Meadows is the starting biome in Valheim. Just like any other Valheim biome, it comes with its own challenges. Since it’s the first one, some of those challenges will come from you figuring out what it is you have to do. And because you’ll be so new to the game at that point, some of the finer details and obscure mechanics may elude you. This guide will share 10 tips that will help you find your way in the Meadows and prepare for the following, harder, biomes.
Meadows Tips
Gather loose resources off the ground like branches, rocks, and Flint
Make sure you have food buffs active
Secure early shelter inside abandoned buildings
Create a bed to set a spawn point
Never leave your base without the Rested buff
Have a ranged weapon option like Crude Bow or Flint Spear
Raid beehives to get Queen Bees and start making honey
Set up a boar farm
Mark Birch and Oak trees on your map
Establish the foundations of your main base
Gathering Resources
When you first spawn into the game, you’ll have nothing. This means before you can get to the mining and the crafting inherent to these games, you’ll need to gather some resources and create starter tools. These are:
Hammer – Wood x3, Stone x2
Stone Axe – Wood x5, Stone x4
You can craft these directly from your inventory. The default button to open your inventory is Tab. Since you won’t have the tools to break the big rocks or chop down trees, collect those initial quantities of Wood and Stone by picking up loose branches and rocks directly off the ground. There’s plenty of them lying around in the Meadows.
Once you have the axe, you’ll be able to gather more Wood from the Beech trees in the Meadows. And with the Hammer, you’ll be able to build any structure or crafting station (default key to open the build menu with the Hammer equipped is the right mouse button).
Inventory crafting menu
Another key resource you’ll want to gather in the Meadows is Flint. Flint will let you make some advanced Meadows gear later on. So whenever you see it, make sure to pick it up. Flint can be found near bodies of water. Meaning rivers and the Ocean shore.
Food Buffs
Unlike some survival crafting games, your character won’t die if you don’t eat. And you won’t have any nasty debuffs on you either. Your basic health and stamina levels, however, are pathetically low. If you are to survive what the game throws at you, you’ll need to increase them by eating. You can have up to 3 different food buffs active at any time, so try to keep all 3 of those buff slots filled.
A raspberry bush will likely be your first source of food
When you’re light on resources early-on, creating a secure dwelling from scratch can be difficult. Luckily, there are plenty of abandoned buildings in the Meadows. You can easily patch up the holes in them and turn them into your first Valheim home. Some of the abandoned huts will even have chests with goodies in them.
Creating a Bed
Once you have a shelter, you’ll want to craft a Bed. Once you place it, you’ll be able to claim it by interacting with it. When you do that, you’ll set your spawn point to that bed. Meaning that when you fall in battle, or off a cliff, you’ll respawn in your bed. The bed will also let you skip nights by sleeping.
To build a bed, you’ll need 8 Wood. You create it from the Hammer crafting menu. And much like any other piece of furniture, to actually craft a bed, you’ll need to have a Workbench standing nearby.
Crafting a bedClaiming a bedSpawn set
Rested Buff
One of the main benefits of having an early house is getting access to the Rested buff. It may seem like a small thing if you don’t think about it, but it’s actually huge. While Rested, your health, stamina, and Eitr regeneration will be significantly higher. But beyond that, while not stated in the buff description, being Rested will also increase all experience gains for your skills by 50%. This means you should never leave the base without the Rested buff.
And that’s even without the hidden experience bonus
To gain the buff you need to fulfill these requirements:
Don’t have enemies nearby
Have an active source of fire nearby
Be inside a shelter
Wait 20 seconds
The easiest way to have a fire source, is to build a Campfire by your starter dwelling. Make sure to either leave a chimney in your building, or build the Campfire outside, otherwise you’ll get poisoned by smoke. Then, you’ll need a roof over your head. When you’re inside a building, or under a roof, you’ll get the Shelter buff. When you have both the Shelter and Fire buffs, and no enemies attacking you, you’ll get the Resting buff. Wait 20 seconds with it active, and you’ll become Rested. Now you’re free to go out into the world. Various building pieces raise the Comfort of your dwelling which increases the Rested buff duration, but even early-on, it will last for a good dozen minutes.
Fire + Shelter + Resting for 20 seconds = Rested buff
Ranged Weapons
Even if you plan to be a melee kind of Viking, having access to a ranged weapon is crucial in Valheim. It will let you hunt elusive prey like deer and gulls, or knock down beehives without any danger. Your early ranged options are:
The bow is the obvious option. However, keep in mind that you’ll need arrows to shoot it. With the most basic being Wood Arrows (20 Wood Arrows can be crafted for Wood x8). This starter bow is quite slow and inaccurate, which makes the next option more attractive.
Flint Spear is primarily a melee weapon. However, you can use the heavy attack to throw it (middle mouse button is the default for it). This throw attack deals good damage and can be a great option when used for hunting. Just don’t forget to pick up your spear after throwing it.
Raiding Beehives
Honey is an important resource in many recipes that remain relevant throughout most of the game. And on its own, it can be eaten as a great early food source. To build a beehive of your own, you’ll need Wood x10 and a Queen Bee. You’ll find Queen Bees in naturally occurring beehives. They can be often found near those abandoned buildings in the Meadows. Consult our beekeeping guide for additional details.
Once you have a Beehive running, the bees inside will make Honey for you. Just don’t forget to gather it whenever the beehive is full.
Boar Farm
Boars are a great early source of food and Leather Scraps you’ll need quite a lot of during your Valheim adventure. And while you can definitely hunt boars whenever you need the scraps, you can actually tame them and have a ready supply of their resource at your disposal. You can learn all about taming boars in our guide, but the short of it is:
Create a Roundpole Fence as a boar pen
Lure some boars inside and close the pen
Allow the boars time to calm down, then toss some mushrooms inside the pen without aggroing them again
Keep feeding your boars while remaining in the general area of the pen, and eventually they’ll become your pets
Marking Trees
The Stone Axe you can craft in the Meadows will allow you to harvest Wood from Beech trees. However, the Meadows also have Birch and Oak trees. These will give you Finewood, a crucial resource later in the game. Because you’ll need at least a Bronze Axe to chop those trees down, whenever you see them during your early Meadows exploration, make sure to mark them on your map so you remember to return to them when you have a better axe.
Left to right: Birch, Beech, Oak
Establishing a Base
As you progress through Valheim’s biomes, you’ll end up establishing outposts in most of them. You will still want to have a main base. And the best place to have your home base is in the Meadows. You’ll have some nice fertile soil, a lack of annoying enemies to deal with, and close proximity to the Ocean and the Sacrificial Stones where you’ll be depositing boss trophies to get their Forsaken Powers, and where the Vegvisir is that teaches you the location of the Meadows boss Eikthyr.
When selecting a spot for your base you have some things to keep in mind:
Amount of flat land
Proximity to the Ocean
Proximity to the Black Forest
Proximity to the Sacrificial Stones
Great base location……and how it looks
Proximity to the Sacrificial Stones is merely nice to have. Later on, you’ll be able to create a portal leading there. But in the early game, when you don’t have portals or they’re still a precious resource, it’s best to have the stones nearby.
The same can be said about flat land. While it’s possible to terraform the ground with a Hoe, it’s a labor-intensive process. It’s best to start in a spot where you won’t have to do a lot of moving dirt around.
Building your base by the shore will allow you to easily access the game’s later biomes by ship. And having it by the Black Forest will make your early excursions to the second biome easier.
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Val Hull
Resident role-playing RPG game expert. Knows where trolls and paladins come from. You must fight for your right to gather your party before venturing forth.
