When you first jump into your world in Valheim, you get a rundown of the basics from Hugin. You probably already have a hammer, an axe, and a wooden club. But what about the other basics? Not everyone wants to use the brute force of a club.
With a spear and a bow, you can navigate the wilderness with ease. You can collect resources in more efficient ways or just feel cooler with a large spear on your back. Using an axe to wack everything only goes so far when you have to sneak up behind some prey without detection.
Crafting A Bow And Arrow
Crafting a bow takes more work than other basic tools because you need leather scraps. Anything that requires the hide of an animal will take a small amount of farming to acquire. Leather scraps are dropped by wild boars that roam around the meadows. The good thing about boars is they won't run away from you before you can get close. You'll need eight leather scraps and ten pieces of wood to craft a bow. You'll already be within the meadow biome, a grassy and peaceful land. Where there's one boar there's another. In the future, when you're able to break stronger wood, you can make stronger bows. To make basic arrows, all you need is just eight pieces of wood. You can craft specialty arrows later on.
Crafting A Spear
To craft a spear, you'll need five pieces of wood, ten pieces of flint, and two leather scraps. Out of all of these, flint might be deemed the hardest to find once you get the hang of boars. Flint spawns at the very shallow edges of any body of water.
To farm flint, simply walk along any shoreline back and forth. The flint does respawn after a while. Try looking for tight spaces between two large hills, where a small river runs through. There should be lots of flint there. As time goes on and you gain other resources for crafting, you can make better alternatives to spears.
How To Use A Bow Efficiently
Using bows are not as easy as they are in other games. Though bows will always require some amount of skill in the aiming department, it's extra so for Valheim. Shooting a bow and arrow feels very heavy. You will find that your arrow shoots right at the ground instead of where your mouse is actually aiming.
Because of this, you will have to learn how to aim way higher than you think. The crosshair is not the indicator of a perfect hit. Instead, focus on how your character is actually positioned, ignoring any crosshairs and HUDs. The best use for a bow and arrow is for sneaking up on deer. Deer instantly run away from you and sometimes a sneak attack can fail. If you can land a head shot from far away, you won't have to worry about sneaking at all.
How To Use A Spear Efficiently
The spear is very fast and worthwhile when in fights. You can spam attack until your stamina is nowhere to be found. You may find that you hit one time too extra when taking on foe if you do choose spam, though. The one trick with spears is that you cannot hit downwards. You can hit up and directly in front of you. For example, if you run up a hill while a monster is chasing you, then turn around and attack with a spear, it won't hit the monster at all. In most fights and games in general you want to get to higher ground, but with a spear it's best to keep the same height level as your enemy.