Valheim, the latest early access title taking the gaming world by storm has hit Steam with a fantastic launch. The game have seen over 1 million copies sold in the first 2 weeks of being live. In Valheim, you will continually face stronger opponents and tougher bosses. To cope with the difficulty spike you’ll have to also get stronger to face these challenges. Along with building up and raising skills for you character you can craft items using better ingredients. Once you’ve created bronze items by combining Copper and Tin your next step will be Iron.
This guide will talk about how you can get iron for yourself in Valheim. It will tell you everything you need such as what part of the game you will get Iron, where to find iron and what weapons and armor you can make with Iron.
What is Iron?
Iron is a metal resource that can be used for crafting in Valheim. You will have to acquire Scrap Iron and process is at a Smelter to get Iron that can be used. Scrap Iron has no other use other than to be melted down into useable Iron bars. Iron is the next step in crafting after you have crafted items using Bronze. Iron items are in all ways superior to Bronze.
Iron can be used not only to create iron weapons and iron armor sets, but also in some construction and structures. For example, Iron Nails will be necessary for the third ship and also to make Iron armor.
Where to Find Iron in Valheim
Iron will only be available to the player after they have defeated the second forsaken creature, The Elder. You can read a guide on The Elder here. Once you have defeated The Elder he will drop an item called the Swamp Key. Once you have collected the Swamp Key, head to the swamp biome and look out for structures with green flaming torches in front of them. This is called a Sunken Crypt. You will see that the door to the sunken crypt is locked. While you have the Swamp Key in your inventory approach the door and interact with it. This will unlock the door for good. You will not have to come back with the key every time to unlock it and every other player on the server will be able to enter this Sunken Crypt. If you plan to go in any other sunken crypts however, they will have to all be opened separately.
Once you have made your way into the Sunken Crypts you will see some doorways are covered by something called a ‘Muddy Scrap pile’. By using a pickaxe on this muddy scrap pile you will be able to find yourself some scrap iron. Other items that can also drop from the muddy scrap pile include leather scrap and Withered Bone. Be aware that scrap iron cannot be brought through a teleporter so you will have to bring either a good deal of storage space within your person, or a ship to transport all of the scrap iron you mined back to your base.
Any type of pickaxe can mine scrap iron including the hard antler pickaxe which you can craft by defeating Eikthyr, the first Forsaken of the game.
The Sunken Crypts in the swamp is the only biome where you can mine iron. Due to the fact that you can mine scrap iron and turn it straight into useable iron, obtaining large amounts of iron is a lot easier when compared to mining out copper and tin to bronze. A base close to the swamp biome is recommended as you can easily process the iron there and take it to your main base later on.
Uses of Iron in Valheim
Before you can use this Iron you will have to put it into a smelter along with some coal. This will melt the scrap iron into iron which can then be used for crafting.
Iron is used for many mid-late game items in the current early access version of Valheim. All of the crafting for items like weapons and tools will be done at the forge, as with copper and bronze. You can make some very good armor by using Iron. Iron can be used for crafting some powerful weaponry as well. Iron has a similar weapon number to Bronze. You can create Iron Maces, Spears and Iron Swords. The Iron Mace is a fantastic blunt weapon that will destroy base-level skeletons in one or two hits.
You can also make an iron version of the small shield and tower shield using iron. These will be a lot better that the wood and bronze versions. Along with shields, better protection can be crafted through iron armors. A chest piece, helmet and leg armor can be crafted. These are far denser and stronger than bronze armor but the wearer will have a small movement penalty due to the weight of armor.
Iron can also be used in building. You will need to craft iron nails in order to create the third and best boat currently in the game, the longship. You can also create some building pieces such as the Iron Gates and an Iron Beam for more stable structures. An advanced bed known as the dragon bed also requires iron nails in order to craft.
Now you know all there is about Iron in Valheim. What kind of material is your favorite in Valheim? Personally I loved the look of my bronze gear but just can’t keep up with the enemy anymore. Now I have finally crafted the Wolf armor and have fallen in love with it.
Let me know what I should write about next in Valheim by leaving a comment down below.
Related: A Guide to The Elder – Valheim | How to Get Carrot Seeds in Valheim