If you haven’t heard of Valheim, you should probably check the strength of your Wi-Fi connection. This Minecraft-like hybrid of open-world survival meets Viking RPG has taken Steam by storm. The kicker? Valheim is only in its beta phase and plans to release the full game in the coming year.
Like Minecraft, players need to gather resources to build tools. They’ll then use those tools to construct stable structures and weapons. The only tool that will give players trouble in the early stages of Valheim is the pickax. Everything else is straightforward to craft with the resources you have at your disposal in the Meadows Biome. However, you will need the pickax to progress any further in your Viking adventure. Here’s how to unlock the pickax in Valheim.
The pickax is the only tool you can’t easily craft as you’re beginning your journey in Valheim. The first version you’ll be able to craft is the Antler Pickaxe, which will require you to gather Hard Antlers. But where the heck are you supposed to find those?
You will have to find and defeat Eikthyr, the first boss in Valheim, to obtain Hard Antlers. To find Eikthyr, head back to where you first started the game and summon him from the altar after offering two deer trophies. However, do not go into this boss fight without the proper gear.
You will only be able to craft wooden gear and leather armor in the early stages of the game. That’s why the pickax should be your top goal. It will allow for the mining of copper and tin. For the best results, head into the Eikthyr boss fight with:
Valheim‘s survival mechanics are in-depth. You’ll have to find food and cook meals to give yourself the needed boost to survive in the Viking wilderness. Before you even think about challenging Eikthyr, make sure to eat three good meals to maximize your health and stamina buffs.
You should be able to ward off Eikthyr’s AoE and ranged lighting attacks with decent dodges and your shield. The deer god will charge with a melee attack every so often, so dodge out of the way and counter with a melee attack of your own. This melee attack is Eikthyr’s most powerful, so avoid it at all costs. This first boss fight isn’t painstaking. It will just require patience, proper equipment, and stamina management.
Now that you’ve defeated Eikthyr, you’re able to gather Hard Antlers and craft the Antler Pickaxe. Head over to your workbench and put everything together. Now, with the Antler Pickaxe, you’ll be able to mine tin and copper, which will further upgrade your weapons, tools, and armor. Of course, the Antler Pickaxe will not be the end of your pickax quest.
Now that you’ve progressed into the next area of the game, you’ll be gathering the materials necessary to craft bronze and bronze-related items. For the Bronze Pickaxe, you’ll need:
To craft bronze, you must combine 20 copper and 10 tin in the forge. This will give you 10 bronze. Finally, combine bronze and Core Wood at a workbench to craft a Bronze Pickaxe and other bronze weapons, tools, and armor.
First, you’ll need to craft a Bronze Axe to obtain 25 Fine Wood and make a Forge Cooler. Then, upgrade your Forge to level 2. From here, use your Bronze Pickaxe to grind Scrap Iron from Muddy Scrap Piles. Use the scrap to forge iron. Combine the iron with 3x Core Wood to craft an Iron Pickaxe.
The Call of Duty franchise has held a special place in my heart ever since I played my first Black Ops game back in 2010. That game's campaign was something else, with twists and turns that culminated in a mind-blowing finale. We can all admit that compared to those older campaigns, the recent CODs have been lackluster at best, and a complete and utter disappointment at worst. The reboot of Modern Warfare did give me some hope, as the first two installments were actually quite good, but the third game left such a bad taste in my mouth that I wasn’t exactly expecting much from Modern Warfare 4.
After recently finishing the campaign, I can say that this installment is nothing like the recent releases and instead feels closer to the franchise’s roots. For the first time in a long while, the campaign comes across as well-crafted rather than rushed to hit a release date. It arrives three years after MW3, and you can see exactly where all that time went. It seems the studio finally made listening to player feedback a priority.
Epic Games has just announced the 2026 Epic AI MegaJam, which is looking to see how much game development can be squeezed into a very short window. This is running from November 12 through November 15.
Participants can work alone or in teams of up to five people, build in Unreal Engine or Unreal Editor for Fortnite, and bring along “as many AI agents as you want.” Epic explicitly encourages coding agents, AI-generated assets, audio tools, writing tools, and other AI systems. The official event page literally says "Vibe your way to $50k.”
It’s turning into a pretty good time to be a Monster Hunter fan who plays on a phone. Capcom has confirmed that Monster Hunter Outlanders will launch on Android and iOS on October 29, giving the series a new mobile-first game just as Monster Hunter Rise is also preparing to make the jump to smartphones through Netflix.
Outlanders is being developed by Tencent subsidiary TiMi Studio Group under license and supervision from Capcom. Unlike Rise, which appears to be the full console and PC game adapted for mobile, Outlanders is a free-to-play survival hunting game made specifically for phones.