Crafting with your inventory: materials, stations and upgrades (Valheim 1.0.16)
How recipes, station levels and quality upgrades work in our data, worked through with the bronze sword, and how the crafting calculator turns a wish list into what you still have to gather.
Most crafting questions come down to one sum: what do I still have to gather for this list of items, given what is already in my chests? This guide explains how recipes are built in our data and works through one example by hand. After that, the crafting calculator does the same for any list.
Decide what you are making first
Before gathering materials, decide whether you are crafting a new item or upgrading one you already own. A new bronze sword starts at quality 0 in your plan and initially ends at quality 1. If you already own a quality 2 sword and want quality 3, only that upgrade belongs in the calculation. Counting the original crafting cost again would overstate what you need.
Keep three things separate: your desired result, your stored materials and your workshop. An existing forge does not need to be paid for again each time you make a sword. Missing extensions do require additional materials. Treat that construction work as a separate part of the plan and check its costs on the station page.
Before gathering: choose the item and target quality, count your stored materials, then check the required station and its level. That gives you a material list you can act on.
How a recipe is built
Every recipe in our data names three things:
- the station where you craft it, for example the workbench or the forge. A few basics like the hammer (3 wood, 2 stone) need no station at all;
- the station level the recipe needs;
- the materials for quality 1.
Stations are built too. The workbench costs 10 wood. The forge costs 4 stone, 4 coal, 10 wood and 6 copper; you build it near a workbench. The smelter and the charcoal kiln each cost 20 stone and 5 surtling cores.
A station's level rises with extensions placed near it. The workbench goes up to level 5, the forge up to level 7. One workbench extension is the chopping block (10 wood, 10 flint). Each station page in the database lists its extensions and their costs.
From ore to bar
Many recipes ask for bars, not ore. In our data the smelter turns 1 ore and 2 coal into 1 bar, for copper, tin, iron and silver alike. Bronze is mixed at the forge from 2 copper and 1 tin. Coal itself comes from the charcoal kiln, 1 wood per coal.
Worked example: the bronze sword
The bronze sword at quality 1 needs a level 1 forge and:
- 2 wood
- 8 bronze
- 2 leather scraps
Resolved down to what you gather:
- 8 bronze need 16 copper and 8 tin.
- 16 copper need 16 copper ore and 32 coal; 8 tin need 8 tin ore and 16 coal.
- 48 coal need 48 wood at the kiln, if you make the coal yourself.
So one bronze sword at quality 1 is 16 copper ore, 8 tin ore, 50 wood and 2 leather scraps, crafted at the smelter, the kiln and the forge. If you already have 20 coal in a chest, only 28 wood go into the kiln. That is exactly the step the calculator takes over.
With stored supplies: less ore and less fuel
Use the same bronze sword, but start with 3 bronze, 4 copper bars, 2 tin bars, 6 coal and 2 leather scraps in storage. You have no wood or ore yet. Your stations are already built, so their construction costs are outside this example.
| Step | Calculation | Still to make |
|---|---|---|
| Bronze | 8 required − 3 stored | 5 bronze |
| Copper bars | 5 × 2 − 4 stored | 6 copper |
| Tin bars | 5 × 1 − 2 stored | 3 tin |
| Coal | (6 + 3) × 2 − 6 stored | 12 coal |
| Wood | 12 for coal + 2 for the sword | 14 wood |
Your gathering list is now 6 copper ore, 3 tin ore and 14 wood. You already have enough leather scraps. This result assumes that crafted materials are resolved, that coal comes from the kiln and that the stored supplies are exactly those listed above.
The order of the calculation matters. Subtract stored bronze first, then break the missing bronze into copper and tin. Subtract stored bars next, and only turn the remaining bars into ore and coal. Resolving all eight bronze straight down to ore would count materials already present in your finished bars.
Count each resource only in its current form. A copper bar in storage is one bar, not an additional copper ore as well. The coal already burned to make it is no longer part of your stock either. Keeping these forms separate prevents you from crediting the same resource more than once.
Upgrades: quality levels
Many weapons, armor pieces and tools have quality levels. Each step needs a higher station level and extra materials. For the bronze sword:
| Quality | Forge level | Wood | Bronze | Leather scraps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 (craft) | 1 | 2 | 8 | 2 |
| 2 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 1 |
| 3 | 3 | 2 | 8 | 2 |
| 4 | 4 | 3 or 4 | 12 or 16 | 3 or 4 |
For quality 4 our two sources disagree. One series grows evenly with each level (12 bronze), the other lists 16. The calculator uses the even series by default and lets you switch to the other one; items where the sources differ appear under "Disputed upgrade costs".
The crafting calculator
In the crafting calculator you build a plan:
- Add an item, set the target quality, the quality you already own and the amount.
- Repeat for everything you want to make, for example a full bronze helmet, cuirass and leggings. Each of those needs 5 bronze and 2 deer hide at quality 1.
- Read the result: materials to gather, materials crafted along the way and the stations with the level they need.
Two settings change the result:
- Resolve crafted materials. On, bars, coal and similar are broken down into ore, wood and so on, as in the example above. Off, you only see the direct materials of each recipe, which helps when you already have the bars.
- Have. Enter what you already own next to each material. The calculator subtracts it at every step: bronze in your chest reduces the copper and tin you need, and the "still missing" line counts only what is left to gather.
Your plan stays in your browser. You can copy a share link or export it as a JSON file. On item pages in the database, "Open in a planner" adds that item to the calculator directly.
Prepare a shared gathering trip
Put items you intend to craft together into one plan. This shows the combined requirement without adding several individual lists by hand. Check quantities carefully: two new swords and one upgrade to an existing sword are different tasks. Also check whether a recipe produces several items at once; the calculator has to account for complete crafting batches.
Work through the missing-material list when packing, while keeping existing intermediate products in your stock. If you produce new bars during preparation, update both those bars and the raw materials you consumed. The plan does not read your chests or receive automatic updates from the game.
A shared link captures a particular state of the plan. After substantial changes, create a fresh link. You can also export a JSON file for a longer construction project and import it later. After importing, check target quality, quantities, recipe variants and stored materials before passing the list to other players.
The virtual inventories complement this workflow by comparing equipment and food. The crafting calculator stores its material quantities separately. Adding equipment to a loadout therefore does not automatically add copper or wood to the crafting calculation.
When the result is not what you expected
Too many raw materials
First check whether “Resolve crafted materials” is enabled. With that setting, the list includes ore and fuel for intermediate products. Enter your finished bars as stock, or turn resolution off if you only want to compare direct recipe costs.
Different upgrade costs
Compare the same target quality and the same starting quality. A single upgrade from quality 3 to 4 is different from making a new item and taking it all the way to quality 4. Then check which cost series is selected. When the data is disputed, the alternative series remains visible so you can follow the difference for that item.
Enough materials, but crafting still fails
Open the item page and check the required station level. Material quantity and workshop development are separate requirements. Check the selected recipe variant as well before gathering more resources. The workbench and station catalog helps you connect the item to the workshop it requires.
About the data
Recipes, station levels and upgrade costs come from our own compilation of the game data for Valheim 1.0.16 (assumed build, not confirmed). Where two sources disagree, the calculator and the database show both.