First hours in Valheim 1.0

Valheim 1.0 launched on 9 September 2026 with the Deep North as the eighth biome. Iron Gate AB still teaches the same first night it taught in Early Access: punch trees, gather stone and flint, craft a hammer, and get a roof over a workbench before dark. The studio now recommends a new world for the full release. Old saves keep your halls, but Deep North terrain only generates in chunks nobody has loaded. If you already sailed the empty north, those tiles stay empty.

This page is the day-one route on Steam, Xbox, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch 2. Pair it with Valheim controls, then follow biome order once Eikthyr is down.

Spawn, character, and world choice

Create a viking, then a world. Default modifiers are the intended difficulty. If you want portals to carry metal, slower raids, or a shorter day, set that on the world modifiers screen before the seed exists. Some of those flags are painful to retrofit later without admin tools.

Characters can move between worlds, so a veteran viking can walk into a fresh 1.0 map with old skills. Achievements track from the moment you update, so an Early Access Eikthyr kill does not grant the new badge. If friends are joining, share a join code using the multiplayer steps before you roof two different huts.

Valheim starter guide: building, combat, crafting

Wood, stone, flint, hammer, workbench

Bare hands chop small trees and pick ground stones. Flint sits on Meadows beaches and river edges. Craft a stone axe as soon as the inventory allows; it is the first real wood tool. Craft the hammer next (wood plus one stone). The hammer is your entire build menu: right-click to open pieces, left-click to place, scroll to rotate.

A workbench is the gate on every early recipe. Place it, then put a simple roof over it. An uncovered bench will not let you craft. Stay inside its glowing radius when you raise walls, a fire, and a bed. Repair by hovering damaged gear at the bench; there is no separate repair kit. Chopping block, tanning rack, and adze are the first bench upgrades — build them as soon as you have spare wood and flint.

Shelter, smoke, fire, and a bed

Valheim’s first death is usually wet, cold, and fighting in the dark. Raise four walls and a roof until the status says Shelter. Place a campfire on dirt or a stone hearth (five stone). Smoke must vent through a hole or chimney; a sealed hut fills with smoke and starts damaging you.

Claim a bed under shelter, near the fire. You cannot sleep if the bed is exposed, “in the air,” or hostile. The building guide covers integrity colors and comfort once you outgrow this box. For night one, a 4×4 shack is enough.

Rested is the hidden beginner stat. Sit near a fire under shelter and you gain the Rested bonus, which speeds stamina regen and skill gain. Without it, even Greylings feel unfair. Keep a campfire at any forward hut so you can sit for ten seconds before a run.

Food, deer, and the three slots

You have three food slots. Early Meadows food is cooked meat, cooked neck tail, raspberries, mushrooms, and later honey from bees. Do not stack three berries. Mix one health-leaning dish and one stamina-leaning dish so both bars exist. Read the food guide when the cauldron unlocks. For hour one, a cooking station over a fire turns raw meat into something that actually fills a bar.

Deer are skittish. Crouch with Ctrl, stay off the ridgeline, and use a crude bow or flint spear. You need two deer trophies to summon Eikthyr. Leather scraps become a tunic, pants, and cape. Necks by the water are easier meat if deer keep sprinting. Boars can be penned later; do not waste the first evening on a farm.

Beat Eikthyr, then leave the Meadows

The sacrificial stones sit near spawn. Eikthyr’s altar is marked from the start. Offer two deer trophies. He telegraphs lightning stabs and a hoof slam. Block with a wood shield, strafe the stomp, and shoot. Leather armor is plenty. Hang his trophy on the matching stone to unlock the Forsaken power: a huge discount on run, jump, and swim stamina. Press Q to fire it. His hard antlers become the antler pickaxe, which is how you mine copper and tin in the Black Forest.

Do not sprint into Burial Chambers naked. Bring cooked food and a spare shield. The boss ladder takes over after this fight; The Elder is a fire-arrow problem, not a flint-spear problem.

First-week mistakes to skip

Do not portal-skip your first ocean trip. You still need a raft or karve because ore never teleports on default rules. Do not put your only bed in a swamp. Do not open the console on a character you care about; devcommands disables achievements. Do not dock first in the Deep North — that biome is the finale.

Once the antler pickaxe is in hand, the loop is done: tools, roof, fire, bed, three foods, Eikthyr. Biomes tells you what to steal from the Black Forest next.