Valheim Black Forest Guide — Copper, Tin, Greydwarves and The Elder

The Black Forest is where Valheim stops holding back

The Meadows taught you to survive. The Black Forest teaches you to fight. Greydwarves spawn constantly from glowing green spawners, Trolls roam the edges, and every dark pine could hide a Greydwarf brute or a Burial Chamber dungeon.

But the rewards justify the risk: Copper + Tin → Bronze gear, Surtling Cores for smelting, Finewood for portals, and Ancient Seeds to summon The Elder — whose drop unlocks the Swamp and Iron tier.

Valheim — Original Launch Trailer (Iron Gate Official)

Preparation checklist — what to bring from the Meadows

Item	Why
Antler Pickaxe	You cannot mine Copper or Tin without this. Comes from Eikthyr’s Hard Antler drop.
Flint Axe + Flint Spear + Wooden Shield	Your Meadows gear is sufficient to start. Upgrade to Bronze as soon as you smelt.
20+ Resin	Torches for Burial Chambers (pitch black inside) and fire arrows for Trolls.
3-4 Cooked Deer Meat + Sausages	Food buffer — you will take more damage here than in the Meadows.
Wood (20+)	For repairing your Raft/Karve, crafting torches, and building a temporary workbench.
Raft or Karve marked on map	Black Forest is always a separate landmass from the Meadows — you sail there. Mark your boat before stepping foot on shore.

Optional but recommended

A Bow + 10 Wood arrows. Greydwarves are easier to kill at range, and having ranged damage for Trolls or Greydwarf brutes saves stamina.

The first thing you see: Greydwarves and spawners

Greydwarves are the most common enemy in the Black Forest. They come in three varieties, all spawning from Greydwarf spawners — glowing green stone pillars with a pulsing eye in the centre.

Greydwarf variants

Type	Health	Damage	Weakness
Greydwarf (ranger/warrior)	30	10-15	Parryable — Bronze Buckler parries stun them
Greydwarf brute	80	25+	Slow, telegraphed attacks, weak to fire
Greydwarf shaman	40	15 (poison cloud)	Kite away from poison clouds

Destroy spawners, not individual Greydwarves

A single spawner produces 1-3 Greydwarves every 30 seconds. If you just kill the Greydwarves, more keep coming. Destroy the spawner itself — it has 200 HP and takes about 15 Flint Spear hits. When it breaks, it drops 1-2 Ancient Seeds and stops spawning permanently.

Destroying spawners strategy

1. Clear a 10-foot radius around the spawner first (kill any Greydwarves already out)
2. Stand directly next to it and stab with Flint Spear
3. If 3+ Greydwarves spawn while you are hitting it, retreat, clear them, come back
4. Repeat until it breaks
5. Collect Ancient Seeds — you need 3 for The Elder

Copper and Tin — the Bronze tier foundation

Copper and Tin are the only metals available in the Black Forest. You smelt them in a Smelter (20 Stone + 5 Surtling Core) to make ingots, then combine Copper + Tin ingots at a Forge to make Bronze ingots.

Where Copper spawns

Copper ore appears as large brown rock clusters — way bigger than normal ground rocks, with greenish-brown streaks running through them. They are hard to miss: 4-6 feet tall, clustered together, half-buried in the ground. Mine with Antler Pickaxe (or better, Bronze Pickaxe later). Each cluster drops 3-5 Copper ore.

Copper clusters spawn most often on:

• Black Forest edges near the Meadows transition
• Around Burial Chambers and Greydwarf spawners
• Low hills and rocky outcrops inside the forest

Where Tin spawns

Tin ore is grey rock veins that only spawn near water — riverbanks, lakeshores, and ocean coasts inside Black Forest zones. They are smaller than Copper clusters (2-3 feet tall) and grey, blending in with regular stones. Mine with Antler Pickaxe. Each vein drops 2-3 Tin ore.

The Bronze math

To gear up you want a few dozen Bronze ingots. Each Bronze ingot is 1 Copper + 1 Tin, so mine roughly equal amounts of both:

• Copper: ~5-7 Copper clusters (each drops 3-5 ore)
• Tin: ~5-7 Tin veins (each drops 2-3 ore)

Build 1 Smelter (20 Stone + 5 Surtling Core) and 1 Charcoal Kiln (20 Stone + 5 Surtling Core). The Kiln turns Wood into Coal (1 Wood → 1 Coal). The Smelter turns ore into ingots — each ingot takes one ore plus a little Coal to fuel the burn (roughly 2 Coal per ingot).

Bronze gear priority order

1. Bronze Pickaxe — mines everything faster, including Silver later
2. Bronze Sword — replaces Flint Spear, parryable with Bronze Buckler
3. Bronze Axe — critical — drops Finewood from Birch and Oak (needed for portals)
4. Bronze Buckler — parries give stamina, best shield before Iron
5. Bronze Armor set — 8 armor per piece at base (24 for the full helmet/cuirass/leggings set)
6. Karve boat — 30 Fine Wood + 10 Deer Hide + 20 Resin + 80 Bronze Nails

Burial Chambers — Surtling Cores and Resin

Burial Chambers are the Black Forest’s only dungeon. They are dark stone structures half-buried in the ground, marked by 2-3 stone pillars with runes carved into them. Some have a Skeleton guard out front.

What is inside

Each Burial Chamber has:

• 2-4 Surtling Cores — in chests and on stone pedestals
• Resin — chests and drops from Skeletons inside
• Skeletons (3-6 per chamber) — melee and archer variants
• Ghosts (rare) — phase through walls, low HP, high damage

Tips for clearing

• Bring 5+ torches. Pitch black inside — you cannot see enemies, chests, or even the exit without light.
• Clear Skeletons one at a time, not all at once.
• Skeleton archers shoot fire arrows — block with Wooden Shield or keep moving.
• Ghosts are weak to spear stabs — do not waste arrows on them.
• Surtling Cores are the #1 priority — grab them first before Skeletons respawn.

Surtling Cores also come from… Surtlings

Wait, Surtlings are Swamp enemies. So Burial Chambers are the only early Black Forest Surtling Core source. Do not skip them.

Trolls — the largest Black Forest threat

Trolls are 12-foot-tall grey giants that roam the forest. They hit hard (30+ damage per swing), are slow, and are weak to fire damage.

Three strategies

1. Fire arrows (fastest, if you have them)

• Craft fire arrows: 8 Wood + 8 Resin + 2 Feathers (yields 20 arrows at a level-2 Workbench)
• Shoot the Troll from 30+ feet away, kite sideways
• 8-10 fire arrows kills a Troll

2. Tree trap (no fire arrows needed)

• Lead the Troll between two close pine trees
• Trolls cannot fit through tight gaps — they get stuck
• Stab it with Flint Spear from safety
• Watch for it to swing into a tree (stuns itself for 2 seconds) — that is your free hit window

3. Bait and dodge

• Hit and run: hit once with spear, dodge back, repeat
• Works with any gear but takes longer

What Trolls drop

Troll Hide — used for Troll Hide Cape (optional, Wolf Cape is better later). Also Coins and Amber (decorative). Nothing critical — Trolls are optional kills unless you want the hide.

Greydwarf eyes — farm them for portals and fire arrows

Greydwarf eyes drop from any Greydwarf — rangers, warriors, brutes, shamans. You need 10 Greydwarf eyes per portal (20 eyes for a full pair).

Greydwarves spawn constantly. If you set up a workbench near a spawner-free area (clear the spawners!), you can farm eyes passively by killing the Greydwarves that wander in from outside your workbench radius.

The Elder — the progression gate

The Elder’s altar is always on a separate Black Forest landmass from the one you started on. Look for a circle of stone pillars with a tree rune symbol. Walk inside and the altar activates.

How to summon

Place 3 Ancient Seeds on the Offer Stones. Ancient Seeds drop from destroyed Greydwarf spawners — each spawner gives 1-2 seeds. Destroy 2-3 spawners and you have enough.

The Elder mechanics

• Vines: The Elder sends vines that grab you from the ground — they hold you in place for 3 seconds. Cut them with a spear quickly.
• Roots: Stomping creates root waves that deal damage and knock you back.
• Greydwarf spawns: The Elder summons Greydwarves periodically — clear them before focusing on the boss.
• Most damage from the Elder comes from the vine grab → root stomp combo. If you avoid the vines, you take way less damage.

Recommended gear for The Elder

Bronze Armor (2+ pieces minimum) + Bronze Sword + Bronze Buckler + Bow with 10 arrows. Three cooked meats. This is the right tier — Flint gear works but takes much longer.

Drops: Swamp Key + The Elder Trophy + Forsaken Power

Swamp Key — the only way to open Sunken Crypts in the Swamp. You get one per Elder kill. Copy it at a Workbench for a spare so you do not lose it.

The Elder Trophy — activates at Sacrificial Stones for The Elder Forsaken Power: +60% Chop and Pickaxe damage and +30% health regeneration (for 300 seconds). Great for chopping Finewood and mining with your new Bronze gear.

Finewood is now available

After you craft the Bronze Axe, chop Birch and Oak trees (they spawn in both Meadows and Black Forest). Bronze Axe drops Finewood — the first half of your portal pair. You need 20 Finewood per portal.

Before you leave the Black Forest

1. Bronze Axe crafted — Finewood unlocks = portal unlocks
2. Portal pair built — 20 Finewood + 10 Greydwarf eye + 2 Surtling core per portal = ×2 for pair
3. Swamp Key in inventory — copy it at a Workbench for a spare
4. Iron Spear + Iron Mace resource prepped — Iron comes from Swamp Sunken Crypts, but you should note: first thing in Swamp is mine Iron scrap → smelt at home → upgrade gear
5. Tin + Copper mines marked on map — you will need more Bronze later for more gears
6. Base portal set up — one portal in your Meadows base, one in Black Forest. Tag them.

The six mistakes that get you stuck in the Black Forest

1. Going without Antler Pickaxe

Copper and Tin do not drop otherwise. Eikthyr first, always.

2. Not clearing spawners

Killing 5 Greydwarves per spawner is endless. Destroy the spawner itself.

3. No torches in Burial Chambers

Skeletons ambush you in complete darkness. 5 Resin = 5 torches = 1 Burial Chamber cleared safely.

4. Fighting Trolls in open ground

Lead them between trees where they get stuck. Open ground = you take 30 damage per swing.

5. Forgetting Bronze Axe for Finewood

Finewood = Bronze Axe only. You cannot craft portals until you have Bronze.

6. Not copying the Swamp Key

You get one Swamp Key per Elder kill. Copy it at a Workbench before you sail to the Swamp.

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Related

• full-progression-guide — the full Black Forest → Swamp handoff
• swamp guide — what the Swamp Key unlocks and Iron scrap logistics
• portal-network-guide — Finewood + Greydwarf eye + Surtling core portal recipe
• building-basics — Smelter and Forge setup for Bronze tier
• The Elder boss page — summon recipe, attack patterns and loot