Wishbone

1:42 The Wishbone is an accessory in Valheim, dropped by the Swamp boss Bonemass, that detects things buried underground: silver veins in the Mountain, muddy scrap piles in the Swamp and buried treasure in the Meadows, signaled by a chime and a puff of green light that quicken as the player closes in. It is the intended way to find silver, the metal of the next tier of gear, because silver veins lie out of sight beneath the snow (Wishbone, Valheim Wiki). Its description calls it an ancient bone that remembers where forgotten things lie.

Quick facts

How to get the Wishbone

0:41 The Wishbone drops when Bonemass dies, one for every player in the fight, alongside the Bonemass trophy. Summoning him takes ten withered bones placed at his giant skull altar in the Swamp, found through a Vegvisir (Runestones and Vegvisirs). He has 5,000 health, is weak to blunt and frost and immune to poison, so a mace and frost arrows are the usual tools. A lost Wishbone can be replaced by summoning him again. When it drops, Hugin explains that the bone was hidden in the boss's belly and will guide its owner to silver and, sometimes, to buried treasure (Hugin, Valheim Wiki).

How to use the Wishbone

2:05 The Wishbone is equipped from the inventory like any accessory. Within about 20 meters of a hidden object it starts to chime and give off puffs of green light, and both grow faster and higher-pitched as the player approaches, until they flash like a strobe directly above the spot. That is where to dig down with a pickaxe. Once the object has been opened or mined, the Wishbone stops detecting it. Skovos notes an occasional bug in which the chime carries on regardless, fixed by re-equipping the bone or walking out of range and back.

Finding silver with the Wishbone

11:21 Silver veins form only in the Mountain at 120 meters of altitude or higher; drakes and obsidian begin at 100 meters, so seeing them means the height is close. The world generator tries to place one vein in each zone on gently sloping ground, burying it about four meters deep. Each vein is a Y-shaped cluster of 100 nodes that yields about 83 silver ore and 167 stone on average, and only an iron pickaxe or better can break it (Silver vein, Valheim Wiki). Samo adds that without the Wishbone, slamming the snow with the Stagbreaker until a "too hard" message appears can also locate a vein, though he has never had much success with it.

0:14 Jecca Games' method is to dig down beside the vein and clear all the earth around it with the cheaper Antler Pickaxe, since dirt takes the same damage from any pick. Once the vein is disconnected and floating, a few hits with the iron pickaxe, preferably from above, make most of it shatter at once. Silver ore weighs 14 a piece and cannot go through a portal, so the haul goes downhill by cart; Jecca's shortcut is to push the full cart off a cliff and collect its contents at the bottom (Metals and Smelting; Carts, Mounts and Vehicles).

Muddy scrap piles in the Swamp

2:02 Around the Sunken Crypts the Wishbone also finds muddy scrap piles buried in open swamp. An outdoor pile has 20 segments, each with a 29.7% chance of scrap iron, about six scrap iron per pile, better odds than the 30-segment piles inside the crypts (Muddy scrap pile, Valheim Wiki; Sunken Crypts). Timo warns that they often sit at or below the water line, so digging one out means getting wet, and a hoe helps.

Buried treasure in the Meadows

3:01 In the Meadows the Wishbone leads to Viking graveyards, rings of stones laid out in the shape of a longship. Three or four pickaxe hits down along the ship's center line lie two skeletal remains that give bone fragments, usually a chest (an 80% chance) and sometimes loose amber, coins or amber pearls (50%). The chest holds two or three of amber pearls, coins, fire arrows, rubies, a silver necklace, a wooden knife or a wooden axe (Viking Graveyard, Valheim Wiki). Samo adds that the bone occasionally points at Mountain graves, small stone circles whose buried skeleton can hold a silver necklace.

Wishbone, Megingjord and Wisplight

3:32 The Wishbone shares the utility slot with Haldor's Megingjord belt and the Mistlands Wisplight, so only one can be worn. MalinaPlays' routine for the Mountain is to scout with the Wishbone and swap to the belt for the heavy walk home (Carry Weight). The trinkets added by the Call to Arms Update in 2025 use a slot of their own and can be worn with either.

History

The Wishbone has been Bonemass's drop since the early-access launch of February 2021, and guides that month were already teaching players to hunt silver with it (Development History). Its targets have not changed since: later metals, the Flametal of the Ashlands and the Bloodgold of the Deep North, are found by other means, and the 1.0 patch notes do not mention the Wishbone (Valheim 1.0 Has Arrived!, Steam).

Frequently asked questions

How do you use the Wishbone in Valheim? Equip it, then walk around until it chimes and flashes green. The signal speeds up as you get closer; when it flickers like a strobe, dig straight down.

Where do you get the Wishbone? Kill Bonemass, the Swamp boss, who drops one Wishbone for each player in the fight.

What does the Wishbone find? Silver veins in the Mountain, muddy scrap piles in the Swamp and buried treasure at Viking graveyards in the Meadows.

Can you wear the Wishbone and Megingjord at the same time? No. Both use the utility slot, so players swap between them.

How deep are silver veins? About four meters under the snow, on ground above 120 meters of altitude.

Sources

• Wishbone and Hugin, Valheim Wiki (weirdgloop)
• Silver vein and Silver ore, Valheim Wiki
• Muddy scrap pile, Viking Graveyard and Mountain grave, Valheim Wiki
• Bonemass, Valheim Wiki
• Valheim 1.0 Has Arrived!, Iron Gate Studio on Steam, Sep 9, 2026
• Valheim: How to get and use the Wishbone, Skovos (video)
• How to use the WISHBONE to get SILVER, IRON and TREASURE, Timo (video)
• 30+ Need to Know Valheim Tips for the Mountains!, Samo (video)
• Complete SILVER Mining Guide, Jecca Games (video)
• Valheim Mountain Survival 101, MalinaPlays (video)