Unlock Wooden Spikes in Valheim

Valheim wooden spikes are a defensive item you can build to protect your base. These sharp stakes will do 20 damage to anything that walks into them, and you can use them to shield your home from intruders. They’re especially useful in areas like the Black Forest, where enemies will invade you almost all the time. If you’re wondering how to build them, this guide will show you how to unlock wooden spikes in Valheim.

How to unlock wooden spikes in Valheim

The recipe for the sharp stakes (that’s what they’re officially called) calls for a workbench, six wood and four core wood. You’ll unlock it the first time you gather core wood. You can get this by knocking down pine trees in the Black Forest with a stone axe.

Once you’ve got the recipe, you’ll be able to craft as many as you like, so it’s time to think about placement. It’s best to look for a bottleneck – for instance, a place where a felled log blocks the path – and place them there. They’re not exactly cheap, so you’ll want to make as few as possible, while achieving the desired effect.

They’re great against low level creatures – the poor suckers will run into the spikes, killing themselves – but stronger enemies might look for a way around them. Still, they’ll hold them back for a while, if nothing else, leaving you more time to get back to base and defend it. The core wood price makes them unattractive, which is why you should look into ways to place them strategically, so you don’t waste any of this valuable resource.

In later biomes, it won’t be as useful for dealing damage, but it will force enemies to go around it, which makes it valuable enough as it is. They’ll waste time looking for a way around it, time which you can use.