Your First 10 Days in Valheim — A Day-by-Day Survival Plan

Valheim's calendar moves whether you are ready or not, and the early game rewards a plan. Here is a proven day-by-day route from naked beachcast survivor to Bronze Age adventurer — the stretch where most new players quit and most veterans know is actually the easy part.

Days 1–2: wood, stone, shelter, food

Punch small trees and collect stones on the shoreline — your fists gather everything the first hour requires. Build a workbench the moment you have 10 wood, then a simple hut around it: walls, a door, a roof, a campfire inside with a chimney hole, and a bed. A bed is your respawn anchor; a campfire is your rest and cooking station. Kill boars with a flint-tipped weapon for Raw Meat and Deer Hide, hunt deer with a bow (crude bow + wood arrows), and pick raspberries, mushrooms and honey from beehives in abandoned houses. Eat three different foods at all times — variety raises both HP and stamina.

Days 3–4: flint age and the first real gear

Walk the beaches and riverbanks for Flint, which upgrades your weapons and tools: flint spear, flint knife, flint axe and flint arrows all come from the workbench. A crude bow with flint arrows comfortably hunts deer for hides; upgrade to finer arrows as feathers and resin pile up. Craft a deer hide cape and leggings when hide allows. While you are at it, chop fine wood from birch trees — a flint axe can fell birch — because fine wood gates the portal frame and better furniture later.

Days 5–6: summon and slay Eikthyr

Eikthyr is summoned at a mystical altar in the Meadows with two Deer Trophies (guaranteed-ish drops from deer). Before you press the altar, prepare properly: a full stack of arrows, a shield, cooked meat and honey, and a clear arena — chop away trees around the altar so nothing blocks your movement. The fight itself is a footrace: dodge the antler charge sideways, stay out from under the lightning stomps, and punish him with arrows between animations. The Eikthyr guide has the full breakdown.

His Hard Antler becomes the Antler Pickaxe — the key that opens mining.

Days 7–8: the Black Forest and copper

Follow the antler pickaxe to the Black Forest border and find surface copper deposits — huge mossy rocks with glittering veins. Mine copper while watching for greydwarves; build a small forward camp with a fire near the deposit rather than hauling ore home. Meanwhile, hunt surtling cores in burial chambers — you need them for a smelter (and a portal, and charcoal kiln). Your first bronze is close.

Days 9–10: tin, bronze and the cauldron

Tin deposits sit on the waterlines of Black Forest coasts and riverbanks — small, shiny, easy to spot once you know the look. Copper plus tin at a forge makes bronze: the bronze pickaxe, bronze axe, bronze mace and bronze armor set are your ticket into the deeper forest and, eventually, the Swamp. Upgrade the cauldron and hunt carrot seeds in Black Forest chests — burial chambers and abandoned houses both hold them. Plant them with a cultivator: your first renewable food pipeline.

Mistakes that cost new players days

• Sailing before portals. Exploring by boat with no return network means dying an hour from home with a full inventory of ore you cannot portal.
• Fighting at night, wet, and unrested. Three debuffs stack into death. Camp until dawn; it is always worth it.
• Skipping the hoe. Raising ground and digging moats turns any base into a raid-proof fortress for a few minutes of work.
• Ignoring the wishbone chain. Bonemass drops the wishbone; without it you cannot find silver. Never skip bosses — Valheim's tiers are chained together.

Keep reading:

• Base Building Guide
• Workbench Upgrade Chain
• Best World Seeds