A big part of the Valheim survival experience is constructing a robust base where you're protected while sleeping and crafting all your various gear. Constructing your buildings out of stone makes them much stronger than the Wood structures you can start with, but you'll have to do some work to unlock the ability to work stone. Here's everything you need to know to make a Stonecutter and start building stone structures.

　　

Advance Through The Bronze Age

To access stoneworking, you need metal tools, and getting metal is a long, involved process. Your ultimate goal is to build a Stonecutter, which is the crafting station that makes building stone structures possible. Getting it requires you to have access to Iron, though, which means you'll need to explore the Swamp biome and defeat the first two bosses in Valheim.

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　　Now Playing: Valheim - How To Find Scrap Iron And Make Iron Gear

　　To get Iron, you'll first need to unlock the ability to forge Bronze and make Bronze tools and gear. Check out our Bronze guide for information on how to do that. The gist is that, before you can start making seriously cool things out of stone, you'll have to earn all the upgrades you can get from the Meadows and Black Forest biomes and defeat their bosses. You'll also need a Bronze Pickaxe (made from 10 Bronze and 3 Core Wood).

　　The essential part of this step, apart from having the ability to smelt and craft from metal, is defeating The Elder. The boss of the Black Forest biome drops the Swamp Key, an item you need to get yourself into the places in the Swamp biome for the next step of the process. We've got a guide on how to take on The Elder, whether alone or with a Viking team, that can help.

　　

Wade Into The Swamps For Iron

　　Once the Elder is defeated, you're ready to head into the next biome: the Swamps. This is a tough location that's full of dangerous, poisonous enemies, and you'll want to upgrade your gear as much as you can before you start making your way to one. Your goal here is to find Sunken Crypts, the dungeons of the Swamp biome. The Swamp key you earned from the Elder will let you unlock the dungeons; inside, you'll find Muddy Scrap Piles, big black gunk wads that block doorways. Smash those with your pickaxe for a chance to find Scrap Iron. Check out our Iron guide for more information about how to find and smelt Iron to use it in crafting.

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Build Your Crafting Tools

Once you have Iron in your repertoire, you can build the rest of the tools and crafting stations you'll need to start construction. Use 2 Iron, 4 Stone, and 10 Wood to make a Stonecutter (you'll also need a Workbench), a new crafting station that works like a Workbench when building. Put it near where you want to start building with stone, because you'll need to stay within the Stonecutter's radius for building to work.

　　As mentioned earlier, you'll also want a pickaxe, as well as a Hoe (which you'll make from 5 Wood and 2 Stone). It's recommended that you upgrade from the Bronze Pickaxe you made earlier to an Iron Pickaxe, which will have more durability and cut through rocks, Obsidian, and other materials.

　　

Start Your Stone Construction

Stone makes for some big, impressive buildings, but you'll probably want to include Wood as well because stone's large blocks can be difficult to work with.

　　With everything made, you're ready to start building. Place the Stonecutter near where you want to work (unlike the Forge and Workbench, it doesn't need a roof) and use your pickaxe to mine stone from the ground--you can get it by just digging or by crushing rocks in the area. You'll probably need a ton of Stone in your inventory, so get ready to spend some time sourcing it. The good news is that you can get it just about anywhere.

　　When you're ready to build, use the Hoe where you want your structure to be, either leveling the ground or building it up where it's low. You'll want a good level place to work because stone blocks are a lot heavier than Wood. Where Wood can attach to other pieces of your structure and hang out over space without anything to support it, stone will crumble without a solid foundation.

　　Stone walls are thick and unwieldy, so you'll probably want to combine your stone construction with wood structures. You can also use Core Wood beams in the corners of your stone building to plug holes and shore up places where the stone doesn't make a tight seal. With enough stone, you'll be able to build some pretty huge and involved fortresses.