Resin is the sticky, slow-burning material that keeps Valheim lit. You need it for your first torch, and you keep needing it for shields, fire arrows, boats, the Fermenter, and every standing light source in your base. It shows up early and never stops being useful, so it pays to know exactly where it comes from.
Quick answer: Kill anything in the Greydwarf family — Greylings, Greydwarves, Shamans, and Brutes — for a guaranteed Resin drop, or chop trees and watch for the “Added Resin” pickup message. Greydwarf spawners in the Black Forest are the fastest repeatable source.
Every Resin source in Valheim
Resin has more origins than most early-game materials, which is why you rarely have to go out of your way for the first few stacks. It stacks to 50 and is teleportable, so portals are fine for hauling it home.
| Source | Where | Reliability |
|---|---|---|
| Greyling, Greydwarf, Greydwarf shaman, Greydwarf brute, Kvastur | Mostly Black Forest; Greylings also roam the Meadows | Guaranteed drop |
| Greydwarf spawners (nests) | Black Forest | Endless, as long as the nest survives |
| Trees — beech, birch, fir, pine, oak, Yggdrasil shoots | Meadows, Black Forest, and beyond | Random chance per tree |
| Chests | Meadows | Occasional |
| Barrels near Greydwarf building spawns | Black Forest | Occasional |
Ancient Trees and Scorched Trees are the two exceptions. They never drop Resin, no matter how many you fell.
Farm Resin at Greydwarf spawners in the Black Forest
If you need Resin in bulk, stop chopping and go hunting. Every Greydwarf-type enemy drops Resin at a 100 percent rate, and the amount scales with the enemy’s star level. A spawner keeps producing targets indefinitely, which turns a single nest into a renewable supply point.
| Enemy | Level | Resin dropped |
|---|---|---|
| Greyling | 1 / 2 / 3 | 1 / 2 / 4 |
| Greydwarf | 1 / 2 / 3 | 1 / 2 / 4 |
| Greydwarf shaman | 1 / 2 / 3 | 1 / 2 / 4 |
Note: spawners can produce Brutes and Shamans, not just weak Greylings. Brutes hit hard in early gear and Shamans heal the pack, so bring a shield and a fire source before you camp a nest for a long session.
Getting Resin from chopping trees
Trees drop Resin on a chance roll, not on a guarantee. That means a run of small beech trees in the Meadows can hand you Resin on almost every swing, while a big tree you spend a minute felling and breaking down might give you nothing but Wood. It is not a size rule so much as luck — and it evens out over a long logging session.
Once a tree comes down, break the fallen logs apart as well. The logs count as separate objects and give their own pickups, so leaving them lying on the ground wastes potential drops.
You will know it worked when the pickup log in the corner of the screen reads “Added Resin” alongside “Added Wood.” Chopping also raises your Wood Cutting skill, which speeds up every future tree.
What Resin is used for
Resin is spread across gear, light, and transport. The Torch alone costs one Resin and one Wood, which is why the material matters from your very first night.
| Item | Resin cost | Other materials |
|---|---|---|
| Torch | 1 | Wood x1 |
| Tankard | 2 | Finewood x5 |
| Wood shield | 4 | Leather Scraps x4, Wood x10 |
| Fire arrow | 8 | Feathers x2, Wood x8 |
| Ooze bomb | 3 | Leather Scraps x5, Ooze x10 |
| Blob bomb: Poison | 3 | Blob Trophy x1 |
| Blob bomb: Frost | 3 | Drake Trophy x1 |
| Bile bomb | 3 | Bilebag x1 |
On the building side, Resin is the tax you pay for boats and light. Rafts and Karves both need it for waterproofing, and the Fermenter — your entry into meads — is gated behind a Forge and 10 Resin.
| Structure | Station | Resin cost |
|---|---|---|
| Resin candle | Workbench | 1 (plus Candle wick) |
| Standing wood torch | Workbench | 2 (plus Wood x2) |
| Standing iron torch | Forge | 2 (plus Iron x2) |
| Sconce | Forge | 2 (plus Copper x2, Wood x2) |
| Jack-o-turnip | Workbench | 2 (plus Turnip x4) |
| Raft | Workbench | 6 (plus Leather Scraps x6) |
| Fermenter | Forge | 10 (plus Bronze x5, Finewood x30) |
| Unfading candles | Galdr Table | 15 (plus Skeleton Trophy x3) |
| Karve | Workbench | 20 (plus Bronze Nails x80, Deer Hide x10, Finewood x30) |
Resin as fuel: torches, sconces, and candles
Building a light source is only half the cost. Standing wood torches, standing iron torches, sconces, and Jack-o-turnips all burn Resin and need refueling. A handheld Torch holds up to four Resin at once, and a single unit lasts a couple of in-game days.
The Resin candle works differently. It costs one Resin plus one Candle wick at a Workbench, burns for 4 hours and 10 minutes, and cannot be refueled. When it runs out it turns into a melted pile of wax, and dismantling that pile with the Hammer returns the Candle wick — so rebuilding only costs one more Resin. Rain can snuff the flame, but it will not damage the candle itself.
Spawning Resin with console commands
If you are testing a build or playing in a world where cheats are fine, Resin can be spawned directly. Open the console with F5, enable cheats, then spawn the item by its internal ID.
devcommands
spawn ResinThe internal ID is simply Resin, so it also works with any command that takes an item name.
Early on, logging will cover your Resin needs almost by accident while you gather Wood. The moment you start crafting fire arrows or fitting out a base with standing torches, though, the maths changes fast — eight Resin per fire arrow batch adds up. That is the point to find a Greydwarf nest in the Black Forest, clear a defensible pocket around it, and let the spawner do the work.
