Bronze is the wall between the stone-and-flint opening hours of Valheim and the gear that actually holds up in the Black Forest. It is the only alloy in the game, it cannot be picked up off the ground during normal exploration, and it takes three separate structures to produce. Once you have the chain set up, though, it runs on repeat.
Quick answer: Craft Bronze at a Forge using 2 Copper and 1 Tin. Both bars come from smelting Copper Ore and Tin Ore in a Smelter fueled by Coal.
Requirements before you can make Bronze
Ore deposits will not respond to a hammer or an axe. You need a pickaxe in your inventory, which becomes available after the first boss, and you need Surtling Cores to unlock the two structures that process ore. Everything else is stone and wood.
| What you need | Where it comes from |
|---|---|
| Pickaxe | Crafted after defeating the first boss |
| Surtling Core | Burial Chambers in the Black Forest |
| Copper Ore | Large deposits in the Black Forest, often on slopes |
| Tin Ore | Small deposits along shorelines and riverbanks in the Black Forest |
| Coal | Charcoal Kiln, which burns Wood into Coal |
Surtling Cores are the gate here. Without them you cannot place a Smelter or a Charcoal Kiln, and without those two you cannot turn ore into bars. Sweep the burial chambers scattered through the Black Forest until you have a comfortable stack.
Where to mine Copper Ore and Tin Ore
Both ores live in the same biome but behave nothing alike. Copper sits in enormous grey-green boulders, usually half-buried in hillsides and inland ridges, with visible orange veins that light up when you put your cursor on them. A single deposit extends well below the surface, so keep digging after the visible chunk breaks — one node can supply dozens of ore, and it will take multiple trips to carry home.
Tin is the opposite. It appears as small, smooth, dark rocks hugging the water’s edge, on sand or grass and sometimes just under the shallows. Tin veins cluster, so once you find one, walk the shoreline and you will usually pick up several more within a short stretch. Watch for Greydwarves while you mine, since the noise pulls them in.
Smelt Copper Ore and Tin Ore into bars
Note: the Charcoal Kiln is not a substitute for the Smelter. It only makes Coal, and standing too close to either structure will burn you.
Build the Forge (indoors, under a roof)
The Forge is the station that actually combines the two metals, and it needs a small amount of Copper to exist in the first place. That means your first six Copper bars go into the building itself, not into gear.
| Forge material | Amount |
|---|---|
| Stone | 4 |
| Coal | 4 |
| Wood | 10 |
| Copper | 6 |
Place it under a roof. An exposed Forge takes rain damage and will refuse to work, so give it four walls or at least solid cover overhead before you commit the materials.
Craft Bronze and confirm it worked
You know it worked when the ingot lands in your inventory and the Forge’s crafting list expands with bronze weapons, tools, and armor that were greyed out or absent a moment earlier. If Bronze will not craft, the cause is almost always one of three things: the Forge is not sheltered, you are standing outside its build radius, or you have Copper Ore and Tin Ore rather than smelted Copper and Tin bars.
Getting ore and Bronze back to base
Metal cannot go through a portal. Copper Ore, Tin Ore, and finished Bronze all have to be carried on foot or by boat, and Bronze weighs 12 per unit with a stack cap of 30. The one exception is the Portal stone introduced with the Ashlands update.
Two things make the trip bearable. Spend your first spare Bronze on Bronze Nails — one Bronze produces 20 nails, and a Cart costs 10 nails plus 20 Wood. The other option is the strength belt sold by the merchant, which raises how much you can haul in a single run. Building a small outpost near a rich copper deposit also cuts the round trip dramatically.
Other sources of Bronze outside the Forge
Alloying is the reliable method, but finished Bronze does turn up in the world later on. Breaking the standing braziers inside Frost Caves in the Mountain biome drops it, as do Ancient pots found in Ashlands ruins and Putrid Holes. Scrap bronze, an uncommon Ashlands material, can also be smelted straight into Bronze without touching the Forge.
What Bronze unlocks
| Category | Items |
|---|---|
| Weapons | Bronze Atgeir, Bronze Axe, Bronze Mace, Bronze Spear, Bronze Sword, Krom, Bronzehead Arrow |
| Armor | Bronze Helmet, Bronze Plate Cuirass, Bronze Plate Leggings, Bronze Buckler |
| Tools and utility | Bronze Pickaxe, Cultivator, Bronze Nails |
| Building | Adze, Anvils, Artisan Press, Cartography Table, Fermenter, Standing Brazier, Hanging Brazier |
Budget accordingly before you stop mining. Crafting one of every base piece of Black Forest tier equipment costs 78 Bronze, and fully upgrading that set pushes the total to 300. The Bronze Pickaxe is the smartest early purchase, since it mines faster than the antler pick and speeds up every ore run after it.
