You could probably get by in Valheim without mead, more or less, for most of the game. There are exceptions though, and for the most part they give great benefits. Plus, it’s a hugely immersive part of the game, so let’s talk you through the basics.
Mead is a staple part of a Viking’s diet. It is basically an alcoholic beverage fermented from honey with various spices or other components for taste. Of course, the best meads would give their drinkers superhuman powers, and ward off the worst sicknesses and injuries! At least, that’s what they would have us believe. In Valheim, then, meads form the basis of the potion system, and the basic ingredient is honey.
Beehives
The first thing you will need to build are a number of beehives. Wild beehives can be found all over the meadows, usually inside abandoned cabins. Hit these with a pickaxe to break them up and collect the Queen Bee from inside. Take this back to your base and use your hammer to build it a brand new beehive from 10 wood and the Queen Bee.
You will need to plop the beehive down outside, otherwise the bees will be unhappy and won’t make honey for you. You’ll be able to tell when they are working by the bees swarming around the beehive and by interacting with the beehive to check up on them.
Over time the bees within the hive will create honey. This is stored within the hive with a maximum of 4 pieces. Interact to remove the current total from the beehive and take it away. Beehives will carry on working indefinitely without any maintenance from the player.
Cauldron
You’ll need to create a mead base before you can ferment it. There are a variety of mead bases which you can make, each with different effects and different ingredients. To make a mead base you will need to make a cauldron in which to mix it.
You make a cauldron with the Hammer out of 10 Tin ingots. You will need to have a forge nearby to place the cauldron, and it should be placed on top of a fire to use it (similar to the cooking station).
Interact with the cauldron to see which mead bases you can mix with your current knowledge of ingredients. As you find more ingredients (such as Cloudberries in the Plains) your available list of mead bases will increase. You can also make different foods using the cauldron, such as Turnip Stew (a good solid food) and Sausages.
You can see, for example, that a Medium Healing mead base will require 10 Honey, 4 Bloodbags, 10 Raspberries and 1 Dandelion. If you have all of these in your inventory you can mix the mead base, ready for the next step.
Fermenting
To transform your collection of ingredients into a fully formed mead you will need to ferment the base for approximately 2 days. You do this by adding the base to a large barrel called a fermenter. The fermenter is crafted from 30 Fine Wood, 5 Bronze ingots and 10 Resin. It is a good idea to have multiple Fermenters available to increase the quantity and variety of meads you can have fermenting at any one time.
The Fermenter must be placed indoors to function using the Hammer. Once you have placed it and you have crafted a mead base, simply interact with the Fermenter to pour the base inside. Leave for two days and then the tool-tip will tell you it is complete. Interact again and it will dispense 6 meads on to the floor for you to collect.
Meads
The following is a list of meads currently available:
| Mead | Ingredients | Effects |
|---|---|---|
| Mead | Ingredients | Effects |
| Frost Resistance | 10x Honey, 5x Thistle, 2x Bloodbag, 1x Greydwarf Eye | Protects from cold effects for 10 minutes – use in the Mountains |
| Poison Resistance | 10x Honey, 5x Thistle, 1x Neck Tail, 10x Coal | Greatly reduces damage due to poison for 10 minutes. |
| Fire Resistance* | 10x Barley, 10x Cloudberries | Halves fire damage and halves fire duration for 10 minutes. |
| Minor Healing | 10x Honey, 5x Blueberries, 10x Raspberries, 1x Dandelion | Rapid Increase of Health by 50HP over 10 seconds. Cannot be used again for 2 minutes. |
| Medium Healing | 10x Honey, 4x Bloodbags, 10x Raspberries, 1x Dandelion | Rapid Increase of Health by 75HP over 10 seconds. Cannot be used again for 2 minutes. |
| Minor Stamina | 10x Honey, 10x Raspberries, 10x Yellow Mushrooms | Rapid Increase of Stamina by 80HP. Cannot be used again for 2 minutes. |
| Medium Stamina | 10x Honey, 10x Cloudberries, 10x Yellow Mushrooms | Rapid Increase of Stamina by 160HP. Cannot be used again for 2 minutes. |
| Tasty | 10x Honey, 10x Raspberries, 5x Blueberries | Increases Stamina regen by +300%, at the cost of Health regen by -50%. |
*To be accurate, the Fire Resistance is a Barley Wine. This is produced from a Barley Wine base made using Barley instead of Honey. Barley is found in Plains villages and can only be cultivated in the Plains.
You can see from the list of ingredients above that there are a large variety which need to be gathered and stored. A lot of these are plentiful in the meadows and black forests, and others are a little more rare.
- Thistles are found easily in the black forest, but aren’t as plentiful as other ingredients. They are essential for Poison and Frost resistance, as well as Sausages (another great food).
- Bloodbags are gathered from dead Leeches in the Swamp. Again, a vital component of healing potions.
- Barley and Cloudberries are found in the Plains.
- Yellow Mushrooms are plentiful and are found in Burial Chambers in the Black Forests.