Valheim | Beginners Guide - How To Get Started

Check out this beginner's guide in Valheim. The guide includes walkthroughs, how to get started, Tips & Tricks, how to build a shelter, & more!!!

Table of Contents

Getting Started In Valheim
Day One - What To Do First
Building Your Home/Base
Materials That You Can Farm Early
Game Tips

Getting Started In Valheim

Create Your Character

If you are starting from scratch, then you'll need to create a character first. To create a character click on New, you can either select which gender you like & choose your hairstyle just the way you like.

Day One - What To Do First

You Have Arrived

You will spawn first in the starting stone with nothing but a Rag Tunic and a Torch. To survive you must use your wits & you'll be able to manage everything yourself. Follow these steps and in no time you'll make Odin proud.

Talk & Listen To Hugin

Hugin will appear for the first time once you have arrived, this Raven is not just a talking bird, but a knowledgeable bird indeed, make sure to Talk & Listen to him as he provides tutorials & helpful tips on how to go through the game.

Click Here Meadows Guide!

Gather Resources

In order to survive, you must gather resources like Stones & Wood as this will be one your valuable resources for crafting items.

Build Your First Weapons

Once you have collected enough resources, you can now create your first weapons the Club & The Stone Axe.

The Club can be used a weapons against creatures since it can deal a lot of damage. You can also use the Stone Axe but it won't deal much damage as we recommend you use it for chopping down trees.

Gather Food

Food is an important essential in-game as this regenerates your health & stamina bar increases when consumed. So, make sure to stock up on food..

The first food you can gather on your first journey are Raspberries, they can be located in bushes across the meadows biomes.

Click Here For Food Guides!

Chop Down Trees

To get Wood you need chop down trees and once you've chop them down it turns it a log, be careful though, if one of those logs hits you, it could deal a lot of damage or instantly kill you.

After the log has fallen down, start cutting them up with your Stone Axe & with a few more hits it should turn to wood.

Stay In The Meadows

Since you'll be collecting resources, always make sure to stay in the meadows as this is one of the safest biomes in-game. So be sure to collect resources in the meadows for now.

If try to traverse to other biomes it might give you a hard time as enemies are much stronger & can give you a hard time if you are not properly equipped.

Building Your Home/Base

Build A Hammer & Workbench

The Hammer is your friend as you'll need to use it everytime to build shelter, a furniture & a structures. To use the hammer simply equipped it and right-click the mouse button & now you can start building or repair as well.

The Workbench plays a very important part as it allows you to build buildings in its vicinity & that's not all it can also help you to craft Weapons, Armor & Tools. You'll also need to build a roof.

Take note that you'll need to be have a roof around the workbench for you to use it.

Build A Shelter

To build a shelter you must find a nice flat land to settle in and build floors by using the hammer. Having a shelter would give you a place to stay to warm up & will give you comfort which can be very useful for your journey.

Build A Bed

Building a Bed on it sets the shelter you built as your respawn in case you got killed and also where you can sleep through the night. Do keep in mind that you need to have a campfire or hearth beside you to sleep.

Build A Campfire

Campfire can only be built on solid ground so keep that in mind. Having a campfire can also help you to sleep in your bed & you can also cook food with it as well.

Do take precautions as well while building a campfire indoors as smoke will kill you if there is no open space. So, make sure to make a window or a hole on your roof for the smoke to come out.

Materials That You Can Farm Early

Look For Flints Near Water

Flint is one of the early materials you will want to get & start collecting since it can craft better equipment and upgrade your workbench. If you want to find Flint easily. just walk along a river or the shore & you'll see white rocks.

Hunt Deer or Boar For Meat

Deer are hard to kill animals since they have great senses and they run away quickly if they see you. A deer when killed can either drop a Deer Hide, Deer Trophy or Raw Meat.

To kill them you can must use a range weapon like the Crude Bow & also craft Wood Arrows, it only takes 1 arrow to kill them, just keep your distance, aim & fire you should be able to kill one.

Boars are different story, if you hurt them they still put up a fight so just remember to dodge or block its attack and you should be able to kill it with 2 to 3 hits. A boar when killed can drop a Leather Scraps, Raw Meat or a Boar Trophy.

Make An Armor From Deer Hide

The Deer Hide can also be used to make the Leather Armor Set. If you have collected enough Deer Hide then go and craft the set since it will give you more advantage since that armor is more durable than the Rag Tunic & Rag Pants.

Click Here For Armor List Guide!

Tame Boars

There is also another alternative as well on getting Leather scraps & Raw meat from Boars, all you have to do is caged them on your base/home & feed them so you can tame it. Once you have tamed it you should be able to farm Raw Meat & Leather Scraps with ease.

Click Here For Taming Guide!

Game Tips

Your Map Is Your Companion

When you're exploring Valheim, you always need to consult your Map companion, By pressing M key you should be able to see on the map on where have explored and can also pinpoint your exact location.

Locations you should mark on the map
Copper Deposits	Usually found in the Black Forest biome and requires an Antler Pickaxe or better to harvest them
Burial Chambers	They are early-game dungeons located in the Black Forest which you can loot for resources
Enemy Spawners	Atleast you'll know where enemies will spawn
Troll Caves	They appear as large rock formations with a large entryway and is usually guarded by a troll
Home Bases/Homes	Marking Your Base/Home is important especially If you need to resupply

You can mark notable location in case you would want to check the again for resources.

Always Repair Tools, Armor & Weapons

Using your tools, armor & weapons often can lead to its durability decreasing. Once the durability has been zeroed out, you won't be able to use it until you repaired it. Luckily repairing is free, just go to you workbench and click the hammer icon and you'll be able to repair your items.

Food Combinations

You can only consume 3 of each food once. Each one increases stamina & health at different values, The combinations of the 3 foods will determine whether your health or stamina will be higher.

List Of Food
Cooked Meat	Grilled Neck Tail	Raspberries

Since you're just starting your first Journey, the first 3 foods we would suggest that you consume will be the Cooked Meat, Grilled Neck Tail & Raspberries since it raises your health & stamina more.

Brace Yourself for Raid Attacks

After setting up your home there are events called raids that can occur randomly. The raids only happen when you are at your home so make sure to fortify your home will walls that do not break easily.

Increase Your Skills

Skills are determine how well you do an action in-game. The higher the skill, the better the action since it allows you to use stamina less.

Skills
Unarmed	If your weapons durability reached zero you can use your fist without wearing out.
Spear	You want to kill the enemy with a long range weapon, this is the skill you'll need so it can only consume little stamina when using that weapon
Run	If you level this skill up then less stamina will be use while running
Blocking	If this skill has been leveled up then you'll likely take less damage from enemies' attacks
Bows	If leveled up frequently then you should have any problem on having your stamin decrease while using a bow
Dodging	This is also very effective that you won't get hit and if leveled up this skill, less stamin will be used.

We would recommend that you start leveling these skills on your journey as they can be a good last resort if a probable danger is too great.

Finding Haldor The Merchant

Haldor is the only merchant in Valheim and he sells pretty decent wares especially Megingjord which adds your carrying weight by 100, so make sure to stock up on some coins if you ever encounter him.

To obtain Coins you can usually find it in chests in dungeons or outside, or by killing Trolls. Trolls are probably your main method, but they’re dangerous to kill so proceed with caution.

Unlock More Recipes

To fight the first boss, you'll need better equipment, so if you were able to find many materials then you Workbench should have updated Weapons & Armor that you can craft and face Eikthyr.

Prepare For Boss Battles

Since this is your first Journey there should be a very boss at the beginning of your quest, this will require you to get better gear, better armor or weapons, which can be crafted by getting materials and upgrading your workbench. Since Eikthyr is no laughing matter.

Click Here For Eikthyr Boss Guide!

After Defeating Eikthyr

After you have successfully slain the beast Eikthyr you can now venture forth on the next biome. Now that you are fully prepared, you should try to enter the Black Forest next. Good luck on your journey to the Black Forest!

Click Here Black Forest Guide!