If you’re struggling in Valheim to find a certain ore, this guide covers where to find every single type. Whether you’re looking for something as early as copper or as late as silver. Our guide covers where and how to find every ore you’ll need for new and better gear. Click any link in the table below to find what you’re searching for.
How to Get Every Ore in Valheim
| How to Get Copper |
| How to Get Tin |
| How to Get Iron |
| How to Get Silver Ore |
| How to Get Black Metal |
How to Get Copper
Before you can start mining copper deposits, you’ll need to kill the first boss in Valheim, Eikthyr. This boss drops Hard Antlers which are used for the first pickaxe you can make. Once you have an Antler Pickaxe, head to the Black Forest where you can find massive stone rocks along the ground. Unfortunately, a lot of rocks look almost identical to copper making it difficult to distinguish the two. However, once you look at a rock that is copper, a little name will pop up saying that it’s copper.
You may need to break a few chunks of the copper deposit before it actually drops any copper ore. Once you’re full up, you can smelt the copper ore at a Smelter. If you don’t have the Smelter crafting station recipe yet, you’ll need to get some Surtling Cores from a Burial Chamber in the Black Forest. Our guide here explains each step to smelting copper ore and preparing for the second Valheim boss. Also, when mining copper, be sure to dig deep because copper deposits tend to run far underground.
How to Get Tin
Tin is a little more annoying to get than copper since it’s not as abundant. You can find Tin Deposits along rivers generally in the Black Forest biome. However, you may find it in the Meadows as well, also along rivers. As shown in the screenshot above, they’re shiny rocks with a slightly different color than normal stone rocks. And they don’t have that mossy green color on them either. Tin is mostly useful for a Cauldron and making Bronze Bars.
How to Get Iron
Once you’ve defeated the second boss, The Elder, you’ll get a Swamp Key. Our guide on what to do after The Elder discusses in-detail how to get iron and other useful information. For the quick answer on how to get/find iron, you’ll need to use a Swamp Key on Sunken Crypts in the Swamp biome. These dungeons have Muddy Scrap Piles that can be mined with any pickaxe. However, your Antler Pickaxe won’t last as long as a Bronze Pickaxe. Fair warning, you can’t teleport with ore on you. Carts and ships are a useful way to transport ore if you need to go a far distance. Otherwise, you can create a small base closer.
How to Get Silver Ore
Before you can get silver in Valheim, you’ll need to kill the third boss, Bonemass. If you haven’t done this yet, our guide here gives some tips and tricks on killing Bonemass. Once this boss is dead, you’ll get a Wishbone item that emits an aura around you and makes a sound when near buried chests, buried iron, or silver ore. It speeds up and becomes more frequent as you get closer to the source. Just make sure you have it equipped so it works. While it seems you can find buried chests in every biome, you can only find silver deposits in the Mountains. Make sure you have a Wolf Fur Cape or Frost Resistance Mead for fighting the cold. Only Iron Pickaxes can mine silver deposits.
How to Get the Black Metal
As usual, before you can get Black Metal, you’ll need to defeat the fourth boss, Moder. Our guide here provides some tips and tricks on fighting Moder. Once you’ve killed this boss, you’ll get Dragon Tears for making an Artisan Table crafting station. This will unlock the Blast Furnace used for smelting Black Metal Scrap from Fulings in the Plains biome. Fulings are green goblins shown in the screenshot above that drop Black Metal Scrap on death. You can find them patrolling the Plains or at massive camps shown in the screenshot above. Be careful as they’re among the toughest enemies in the game.
For more Valheim guides, visit our guide hub here to get even more help. Other useful guides you may want to check out are linked below as well. If you have any other Valheim questions, be sure to ask in the comments below for help.
- 10 Best Valheim Tips and Tricks For Beginners
- How to Get Stone Buildings
- How to Fish & Where to Get a Fishing Rod
Jeff is a journalist with over 10 years of experience writing, streaming, and making content about video games. With an associate degree in journalism, he’s a sucker for RPGs, survival games, roguelikes, and more.