Building an earthen wall around your portal will keep it from getting destroyed. Yes it takes time to build this but its better to waste an hour than waste weeks of work gathering materials and making gear. You can build small lodges and portal hubs on large islands that you intend to spend some time on and once you have picked every resource clean you can take all the equipment out and move it elsewhere and just abandon the structures if you don't want to waste the time deconstructing to reuse the materials.

Originally posted by AgopianX:

Easy way to fix this just use console commands. I'm not wasting my time dying over and over it just quick console commands. Grab your stuff and then turn the commands off. Is it cheating yes but who cares! I do say use the cheats only for very hard to get areas to retrieve your stuff. I died in a infested mines recently and it's literally impossible to get my stuff back because there was a swarm of enemies in it.

100% if you are solo... I would use console commands to save my game.. You could fly.. then turn it off or give yourself the needed materials to make a boat? They aren't too hard to do.

Easy way to fix this just use console commands. I'm not wasting my time dying over and over it just quick console commands. Grab your stuff and then turn the commands off. Is it cheating yes but who cares! I do say use the cheats only for very hard to get areas to retrieve your stuff. I died in a infested mines recently and it's literally impossible to get my stuff back because there was a swarm of enemies in it.

Valheim has a certain philosophy that lives in pretty much all of its mechanics: "Preparation is key." That's why food is a huge factor to surviving and progression, your inventory slot feels huge at the beginning but small in endgame, the biomes require different equip and item loadouts.
If you take your best equip and sail far away without a reasonable way to return, you are not looking for an adventure. You are looking for a place to put your gravestone in. Reconnaissance is important, especially in a biome you've never seen before. Anything could kill you. Wolves running down the border of the mountain, some flying killer bees from the plains, poisonous water worms in the swamps, etc.
You are one player, so build outposts and spaces where you can feel safe. A monster destroying your portal? Doesnt sound like a good location to build a portal. You build your outpost in biomes you are familiar with, you dont build it in unknown lands. A huge beast could spawn for whatever reason and destroy everything in seconds. Sounds unreasonable, unrealistic - but not totally impossible. That's the kind of game Valheim is.

When I first started the game, I ran naked into the Black Forest and build a base there. I ate blue mushrooms and hit brutes with a flint axe. Then a troll came and destroyed everything. That's just how you learn the game.

Originally posted by Locher:

When I first started the game, I ran naked into the Black Forest and build a base there. I ate blue mushrooms and hit brutes with a flint axe. Then a troll came and destroyed everything. That's just how you learn the game.

Blue mushrooms? You found magecap in the black forest? Or did you eat blueberries and mushrooms?

Anyone who dies and can't recover their stuff can send me a friend request and I'll help you recover it.

So take that, then live your entire playthrough out of a boat with all your stuff in backpacks, forget to set your respawn, venture out and get killed half way across the map by something, respawn at the standing stones and realize there's no realistic way back without a bunch of work. Game over. Valheim ironman mode.

I guess you're about to fight the second boss? Either way, I've got a chapter on the thing covered, that will avoid something like this happening again (only if you think it might help you ofc) ... Here, might have possible spoilers tho, as I see you're only about 30 hrs in but probably taking it slow
Just hope you'll still be having fun with the game

There are hundreds if not thousands of posts just like this one all with people giving the exact same advice... over and over and over and over...

-Avoid exploring an area if you get instant killed there. Its too hard. Come back later.
-Always place a portal before exploring a new area, it makes corpse/recovery runs much easier.
-The biome progression is meadows -black forest - swamp- mountains - plains -mistlands.
-Sometimes you have to cut your losses.

I use this https://www.nexusmods.com/valheim/mods/1068?tab=posts
It's kinda cheap though... just typing /die and u're back in your base
Instantly transporting ores

Well, one more reason to try and build the portals as safe as possible. And possibly in biomes that you're familiar with and have already explored.
Wish you good luck on venturing further tho.