A properly large mountain will be visible from a long distance while sailing around. The biome at the shore might be different and require a hike to get there though. So, if you're looking for one, they're not hard to find from a boat.

there is no "fake" mountain, the same there is no "fake" foirest, swamp or plains. Biomes can be intricated, and the more you travel from the centre, the more high level biomes will be predominant. If you get mountains very close to the centre, that's no wonder it is a tiny area.
You can use an online world (seed) viewer to get the idea.

You got shafted by RNG.
On my starting island, I have 3 small mountains https://imgur.com/a/5489S1O Found wolves, drakes and 3 eggs, obsidian, silver and golems. Not yet location of next boss nor onions but that's okay.

It's not about the width of the mountain biome but height that matters.

Hoping the very best in your future journeys!

Originally posted by Smetrix:

Like me, you got screwed on world gen.

Closest “proper” mountain biome in my world is about an hour journey from my base, separated by 2 lakes, 3 plains biomes, and a swamp.

And yes, I used god powers to find it, because.

You mind sharing the seed? I'm not understanding how you could have to travel through all of that, or what your definition of "closest" is. It seems like there has to be easier to get to large mountain, even if it is farther away.

I believe mountain spawns scale with altitude. So the higher up you go, the better odds of mobs and ore? but I might be wrong

Originally posted by Lil brekky:

I believe mountain spawns scale with altitude. So the higher up you go, the better odds of mobs and ore? but I might be wrong

I think there is 3 stages to height;
1) base/transition to mountain biome, contains wolves
2) mid-height you find drakes and eggs
3) upper levels contain obsidian, silver and golems
This is IMO but I might be wrong

Is there a devcommand or something to get the height of a mountain when you're on it? I have a peak in my current world that is well above cloud level, and I would like to compare it to other high peaks that's I've found.

Not that I want to ever go up there again. It's like climbing a wall. A very very tall wall.

Originally posted by Faceplant8:

Originally posted by Smetrix:

Like me, you got screwed on world gen.

Closest “proper” mountain biome in my world is about an hour journey from my base, separated by 2 lakes, 3 plains biomes, and a swamp.

And yes, I used god powers to find it, because.

You mind sharing the seed? I'm not understanding how you could have to travel through all of that, or what your definition of "closest" is. It seems like there has to be easier to get to large mountain, even if it is farther away.

Not near my PC atm, but I looked to see if any were closer, and there were zero that had any ice caves.

My base is built next to the merchant, which is a ways away from Spawn. Both my base and the merchant are basically on the shore of an ocean biome, which had zero rivers that connected to the other ocean separated by the plains biome.

There are plenty of tiny mountains all around, but as far as progress goes (to my understanding), I needed to find ice caves, which none of the tiny biomes had any of.

Originally posted by sneakyweazel:

It's not about the width of the mountain biome but height that matters.

Just wondering if this applies elsewhere.

Posting this again:

https://valheim-map.world/

Because the world is huge, there's always a good spot, but finding it while sailing your raft around serpents and deathsquitoes is just not much fun.

Originally posted by Faceplant8:

Is there a devcommand or something to get the height of a mountain when you're on it? I have a peak in my current world that is well above cloud level, and I would like to compare it to other high peaks that's I've found.

Not that I want to ever go up there again. It's like climbing a wall. A very very tall wall.

With devcommands activated, "pos" will return your current world coordinates. The first and last values are map location, middle value is altitude.

Originally posted by sneakyweazel:

Originally posted by Lil brekky:

I believe mountain spawns scale with altitude. So the higher up you go, the better odds of mobs and ore? but I might be wrong

I think there is 3 stages to height;
1) base/transition to mountain biome, contains wolves
2) mid-height you find drakes and eggs
3) upper levels contain obsidian, silver and golems
This is IMO but I might be wrong

Pretty much. Mid height isn't really an accurate designation. There is an obsidian line where you will find obsidian. Wolves will spawn up to and inside the obsidian line (but can spawn below it and aggro on you if you are above it) and drakes and golems spawn at and above the obsidian line (but can spawn above it and aggro on you if you are below it).

Golem spawn points are near silver veins, frost caves, and near abandoned buildings so if you see one and there isn't a building or cave nearby there is probably a silver vein there.

If you don't see obsidian there won't be silver or upper level enemies. Not sure about wolves.

I found the mountain biomes on my starting land mass were missing most of that biomes creatures and reagents. 2 had only wolves and 1 didn't even have wolves. It wasn't until I sailed to another large land mass I found while sailing in the southeast, that I found a mountain biome with all the creatures (wolves, drakes, golems, fenrig) and elements such as silver and obsidian. Just try and build a campfire littered path so you can get some wolf pelts for the frost resistant cape, then explore in a ship for more large land masses.

Like me, you got screwed on world gen.

Closest “proper” mountain biome in my world is about an hour journey from my base, separated by 2 lakes, 3 plains biomes, and a swamp.

And yes, I used god powers to find it, because ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.