Updated November 13, 2026. Applies to Valheim 1.0, patch 1.0.21. Drop tables, recipes and loot odds come from the community Valheim Wiki. We checked Iron Gate's patch posts on Steam from the 1.0 launch up to patch 1.0.21 (October 28, 2026). None of them change Black Metal recipes, scrap drop amounts or the Blast Furnace. The one Fuling-related change is in patch 1.0.20: "Trophy drop chance is now increased by star level of monsters." The same patch says "Pseudo-random drop logic will no longer be reset between player sessions to give a more fair distribution for rare drops." Both touch trophies and rare drops like idols, not the fixed scrap amounts below.
Black Metal is the Plains metal. It makes the best weapons of the middle game, the two Black Metal shields, the Black Metal Pickaxe and several Mistlands stations. It also breaks the pattern of every metal before it, which is why new players get stuck. You can't find a Black Metal vein, and you can't smelt the scrap in your Smelter. A thread on r/valheim titled "How much black metal do I really need?" asks the question this guide answers with real numbers: where the scrap comes from, how fast each source pays, and how much a real build costs.
Quick answer: Kill Fulings in the Plains and loot Plains chests. A 0-star Fuling drops 1 Black Metal Scrap, a 0-star Fuling Berserker drops 3 to 4, and every star doubles the drop. Smelt the scrap 1:1 into Black Metal in a Blast Furnace, which needs an Artisan Table, so you have to beat Moder first. Scrap weighs 10 and can't go through a wood portal. A maxed Black Metal Sword plus a maxed Black Metal Shield costs 110 Black Metal, and every Plains weapon and shield at max quality costs 530.
How do you get Black Metal in Valheim?
The wiki's Black Metal Scrap page puts it plainly: "Unlike previous metals, Black Metal Scrap is not mined from deposits. It is dropped by Fulings or found in chests in the Plains biome."
So the order looks like this:
- Beat Moder in the Mountain. She drops the Dragon Tears you need for the Artisan Table (2 Dragon Tears and 10 Wood). Our Moder boss guide covers the eggs and the fight.
- Build a Blast Furnace next to the Artisan Table. It costs 20 Stone, 5 Surtling Cores, 10 Iron and 20 Finewood.
- Kill Fulings and loot chests in the Plains for Black Metal Scrap.
- Haul the scrap home by cart or boat, not by portal.
- Smelt it in the Blast Furnace with Coal.
You don't have to wait for Moder to start collecting. Fulings drop scrap from your first trip into the Plains. You just can't turn it into bars until the Blast Furnace is up, so many players stockpile a chest of scrap while they prepare for the dragon.
How much Black Metal Scrap does each Fuling drop?
Every Fuling type drops scrap, and the amount doubles with each star. These are the wiki's drop tables on patch 1.0.21, on default world settings (the resource-rate world modifier multiplies drops):
| Enemy | 0 star | 1 star | 2 star | Health (0 star) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fuling | 1 | 2 | 4 | 175 |
| Fuling Shaman | 1 | (2) | (4) | 100 |
| Fuling Berserker | 3 to 4 | 6 to 8 | 12 to 16 | 800 |
| Plains Chest | 2 to 5 at 78.3% |
The chest line is from the wiki's loot chest table. A Plains Chest rolls 3 to 4 items, and Black Metal Scrap shows up 78.3% of the time at 2 to 5 pieces. By our math that's about 2.7 scrap per chest on average. The same chests also roll a 13.1% Black Metal Protection Idol and a 6.69% Black Metal Battle Idol for the Forge of Potential.
Normal Shaman spawns in villages never have stars, so treat their starred columns as theoretical. Two things stand out. First, a Berserker is worth about 3.5 normal Fulings in scrap, so they're the targets worth the risk. Second, stars matter more than numbers. One 2-star Fuling drops as much scrap as four 0-star ones.
Where is the best place to farm Black Metal?
There are four sources worth your time, and they stack well on one trip.
Fuling villages. These are the main farm. The wiki's Fuling Village page lists Fulings, Shamans and Berserkers as residents, plus Plains Chests "in various places". Berserkers also spawn at Stonehenges, up to 3 per site. Villages are also where you'll find a 50% Fuling Totem next to each bonfire, which you need for Yagluth. Village and Stonehenge spawns are one-time, though: once you clear a site, its Fulings don't come back, and the chests stay empty. Each village is one big payout, not a farm you can repeat.
The Plains at night. This is the renewable source. In daytime the spawn table allows up to 2 roaming Fulings per spawn zone. At night that limit rises to 5, and they despawn at dawn. If you have a safe outpost on the edge of the Plains, the night brings the scrap to you.
After Yagluth, almost anywhere. Once Yagluth is dead, the wiki's spawn table adds unstarred Fulings at night "in most biomes", up to 3 at a time. Your home base becomes a slow, free scrap farm. It also means a base you never walled in will start getting visitors.
Fuling raids. The Fuling raid events spawn up to 8 Fulings at a time, and one of them only spawns starred ones. Every Fuling that attacks your walls drops scrap. Our raids guide lists what triggers each event.
The wiki's advice for villages is to open with a bow: "It is highly recommended to use a bow to dispatch the Fulings from afar." Shoot the sentries in the towers and the Shamans first, because Shamans shield themselves and nearby Fulings once they're alerted. Fulings are also immune to Spirit damage, so the Spirit bonus on Silver Arrows does nothing here.
How much Black Metal do you need in Valheim?
We summed the Black Metal in every recipe and upgrade from the wiki's item pages on patch 1.0.21, such as the Black Metal Sword and the Black Metal Atgeir. "Max" means quality 4 for weapons and tools and quality 3 for shields, the highest normal upgrades allow. The station column is the level you need to craft quality 1. Each upgrade after that needs one more station level.
| Item | Station | Black Metal at Q1 | Black Metal to max |
|---|---|---|---|
| Black Metal Sword | Forge 4 | 20 | 90 |
| Black Metal Axe | Forge 4 | 20 | 90 |
| Black Metal Atgeir | Forge 4 | 30 | 135 |
| Black Metal Battleaxe | Forge 4 | 30 | 135 |
| Black Metal Knife | Forge 4 | 10 | 38 |
| Black Metal Shield | Forge 3 | 8 | 20 |
| Black Metal Tower Shield | Forge 3 | 10 | 22 |
| Black Metal Pickaxe | Forge 2 | 25 | 130 |
| Skoll and Hati | Black Forge | 10 | 38 |
The upgrade costs climb fast. The sword is 20 to craft, then 10, 20 and 40 for qualities 2 to 4. That last upgrade alone costs twice as much as the sword did. Our workbench upgrades guide shows how to get your Forge to level 4.
Here's what that means for a few real builds. The kill counts are our own math from the drop table above:
| Build | Black Metal | 0-star Fulings | 0-star Berserkers | Plains Chests |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sword Q4 + Black Metal Shield Q3 | 110 | 110 | ~31 | ~40 |
| Sword Q4 + Tower Shield Q3 | 112 | 112 | ~32 | ~41 |
| Atgeir Q4 only | 135 | 135 | ~39 | ~49 |
| Every Plains weapon and shield at max | 530 | 530 | ~151 | ~193 |
| Mistlands starter (Axe Q1, Pickaxe Q1, Eitr Refinery, Sap Extractor, Galdr Table) | 65 | 65 | ~19 | ~24 |
These are averages for 0-star enemies only, so your luck will vary. In a real clear you mix Fulings, Berserkers, starred enemies and chests, and starred enemies cut the count a lot.
There is no Black Metal armor. The wiki says it directly: "Black Metal is not used to craft any Armor. The Plains-tier Padded Armor is instead made of Iron." If you're saving scrap for a chest piece, stop. Padded Armor costs Iron and Linen Thread, so our iron guide is the one to read for that.
Don't forget the Linen Thread. Every Plains Black Metal weapon also needs Linen Thread (the Pickaxe and Skoll and Hati don't), made from Flax at a Spinning Wheel at 30 seconds per thread. A maxed sword needs 40 thread on top of its 90 Black Metal. The Spinning Wheel, like the Blast Furnace, needs an Artisan Table nearby.
What else uses Black Metal?
Weapons are only half of it. Black Metal shows up in a lot of later recipes, and it's easy to run out at the start of the Mistlands:
- Black Metal Chest: 6 Black Metal, 10 Wood, 2 Tar. The biggest chest, with 32 slots.
- Pots and Pans: 5 Black Metal, 5 Iron, 5 Copper, 10 Finewood. The Cauldron upgrade.
- Lox Saddle: 15 Black Metal. See our Lox guide.
- Bracelets of the Brave and Evasion Mantle: 5 Black Metal each. Both are trinkets, ranked in our trinkets tier list.
- Ballista: 10 Black Metal, 10 Yggdrasil Wood, 3 Mechanical Springs. 1 Black Metal and 10 Wood make 20 Black Metal Missiles.
- Trap: 5 Black Metal, 10 Bronze Nails, 1 Mechanical Spring.
- Eitr Refinery: 5 Black Metal. Sap Extractor: 5. Galdr Table: 10.
- Black Metal Bolts: 2 Black Metal, 8 Wood and 2 Feathers make 20 bolts.
- Wardrobe: 6 Black Metal, 10 Timberwood, 2 Tar. A Deep North build piece.
The Black Metal Axe also matters more than its damage suggests. It's the axe that can chop Yggdrasil Shoots, so you need one before you can build the Mistlands stations above.
How do you smelt Black Metal Scrap?
Only the Blast Furnace can do it. The wiki's Blast Furnace page notes that "it cannot smelt the ores that the Smelter can", and the reverse is also true: your Smelter won't take Black Metal Scrap. The Blast Furnace also smelts Flametal Ore and Petrified Tissue later on.
The numbers are the same as a Smelter:
- 30 seconds per bar, 1 scrap into 1 Black Metal.
- 1 Coal every 15 seconds, so 2 Coal per bar.
- Holds 10 scrap and 20 Coal at a time.
That means a 110-bar sword-and-shield build takes about 55 minutes and 220 Coal in one furnace. Build two and you halve the wait. Sleeping also speeds it up. The Blast Furnace can't sit on a wood floor, so put it on terrain or stone. Our smelter and blast furnace guide covers Coal and the Charcoal Kiln.
Can you teleport Black Metal?
Not through a normal wood portal. Both the scrap and the bars are marked non-teleportable. This is where most of your Black Metal time goes.
Here's the weight math. Black Metal Scrap weighs 10 per piece and stacks to 30, so one stack of 30 weighs 300. That's your whole base carry weight. A Megingjord from Haldor adds 150. Moder's Forsaken Power adds 300 for its duration, which is the one time a boss power is really a hauling tool. See our Forsaken Power tier list.
Your options:
- Cart. 18 slots and no listed weight limit, but it gets hard to pull when heavy and on slopes. The Plains are flat, which helps.
- Boat. Most Fuling villages aren't far from a shore. A Karve or Longship works well. Our boats guide compares cargo space.
- Build the Blast Furnace in the Plains. Smelt on site, then sail or cart the bars home. You still can't portal the bars.
- Stone Portal (late game). The Ashlands-tier Stone Portal carries metals. The portals guide explains the rules.
- World modifier. If you play with the "Portal items" modifier on, everything can go through. Our world modifiers guide covers how to change it.
Is Black Metal worth farming before the Mistlands?
Yes, for one weapon and one shield. The Black Metal Sword goes from 95 to 113 Slash across its four qualities, and the Atgeir from 105 to 123 Pierce. Those are the strongest metal weapons you can make before the Mistlands. A Q4 sword plus a Q3 shield is 110 Black Metal, which is roughly one or two village clears with Berserkers, depending on stars and chest rolls.
Maxing every weapon type is a different story. At 530 Black Metal for the full Plains set, you're better off picking one weapon line and moving on. Our weapon tier list ranks which Black Metal weapons are worth it. Then save about 65 more for the Mistlands starter stations and the Black Metal Pickaxe, which our pickaxe guide covers.
FAQ
Can you mine Black Metal in Valheim? No. There are no Black Metal veins. Black Metal Scrap only drops from Fulings, Fuling Shamans and Fuling Berserkers, or from Plains Chests.
Why won't my Smelter take Black Metal Scrap? Black Metal Scrap only smelts in a Blast Furnace. You unlock the Blast Furnace by building an Artisan Table, which needs 2 Dragon Tears from Moder.
Is there Black Metal armor in Valheim? No. Black Metal isn't used in any armor. The Plains armor is Padded Armor, which is made from Iron and Linen Thread.
Can Black Metal go through a portal? Not through a wood portal. Black Metal Scrap and Black Metal bars are both non-teleportable. Use a cart, a boat, the late-game Stone Portal, or the "Portal items" world modifier.
Which Fuling drops the most Black Metal Scrap? The Fuling Berserker. A 0-star Berserker drops 3 to 4 scrap, a 1-star drops 6 to 8 and a 2-star drops 12 to 16. A normal 0-star Fuling drops 1.
How much Black Metal do you need for a Black Metal Sword? 20 to craft it and 90 to take it to quality 4, plus 40 Linen Thread. Add 20 more for a maxed Black Metal Shield.
For more Plains and Mistlands prep, browse our other Valheim guides, starting with the full metal progression from Copper to Bloodgold.
