Valheim: How To Find And Mine Iron

Valheim iron is a vital resource for players who want to move up in the world and take on more formidable enemies and dungeons. Not only is it used to create some powerful gear like weapons, armor, and shields, it is also used in constructing defensive structures and crafting workbenches.

But unlike most games in this genre, getting your hands on a material like this is not simply a matter of going to a location and mining as necessary. Valheim is different in this regard since a few additional steps have to be completed before players can even begin to access the iron tier of items.

So this guide will show you how to get your hands on some Valheim iron as soon as possible.

Valheim Iron Guide

Players cannot begin acquiring iron in Valheim until they have summoned and defeated The Elder, which is the second boss in the game. And because the journey to reach this boss is actually quite long, we will assume that players have already done this for the sake of convenience.

Once this boss is killed, it will drop a unique item known as the ‘Swamp Key.’ This is the thing that will give you access to the locations that contain iron, so remember to keep it in your inventory moving forward.

How To Find Valheim Iron

As you explore your procedurally generated world map, some dark and cloudy areas should eventually reveal themselves to you. These are called swamps biomes, and they are either found near the black forest biomes or as their small isolated islands.

While wandering through these areas, players will come across small structures illuminated by glowing green torches. These are known as ‘Sunken Crypts,’ and they are hard to miss since the torches’ light contrasts sharply against the dark swamp setting.

With the ‘Swamp Key’ in your inventory, interact with these crypts’ gates to enter the dungeons underneath. Once inside, you’ll find yourself in a dark and musty area.

This entire location is made up of many rooms and hallways separated by giant dirt mounds known as Muddy Scrap Piles. They block most of the pathways available to you, but they can be cleared out by using any pickaxe available at the time. Once mined, they drop an item known as ‘Scrap Iron.’

Make your way through the crypt, mining as many of these Muddy Scrap Piles as possible. There is no guarantee as to how much Scrap Iron you will gain with each run of the dungeons because procedural generation means that the amount is always random.

You also have to deal with some callous enemies, so there’s a chance that you can’t progress beyond a certain point either.

How To Process Iron

In order to be able to use Scarp Iron in crafting, players will first have to convert it into usable ingots or bars. To do this, they need to craft two pieces of equipment, the Charcoal Kiln, and the Smelter.

With 20 Stone and 5 Surtling Cores, a modest Charcoal kiln can be constructed at your base. Feeding wood into this gives players back an equal amount of Coal, which can then be used to fuel crafting stations like the Smelter.

Next, a Smelter requires the same 20 Stone and 5 Surtling Cores to build. Putting Scrap Iron into this, along with some Coal, will cause pure Iron to pop out. This can now be used to craft everything you require.

This has been our Valheim Iron guide. It can take quite a while to get to this stage, but we hope that this guide will help make your time easier going forward.