Black Forest

0:01 The Black Forest is the second biome most players enter in Valheim, usually after killing Eikthyr in the Meadows. It is a dark coniferous forest of pines and firs, boulders and hollows, and it holds the two ores that begin the game's Bronze Age. Its dungeons are the Burial Chambers, its boss is The Elder, and it is the only biome in which the trader Haldor can be found. Since the Call to Arms Update of September 2025 the forest has also been home to the bear, and the Valheim 1.0 Release added a treeless "Deforested Black Forest" variant at the edges of the world.

Quick facts

Landscape and resources

0:34 The Black Forest is dense and hilly, with limited lines of sight under a canopy of pine and fir. The Valheim Wiki describes "dangerous, coniferous forests full of dense and lush vegetation", interrupted by "huge exposed boulders", marshy dips and coastal coves. Copper deposits sit among the trees as mossy rocks streaked with metal; tin lies in small shiny nodes along shorelines and river banks. Both need a pickaxe, and the first one, the Antler Pickaxe, is made from the Hard Antler dropped by Eikthyr.

Pine trees give Core Wood, a new building material that unlocks the Cultivator, the Bronze Pickaxe and the Finewood Bow, and which makes a far stronger beam than ordinary wood (see Building and Structural Integrity). Thistle glows blue at night and goes into most meads; Blueberry bushes grow only here; Carrot Seeds are picked from wild carrot plants and planted back home with the Cultivator. Yellow Mushrooms grow inside the dungeons and caves.

Copper, tin and bronze

5:03 Copper is recognized by "subtle bronze-coloured streaks that reflect in the sunlight"; the veins are much larger than they look on the surface, so miners dig around the perimeter first. Tin nodes give three or four ore each and, according to the wiki, do not respawn. Neither ore can pass through a portal without a Portal Stone, which is why carts and the Karve exist at this tier (see Metals and Smelting and Sailing and Ships).

The ore is useless until it is smelted. Surtling Cores from the Burial Chambers build the Charcoal Kiln and the Smelter, six Copper bars build the Forge, and at the Forge two Copper and one Tin make one Bronze, which unlocks Bronze armor and weapons, Bronze Nails, the Cart and the Cultivator (see Crafting Stations and Upgrades and Weapons and Shields). Since 1.0 the biome's chests also hold Bronze-tier Battle and Protection Idols for the Forge of Potential (Game8).

Creatures

1:05 Greydwarfs, Greydwarf Brutes and Greydwarf Shamans are the population of the forest, and they are drawn to noise, so the clink of a pickaxe pulls them to a mining site. They drop Resin, Wood, Stone and Greydwarf Eyes; Brutes and Greydwarf nests also yield the Ancient Seeds that summon the Elder. All three are very weak to fire and immune to spirit damage. The full roster is on Meadows and Black Forest Creatures.

0:27 Trolls are the biome's giants: seven meters tall, 600 health at zero stars, slow but heavy-hitting, weak to pierce damage and taking double damage to the head. Their club and log attacks carry chop and pickaxe damage, so a troll led onto a copper vein will mine it for you; the Valheim Wiki notes their tier-2 tool damage breaks copper and tin. They drop Coins and Troll Hide, and five hides make the Troll armor set, the first set with a bonus (+15 Sneak); see Armor and Capes.

1:41 Troll Caves are small instanced caves that may hold a single troll, which cannot follow you through the entrance, plus Yellow Mushrooms, coins and up to two chests. Skeletons guard the dungeons, Ghosts haunt them, and Rancid Remains appear only inside the Burial Chambers.

Bjorn, the bear

7:32 The bear (internally named Bjorn) arrived with Patch 0.221.4, Call to Arms, which left public testing on Sep 9, 2025, together with its undead Plains counterpart, the Vile. It fills a troll-like role: a large solitary creature with 800 health at launch, a bite, claws, swipes and a slam, resistance to blunt, pierce and frost, and a weakness to fire (Valheim Wiki).

0:23 Bears spawn with up to one star by day and two at night, eat blueberries but cannot be tamed, and flee from fire, so a held torch drives one off and standing torches keep them away from a base. A bear drops Bear Paw, Bear Meat and Bear Hide, with a 10% chance of a Bear Trophy at any star level.

Bear Hide and Paws craft the Bear armor (Headdress, Patterns and Loincloth of the Bear), which trades protection for regeneration and slash damage, and the Paws of the Bear fist weapon with a six-times parry bonus; the trophy goes into the Bronze Pendant trinket (Game Rant). Iron Gate's 1.0 patch notes then "reduced spawn chance of Bjorn in Black Forest" and "reduced Bjorn health" (Game8); the notes give no new figure.

1:59 1.0 also added a Bear Cave, an instanced cave that looks exactly like a Troll Cave from outside and only announces itself by its name when entered; inside sleeps a bear and, unlike a troll cave, little or no treasure.

Burial Chambers and other places

2:13 Burial Chambers are the first instanced dungeons in the game: mazes of narrow corridors and rooms entered through a stone-lined hole or a rectangular rock formation, always with skeletons at the door. Inside are more skeletons, their Evil Bone Pile spawners, Ghosts and Rancid Remains; the loot is Coins, Amber, Rubies, Feathers, arrows and above all Surtling Cores. Some chambers hold a Vegvisir runestone that marks the Elder's altar on the map. Enemies inside do not respawn, though the Yellow Mushrooms do (Valheim Wiki).

6:40 The Hildir's Request Update of 2023 added the Smouldering Tomb, a Burial Chamber with burning torches outside its entrance, filled with elite skeletons and ruled by Brenna, a burning skeleton whose sword slam deals 75 fire damage; she drops Hildir's Brass Chest for Hildir (GamesRadar).

11:59 Ruined stone towers and outposts stand throughout the forest, guarded by greydwarfs or skeletons. They hold chests and barrels (a source of tin and coal), furniture that breaks into Fine Wood, and sometimes a Vegvisir; since stone building needs iron and the Stonecutter, an intact ruin makes a good early fort. Shipwrecks along the coast give more Fine Wood and chests, and Greydwarf nests can be knocked down for Ancient Seeds or turned into farms (see Materials and Resources).

Haldor

12:38 Haldor, the dwarven merchant, spawns only in the Black Forest. Each world seeds ten candidate sites at least 1,500 meters from the center; the first one a player approaches becomes his permanent camp, marked by a bag icon on the map. He buys Amber, Amber Pearls, Rubies and Silver Necklaces, and sells the Megingjord belt (950 coins, +150 carry weight), the Dverger Circlet, the Fishing Rod and bait, and cosmetics; his lox Halstein pulls the wagon (Valheim Wiki). Worlds created after Call to Arms give him a Bearskin Rug that can be broken for a free Bear Trophy, and 1.0 added Wider Pockets (1,000 coins) and Deeper Pockets (2,000 coins), each a permanent extra inventory row unlocked by later bosses.

The Elder

14:22 The Elder is the forest's boss and the second Forsaken. His altar is found by reading a Vegvisir in a Burial Chamber or beside a ruined tower, and it is summoned with three Ancient Seeds under the inscription "Burn their young".

0:41 He has 2,500 health (Physgun) and three attacks: a spray of vines used at range for 35 pierce, a stomp for 60 blunt, and a summon of hostile roots. He is very weak to fire and immune to poison, spirit and stagger, so the standard fight is fire arrows from the Finewood Bow while ducking behind the four pillars of the arena (Valheim Wiki).

He drops the Elder Trophy and one Swamp Key per player, which opens the Sunken Crypts of the Swamp. Hung on his stone, the trophy grants the Elder's Forsaken Power: +30% health regeneration and +60% chop and pickaxe damage for 300 seconds (see Forsaken Powers). Killing him also changes the Raids and Events schedule, ending the greydwarf raid and enabling the troll and swamp raids.

Food, building and portals

6:57 Tin builds the Cauldron and bronze the Cultivator and Fermenter, so the Black Forest is where cooking and brewing begin: Carrot Soup, Deer Stew, Queen's Jam and Boar Jerky, plus the poison-resistance mead that the Swamp demands (see Food and Cooking and Mead and Potions). Bear Meat, cooked on a campfire, was added as a quick early food in Call to Arms.

Two Surtling Cores, ten Greydwarf Eyes and twenty Fine Wood build a Portal, and a matching pair of names links two of them; with the Cart and the Karve, this is what makes the rest of the world reachable (see Portals).

Deforested Black Forest

3:41 Valheim 1.0 lets seeds "generate alternate versions of earlier biomes toward the outer edges", among them Rocky Birch Meadows and a Deforested Black Forest (AllThings.How); Iron Gate's own notes say only that the outer edges offer "a chance to discover alternate versions of earlier biomes". Players have found a barren Black Forest of bare rock, patches thick with mushrooms or berries, and a forest of dormant ghosts that wake when approached. Like all 1.0 terrain, the variants generate only in areas unexplored before the update (see World Map, Generation and Seeds).

Frequently asked questions

When should you go to the Black Forest? After Eikthyr, whose Hard Antler makes the Antler Pickaxe. Both of the biome's ores need a pickaxe, so the stag is the gate on copper and tin.

How do you make bronze in Valheim? Two Copper and one Tin at a Forge make one Bronze bar. The Forge itself costs six Copper, and the Smelter and Charcoal Kiln that turn the ore into bars each need five Surtling Cores from the Burial Chambers.

Where do you find Haldor? Only in the Black Forest. Each world seeds ten candidate sites at least 1,500 meters from the center, and the first one a player approaches becomes his permanent camp, shown on the map as a bag icon.

How do you kill a troll? With pierce damage, aimed at the head, which takes double damage; a bow answers the Troll's 600 health from outside the reach of its log. Maces are the wrong choice, since trolls resist blunt.

What does the Elder drop? The Elder Trophy and one Swamp Key per player, which opens the Sunken Crypts of the Swamp. Hung on his stone at the Sacrificial Stones, the trophy grants +30% health regeneration and +60% chop and pickaxe damage for 300 seconds.

Sources

• Black Forest – Valheim Wiki, Weird Gloop
• The Elder – Valheim Wiki, Weird Gloop
• Bear – Valheim Wiki, Weird Gloop
• Troll – Valheim Wiki, Weird Gloop
• Greydwarf – Valheim Wiki, Weird Gloop
• Burial Chambers – Valheim Wiki, Weird Gloop
• Troll Cave – Valheim Wiki, Weird Gloop
• Haldor – Valheim Wiki, Weird Gloop
• Tin ore – Valheim Wiki and Copper ore – Valheim Wiki, Weird Gloop
• Vegvisir – Valheim Wiki and Ancient seed – Valheim Wiki, Weird Gloop
• Valheim 1.0 Has Arrived! (patch notes), Iron Gate Studio on Steam, Sep 9, 2026
• Patch 0.221.4 – Call To Arms, Iron Gate Studio on Steam, Sep 9, 2025
• Valheim Call to Arms update patch notes, Game Rant
• Valheim 1.0 patch notes and Forge of Potential idols, Game8
• Valheim 1.0 Is Here: What the Deep North Update Adds, AllThings.How
• Valheim boss checklist, Physgun
• Valheim Hildir's Request walkthrough, GamesRadar+
• Valheim press kit, Iron Gate Studio