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What are these different tiers?
Achieving new tiers is important because with each tier you unlock access to additional materials and upgrades. These materials allow you to build better home bases for yourself and allows for your character to protect himself better from the various threats. You need to kill the particular boss of every level to unlock the different tiers.
Now, maybe you’re not interested in becoming the best Valheim player, but here’s why you should care about these progression hacks - they simply make the game more fun. It gets old to have the same building materials or weapons every single time you play. Why not spice things up by having new materials to work with in order to create new structures?
It’s really quite similar to real life - if you’re not growing, you’re stagnating, and the same applies to playing Valheim. If you don’t progress, it gets quite stagnant and like a Groundhog Day scene. Each tier you achieve gives you a whole new aspect to the game. At the fifth level, you’ll see why all that progression was necessary.
How to Start
You just started your Valheim journey and are wondering what to focus on. You’ll have to find your basic materials and create basic tools. The two main materials you’ll want to focus on gathering are wood and stone. By doing that, you’ll be able to create your main three tools - hammer, club, and an axe.
So what should you keep an eye out for? Small and big stones, branches, and anything else that looks like it could be stone or wood. Once you’ve found those and made your tools, it’s time to get to work!
Building your workbench
Since you’re just getting started, you’ll want to create a base structure or house. There’s a certain sequence of events that must happen in order for you to be able to build your home base.
- First, you must use your axe in order to chop down trees and gather wood.
- Then, you’ll have to use the wood in order to craft your own workbench.
- Now, where you build it is just as important as building it in the first place. You’ll want your workbench close to wherever you’ll be doing most of your building; we suggest that you build your workbench close to the water. Since your character is a Viking and Vikings spend a lot of time on the water, it simply makes sense to do so.
In order to truly build a structure that’s even reminiscent of a home, you’ll have to gather some more materials. So don’t be disappointed if you aren’t in a position to build the walls or roof yet. It’s not that different from our lives nowadays. We have to save our resources (in our case, money) in order to afford to build or purchase a home.
Gathering food
We’ve talked about all things building, but now it’s important to talk about a different aspect of progressing from one tier to the next - food. Now, not eating won’t have your character die of starvation, but you may die because you’re lacking something the food provides in Valheim - buffs. Buffs can give you strength or they can give you health amongst other things that prove to be valuable when in a fight.
So, what kinds of foods are important? You’ll want boar, deer, necks, berries, and mushrooms. The best way to hunt the animals is by using your club with a strategic hit to the head. Side note: while hunting, make sure to get deer hides and trophies. Also, you’ll want to remember the magic number three - that’s how many buffs you need to help defend yourself against the bosses.
Rule #1 when fighting a boss - your armor will either save you or kill you. Use the deer hide you gathered to create armor, then grab that with your food, and your weapons and walk over to the boss’ altar.
Now, this is where strategy comes into play. In order to win your fight against the boss, you’ll first want to eat your food in order to get as many buffs as possible prior, and then lay out the trophies. This will attract the boss, and you’ll then have to defeat him with a clever club to the head, before taking its head to the spawn point. After defeating several bosses, you’ll finally be ready for the second tier!
Welcome to Tier 2
Now, what makes Valheim such an interesting game is that it truly requires you to be resourceful. From your boss’ head, you’ll want to use the antlers of the Eikthyr to repurpose them as a pickaxe. Something you should be aware of is that these pickaxes aren’t exactly sturdy, so quantity is definitely important. The more you can make, the better.
Into the Black Forest…
Your next destination will be the Black Forest. The Black Forest is going to be home to your second base. You’ll want several bases all over Valheim in order to make traveling easier. If you have a craft bench all throughout Valheim, then you don’t have to travel as far in order to make new weapons, etc. So, choose your spot in the forest and make a new workbench as well as set up another base there.
In this second tier, you’ll be wanting to keep an eye out for copper, tin, and skeletons. You’ll need all three to make bronze. Copper is typically found at the end of the forest, and once you find it, you won’t just find some, but you’ll find plenty of it. What can be extremely helpful for you in this game, is to make sure you mark it on your map, so you know where to go once you need copper again.
Tin can be found around water, and when you find skeletons, you’ll know a dungeon is nearby. In these dungeons, you’ll find cores, which are necessary to craft various items later on. Mark these on your maps, as well.
Using your resources, you’ll now be able to make a kiln and smelter at your home base. Bronze is important in order to make a pickaxe that will last you longer than the deer pickaxe.
Last but not least, you’ll want to have all of your gear upgraded to bronze, including your weapons. This may take some time, so make the most of it. One thing that will be useful later on is linking your bases, as well as making fire arrows.
For this boss, you’ll need seeds, which you’ll throw into the fire after arriving at the arena. Once you’ve won that fight with the Elder, you’re ready to move on to tier 3.
Tier 3 - The Swamp Life
Before walking over to the swamp, it’s important you adequately prepare yourself. There are several things you’ll want to build to make your life easier and guarantee your success. Examples include a beehive, cauldron, and fermenter. Building these will give you access to additional resources, like honey.
No idea where the swamp is at? It’s the place where the trees are all dead, and in order to get there, you’ll need a boat. You will have received a swamp key from the previous boss, and you’ll need this with this new tier. It’ll help you enter the dungeon. In these dungeons, you’ll be able to mine iron which is extremely valuable later on.
Wavering bones will help you defeat your next boss, so gather as many as you can. As with the previous tier, you’ll want to use the iron in order to upgrade your gear again before you fight the boss. You’ll also want your mead, food, and bones in order to win this fight against Bonemass. It won’t be easy but we believe in you! Instead of dropping a key, this boss will drop a wishbone - grab it and hold onto it for dear life.
Step 4 - We’re Going to the Mountains
At this point, you’re practically at the latest update. You only have one more tier ahead of you, but let’s focus on getting through this tier. Here’s the thing you’ll have to combat the most in the mountains - the cold. In order to prepare for that, make sure to fix mead. The wishbone will help you mine iron, which later on will help you make a Lox cape that can make you immune to the frost. In addition, you’ll want to kill Lox for their hides.
We have more information on the mountain update written up here. In the mountains, you’ll also want to find three dragon eggs, as well as the boss arena. Now, you’ll upgrade your gear again, grab your food and all of your new items and get ready to fight the Moder.
We’re at the End
Even though we call it the end, it’s obviously not the end - it’s just the last tier (at the moment). The mountain boss you’ve killed will drop a tear, and you’ll need that in order to succeed here. The last boss can be found in a version of Stonehenge in Valheim.
Ready, Set, Go
Now, you know what it takes to progress and fight your way literally to the end. No more wondering what it takes, no more mystery - you have the step-by-step instructions in order to make it from start to finish.
You can also find additional helpful advice in this article here about server seeds. But before you go any further, a hack we like to emphasize is the importance of using a Valheim dedicated server. Using one has many benefits, including being able to enjoy multiplayer mode, and having no lag time, and you can learn more about that here.
If you do decide to join a Valheim dedicated server, we encourage you to make a server on Hostari. We take our server host responsibilities very seriously and only want the best for everyone - so why not give it a shot? We have a 24-hour free trial for you to make that final decision.
