Valheim Black Metal Guide - The Best Metal in the Game

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Emily is a gaming aficionado who has written for The Gamer, Gamerant, GamerBolt, and Valnet, but she has found a home here at Ready Game Survive. She adores writing about Ark: Survival Evolved among other great survival titles, and outside of traditional survival, she loves Legend of Zelda, League of Legends and Fable.

What is Black Metal in Valheim?

Crafted Items: 9+
Weight: 12lbs each
Biome: Plains
Smelted with: Blast Furnace

Black Metal is the fourth – and currently the best – metal in Valheim. Although there aren’t many craftable items you can make with this metal, the things that you can make are well worth it.

In my opinion, each metal is well worth the time you spend collecting it. However, Black Metal is the only metal that you can make money collecting and level up multiple stats at once.

Where to Find Black Metal? And How to Get It

You can only find Black Metal in the Plains biome. It technically starts as a Black Metal Scrap before you melt it down into a piece of Black Metal. These are the pieces you use to make tools and weapons.

But before you start crafting items, you need to know where to get Black Metal and how to transport it back home. Although you know it’s found in the Plains, knowing exactly where to look can save you a lot of trouble.

Prepare for Battle

Before you can get Black Metal, chances are, you need to defeat some Fulings. Before you visit the Plains, it’s good to ensure you are well-equipped unless you want to spend hours attempting to get your tombstone back.

Although you can wear whatever you want, I recommend wearing the Padded set or the Wolf set. Either will work, but the Padded set is better. The best weapon choices are silver weapons such as the Silver Sword, Crystal Battleaxe, and the Draugr Fang.

Wait for Night or Day (your choice)

This can be a difficult decision. If you want to fight a lot of Fulings, then invade their village at night. If you’re going to take it slow and only fight a couple at a time, then invade during the day. Extra Fulings are roaming around during the night.

Fulings have good hearing, so I suggest sneaking up to them, even if you use a bow. Start off sneaking from far away and stop before you run out of stamina. Let it recharge and sneak closer. Ready your bow and fire arrow – be sure to aim for the head.

Bring a Cart

I highly recommend that you transport Black Metal with a cart. If you attempt to take it home by hand, you will only be able to carry a maximum of 37 pieces. This is if you take all of your armor off, put on Megingjord, and have an empty inventory.

You can get the materials for a cart and take them with you. Although you can’t take a cart apart with a hammer, you can smash it with a melee weapon and pick up the pieces afterward.

Defeat Fulings and Raid Their Villages

Now it’s time to raid a Fuling village. Each Fuling will drop between 1 and 4 Black Metal Scraps, depending on its level. It will also drop coins and possibly a Fuling Trophy.

Fuling Berserkers will drop between 3 and 16 Black Metal Scraps, while Fuling Shamans will always drop one. If you aren’t ready to take on a whole village, you can take down the Fulings wandering around the Plains.

However, I get a Draugr Fang with needle or obsidian arrows and then sneak attack them one by one. If they get too close, I run or go at them with a silver sword. This works every time.

Get a Blast Furnace

Before using Black Metal, you have to build a Blast Furnace. You cannot smelt Black Metal in a Smelter like the other metals, although they both run on coal. You will likely need a Blast Furnace for the next metal that will hit Valheim.

To make the Blast Furnace, you’ll need Stone, Surtling Cores, Iron, and Fine Wood. But before you can make it, you have to defeat Moder and unlock the Artisan Table.

(Optional) Create a Coal Farm

If you don’t have a coal farm yet, you should probably make one. You have to find a Surtling spawner in the Swamps to do so. They look like geysers. When you find one, dig a trench around the spawner.

Make sure you hit the water under the ground. Then, when the Surtlings spawn, they will fall in the water and die, leaving behind free coal. Put a portal nearby and collect when you have a chance.

What is Black Metal Used For?

There are a handful of valuable items you can craft with Black Metal. However, before you can craft any Black Metal items, you need to upgrade your benches. So if you can’t find the item you want to craft, perhaps you need an upgrade.

Blackmetal Atgeir

10x Fine wood
30x Black metal
5x Linen thread

Atgeirs are great for combos, but most people don’t know that they have a unique ability. You can use their swinging ability to harvest your crops exceptionally efficiently. This is what I use them for.

Blackmetal Axe

6x Fine wood
20x Black metal
5x Linen thread

You can find the best axe right here. You can use the Blackmetal Axe to cut down trees with relative ease. When maxed out, it has a durability of 325, the most crucial stat for tools.

Blackmetal Knife

4x Fine wood
10x Black metal
5x Linen thread

Knives are great for sneaking up on enemies as they do six times the damage. They are still relatively weak compared to others, but they are fun to use. I love to use knives, but you can get through the game without thinking about them.

Blackmetal Sword

Fine wood x2
Black metal x20
Linen thread x5

The Blackmetal Sword takes a lot of metal compared to other weapons. I theorize this is because it is so good. I love using swords and parry shields, although I equally like the Silver Sword and Blackmetal Sword.

Black Metal Shield

10x Fine wood
8x Black metal
5x Chain

This is the best parry shield. While it isn’t the best at blocking strong attacks, it’s much better at staggering enemies, leaving them wide open for an attack with a sword.

Black Metal Tower Shield

15x Fine wood
10x Black metal
7x Chain

Although I don’t use tower shields, they are the best for blocking strong enemies such as larger Fulings. When maxed, this shield can block up to 156 damage. Just don’t forget about the -120% movement speed.

Lox Saddle

10x Leather scraps
20x Linen thread
15x Black metal

Lox Saddles can be placed on Loxen, allowing you to ride them. The Lox can then be led to a boat automatically by “using” the rudder. This is a great way to transport your Lox to a different home.

Black Metal Chest

10x Wood
2x Tar
6x Black metal

The Black Metal chest is the largest chest in the game as it has 32 item slots. Once you start exploring the Plains, it is relatively easy to make. You don’t need many materials, and it looks gorgeous.

Pots and Pans

5x Iron
5x Copper
5x Black metal
10x Fine wood

I love how these look, but they are more important than a simple aesthetic. This is an upgrade for your Cauldron, which will allow you to make Lox Pie, Bread, and more. Make this before anything else.

What Else to Do While You’re in the Plains?

You can do quite a few things in the Plains while you have the Fulings down. If you’ve already been to the Plains, you’ve likely run onto at least one of these items. Now that you’re prepared, it’s time to gather them.

Stone

The large stones in the Plains give a lot of stone. While stone is easy to get otherwise, this is the spot where I have gathered the most stone in one setting. It’s super easy, and if you dig out the bottom, the whole thing will come crumbling down.

Fine Wood

The Plains are undoubtedly the best place to get Fine Wood. The number of Birch trees in the area is astounding. While you can find a few in the Meadows, the only Fine Wood forests are in the Plains.

Needles

If you kill Deathsquitos, you can collect their needles. You can use the needles to craft one of the best arrows in the game. You can also use them for the Porcupine, a weapon with insane knockback and stagger damage.

Cloudberries

Cloudberries have two uses. The first is taming Lox as they are the Lox’s favorite food. The second is cooking. Cloudberries are necessary for making Barley wine base: Fire resistance, Lox meat pie, and Mead base: Medium stamina.

Flax

Flax can be fed to Loxen, but it is generally put into the Spinning Wheel to make Linen Thread. You can find Flax planted near Fuling Villages. After you find some, you can plant it in your garden in the Plains.

Barley

Barley can also be fed to Lox, but it is used to make Barley Flour. Barley Flour is made in a Windmill, and it can make four of my favorite foods: Blood pudding, Bread dough (for Bread), Fish wraps, and Unbaked lox pie (for Lox Meat Pie.)

Tar

Tar is dropped by Growths in tar pits. However, you can also drain tar pits by redirecting the tar into a hole or the ocean. Tar is used to make a Hot Tub along with many other building materials.

Lox (Meat, Pelt, Trophy)

Lox Meat is needed for various recipes, but you can also use their pelt for furniture. I recommend killing a few as soon as you can and then as needed. If you are strong enough, take care of the ones you run onto.

FAQs

Question: Do You Need a Pickaxe to Get Black Metal?

Answer: No. You don’t need a pickaxe to get Black Metal. You only need to be able to find chests in the Plains or kill Fulings which drop Black Metal Scraps. Black Metal is the only usable metal that you do not mine.

Question: Why Can’t I Smelt Black Metal?

Answer: I assume that Black Metal is “too hard” to be smelted in a Smelter. That’s why you have to make a Blast Furnace which is bigger and hotter than a Smelter. The later metals will likely need to be smelted with the Blast Furnace as well.

Question: Where are Chests with Black Metal?

Answer: You can find chests that contain Black Metal – and other treasures – in Fuling Outposts in the Plains. The best chests are typically found on top of stone structures that have a couple of Fulings nearby.

Question: Do I Have to Defeat Moder Before I Use Black Metal?

Answer: Yes. Before you can use the Black Metal, you need to defeat Moder in the Mountains biome. This will unlock the Artisan Table, which will allow you to craft the Blast Furnace.

What’s Next for Metal in Valheim?

There isn’t currently a better metal than Black Metal in Valheim that you can use. Flametal exists in the Ashlands, but I don’t believe it will craft any items soon. I theorize this because the Mistlands will receive the next update, and thus the next metal should be in the Mistlands.

Even after the next metal is available, Black Metal will still be viable. After all, you can get by without ever using Black Metal now, as Silver armor and weapons are still very good. So the Black Metal set will still be good, and perhaps we’ll even see a new Black Metal armor set. You never know what the future holds.

Valheim Black Metal Guide – The Best Metal in the Game