Find surtling cores, copper and tin in the Black Forest
Quick answer
Search Black Forest Burial Chambers for surtling cores. Mine the large streaked copper deposits inland and the small tin deposits beside water with an antler pickaxe. Bring the ore home by land or boat under normal portal rules, then smelt it.
For the first visit, we recommend following the Meadows boundary and keeping the return route simple. Mark a Burial Chamber, a copper deposit and a stretch of Black Forest shoreline if your world allows maps. Those are different destinations; finding one does not mean the other two are nearby.
Watch for bears as well as trolls and ordinary forest groups. Bears are aggressive Black Forest creatures. Turn back or change the approach before a large enemy traps you between a heavy ore load and the way home.
Return with information before bringing a heavy load. On the next trip, choose either the dungeon or a modest ore target. This gives you a clear point to turn back when your food, equipment or daylight is running short.
Burial Chambers are Black Forest dungeons containing branching stone corridors, enemies and surtling cores. A large Troll Cave is a different dungeon. Inside a chamber, look for the glowing red cores and collect them; finding a chest alone does not complete the search.
Bring a torch and keep your route back to the entrance clear. Our recommended routine is to clear and search one branch before opening another. A club is useful against skeletons because it deals blunt damage; avoid making the spear or bow your only dungeon answer. Withdraw when the next room is beyond your present equipment or food.
Aim for ten cores if you want a kiln and smelter standing together. Five cores can start a slower operation by building the kiln first, making coal, then dismantling it and reusing its materials for the smelter. Do not assume every chamber contains enough cores; search another if your total is short.
In a dark Burial Chamber corridor, pass a Yellow Mushroom ([E] Pick up) and fight the skeletons, then pick up the Surtling Core from the glowing pedestal (Surtling Core, [E] Pick up).
Use the antler pickaxe on either deposit. Mine a reachable copper section first and collect its output. For a first batch, you do not need to excavate an entire underground deposit. Leave a route or ramp out of any hole you make.
Copper and tin are separate mining targets
Target
Where to look
What to expect
Copper
Large Black Forest rock deposits with metallic streaks; confirm the deposit name when aiming at it.
Copper ore and stone. Much of the deposit can continue below ground.
Tin
Small shiny deposits beside Black Forest coasts, rivers or lakes.
Tin ore from compact nodes. A Meadows shoreline is not the correct biome.
Under normal portal settings, copper ore, tin ore and their bars cannot travel through the early wood portal. Bronze is restricted too. The crossed-portal icon identifies blocked items. A world with the Portal items modifier changes these rules, so check the world you are actually playing.
For an early run, carry a manageable batch home or stage it in a chest near a route you can defend. Preserve enough carrying space for your equipment and food. Drop off surplus stone at your own storage rather than filling every remaining slot with ore.
When your pickaxe wears out, repair it at a sheltered workbench. A small repair shelter near a mine can save repeated full journeys; place it away from the active digging area. Later, a cart or karve can make a planned route more useful.
Confirm the target label says copper deposit. Copper mining also produces stone, so a stone drop is not proof of the wrong tool. Ordinary boulders will not produce copper.
The copper appears to be gone.
Look along the buried edges. Copper deposits extend underground, but you can leave a difficult deposit and work another accessible one; there is no need to guarantee a total yield.
A mining trip turns into repeated deaths.
Reduce the load and distance of the next trip. Recover food, equipment and a route before returning to the hole. Stop digging when enemies arrive; the pickaxe is not your planned fighting weapon.
The portal refuses your inventory.
Check for ore or metal bearing the blocked-portal icon. Store those items and haul them separately under normal rules; no settings change is required.
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Sources · 17community · official · checked 29 Sep 2026 · Patch notes checked to 1.0.16
Valheim Wiki: Bear ↗Bears are aggressive Black Forest creatures; substantive indexed creature entry inspected.community ·
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5:50–6:22 · 32 sTin at the shoreline, then a Copper Deposit on a mossy mound