The players of Valheim build all kinds of houses and homes that they proudly present to the other Vikings. More and more of them are now trying their hand at a very special building style: caves. They are not so easy to make, but they look really stylish.
What are these caves? In Valheim, some players are now building caves made of natural stone where they live, store their resources, cook, or even display real treasure chambers.
The player DumDumDog, for example, lives as a real “caveman” and has hollowed out a rock, put a front door on it, and now lives in there (via reddit). Particularly impressive is the cave of the reddit user Fyxate, who has set up a forge and a small altar beneath his base on a mountainside. The post quickly received more than 12,000 upvotes:
What is so special about it? The big advantage of such caves is that you need less material. You do not have to gather stones or wood for walls, the floor, or a roof. Only the furnishings still need to come.
Actually, it is not possible to simply build caves in Valheim like in Minecraft. As soon as you try to build a tunnel, the mined wall in front of you collapses and immediately becomes a passage or a canyon.
This is useful if you want to build a shipping canal to move faster through the world, but it makes self-built caves impossible. However, with a few tricks, it is still possible.
The background of the title image comes from reddit.
Building Caves in Valheim – Here’s How
What do I need for construction? It is not particularly difficult to build a cave. You only need two prerequisites:
- A pickaxe – in our guide, you can read how to get your first pickaxe in Valheim
- a rock – you can find them particularly often in the Black Forest
You need the rock because you have to hollow it out – otherwise, you cannot create your own cave. You would just dig into the ground. This is where the work begins and it gets a bit tricky from here.
What should I do now? First, get a pickaxe – we recommend the antler pickaxe because you have to dig a lot. Only the antler pickaxe can be repaired at a workbench; the metal pickaxes require a forge. Then follow these steps:
- Find a large rock – copper deposits and rocks of this size are ideal
- Build a workbench with shelter for repairs; a bed with a campfire is also useful
- Build a hoe, which will be useful later
- Dig at one point in the rock as deep as you can – eventually, you will hit water or cannot dig down further. Higher regions are better for construction
- Be careful not to hit the rock on the way down
- Once you reach the bottom, dig at the sides to create a bit more space
- Then start hollowing out the rock and pay attention
- Keep going up to check how far you are digging – if you dig beyond the rock, you create a hole that is difficult to fill again
Once you have shaped the cave the way you want, you can largely level it with a hoe and start furnishing it. Another advantage is that your surroundings fundamentally count as a foundation, so you can place all sorts of things stably.
If you want to make a fire, break a small part of the wall to have a smoke outlet – otherwise, you will suffer from smoke poisoning. YouTuber Player 2 shows in the video what it all looks like:
Although the technique itself is quite easy, mistakes can quickly ruin all the work. For example, a rock can collapse, and from then on, it is irrevocably destroyed.
If you accidentally hit it while mining, it can destroy hours of building. But don’t give up right away; with a little practice, you can build a cave out of any rock and save on building materials.
If you prefer to build your own town instead of caves, you can take inspiration from another builder. He has recreated the harbor of Stormwind in Valheim.
