In most survival games, players try to go into the world as prepared as possible before taking on any of the threats that await them. Sometimes that isn't the case and leads to terrible scenarios, such as running out of ammo for weapons, breaking a weapon, or having no health items and meeting a horrible death.
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Valheim can be a difficult game to learn at first as the world can be pretty brutal at times and some of the bosses and enemies can kill players very quickly. Thankfully there are a ton of ways to prepare for adventuring out into the wilderness and at sea to prepare for situations such as running into the Sea Serpent.
10 Wood
Wood is one of the most essential materials in Valheim. Not only is it used to craft a cozy home to rest in after a long day of battling Trolls but it's essential for crafting simple things such as a bed and refueling fires. It's always great to keep a good amount handy when traveling as it could come to be very useful if the player ever finds themselves in a situation far from home where they'll need to build a quick shelter. Having at least a stack or half of a stack handy is good enough. It also allows for the building of a workbench to repair items quickly. This helps a ton when sailing as sometimes the boat can some serious damage from hitting a rock or other obstacles.
9 Food (Lots of It)
Survival is your main goal in Valheim. It's going to be really difficult to do that without some food to increase health and also replenish the rapidly falling stamina bar. There's a ton of great recipes out there but one of the best early starting foods is sausages. They're not too difficult to make as the materials required (2 entrails, 1 raw meat, 4 thistle) aren't hard to find. Always keep different types of food such as mushrooms, berries, and anything else you find. Mixing the three boosts your health bar and stamina by a ton. Pairing food up with the resting bonus is a must for going on big adventures.
8 Arrows
At the moment, the bow is one of the best weapons in the game. Especially the Draugr Fang Bow that can kill almost any monster in one shot using wood arrows. It's an amazing weapon that is fairly easy to get after killing the first three bosses. Keeping a good supply of Arrows is a must, even with the first couple bows in the game.
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Bringing wood on adventures also gives the player the ability to quickly craft a workbench to craft more arrows while far from home. They are seriously a lifesaver and help a ton early on in the game when hunting for food. Arrows aren't very costly until reaching the later stages of the game where it requires way more material.
7 Materials For A Fire
Depending on the map generated, some players may have to adventure farm to find Haldor the Trader, bosses, and ore. It's always a great idea to bring some rock and wood to craft a fire in any shelter that's available. When first starting the game, traveling at night can be pretty dangerous. There are a lot of abandoned tents and small houses that players can turn into a place for shelter. Fires also allow players to dry up after getting wet from the rain which gives a pretty nasty stamina regen debuff. Fires also come especially in handy for boss fights as sometimes the player can accidentally jump into water and need a fire to remove the stamina debuff caused by being wet.
6 Materials For A Portal
This is a must-have when traveling far. Portals allow players to easily get back to their base and transfer most material back with them. The only thing that will never transfer is ore and bars which will be indicated with an icon in the player's inventory and also with a message when trying to enter a portal. Players that do this should always make sure they set a portal that has the name they'll want to use for the new one. There's nothing worse than traveling across the map to find that the portal isn't properly connected and being forced to sail or walk all the way back home. Alternatively, having a friend connect the portal back at the base also works.
5 A Cart
Carts come in handy for farming wood, ore, and other material without having to worry about filling up player inventory space with a bunch of random things. They do take damage pretty easily and flip over on rough terrain so it's best to just leave it somewhere close when farming wood and ore.
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The inventory space on them is huge, something that would be nice to have on the storage chests instead. A good tip is to make an easy path to the player's base that way the cart won't flip easily when heading back home. This works really great for farming iron as it weighs a lot and most players will find themselves having way too much when farming in Sunken Crypts.
4 A Backup Weapon
The durability in Valheim is actually pretty forgiving compared to some other games. It allows players to repair any of their gear where it was crafted at no cost. Whether this will change in future updates is currently unknown. It does seem to make the game a bit easier. When entering any new biome, bringing a backup weapon is still a good idea. Especially one that can be easily repaired at a workbench such as the bows crafted at the beginning of the game.
Weapons like the Draugr Fang Bow need to be repaired at a forge that isn't always available to players far away from their base. This is also important for boss fights as some of them have a ton of health and players might find themselves having to repair during the fight.
3 Megingjord
This belt comes in handy for mining ore as it gives players an extra 150 weight when equipped. It can be purchased for 950 coins from the trader, Haldor. It's pretty easy to get considering most dungeons will net players a ton of coins. Amber, amber pearls, ruby, and silver necklaces can be sold to the trader for a good amount of gold as well.
The belt is a must for farming pretty much anything in the game. Especially iron which takes up quite a bit of weight and could be sometimes annoying to farm. The belt can't be equipped with the Wishbone so players will have to choose to equip one or the other.
2 Wolf Fur Cape
Wolf Fur Capes allow players to survive in the snow biome without taking damage. It can be crafted with 6 Wolf Pelts, 4 Silver, and 1 Wolf Trophy. Players will need to defeat Bonemass to get the Wishbone in order to find Silver as it's hidden beneath the mountains in the snow biome.
The only thing that will cancel out the frost resistance on the Wolf Fur Cape is rain. Players can farm wolves pretty early on with frost resistance mead. They do hit pretty hard so it's best to try to keep far from them and use a bow. The Wolf Armor Chest also provides the same effect but may not be worth it for players using Troll Armor or planning to use padded armor.
1 Harpoon
The harpoon is a must for players wanting to take on the Sea Serpent. The best method for taking it on is to drag it onto land rather than kill it in the water. This works better because players won't have to risk their boat constantly taking damage for missed shots and loot won't drop to the bottom of the ocean.
To get the Harpoon players will need to find a Kraken. Thankfully these are passive creatures that have abyssal barnacles that drop chitin to make the Harpoon and some other items. The Kraken does sink into the water after some time so players should be quick about mining and not stay on the creature too long.