Before you start
- An established Bronze Age workshop from smelting and Bronze, plus a safe room with space to reach both table interactions.
- A map-enabled world and discoveries worth sharing. Solo players can use personal pins and route checks immediately; this table is optional.
- A shared naming convention for portals, landings, unopened dungeons and stored cargo.
Build it from Bronze Age supplies
Use the recipe below for the table itself. The Hammer, Workbench and any processing stations are separate costs. Keep the Bronze for this project apart from the expedition’s boat and equipment budget.
| Input | Practical source |
|---|---|
| 10 Fine wood | Use a Bronze axe on Meadows birch or oak. There is no need to enter the Plains for this table. |
| 10 Bone fragments | Keep Skeleton drops from the Black Forest Burial Chamber route. Do not enter a dangerous chamber only to fill the last stack. |
| 2 Bronze | Forge from 4 Copper and 2 Tin after smelting; fuel and the workshop are additional. |
| 5 Leather scraps | Boars in the Meadows; use existing stores before hunting beside the construction site. |
| 4 Raspberries | Gather from Meadows raspberry bushes; reserve them before cooking with the rest. |
| Make | Materials per craft | Station |
|---|---|---|
| 1 × Cartography table | 10 Fine wood + 10 Bone fragments + 2 Bronze + 5 Leather scraps + 4 Raspberries | Hammer; within Workbench range |
| 1 × Bronze | 2 Copper + 1 Tin | Forge level 1 |
| 1 × Bronze axe | 4 Wood + 8 Bronze + 2 Leather scraps | Forge level 1 |
| 1 × Hammer | 3 Wood + 2 Stone | Inventory |
| 1 × Workbench | 10 Wood | Hammer; no station required |
Mechanics sources: Jötunn: building pieces from Valheim 0.221.12Bamboo Gaming: Cartography Table, Valheim 0.221.12Valheim Wiki: FinewoodValheim Wiki: Bone fragments
Use both interactions for a complete exchange
- The explorer aims at the recording box and uses its record interaction to contribute discoveries. The teammate then aims at the map surface and uses the read interaction to receive recorded map data.
- If you also explored elsewhere, contribute your own discoveries and have teammates read again afterward. Repeat this deliberate exchange after expeditions; the table is not live tracking.
- Open your own map and check for one agreed landmark from the explorer’s trip. If it is missing, verify the correct table was updated and that the shared-map display is enabled before assuming the trip was never recorded.
Mechanics sources: Valheim Wiki: Cartography table
Keep the return route in your own notes
Copied pins appear gray; adopting a copied pin with a left-click turns it into one of your own markers. Use that for the landing, exact portal tag and recovery cache you depend on. On a controller, follow the current map prompts for interacting with a selected shared pin.
Shared exploration and shared markers can be hidden through the map’s display controls. Hiding a layer is different from deleting a personal pin. If the map seems empty after reading, check the shared display before repeating construction.
Do not treat shared markers as a permanent, automatically merged task list. The Wiki describes marker changes when later players record. Our practical safeguard is to adopt critical pins, confirm their labels and recheck them after another table update; no promise of conflict-free deletion or exact overwrite rules is made.
Mechanics sources: Valheim Wiki: Cartography table
Verify the route, not just the revealed map
- Compare one portal tag and its landing pin with the explorer. Ask whether the connection was tested and whether a marked dungeon is open, partly cleared or finished.
- Use the route checklist to choose the next checked stop. Shared terrain records where someone explored; it is not proof that the route fits your equipment, cargo or current conditions.
- If the table is damaged or missing, use the pins already on your map while restoring the base. Rebuild the table, have explorers contribute their current maps, then read and verify again. Do not promise that rebuilding the furniture restores its prior recorded data.
- If a stale shared pin sends the group to a dead portal or empty cache, return to a checked stop, correct the personal notes and repeat the record/read exchange before the next expedition.
Mechanics sources: Valheim Wiki: Cartography table
You are ready when…
0 of 3 ready
Saved in this browserWhen something goes wrong
We built the table but nobody sees my exploration.
Use the recording box first, then have the other player read the map surface. Check the shared-map display and that everyone used the same table.
A pin disappeared or changed after another explorer recorded.
Confirm the location with that explorer, read the updated table and adopt the critical pin into personal markers. Treat shared notes as an update to review, not a permanent synchronized checklist.
The table recipe is unavailable.
Pick up each ingredient and check the Hammer build menu within Workbench range. Bronze is made at the Forge; the table is placed with the Hammer.
Our known route appears on the map, but the portal is gone.
Map data is not a live structure-status check. Use the physical fallback or another tested connection, rebuild the endpoint and update its pin after a round-trip test.
Keep the result useful
Use the success check to finish this job, restock any reserves you used and return to the supporting journeys or your current boss objective.