How to find tin in Valheim and what you can do with it
In the early game, tin is a catalyst metal for advancing the building system, so knowing how to find tin in Valheim is a crucial and necessary skill. Of all mineral deposits in Valheim, locating tin is the easiest and so is gathering it since it is an early-game metal.
This guide will cover the following:
- When does tin become available in the game?
- Where are tin ore deposits located?
- How do you mine tin ore?
- How do you process and smelt the tin ore into ingots?
- Why is tin ore needed and what can you craft with it?
When does tin unlock and become available to you?
The tin nodes will not be mineable for you until you possess a pickaxe. The earliest pickaxe in the game is the Antler Pickaxe and you gain craft access to this tool after you defeat the first boss, Eikthyr.
Where are tin ore deposits located?
Tin ore is only found in the Black Forest biome. Head to the coastal regions of any Black Forest biome and look for small, shiny patches of stone. Tin ore is a smaller prefab than copper and may be easy to confuse for a large rock in low light, so be sure to focus your crosshair over it to verify. Most often you’ll find these ore nodes on the sand and immediate beach terrain, but occasionally you can find them a little further inland, so keep an eye out in the general view of the beach.
How do you mine tin ore?
Tin ore requires a pickaxe at the minimum to mine. Unlike copper ore, tin ore deposits are not multi-sectional and contain only one ore node, so mining an ore node will be quick and low yield.
How do you process and smelt the tin ore?
Tin ore requires a smelter and charcoal to process. For every piece of tin ore that you deposit into the smelter, you get a piece of refined tin as a result, for a nice one-to-one ratio. Keeping your ores and charcoal in a nearby box is recommended as stacks of ore can get very heavy and prevent you from moving around due to encumberment.
What can you craft with tin?
Not too many items require raw tin as a crafting component, but any item requiring bronze means that tin is involved. Tin is one of the required components to craft bronze bars, which are a widely-used crafting component for a great number of items. While you will not need tin directly in many crafting recipes, you WILL need a lot of it to create bronze.
What comes next?
Tin is one of the two components needed to craft bronze, the second being copper. Bronze metal is used for a large variety of armor, weapons, tools, and crafting components, so in order to start making these items, you’ll want to farm lots of tin as well as copper.
