Updated November 12, 2026. Applies to Valheim 1.0, live patch 1.0.21 (October 28, 2026). Recipe, stats and location data come from the community Valheim Wiki Dyrnwyn page and its Mysterious Location and Lord Reto pages. The sword's history comes from Iron Gate's own patch 0.218.15 Ashlands notes on Steam. No 1.0.x patch note has touched Dyrnwyn since.
Dyrnwyn is the only weapon in Valheim locked behind a one-time quest. You have to follow a chain of three Vegvisirs across the Ashlands, collect three fragments and kill a hidden miniboss for the last one. It's also rare. Steam's global stats show only 0.6% of Valheim players on Steam have the achievement for crafting it (checked November 12, 2026; achievements only count from 1.0 onward).
This guide covers the full quest, the Lord Reto fight, the exact recipe, an upgrade limit most guides miss, and the legit ways to get a second Dyrnwyn for a friend.
Quick answer: Dyrnwyn needs 3 unique fragments from 3 Mysterious Locations in the Ashlands. Find the first location through a Vegvisir that spawns in about 25% of Putrid Holes. Location 1 holds the tip fragment, and its Vegvisir points to location 2 (the blade fragment), which points to location 3. There, the hilt fragment drops from Lord Reto, a 2-star miniboss with 7,500 health in the Tomb of Lord Reto. Craft it at a level 4 Black Forge with the 3 fragments, 20 Flametal and 1 Bloodstone. It hits for 145 Slash + 10 Fire. Quality 4 needs a level-7 Black Forge, which the game doesn't have, so it tops out at quality 3 (157 Slash) unless you use the Forge of Potential. Fragments don't respawn, so a world normally makes one Dyrnwyn.
What is Dyrnwyn in Valheim?
Dyrnwyn is a one-handed sword from the Ashlands, added with the Ashlands update in patch 0.218.15 (May 14, 2024). Iron Gate's notes list it plainly: "Weapon: Dyrnwyn (sword)", "Material: Dyrnwyn Fragments x3" and "Miniboss: Lord Reto".
Its in-game description reads: "The sword that was broken is whole once more. Its flames burn hot, fuelled by the memories of ancient warriors." The blade also gives off orange light, so it doubles as a torch in the Ashlands haze.
| Dyrnwyn stat | Value |
|---|---|
| Damage (quality 1) | 145 Slash + 10 Fire |
| Slash per quality level | +6 (Fire stays at 10) |
| Durability | 300, +50 per level |
| Weight | 0.8 |
| Stamina | 16 primary, 28 secondary |
| Block armor / block force | 57 / 20 |
| Parry bonus | 2x |
| Crafting station | Black Forge level 4 |
| Forge of Potential idol | Flametal Battle Idol |
It swings like every one-handed sword. The primary attack is a 3-hit combo where the last hit does double damage, and it has no damage penalty against multiple targets. The secondary attack is a single thrust for 3x damage with slightly longer reach.
Where do you find the Dyrnwyn fragments?
You find them at three Mysterious Locations in the Ashlands. Each holds one fragment, and you have to visit them in order. This order was set on purpose before Ashlands launched. Patch 0.218.14 (Public Test) says: "Changed spawn of vegvisir_placeofmystery so that the next place of mystery is found from the previous one."
There is no fixed spot, because every world seed places them differently. The Vegvisir chain is the only reliable way in. These are the steps:
- Clear Putrid Holes. These are the Ashlands caves that each hold one Morgen. About 25% of them contain a Vegvisir that marks the first Mysterious Location on your map.
- Read the Vegvisir. It shows the "Vegvisir Mysterious Location" prompt. Press E to register it, and the location appears on your map.
- Location 1 → tip fragment. It's a small walled ruin with no door. Break through a wall to reach the altar and the Dyrnwyn tip fragment. A Vegvisir here points to location 2.
- Location 2 → blade fragment. A ring of Grausten arches with the Dyrnwyn blade fragment on an open altar. Its Vegvisir points to location 3.
- Location 3 → hilt fragment. Another sealed ruin. Break a wall to find the entrance to the Tomb of Lord Reto. The Dyrnwyn hilt fragment drops when you kill Lord Reto.
Each location also spawns 4 Molten Cores, so you get extra cores for Stone Portals along the way. Each fragment weighs 0.5 and doesn't stack.
Tip: Putrid Holes are worth clearing anyway. The wiki's Putrid Hole page lists up to 14 Molten Cores (25% each) and Soft Tissue inside, and its Flametal Battle Idol page lists Putrid Holes as a source of that idol. If your first few have no Vegvisir, keep going. One in four is the average, not a promise.
How dangerous are the Mysterious Locations?
All three are guarded by an elite Monument of Torment. It's purple, not red like the normal ones, and it only spawns 2-star Charred:
| Spawn | Chance |
|---|---|
| 2-star Charred Twitcher | 42% |
| 2-star Charred Warrior | 33% |
| 2-star Charred Marksman | 17% |
| 2-star Charred Warlock | 8% |
It wakes up when a player comes within 60 meters and tries to spawn a new enemy every 10 seconds. Kill it first. It has 400 durability and is immune to Fire, Poison and Spirit. It resists Blunt, Slash, Pierce, Frost and Lightning, but it takes normal damage from a pickaxe or an axe. Run in, hit it with your best pickaxe, then deal with whatever spawned.
Locations 1 and 3 have no doorway, so bring a pickaxe or a hammer-heavy weapon to break in. Don't fight 2-star Charred in the open with the monument still up. That's how most first attempts end.
How do you beat Lord Reto?
Lord Reto is a 2-star Charred miniboss with 7,500 health. He's the only creature in the Tomb of Lord Reto, a small dark cave with a few indestructible pillars. He fights like a Charred Warrior but hits much harder:
| Attack | Damage | Cooldown |
|---|---|---|
| Swing | 480 Slash | 3 s |
| Thrust | 460 Pierce | 3 s |
| Feint (swing) | 500 Slash | 8 s |
| Thrust feint | 420 Pierce | 3 s |
The wiki warns that without Deep North gear "he is capable of killing a player in one-hit", even with max-tier Ashlands armor and 300 health from food. Treat every hit as lethal.
How to win the fight:
- Parry, don't roll. All four attacks reach only 3 meters and need him within 1.6 meters. The feints pause about 0.57 seconds (swing) and 0.63 seconds (thrust) before landing. The wiki says there is "more than enough time to react and parry again". Rolling early gets you caught by the delayed hit. Listen for the feint: it has its own sound.
- Bring Spirit damage. He's weak to Spirit, resistant to Pierce, Fire and Frost, and immune to Poison. A Silver Sword (75 Slash + 30 Spirit at quality 1) does more than you'd expect here. Arrows, spears and fire weapons all lose damage.
- Punish the parry. A clean parry staggers him. Follow up with the secondary thrust (3x damage) while he's open.
- Bring light. The tomb has no light. Place a torch or campfire at the entrance before you go in.
- Eat your best three foods and put up a portal at location 3 before entering. If you die inside, your gravestone is in a dark, cramped cave.
Lord Reto drops the hilt fragment but no trophy. Killing him does count toward the all-minibosses achievement.
What is the Dyrnwyn recipe?
You craft it at the Black Forge, level 4. Here are the full recipe and upgrade costs from the Valheim Wiki:
| Quality | Materials | Black Forge level | Slash | Durability |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 (craft) | Hilt + blade + tip fragment, 20 Flametal, 1 Bloodstone | 4 | 145 | 300 |
| 2 | 10 Flametal, 1 Bloodstone | 5 | 151 | 350 |
| 3 | 20 Flametal, 2 Bloodstone | 6 | 157 | 400 |
| 4 | 40 Flametal, 4 Bloodstone | 7 (doesn't exist) | 163 | 450 |
| Total to Q3 | 3 fragments, 50 Flametal, 4 Bloodstone |
Bloodstone is the slow part. The wiki lists it only from Charred chests inside Charred Fortresses, so plan a fortress run (or two) before you craft. Flametal comes from Flametal Ore smelted in a Blast Furnace, and it can't go through a normal portal.
Getting the Black Forge to level 4: you need three upgrades. Only two (Cooler and Vice) use Mistlands materials, so the third has to be the Metal Cutter (5 Black Marble, 5 Flametal, 5 Ashwood, 4 Charred Bone) or the Gem Cutter. The Valheim workbench and forge upgrades guide lists every piece.
Why can't you upgrade Dyrnwyn to quality 4?
This is the detail most Dyrnwyn guides skip. In Valheim, an item first crafted at station level N needs level N+1 for quality 2, N+2 for quality 3 and N+3 for quality 4. Dyrnwyn starts at Black Forge level 4, so quality 4 needs level 7.
The Black Forge maxes out at level 6 in 1.0. The Smith's Aprons upgrade, added with the Deep North, gives level 6. The wiki's upgrade table marks the level 7 step as "(not yet available)". So at a forge:
- Quality 3 is the normal cap: 157 Slash + 10 Fire.
- Reaching quality 3 already needs Smith's Aprons, which costs 5 Bloodgold. That means you must have beaten Fader and started the Deep North. Our Bloodgold farming guide covers that chain.
The only way past quality 3 is the Forge of Potential. Dyrnwyn takes a Flametal Battle Idol. Each attempt has a 65% chance to add a quality level, with no cap, and a 35% chance to destroy the sword. That's a real gamble on a one-of-a-kind weapon, so read the next section before you try it.
How do you get a second Dyrnwyn?
The wiki is clear: "These fragments are not renewable, thus only one Dyrnwyn can be crafted." That's a problem in multiplayer, and it keeps coming up on r/valheim. A thread from November 10 asks exactly this. These are the legit options, from best to worst:
- Raise the Resources modifier before you loot. The wiki notes that a higher drop-rate setting makes more fragments drop. Resources can be changed on an existing world from the world settings. On More (1.5x), small drops round up, so 1 can become 2. One r/valheim player reported getting "dupes of all parts except the hilt on 1.5x resources". The hilt comes from Lord Reto, so don't count on two of those. Set Much More (2x) or Most (3x) if your group needs two or three swords. This only works if you change it before you pick up the fragments. Our world modifiers guide has the exact multipliers.
- Do the quest again in a second world. Your character and inventory carry between worlds. Make a new world, sail to its Ashlands and run the Vegvisir chain again. It's the longest option, but every fragment is clean.
- Let the Forge of Potential decide. You can't choose to break an item there. Each attempt costs a Flametal Battle Idol and has a 65% chance to upgrade the sword instead. But when an attempt fails (35%), the sword is destroyed and the wiki's refund rule returns 35%, rounded up, of its base cost plus its current level's cost. One fragment rounds up to one, so all three fragments come back. At quality 3 the wiki's rule also gives back 14 Flametal and 2 of the 4 Bloodstone. A friend can then craft their own Dyrnwyn for the achievement. Patch 1.0.21 notes that crafting-achievement progress is "still tied to network owner" (the note names the Frost Foundry), so to be safe, let your friend craft it while they're the only player near the Black Forge.
- Share it. Hand it over through a chest or an item stand.
What we don't cover: save rollbacks and item duping. Items created with cheat commands are marked as cheated items, which can block achievements.
Is Dyrnwyn worth it?
As a weapon, it's a small upgrade over Nidhögg. As a trophy, it's one of the rarest unlocks in the game. Here's how it compares with the other one-handed swords, based on the wiki's sword table:
| Sword | Damage (Q1 → max at a forge) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Mistwalker | 75 Slash + 40 Frost (+ up to 15 Spirit) | Mistlands |
| Nidhögg | 135 → 153 Slash (Q4) | Ashlands, takes Bloodstone, Iolite or Jade upgrades |
| Dyrnwyn | 145 → 157 Slash (Q3) + 10 Fire | One per world, glows orange |
| Nord Sword | 170 → 190 Slash | Deep North, the strongest one-hander |
Some honest points:
- At max forge level, Dyrnwyn beats a plain Nidhögg by 4 Slash plus 10 Fire. That's about 9% more, which you won't notice in most fights.
- The 10 Fire is wasted on some of the hardest targets. Fader is immune to Fire, and Lord Reto resists it. A thread asking for Dyrnwyn's fire damage to scale with upgrades was posted on r/valheim on November 11. Right now it doesn't: Fire stays at 10 at every quality.
- The Nord Sword outclasses it as soon as you're forging Deep North gear.
So get it for the quest, the glow and the 0.6% achievement. Don't skip the Nord Sword for it. For the full weapon ranking, see our Valheim weapon tier list.
FAQ
Where is Dyrnwyn in Valheim? There's no fixed location. Dyrnwyn is crafted from three fragments found at three Mysterious Locations in the Ashlands, and every world seed places them differently. Find the first one through a Vegvisir in a Putrid Hole (about 25% of them have one). Each location's Vegvisir then points to the next.
How do you get the Dyrnwyn hilt fragment? Kill Lord Reto. He's the 2-star miniboss inside the Tomb of Lord Reto, under the third Mysterious Location. Break a wall of the ruin to reach the entrance.
Can each player in multiplayer get their own Dyrnwyn? Not by default. The fragments don't respawn, so a normal world makes one sword. Raise the Resources world modifier before looting, or run the quest in a second world. A failed Forge of Potential attempt also refunds the fragments, so a friend can craft one too.
What level Black Forge do you need for Dyrnwyn? Level 4 to craft it, levels 5 and 6 to upgrade it to quality 3. Quality 4 would need level 7, which doesn't exist in patch 1.0.21. The only way higher is the Forge of Potential with a Flametal Battle Idol.
Is Dyrnwyn better than Nidhögg? Slightly. At max forge quality, Dyrnwyn hits for 157 Slash + 10 Fire and Nidhögg for 153 Slash. Nidhögg can take gem upgrades, though, and the Deep North Nord Sword beats both.
Does Dyrnwyn's fire damage increase when you upgrade it? No. Every upgrade adds 6 Slash, but Fire stays at 10 from quality 1 to quality 4.
More Valheim guides
Heading into the Ashlands for the fragments? These guides cover the rest of the trip.
