The Workbench is the first and arguably most important crafting station you’ll build in Valheim, but you can’t just build the bench itself and call it done; you’ll need to craft all sorts of accompanying upgrades to make your Workbench as useful as possible.
Upgrade structures are at the heart of Valheim’s crafting system. They unlock new recipes and allow you to upgrade your gear further than you could before. Oftentimes, finding out how to upgrade your Workbench for a given biome is the key to overcoming it, so in case you’re stuck, here’s how you can build every Workbench upgrade and what they unlock.
Upgrading The Workbench
There are four upgrade structures that pair with the Workbench: the Chopping Block, Tanning Rack, Adze, and Tool Shelf. Building each one nearby your Workbench will increase its level and allow you to build and upgrade new items. To build all these upgrade structures, you will need a total of:
- 3 Bronze
- 5 Deer Hide
- 20 Fine Wood
- 25 Flint
- 4 Iron
- 20 Leather Scraps
- 4 Obsidian
- 20 Wood
Keep in mind that you can’t place these upgrades too close to each other, so leave plenty of space around your Workbench when you build your base. If you don’t have enough room for the next upgrade, you can always try to build a basement. Upgrades work through walls and floors, so stuffing all your Workbench upgrades into a small space beneath the floor can really help free up your base.
Each of these upgrade structures unlocks new recipes or allows you to upgrade your gear even further, but some of the materials you need can be quite hard to get.
The Chopping Block
The Chopping Block is the easiest upgrade to build, and if you’re fast, you’ll likely be able to build it within minutes of starting a new run. To build the Chopping Block, you’ll need:
Out of the two ingredients, Flint is definitely the harder one to find, but it can be easier to gather if you know where to look. Flint spawns in the Meadows along coastlines and river banks, but the latter location is the better place to look for these white stones.
The Chopping Block will unlock Leather Armor at the Workbench and more importantly allow you to upgrade basic weapons like the Flint Axe and Flint Spear which will be essential in beating Eikthyr and making your way through the Black Forest.
Technically, most of the Workbench’s recipes, like Fenris armor, the Root Armor, and more, are unlocked by just the Chopping Block, but you won’t have access to these items until much later in the game. However, this is a good thing to keep in mind in case you want to upgrade a distant Workbench later on — you might not need to build all the upgrades to make what you want.
The Tanning Rack
The Tanning Rack is one of the more difficult Workbench upgrades to craft since so much of its recipe calls for animal drops. To craft the Tanning Rack, you’ll need:
- 5 Deer Hide
- 15 Flint
- 20 Leather Scraps
- 10 Wood
The hardest ingredient on the list is the Leather Scraps. You can get them by killing Boars you find around the Meadows, but you’ll need 20 to make this upgrade, which means you’ll be hunting these wild pigs for quite a while. To help speed this up, check out any red Runestones you find in the Meadows; there’s a chance it could be a Boar Runestone which is guaranteed to spawn a handful of them nearby.
Deer Hide can also be tricky to get in large enough quantities. If you’re having trouble sneaking up on Deer, try using the Crude Bow or Flint Spear, and be sure to listen for Deer calls while you walk through the forests of the Meadows.
The Tanning Rack technically unlocks Obsidian Arrows, which are one of the best arrow options in the game, but you need Obsidian to make them which can only be found in the Mountains. In the average playthrough, the Tanning Rack is useful early on because it allows you to upgrade your basic weapons an additional time.
The Adze
The Adze is the first Workbench upgrade that requires metal, meaning while it can be useful for upgrading gear, it also can’t be teleported if you decide to move bases. To build it, you’ll need:
Bronze is the harder ingredient to get out of the two, but you will likely find yourself with a surplus of this brown metal since it is also the main upgrade material of the Black Forest. If you haven’t unlocked the Adze recipe yet, it’s likely that you’re missing Fine Wood. Craft a Bronze Axe and chop down some Birch trees in the Meadows to get access to the last material you’ll need to make this upgrade.
The Adze unlocks late-game items such as the Frost Arrow, but in your average playthrough, it more importantly lets you fully upgrade the Finewood Bow. This Black Forest-level bow is the best-ranged weapon to take with you into the Swamps and is a staple in many Valheim playthroughs.
The Tool Shelf is the final and most difficult Workbench upgrade to build. It will allow you to fully upgrade plenty of items, but first, you’ll have to get the materials to craft it:
- 10 Fine Wood
- 4 Iron
- 4 Obsidian
Obsidian can be a tricky material to get. It spawns as flat-topped rocks in the Mountains biome, and unlike most materials, it’s not necessary to beat the game — you could go your whole playthrough without knowing this rock existed and be none the wiser.
If you want access to maxed-out weapons and armor earlier, you can get Obsidian before beating Bonemass. All you’ll need is an Iron Pickaxe and a Frost Resistance Mead, and you can search your nearby mountain peaks for Obsidian Deposits. Just don’t try to fight anything while you’re up there.
The Tool Shelf doesn’t unlock any new recipes, but it allows you to fully upgrade tons of armor sets like Troll Armor, Fenris Armor, and Root Armor. There are also a few weapons like the Abyssal Razor that need the Tool Shelf to be fully upgraded.
