Black Forest Guide: Resources, Enemies & How to Survive Valheim's Second Biome

Stepping Into the Dark: What to Expect

The first time you cross from the sunny Meadows into the Black Forest, the difference is immediate. The canopy closes overhead, Pine and Fir trees block out the sunlight, and the atmosphere shifts from welcoming to watchful. Ferns blanket the forest floor between felled logs and massive boulders, Berry Bushes and glowing Thistle plants dot the undergrowth, and somewhere in the distance you can already hear the grunting of Greydwarfs. This is Valheim's second biome, and it is where your adventure truly begins.

The Black Forest is the gateway to the Bronze Age. Everything you need to transition from stone tools to metal weapons and armor is found here: Copper and Tin Ore for smelting, Surtling Cores for building your first smelting infrastructure, and Haldor the merchant with items that will change how you play the game. In my experience, new players either love or hate this biome. If you come prepared, it becomes one of the most rewarding stages of the entire game. If you stumble in unprepared, the Skeletons outside a Burial Chamber will teach you a painful lesson.

Before venturing in, you should have defeated Eikthyr and crafted the Antler Pickaxe. Without it, you cannot mine Copper or Tin, and the entire biome's progression stalls. You should also be eating three foods at all times. Without food, your base health is only 25 HP and your stamina is 50. Three cooked foods from the Meadows will push you to roughly 115 HP. That difference is life and death. Activate Eikthyr's Forsaken Power for reduced stamina cost on running and jumping; it makes escaping bad situations much more forgiving.

Creatures of the Black Forest

The Black Forest is home to a diverse roster of hostile creatures, and understanding them is essential. The most common enemy by far is the Greydwarf. These mossy, tree-like creatures roam in groups, especially at night when spawn rates roughly double. A standard Greydwarf has 40 HP and deals 14 Slash damage with its melee attack. They are very weak to Fire (2x damage), so Fire Arrows are devastatingly effective. Greydwarfs drop Wood, Stone, Resin, and the extremely important Greydwarf Eyes, which you will need for crafting Portals. Greydwarf Brutes are larger and tougher, and Greydwarf Shamans can heal their allies and poison you. The Brutes can also drop Ancient Seeds, which you will need to summon The Elder.

Skeletons guard the entrances to Burial Chambers and lurk inside them. They have 40 HP and are weak to Blunt damage (1.5x) and Fire (1.5x), but resistant to Pierce (0.5x). This is a critical detail: do not try to fight Skeletons with a Spear or Bow as your primary damage. Bring a Club, Mace, or the Stagbreaker. Even the basic wooden Club is surprisingly effective here. About 80% of Skeletons wield swords for melee, while 20% use bows for ranged attacks at up to 20 meters.

And then there are Trolls. These towering, blue-skinned giants are 7 meters tall with 600 HP on a base star level. They hit incredibly hard, with a punch dealing 60 Blunt damage and a log swing reaching up to 9 meters. Trolls are weak to Pierce damage (1.5x), and headshots deal double Pierce damage, making a Bow with Fire Arrows the ideal approach. The safest strategy is kiting: keep your distance, backpedal while shooting, and use the dense forest to your advantage since Trolls have large hitboxes that get stuck on terrain. A 0-star Troll drops 5 Troll Hide, 20-29 Coins, and has a 50% chance to drop a Troll Trophy. You will need that Troll Hide for one of the best early-game armor sets.

Bears, Ghosts, and Rancid Remains also inhabit the Black Forest. Ghosts and Rancid Remains are found exclusively inside Burial Chambers. The biome's passive creatures include Deer, Crows, Gulls, and several fish species (Perch, Pike, and Trollfish) if you have access to a Fishing Rod.

Mining Copper and Tin: Entering the Bronze Age

The entire purpose of the Black Forest, from a progression standpoint, is getting you into the Bronze Age. This requires two ores found exclusively in this biome: Copper and Tin.

Copper Deposits are large, dark yellow-streaked boulders scattered throughout the forest. They look like ordinary rocks at first glance, but the subtle bronze-colored veins give them away, especially when sunlight catches them. Each deposit contains 138 nodes that extend deep underground, and each node has 50 HP. A fully mined deposit yields approximately 117 Copper Ore and 234 Stone. The key insight most new players miss is that Copper Deposits are much larger than they appear on the surface. Always mine around the perimeter first, then dig down. The deposit extends to the eight-meter dig limit, and about 10% of nodes will be buried beneath it, unreachable. Set up a small camp with a Workbench nearby so you can repair your Antler Pickaxe on site. Mark deposits on your map for return trips.

Tin Deposits are much smaller. These shiny, silver-streaked rocks are found exclusively near water sources along the Black Forest shoreline. Each deposit has 30 HP and drops 3-4 Tin Ore when mined. They break in a single mining session, unlike the massive Copper Deposits. Tin is easy to spot once you know what to look for, but make sure to sweep every shoreline you find because Tin does not respawn.

Neither Copper Ore nor Tin Ore can be teleported through Portals. This is one of the most important restrictions in Valheim. You will need to haul your ore back to base by foot, Cart, or Karve. Plan your mining routes accordingly, and consider building a temporary smelting outpost near rich deposits rather than dragging everything home.

Burial Chambers and Surtling Cores

Before you can do anything with your raw ore, you need Surtling Cores. These glowing red cubes are found inside Burial Chambers, the Black Forest's instanced dungeon. Burial Chambers come in three entrance variants: rectangular stone doorways, sloped earth leading to a hole, and cave-like entrances in hillsides. A clear indicator that you are near one is the presence of Skeletons guarding the entrance; typically three spawn outside each chamber.

Inside, Burial Chambers are dark, maze-like corridors populated by Skeletons, Evil Bone Pile spawners, and the occasional Ghost. Bring a Torch or, if you have already found Haldor, a Dverger Circlet for hands-free lighting. The best strategy for navigating is to pick one wall (left or right) upon entering and always follow it. This classic maze technique ensures you see every room and find your way back to the exit.

Surtling Cores are scattered throughout the chambers, either sitting on stands or hidden in side rooms. You also find Yellow Mushrooms (a food ingredient), Bone Fragments, Coins, Amber, Amber Pearls, and Rubies. The gems are valuable; hold onto them for selling to Haldor. Chests inside the chambers can contain 1-3 Amber (20%), 10-30 Coins (20%), 1-10 Feathers (20%), 5-10 Flinthead Arrows (20%), and 1-2 Rubies (20%). Importantly, enemies slain inside Burial Chambers do not respawn, but Yellow Mushrooms do respawn after about 4 hours.

You need a minimum of 10 Surtling Cores to build your first Charcoal Kiln and Smelter (5 each). You will want additional cores for Portals (2 per Portal), so plan on clearing multiple Burial Chambers. Some chambers also contain Runestones that reveal the location of The Elder on your map.

Troll Hide Armor: The Smart Player's Choice

Here is a tip that will save you an enormous amount of Bronze: skip Bronze Armor entirely and craft Troll Hide Armor instead. Killing Trolls is dangerous at first, but well worth it. A single 0-star Troll drops 5 Troll Hide, which is enough for one armor piece. The full Troll Hide set (Helmet, Tunic, Pants, Cape) requires 40 Troll Hide total, meaning you need roughly 8 Troll kills if you want to upgrade it.

The beauty of this approach is twofold. First, Troll Hide Armor crafted at a Workbench costs zero metal, freeing up all your Bronze for weapons, the Forge, and the Cultivator. Second, the set provides a unique set bonus called Sneaky, granting +15 to your Sneak skill when all four pieces are equipped. This is the first set bonus in the game, and it is fantastic for opening fights with backstab damage. The kiting strategy for killing Trolls is straightforward: use a Bow with Fire Arrows, keep trees between you and the Troll, and backpedal while shooting. If a Troll with a log is chasing you, try to lure it into the Meadows where there are fewer additional threats.

Haldor the Merchant and Points of Interest

One of the most exciting discoveries in the Black Forest is Haldor, the Dvergr merchant. He spawns at one of 10 possible locations, always at least 1,500 meters from the world center and always in a Black Forest biome. When you get within about 300-450 meters, a small bag icon appears on your minimap. His camp is surrounded by a shimmering protective dome that creatures cannot enter, making it a safe haven.

Haldor's most important item is the Megingjord belt, costing 950 Coins. It increases your carrying capacity by 150 (from 300 to 450), which is transformative for hauling ore and building materials. The Dverger Circlet (620 Coins) provides a permanent headlamp, making it invaluable for Burial Chambers and any nighttime activity. The Fishing Rod (350 Coins) unlocks fishing for food. After you defeat The Elder, Haldor also stocks Ymir Flesh (120 Coins each), a crafting material needed for powerful weapons like the Iron Sledge and Frostner later in the game. You can sell your accumulated Amber (5 Coins each), Amber Pearls (10 Coins each), Rubies (20 Coins each), and Silver Necklaces (30 Coins each) to fund your purchases.

Beyond Haldor, the Black Forest contains several points of interest. Abandoned Outposts are stone structures sometimes guarded by Greydwarfs or Skeletons, with barrels outside that can drop Blueberries, Coal, Deer Hide, Flint, Greydwarf Eyes, Leather Scraps, Resin, or Tin Ore. Chests inside can contain Amber, Coins, Feathers, and Flinthead Arrows. Shipwrecks along the coast can be broken for Finewood and often contain treasure chests. Greydwarf Nests are spawners that continuously produce Greydwarfs until destroyed; they also drop Ancient Seeds when broken.

Portals: The Game-Changing Unlock

Arguably the single most impactful unlock from the Black Forest is the Portal. By combining 10 Greydwarf Eyes, 20 Finewood, and 2 Surtling Cores at a Workbench, you can build a Portal. Build two Portals with matching case-sensitive names, and they connect for instant teleportation. This fundamentally changes how you explore Valheim.

The best practice is to always keep a Portal at your home base and carry Portal materials when exploring. When you land on a new shore or reach a boss altar, drop a Portal immediately. If you die, you can portal back to retrieve your gear instead of making a brutal corpse run. Keep a "blank" Portal (with no name) at your base so you can build one in the field with a matching blank name for an instant connection. Remember, Portal names are case-sensitive: "home" and "Home" are different Portals. The critical limitation is that ores, metals, Dragon Eggs, and certain other items cannot travel through standard Portals. You will need boats and Carts for those.

Resources and Food Sources

Beyond Copper and Tin, the Black Forest offers several unique resources. Core Wood comes from chopping Pine trees and unlocks recipes like the Cultivator, Finewood Bow, and Stagbreaker. Finewood can be obtained from breaking furniture inside Abandoned Outposts and Shipwrecks; once you have a Bronze Axe, you can also chop Birch and Oak trees. Thistle is a small green thorny plant with a blue glow, easy to spot at night. It is essential for many Cauldron recipes, especially Mead bases. Carrot Seeds spawn rarely on the forest floor and can be planted using a Cultivator to start your first farm.

For food, Blueberries grow on bushes throughout the biome, and Yellow Mushrooms are found inside Burial Chambers. With Tin smelted into bars, you can craft a Cauldron (10 Tin at a Forge), which unlocks recipes like Carrot Soup, Deer Stew, and Queens Jam. These foods are a significant upgrade over Meadows-era meals and will carry you well into the Swamp. Prioritize building a Cauldron and a Fermenter (30 Finewood, 5 Bronze, 10 Resin at a Workbench). The Fermenter lets you brew Mead bases into Meads, including the vital Poison Resistance Mead you will want before entering the Swamp.