The Bronze Axe is one of the first Bronze tools you can craft in Valheim, providing a significant improvement over the Stone and Flint Axes.
Aside from dealing more damage, its higher chopping strength allows you to cut tougher trees that cannot be properly harvested with your earlier axes.
Getting the Bronze Axe is therefore an important part of Black Forest progression, especially once you want to start gathering Finewood for new crafting recipes.
How to Get the Bronze Axe?
The Bronze Axe can be crafted at a Forge once you have started processing Copper and Tin from the Black Forest into Bronze.
You will need 8 Bronze, 4 Wood, and 2 Leather Scraps to craft the Bronze Axe, along with access to a level 1 Forge.
Bronze requires both Copper and Tin, so defeating Eikthyr and obtaining a pickaxe are necessary before you can normally begin gathering the required metals.
How to Get Bronze?
Bronze is produced at a Forge by combining 2 Copper with 1 Tin, with both metals obtained from ore found throughout the Black Forest.
Copper comes from the large Copper Deposits scattered around the biome, while Tin Deposits are commonly found beside Black Forest coastlines and other bodies of water.
The ores must first be processed into Copper and Tin at a Smelter before they can be taken to a Forge and combined into Bronze.
What Can the Bronze Axe Cut?
The Bronze Axe can cut Birch and Oak Trees, which your earlier Stone and Flint Axes are not strong enough to properly harvest.
Both trees provide Finewood, making the Bronze Axe your first straightforward way to gather larger quantities of this important crafting material.
Finewood unlocks several useful recipes during early progression, including the Finewood Bow, Portal, Karve, and various pieces of furniture and equipment.
Using the Bronze Axe as a Weapon
The Bronze Axe is not limited to chopping trees and can also be used as a one-handed weapon when you need to defend yourself during exploration.
At its base quality, the Bronze Axe deals 40 Slash damage, making it considerably stronger in combat than the earlier axes available during Meadows progression.
Its dual purpose makes it convenient when exploring, although dedicated weapons may provide better attacks or other advantages depending on your preferred combat style.
How to Upgrade the Bronze Axe?
The Bronze Axe can be upgraded several times at a Forge, with each additional quality level improving its damage, chopping power, and overall durability.
Higher upgrades require additional Bronze and progressively higher Forge levels, eventually allowing the Bronze Axe to reach quality level 4.
Fully upgrading it increases its Slash damage from 40 to 55 and its Chop damage from 40 to 49, while also extending its durability.
Is the Bronze Axe Worth Crafting?
We recommend prioritizing the Bronze Axe when deciding how to spend your first batches of Bronze, mainly because of the new resources it allows you to gather.
Access to Finewood opens several important crafting options, making the axe useful for much more than simply chopping trees slightly faster than before.
You can eventually replace it with stronger axes, but its importance during Black Forest progression makes the initial Bronze investment well worth the cost.
Verdict
The Bronze Axe is an important early upgrade that improves both your woodcutting capabilities and your ability to defend yourself while gathering resources.
Its biggest advantage is the ability to cut Birch and Oak Trees for Finewood, opening several useful crafting recipes during Black Forest progression.
While stronger axes eventually replace it, the Bronze Axe provides enough utility that we recommend crafting one relatively early in the Bronze Age.
