy in gaming is known as a glass-cannon.
Here, you will be trying to get a good supply of Black Metal and Flax in order to make the best weapons and items in the game. You can gather large amounts of black metal by going to Fuling camps and looting them from the chests, or from the bodies of fallen Fuling. Even base level Fuling will generally drop a piece of black metal upon being defeated.
You will have to build yourself a Blast Furnace in order to process the Black Metal and use it to craft.
Crafting Black Metal level gear is recommended before attempting to defeat the last forsaken of the game, Yagluth.
The Last Forsaken, Yagluth
The fifth and final forsaken available in the current version of Valheim is Yagluth. A large skeletal monster that breathes fire is basically as dangerous as it sounds. You will have to seek out large stone with a summoning platform in the plains in order to summon this intense creature.
Collect and sacrifice 5 Fuling tokens in order to summon Yagluth to Valheim. This is going to be your toughest battle yet so be prepared.
Yagluth Defeated ,What Now?
With Yagluth defeated you’ve reached the end of the current content available in Valheim. You can continue to explore the map, build up your dream house or battle against your friends in PvP to see who is the strongest of all. Make your own fun in the game with friends, this is really what the whole experience is about.
You can also for now explore some of the biomes which will be fully implemented into the game at a later date. By going far enough south, you will come across a biome known as the Ashlands. Althrough the biome hasn’t been fully implemented into the game yet, there are enemies there already known as the Surtling and you can find and process a new type of resource known as Flametal. This resource is useless currently in the game, but in a later path it is sure to have a purpose and plenty or recipes, so why not get ahead of the game and start acquiring Flametal?
You can read all about the Ashlands and what it can mean for the future of Valheim, here.
From now, you’ll have to wait for more content to come to the game. Valheim is in early access, which means the game is not fully completed, but your support in buying the game will make sure it become the best version it can be. Personally, it’s one of the best early access game launches I’ve ever player. The current game is an absolutely steal for $20USD. The amount of fun, exciting content already available is sure to keep you busy for a while. Plus, you’ll be helping a small 5-man development team keep working towards a fantastic game to an already amazing foundation.
Related: 3 Powerful Weapons in Valheim and How to Get Them | How to Get Coordinates and Teleport in Valheim
