Valheim First Two Hours — A Minute-by-Minute Roadmap for New Players

Valheim — Intro Cinematic (Iron Gate Official)

The first two hours decide whether you keep playing or log off

Most new players die to their first night of Greydwarves spawning outside their unroofed workbench, run out of Flint because they built with Wood instead of gathering it first, or spend an hour hunting deer without unlocking the Workbench. This page is a hard, minute-bounded checklist that gets you from spawn to your first Boss kill in one session.

Times are targets, not hard deadlines. Your seed might put Flint farther away or spawn you closer to a Boar herd — adjust accordingly. The sequence matters more than the clock.

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0:00 — 0:15 | Spawn, gather, build the minimum viable base

At spawn: You wake up in the Meadows. Turn around — there is an Eikthyr stone memorial nearby with your starting tools. Pick up everything: a wooden club and flint axe head with some early-game gear.

What to do in these 15 minutes:

• Collect 5–10 Wood — punch trees with your club, not bare hands. Beech trees drop most Wood; Birch drops Fine Wood too but you do not need it yet.
• Collect 3–5 Stone from the ground (small gray rocks) — you need them for the Campfire.
• Build a Campfire first. You will die in the first night without it.
• Build a Workbench next to the Campfire (within 2 metres) — they need each other for the Rested bonus.
• Build a Bed under shelter (any roof, even 4 Wood and 4 Wood wall) — this sets your spawn point.
• Craft a Flint Axe at the Workbench. This doubles your Wood gathering speed.
• Craft a Flint Spear and a Wooden Shield. Greydwarves come at night — the spear + shield combo is non-negotiable.

Done at 0:15: You have a Workbench, a Bed, a Campfire, a Flint Axe, a Flint Spear, and a Wooden Shield. You are no longer naked and defenceless.

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0:15 — 0:30 | Expand the base and unlock the basic food tier

Night 1 is coming in about 10 minutes. Your goal now is:

• Build a small enclosed hut — 4x4 floor, 4 walls, sloped Wood roof. Door on one side, campfire inside. Leave a tiny gap above the campfire for smoke to escape (or punch a hole in the roof).
• Craft a Chest next to the Workbench — you need storage.
• Craft a Cooking Station — it lets you cook meat into a proper meal.
• Kill 1–2 Boar (with the spear — lure them to your base and let the shield parry the charge). Take the Boar Meat and cook it at the Cooking Station. Cooked meat gives far more health and stamina than raw.

Done at 0:30: You have a roofed hut with storage, cooking, and your first hot meal. You will survive the first night.

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0:30 — 1:00 | Prepare for and beat Eikthyr, your first boss

You are set up to hunt. Eikthyr is your first boss and he is the gate to mining: you cannot mine any ore before you beat him, because your first pickaxe (the Antler Pickaxe) is made from his Hard Antler.

Prepare for Eikthyr: You need:

• 2 Deer Trophies — from Deer, common in the Meadows. Hunt them with the Flint Spear and gather their trophies. Plan on a handful of Deer per trophy, so expect to hunt a few before you have two.
• 2 Sausages — cook Boar Meat + Dandelion + Thistle at the Cooking Station. These are your healing/food buffer for the fight.
• 4 Resin Arrows — craft Arrows at the Workbench (Wood + Resin). You can shoot Eikthyr from outside his aggro range.

Verified (1.0): a Deer drops its trophy 50% of the time, so plan on roughly two kills per trophy (valheim.wiki /w/Trophies, cross-checked with 5gamers and valheimcheats). Two Deer Trophies summon Eikthyr, and he has no real damage-type weakness (every damage type lands — his antlers deal 20 Pierce and his beam 15 Lightning, but there is no resistance to exploit).

Find Eikthyr’s stone circle — check your map for a runestone marker (the horns symbol). Walk there — it is usually a few minutes from your base.

Summoning:

• Place 2 Deer Trophies on the Offer Stones inside the circle.
• Eikthyr will spawn. Back away immediately — he charges fast.

The fight (shield + spear strategy):

• Parry Eikthyr’s horn charges with your Wooden shield. A well-timed parry stuns him.
• The Flint Spear is your main weapon. Hit him a few times after a parry, then back off.
• If you get pushed, fall back to your Resin Arrows for ranged damage.
• Eat your Sausages when you drop below 50% health.

After the kill:

• Take his Hard Antler and the Eikthyr Trophy.
• Place the Eikthyr Trophy at the Forsaken altar (his offering stones) to unlock the Antler Forsaken Power — a temporary stamina and health-regen buff.
• The Hard Antler is what you need for your first pickaxe — that is why this boss comes before mining.

Done at 1:00: You have beaten your first boss, unlocked the Antler Forsaken Power, and are holding the Hard Antler that unlocks mining.

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1:00 — 1:30 | Craft the Antler Pickaxe, gather Copper and Tin

Craft your first pickaxe:

• At the Workbench, craft the Antler Pickaxe from the Hard Antler plus Wood. This is the first pickaxe in the game and the key to Copper and Tin.

Head to the Black Forest: The Meadows biome you spawned in has no Ore — Copper and Tin are in the Black Forest.

• Grab the Flint Knife from the Workbench.
• Put Boar Meat + 1 Berry into your inventory (Berries from Bushes).
• Mark a return point on your map (right-click → add pin) — your hut should have a unique visual landmark to find it.
• In the Black Forest, look for Copper deposits — large brown rock clusters jutting from the ground. Hit them with your Antler Pickaxe.
• Collect Tin from small gray rocks near river banks — these are tiny and easy to miss.
• You need about 10 Copper Ore and 10 Tin Ore to make Bronze.

Verified (1.0): Copper and Tin smelt at a 1:1 ratio — one ore yields one ingot. The Smelter burns 1 coal every 15 seconds and produces an ingot every 30 seconds, so that is 2 coal per ingot (valheim.wiki /w/Smelter, cross-checked with gamecore.wiki and allthings.how). Copper + Tin → Bronze at the Forge is confirmed and universal.

• Return home before nightfall. If you run late, build a small temporary Campfire + Workbench + Bed in a cleared spot so you don’t die.

Done at 1:30: You have 10 Copper + 10 Tin Ore in your Chest and the Antler Pickaxe in your hotbar.

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1:30 — 2:00 | Unlock the Forge and craft Bronze gear

At the Forge:

• Smelt Copper + Tin into Bronze ingots.
• Craft the Bronze Sword and a Bronze Buckler (better shield than wood) — non-negotiable upgrades.
• The Antler Pickaxe can be upgraded to a Bronze Pickaxe once you have Core Wood from the Black Forest pines.
• If you have time, upgrade your Workbench with an Axe Rack — this unlocks better cooking recipes.

Done at 2:00: You have a Bronze Sword + Buckler and you are out of the “survival phase” and into the progression phase, ready to explore the Black Forest seriously.

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Common mistakes in these two hours

1. Don’t punch trees with bare hands for 20 minutes. Craft the Flint Axe within the first 5 minutes — it is a night-and-day speed difference.
2. Don’t build your base inside a forest full of Greydwarves. Clear a 20x20 flat patch before building. Greydwarves spawn from ground that is not sufficiently cleared.
3. Don’t forget a Bed. The Bed does not just set your spawn — the Rested bonus it gives increases your carry weight and reduces sleep debuff.
4. Don’t skip Eikthyr. You can’t mine Copper or Tin until you beat him — your first pickaxe, the Antler Pickaxe, is made from his Hard Antler, and you can’t dig ore with just an axe or spear.
5. Don’t fight Eikthyr bare-handed. You need at least a Flint Spear and a Wooden Shield — a parry plus a few hits is the whole fight.

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Links

• start-here — the broader new-player flow after the first two hours
• survival-basics — deeper dive on health, stamina and the Rested bonus
• combat-basics — parrying, shields and weapon timing explained
• eikthyr — detailed Boss page with summon requirements and drops
• meadows-overview — the biome you spawn in, its resources and exit to Black Forest