The route at a glance
Meadows and shelter → Eikthyr → Black Forest mining → the Elder → Swamp iron → Bonemass → Mountain silver → Moder → Plains gear → Yagluth. Build, upgrade, eat well, and explore at your own pace between every major step.
Archive update: The original guide stopped at Yagluth because that was its intended scope. Valheim now includes later-biome progression, so treat this as a straightforward path through the classic early and middle game—not a complete modern endgame guide.
Starting out in the Meadows
- Gather your first supplies. You begin at the sacrificial stones, where Hugin introduces the basics. Pick up loose branches and stones, forage safe food, and learn the nearby terrain.
- Craft basic tools. Make a stone axe for wood, a hammer for building, and a simple weapon so the local wildlife and greylings do not ruin your day.
- Build a small shelter. Pick reasonably flat ground near useful resources. Add a roof, bed, campfire, and safe smoke opening. Your first house only needs to keep you alive.
- Explore the Meadows. Gather berries, mushrooms, boar meat, deer hides, wood, and flint from shorelines. Different foods increase your health and stamina in different ways.
- Cover your workbench. A sheltered workbench unlocks crafting, repair, and upgrades. Repairing basic tools costs nothing, so stop throwing away broken axes.
Eikthyr, the Black Forest, and bronze
- Prepare leather gear and a bow. Hunt boar and deer for scraps and hides. Upgrade your food and practice with the bow before challenging a boss.
- Defeat Eikthyr. Offer deer trophies at the first boss altar. Eikthyr drops hard antlers, which let you craft the antler pickaxe.
- Mine copper and tin. Copper deposits are found in the Black Forest; tin is commonly found near its water. Build a charcoal kiln and smelter to process ore.
- Enter the Bronze Age. Combine copper and tin at a forge. Use bronze for stronger tools, weapons, armor, crafting upgrades, and the equipment needed for longer trips.
- Defeat the Elder. Burial-chamber runestones can reveal the second boss location. The Elder's reward opens access to valuable Swamp crypts.
The Swamp and the Iron Age
- Prepare before entering the Swamp. The enemies hit harder, the wet effect hurts stamina recovery, and poison can end a trip quickly. Bring good food and poison-resistance mead.
- Mine scrap iron in Sunken Crypts. Use the key earned from the Elder to enter crypts, break muddy scrap piles, and haul the iron home for smelting.
- Defeat Bonemass. Blunt damage and poison protection make this fight far more manageable. Do not walk in with random weapons and hope for the best.
Mountains, Plains, and the fifth boss
- Survive the Mountains. Use frost-resistance mead until you have suitable cold-weather armor. Mine silver and obsidian while watching for wolves, drakes, and steep drops.
- Defeat Moder. Collect dragon eggs, locate the Mountain altar, and prepare for an airborne fight. Moder's power helps with sailing, and her boss drop advances crafting.
- Move into the Plains carefully. Fulings and deathsquitos can punish overconfidence. Secure barley and flax, then build the proper crafting stations for Plains-tier food and gear.
- Defeat Yagluth. Find the altar, gather the required offerings, and prepare for heavy elemental damage. Winning grants a useful resistance power and completes the original guide's route.
What matters between bosses
Valheim is not only a boss checklist. Upgrade your base, improve comfort for a longer Rested bonus, farm reliable food, establish portals, sail carefully, and upgrade the weapons you actually enjoy using. Explore, experiment, and make the route yours.