Black Forest Biome Walkthrough - Valheim
Our first real objective in the Black Forest is to collect Surtling Cores from the Crypts. You can find Crypts by exploring the biome and looking for groups of Skeletons outside of the towers. Skeletons spawn in some of the abandoned towers in this biome but they're also always guarding the Crypt entrances.
If you find yourself struggling with the Crypts you'll want to upgrade your Leather Armor with the Bone Fragments from the Skeletons. Use a bow to defeat the Trolls and you can get some Troll Hide which can be used to make a great early game set too. Once you get enough Surtling Cores you can use them to make a Charcoal Kiln and a Smelter. This allows us to process Wood and turn it into Charcoal, it also allows us to smelt ore into metal.
The next big thing to do in Black Forest is farm Copper Ore, Tin Ore and Core Wood. You can find Copper throughout the biome, but Tin is always found around the coast or rivers. We need tons of both, I actually recommend making a small base near or inside your Black Forest and do all of the smelting and crafting there. We need 100+ Bronze and that is a lot of running back and forth from your base to your farm spot.
Once you get both ores, use the Forge to turn them into Bronze. You'll want to make the following items with your Bronze:
Bronze Item Crafting List:
Bronze Axe
Bronze Helmet
Bronze Plate Cuirass
Bronze Plate Leggings
Bronze Nails (Cart, Karve)
Bronze Pickaxe
Cultivator
It's up to you how many times you want to upgrade all of these items, it'll be over a hundred bronze if you upgrade them all to max. Out of everything above, the Bronze Axe is the most important in my opinion because it lets you cut down Oak and Birch trees in the Meadows. This will give Fine Wood which lets you craft Portals and other upgrades, like Huntsman Bow.
The Cultivator is also important since it lets you plant the Carrot Seeds that you find in Black Forest. Once you've crafted all of the above items you'll want to start bringing Ore/Metal back to your base to upgrade your workstations and to build new ones. You'll now have access to the Cauldron which lets you make upgraded food, the Fermenter which lets you make Meads (Potions) and the Mead Ketill which lets you craft the Meads.
Learn how all of these new stations work since they're important, especially the Cauldron. When you're ready to challenge the next boss, you'll want to look for his Vegvisir Stone inside of a Crypt or on the outside of one of the towers guarded by Greydwarves. These towers will always have a couple Greydwarves and a barrel outside which normally drops Tin and other goodies when destroyed. You'll also need 3 Ancient Seeds to summon The Elder, you'll get these from Greydwarf Spawners or from defeating Greydwarf Brutes.
Black Forest Tips & Tricks
- Make a Workbench nearby or inside of a Copper node that you're mining. This will make trips to repair much faster. Keep using an Antler Pickaxe so you can repair it at the Workbench.
- Build a Campfire at the entrance to a Crypt and sit down to get the Rested bonus buff.
- Cooking Stations can be built in the hallway of Crypts to block Skeletons from reaching you. This lets you easily take them out with a Bow.
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Haldor - The Trader
Haldor spawns in a Black Forest, he has multiple spawns on each world seed but he'll alway spawn in the location you get closest to first. An easy way to find Haldor is to sail along the coast of Black Forest, eventually you'll see the bag appear on your map which marks his location.
You are able to trade Gold for unique items at Haldor, some of these items are very important and will make your time spent in Valheim much more enjoyable. Things like the Dverger Circlet will help you see in the dark, Megingjord will give you 150 extra carry weight, Eggs will get you Chickens (only available once Plains boss has been beaten). There are more things that Haldor sells, but these are some of my favorites.
When you finally do locate Haldor you'll want to place a portal down for easy access to and from. Return to him with all of your Amber, Amber Pearl and Ruby items because he'll buy them for gold too. My recommendation for the portal is to raise the ground in an area nearby, you only need a small area for the portal and a Workbench. Raise it to max height and then place the stuff you need on it.
Base Building - Finding The Space
Starting with Black Forest your need to expand your base becomes very obvious. Not only are you given numerous new crafting stations (Forge, Fermenter, Cauldron, Smelter, Charcoal Kiln) you're also given Portals. If all that wasn't enough, you're also given the Cultivator which lets you plant crops and you need space for that too!
Planning out your base is an ongoing thing in this game because you're going to expand it yet again with the next biome. Swamp adds Iron which lets you start crafting walls and floors with stone, I normally don't make a serious base until I get to Stone since that is significantly more durable and nice looking.
My first piece of advice when it comes to building your base is to secure it in some way. Check out my How To Keep Your Base Safe Guide for more information on ways you can secure a location and stop all enemies from spawning. The second piece of advice I have for you is to cut out more land than you think you need. Swamp and Mountain (the next two biomes) will add more crafting stations and more crops for you to grow. Mountain also adds another animal to tame, all of this requires space.
Portal Nexus
Now that we can make Portals, it's time to start thinking of where we want to make our "Portal Nexus". This is normally a room in your base or outside of your base that houses all of your portals. You're going to need about 5 Portals at minimum. Players like myself like to have over a dozen portals, one for each boss, one for each trader and also portals for additional bases/exploring.
I also like to have 3 portals named "1", "2" and "3" which are available incase of emergency. If I am out and about exploring the world and I need a quick portal back home I will use one of those 3.
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Black Forest Boss - The Elder
Summon Items: 3 Ancient Seeds
The second boss you'll be fighting in Valheim is The Elder, he's basically a giant slender Greydwarf. Like with every other Greydwarf in the game, The Elder is weak to fire damage. Sometimes players will cheese this boss fight with Campfires (circle the boss while placing the Campfires/repairing them) but I prefer to use a Finewood Bow and some Fire Arrows.
One thing to note is that the pillars surrounding the boss arena are indestructible, so you can use them to block the vine shooting attack that The Elder likes to use. Alternatively, my advice is to use the natural terrain of the Black Forest to avoid the ranged attacks from The Elder. Trees and rocks will slowly get broken up by the vines but it'll be enough to protect you momentarily to recover Stamina. Eikthyr's boss power is a great help for this fight too.
If you're struggling with this boss still, I recommend you check out my How To Make Bosses Easier Guide for more information.