Many players have been sharing screenshots of their favorite builds of the game across all of the internet. Players are enjoying the creative freedom that the building system brings. One of the things that players may not have realized is that you can actually level the ground in Valheim. Today we will be going through how to flatten the ground and level the terrain in Valheim so you can build your dream longhouse on flat land.
How to Level the Ground in Valheim
To level the ground and make it flat for building, the player will have to first get a hold of a Hoe tool. Once you have a hoe, equip it by either right-clicking the item in your inventory, or by assigning the hoe to a place on the quick bar at the top of your inventory. With the hoe equipped right-click to open the hoe action menu. From there choose the action in the top left called “level ground”. Then, by pressing the left mouse button on an area, you will be able to level the ground and try to match the targeted area with the level that you are standing at.
There are a few different other tricks that the player can do with other tools to get the ground perfectly flat in Valheim. By using any type of pick with the hoe, the player can get a very flat surface.
How to Craft a Hoe to Flatten Terrain
If you plan to flatten the terrain you will first need to craft yourself a hoe. The hoe is crafted very early on in the game and needs some very easy materials to gather. To craft the hoe, you will first need to craft a workbench using 10 wood. Once you have made the bench in a decent location, (away from the elements and under a roof) you will be able to press E on the bench to use it. using the workbench you will be able to craft various different items for building and fighting.
We are looking for the hoe. To craft your very own hoe tool you will need to gather 5 wood and 2 stone, fairly easy. The hoe can only be used to create paths and level the ground, not as a weapon. The hoe can also be used to raise the ground if you want to bring it up a bit or create natural dirt walls in Valheim. By using stone and the hoe the player can raise the ground very high.
Using the Hoe to Level and Change Terrain
As aforementioned, using the hoe, the player can level the terrain. How this works exactly is that wherever the player is standing is the height of the terrain the marker will attempt to change the terrain to. If the player is standing in a deep hole and targets a higher part of the ground, the hoe will attempt to level the ground and bring it down to the player’s level. If this is a very dramatic difference sometimes the hoe alone will not be enough to even this part of the ground out.
As shown in the image above, when using the hoe to level terrain it will not be strong enough to completely flatten out large differences in terrain height. The hoe is mainly used to ‘smooth out’ existing terrain rather than make it all completely one flat level. If the player wants to make a completely flat surface with the ground in order to build on it they will have to also use a pick tool.
Using the Pick to Level the Ground
Another handy tool for changing the terrain in Valheim is the pick or pickaxe. Using this tool, the player will be able to dig into the terrain and get stone for their efforts. Is there is a large bulky part of the land that the player wants to flatten out, the hoe may not be strong enough to flatten the area out. One of the things a player can do to get rid of large ‘bumps’ or hills in the terrain is to dig them out using a pick and then use the hoe to flatten it out.
By using the hoe and pickaxe together, you will be able to dig out the high parts of the terrain, and then fill in the deep holes using the raise ground feature of the hoe. Using both of these tools together will help you level the ground and make it very flat for your next building project.
Remember the hill we were trying to flatten in the last section? Using the pickaxe and the hoe together I was able to make the area very flat, even though it is on the side of a cliff. Check out the image below to see what it can look like if you first dig to the general level you want and then use the level terrain feature of the hoe.
You can read more about digging in Valheim here.
Related: Valheim in First Person! | How to Lock Doors and Chests in Valheim