Valheim: How to Craft a Bow and Arrows

The Crude Bow is the first ranged weapon you can build in Valheim, and it only needs two things you can gather in your starting Meadows: wood and leather scraps. Arrows are even cheaper. The whole setup takes a few minutes once you have a workbench standing.

Quick answer: Stand next to a Level 1 Workbench with 10 Wood and 8 Leather Scraps, craft the Crude Bow, then craft Wood Arrow x20 for 8 Wood. Equip both from your inventory before you shoot.

Crude Bow and Wood Arrow recipes

Both recipes unlock automatically at a basic workbench, so there is nothing to discover or research first. The bow is two-handed, which means no shield while it is drawn.

Item	Materials	Result
Crude Bow	Wood x10, Leather Scraps x8	1 bow, 22 pierce damage, 50 durability, 3x backstab
Wood Arrow	Wood x8	20 arrows, 22 pierce damage, 10 knockback

Arrow damage stacks on top of the bow’s base damage, so the arrow you load matters as much as the bow itself. Wood Arrows are the cheapest option and the only one you can make before upgrading the workbench.

Where to get Wood and Leather Scraps

Wood comes from chopping any normal tree in the Meadows with a Stone Axe. You need 18 total for one bow plus a stack of 20 arrows, which is one or two trees.

Leather Scraps drop from the boars wandering the Meadows. Boars will charge you rather than flee, so they are easy to farm with a club, and they tend to spawn in small groups. Eight scraps usually takes two or three kills. Boar Trophies also drop while you hunt, and they are worth keeping for later.

Craft the Crude Bow at a Workbench

Open your inventory and confirm the counts on your Wood and Leather Scraps stacks. If either is short, the recipe will still appear in the menu but the Craft button stays disabled.

Valheim crafting menu with a recipe highlighted and the Craft button on the right — The crafting list sits on the left of the inventory screen, with the selected recipe and its Craft button on the right.

Walk up to your workbench and press E to use it. Workbenches only function under a roof, so most players tuck one inside a small wooden hut. Standing inside the bench’s build radius is what unlocks the full recipe list.

Workbench crafting menu open in Valheim with a weapon recipe selected — Using the workbench opens the same crafting panel with every Level 1 recipe available, including the Crude Bow.

Select Crude Bow from the recipe list and hit Craft. The 10 Wood and 8 Leather Scraps disappear from your inventory and the bow lands in the first free slot.

Select Wood Arrow x20 and craft it. Each press consumes 8 Wood and gives you a stack of 20, so craft it a few times over. A single hunting trip burns through arrows faster than you would expect.

Note: while the workbench menu is open, use the repair icon to fix worn gear like your Stone Axe. Repairs cost nothing but a bench, and the Crude Bow’s 50 durability means you will be back here often.

Equip the bow and arrows, and check it worked

Drag the Crude Bow onto a hotbar slot and press that number key. Your character visibly draws the bow out, and the hotbar slot highlights. The arrows need to be equipped separately from the inventory; with none equipped, pressing the attack button does nothing at all.

Player holding the newly equipped bow inside a wooden shelter beside a campfire in Valheim — With the bow assigned to a hotbar slot, the character holds it ready as soon as that slot is selected.

Aiming is the part that trips people up. Arrows drop noticeably in flight, so the crosshair is not where the shot lands. Aim higher than feels correct and watch your character’s posture rather than the reticle. The bow shines on deer, which bolt the moment they spot you, and a clean headshot from range removes the need to sneak at all.

Why the Crude Bow won’t craft

You are outside the workbench’s build radius. Move closer until the bench menu opens with E.
The workbench has no roof over it and is flagged as unusable.
Your materials are split across a chest and your inventory. Only what you are carrying counts.
You have wood but no Leather Scraps. Boars are the only early source.

Crude Bow upgrade tiers

The same bow can be pushed to quality tier 4 as you upgrade the workbench. Each tier needs Deer Hides on top of the base materials, which is another reason to hunt deer early.

Tier (Workbench level)	Upgrade materials	Pierce / Durability
1 (Level 1)	Wood x10, Leather Scraps x8	22 / 50
2 (Level 2)	Wood x5, Leather Scraps x4, Deer Hide x1	25 / 100
3 (Level 3)	Wood x10, Leather Scraps x8, Deer Hide x2	28 / 150
4 (Level 4)	Wood x15, Leather Scraps x12, Deer Hide x3	31 / 200

Once the workbench hits Level 2, Flinthead Arrows become the obvious upgrade over Wood Arrows. They cost Wood x8, Flint x2, and Feathers x2 for 20 arrows and hit for 27 pierce instead of 22. Flint sits in the shallows along any Meadows shoreline and looks like pale, smooth grey stone, so it is worth grabbing a handful every time you pass water.