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In Valheim, resources and materials are everything. They essentially act as progression milestones, with each major resource marking the advancement into a new age. Each age has progressively more powerful and useful items, tools, weapons, and armors, making your journey throughout the Tenth Realm that bit easier. Silver is one of these major resources.
Finding Silver is by no means easy. It requires a journey into the Mountains, one of the most inhospitable biomes in Valheim, a strong pickaxe, and a particular trinket to uncover the elusive ore. To make your trips both safe and fruitful, you’ll need to do a bit of preparation first.
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Preparing for the Mountains
Mining Silver requires a fair bit of equipment to do properly. You need the right tools of the right quality for the mining itself, but you also need to protect yourself from the freezing temperatures of the Mountains, and the beasts that live up there. Naturally, this takes a fair bit of doing, but it’s worthwhile to avoid an unhappy end to your trip.
From Iron to Silver
First things first, you won’t be getting any Silver whatsoever without an Iron Pickaxe. Tools of lesser quality won’t get the job done, simply bouncing off Silver Ore nodes no matter how many times you strike. If you haven’t already entered the Iron age, you’ll need to venture into Valheim’s Swamp biomes. There, you may find Sunken Crypts that house an army of Draugrs protecting their hoard of Scrap Iron.
You’ll need a Bronze Pickaxe to mine it out of the gunk, then a Smelter to turn it into something useful. Next, you’ll need a Forge to craft the Iron Pickaxe, which itself requires 20 Iron and 3 Core Wood. With that in hand, you’ll be able to mine Silver nodes, if you can find them. For that, you’ll need another item.
Obtaining the Wishbone
In Valheim, Silver is typically hidden well out of sight, buried deep beneath the snow and ice atop the various Mountains littered throughout the world. While some Silver nodes can occasionally be found on a Mountain’s surface, this isn’t a reliable way to find the material. Instead, you’ll need a Wishbone to find what lies below. It essentially acts as a metal detector, pinging as you approach a node of Silver Ore. The quicker it pings, the closer you are.
To obtain the Wishbone, you’ll first need to defeat Valheim’s third boss – Bonemass. He is the boss of the Swamp biome, and can be a tough fight, even for a well-prepared Viking. You’ll constantly be drenched, which will sap your stamina, and it’s easy to fall prey to the other denizens of the Swamp. If you fall into the water, a leech can easily spell your doom. For an easy kill, bring a load of arrows and good aim. Bonemass has a lot of HP and resistance to piercing attacks, but you’ll wear him down eventually without much risk. Upon his death, Bonemass will drop the Wishbone, along with a couple other items.
Equipping for the cold
Although the previous two items will help you find and extract Silver, you won’t get far without cold protection. The freezing temperatures will steadily sap your health, leaving you dead in the snow before long. To combat this, you have two options – dress for the cold, or brew some potions.
The latter is the easiest option, at least at first. A Frost Resistance Mead base can be crafted at the Cauldron, which in turn can be placed in the Fermenter to brew the mead itself. Drinking this mead will protect you from the cold for 600 seconds, preventing you from losing health while climbing the frosty peaks. To brew Frost Resistance Mead, you’ll need 10 Honey, 5 Thistles, 2 Bloodbag, and 1 Greydwarf Eye.
While Frost Resistance Mead is handy at the start, brewing a fresh batch each time you want to head into the snow gets old fast. Crafting a Wolf Fur Cape is a much better way of dealing with the cold. To get the necessary materials, you’ll need to venture into the Mountains at least once. It requires 6 Wolf Pelts, 4 Silver, and 1 Wolf Trophy, so I suggest making this a priority craft for your new materials.
Searching for Silver in Valheim
Now adequately equipped, it’s time to mount an expedition into the Mountains. While you can set foot on snow without freezing, you won’t get far without the aid of a Frost Resistance Mead. Drink up and start climbing, Silver isn’t often found at low altitudes.
If you haven’t already, equip the Wishbone you got from defeating Bonemass. This will essentially be your Silver detector. Right-click once it’s equipped to activate it, and it will start emitting both sound and a particle effect to tell you how close or far from Silver you are. Quicker is better, as you might expect. Once it starts pinging rapidly, you’re standing directly above a Silver Ore vein. Dig down until you strike it, then collect your new material.
While the process of finding Silver is quite easy, the Mountains biome is not quite so accommodating. Even if you’re prepared for the weather, the inhabitants will give newcomers more than just the cold shoulder. While on your treasure hunt, keep watch of the sky and where you plant your next step. Drakes fly above, capable of shooting icy projectiles that both damage you and slow you down.
On the ground, you have to contend with Stone Golems, which like to masquerade as outcrops of ice. Getting too close will wake one up, and you’ll have one serious fight on your hands if you do. There are also wolves on the prowl, though you’ll often hear their hungry howls long before they mount an attack. While all of these creatures can be dealt with alone, getting ambushed by a mixture can easily be lethal. Stay frosty, and you should be alright.
Crafting with Silver
Now you’ve got your new material, it’s time to head back to base and start crafting. There are quite a few new crafts available, with most of the new unlocks being weapons and armor, but I’ll focus on some of the most useful unlocks here:
- Wolf Fur Cape – The main purpose of the cape is to protect you from the cold, but they also offer you a little bit of armor, too. Lox and Linen capes provide the same protections, but require a trip to the Plains.
- Wolf Armor – Wolf Armor gives a fair bit of protection, with the chest piece offering additional Frost Resistance. It won’t stack with the Wolf Fur Cape, however.
- Frostner – Frostner is a fantastic one-handed club, dealing a lot of damage, slowing targets, and staggering enemies. Highly effective against spirit enemies, along with speedy enemies.
- Draugr Fang – The Draugr Fang is the Silver-age bow, dealing poison damage over time alongside upgraded piercing damage.
- Silver Arrows – These arrows are worthy of the Silver-age bow, dealing serious piercing damage and some additional spirit. When used against spirit enemies, it will deal damage over time.
- Flesh Rippers – Good fist weapons that deal slash damage. A quick flurry can stagger enemies, making them easy to dispatch. Unlike Frostner or Silver Arrows, it doesn’t deal additional spirit damage.
- Butcher’s Table – This is an upgrade for the Cauldron, increasing the amount of food you can make. The recipes are quite strong, and the ingredients are fairly easy to get, so it’s worth doing.
- Treasure Chest – A sign of your wealth, and nothing else. That’s pretty important for a Viking, though.
That’s everything you need to know about Silver in Valheim. There are a few more weapons and armors that can be crafted that I haven’t listed, but you get the idea. Silver gear is a direct upgrade from Iron and then some, so switching from any Iron weapon to a Silver one is more than worth it.
