walkthrough

Valheim is an open-world survival game where you explore dangerous biomes, gather resources, craft equipment, build shelter, and defeat bosses to advance. Progression is driven by learning each biome’s threats and using the materials you find to unlock better tools, weapons, and structures.

Core survival loop

You play as a fallen Viking in a third-person world made up of distinct biomes, including meadows, the Black Forest, swamps, mountains, plains, oceans, the Mistlands, the Deep North, and the Ashlands. Each biome has its own enemies, items, and bosses, so moving into a new area usually means adapting your gear and approach.

The game uses an in-game day and night cycle. Survival depends on managing your health and stamina while gathering natural resources through foraging, hunting, mining, and farming.

• Health is reduced by enemy attacks and large falls.
• Stamina is consumed by actions such as running and attacking.
• Food raises your maximum health, stamina, or Eitr.

Early progression

A standard early path is to defeat Eikthyr and then head into the Black Forest. There, your main goal is to find Burial Chambers and collect Surtling cores. These cores are required to build a Smelter and a Charcoal Kiln, and each one requires five cores.

Once you have smelting set up, process as much copper and tin as you can find. Copper comes from large deposits in the Black Forest, while tin is found near water in the same biome. Combine them in a Forge to make Bronze, using 1 tin and 2 copper for each bar.

Building your metal age base

Metal progression opens up the next major tier of equipment and construction. A key early priority is the Bronze Axe, because it lets you harvest fine wood from birches and oaks in the meadows. Fine wood unlocks many new crafting options, including better furniture and the Finewood Bow.

Because ore and metal bars cannot be teleported, logistics become an important part of base expansion. If the Black Forest is far from your base, building a Karve or using a cart helps move metal back home more efficiently.

Crafting, gear, and exploration

Resource gathering directly feeds into crafting better tools, equipment, and weapons. That improvement loop is central to surviving harder biomes and preparing for bosses. As you progress, new materials expand the recipes available to you and improve the quality of what you can build.

Multiplayer and playstyle

Valheim supports cooperative play with up to ten people, and optional player versus player combat is also available. You can play alone or with friends, but multiplayer greatly helps with exploration, resource hauling, and boss fights.