Valheim: How to Build Anvils and Get Forge Level 2

A fresh Forge in Valheim is stuck at level 1, which caps how far you can upgrade metal gear. The fix is a single small structure called Anvils, and it costs almost nothing once you have bronze in your pocket.

Quick answer: Build Anvils with Wood x5 and Bronze x2 using the Hammer while standing inside a Workbench’s range, and place it next to your Forge. The Forge jumps to level 2 the moment the piece snaps into place.

Anvils requirements in Valheim

Anvils is a Forge improvement, not a standalone station, so a working Forge has to exist first. The Forge itself needs Stone x4, Coal x4, Wood x10, and Copper x6, and it only functions indoors with a roof and roughly 70 percent cover around it.

Requirement	Detail
Materials	Wood x5, Bronze x2
Crafting station	Workbench (must be in range when you place it)
Placement	Within the Forge’s build radius, under the same roof
Result	Forge level 1 → level 2

Wood comes from any tree in the Meadows. Bronze is the part that gates most players, since it means a trip to the Black Forest.

How to get the Bronze x2 for Anvils

Mine copper deposits and pick tin veins in the Black Forest. Copper sits in large rocky mounds you break with a pickaxe, while tin appears as small shiny nodes along shorelines.

Smelt the ore at home. A Smelter turns copper ore and tin ore into bars, and it needs coal, which a Charcoal Kiln produces from wood.

Craft bronze at the Forge. Each bar of Bronze costs Copper x2 and Tin x1, so two bars of Bronze for Anvils means four copper and two tin in total.

Forge crafting menu with Bronze selected and the Craft button ready — Bronze is crafted at the Forge itself, one bar at a time. Image: Iron Gate Studio

Tip: crafting bronze one bar at a time raises your Crafting skill faster than holding Shift to batch five at once. It is slower in real time, but the skill gain is worth it early on.

How to build Anvils next to your Forge

Equip the Hammer and open the build menu inside the same room as your Forge. You need a Workbench covering that spot, otherwise nothing in the Crafting category will be placeable.

Switch to the Crafting category in the build wheel. This is the same tab that holds stations and station add-ons, so scroll past the cooking and smelting entries.

Hammer build menu open on the Crafting category with Mead Ketill highlighted — The Crafting category of the build menu, where station add-ons live alongside items like the Mead Ketill. Image: Iron Gate Studio

Find the Anvils entry and check the cost panel. It should read Wood x5 and Bronze x2, with the Workbench icon listed as the required station.

Build menu showing a Cauldron entry selected with its placement preview in the workshop — Each Crafting entry shows its material cost and a placement preview before you commit. Image: Iron Gate Studio

Aim at the floor beside the Forge until the preview glows green, then place it. Anvils takes up real floor space, so leave a gap of a tile or two around the Forge before you start decorating.

Green Anvils placement preview lined up on the workshop floor beside the Forge — Anvils selected in the build menu, with the green preview positioned next to the Forge. Image: Iron Gate Studio

How to confirm the Forge reached level 2

A message appears on screen the instant the upgrade registers, reading “New station level Forge level 2”. You can double-check by interacting with the Forge and looking at the station level shown in its crafting window.

If the message never fires, the cause is almost always distance. Anvils has to sit inside the Forge’s build radius, and moving it a few steps closer usually fixes it. Upgrades can be deconstructed and rebuilt without losing materials, so repositioning costs you nothing but a few seconds.

Finished workshop interior with the Forge and its new Anvils add-on in place — The finished setup, with Anvils sharing the workshop roof with the Forge. Image: Iron Gate Studio

What Forge level 2 unlocks, and the upgrades after it

Every Forge level opens new recipes and raises the ceiling on how far existing gear can be upgraded. Each level also stretches the build radius by three meters, topping out at 38 meters, which matters once the larger add-ons start crowding your workshop.

Level	Add-on and cost
2	Anvils — Wood x5, Bronze x2
3	Forge Cooler — Finewood x25, Copper x10
4	Smith’s Anvil — Wood x5, Iron x20
5	Forge Toolrack — Wood x10, Iron x15
6	Forge Bellows — Wood x5, Deer hide x5, Chain x4
7	Grinding Wheel — Wood x25, Sharpening stone x1 (Stonecutter needed)

Level 7 is the cap, and reaching it means clearing the Swamp for iron and chains. Chains drop from Wraiths at night and turn up in Sunken Crypts, which is why the Forge Bellows tends to be the last piece people slot in.

Anvils is the cheapest step on that whole ladder, so there is no reason to delay it. Build the Forge, run one Black Forest trip for copper and tin, and your bronze gear can immediately start climbing past its base stats.