How do you make a new bow? I got a full stack of fine wood, but nothing is popping up at the Forge or Workbench?

Originally posted by Bonegrinder:

How do you make a new bow? I got a full stack of fine wood, but nothing is popping up at the Forge or Workbench?

Found any old campsites with log supports? Chopped down a pine tree (black forest)? Both are sources for another component you need for the Finewood Bow... namely core wood.

I did the same thing in the beginning. I went into the mountains before beating the elder and became puppy chow. never even knew there was a swamp. ya live ya learn.
bronze is a pain but at least it's the only alloy in the game so far. everything else will be a 1 to 1 piece to bar ratio.
I skip bronze armor myself but on your first playthrough i'd say get yourself a fully upgraded set, beat the elder, then steel yourself against the brutality that is your first trips into the swamp. good luck, my friend.

meadows - forest - swamp - mountains - plains

Notice that in the Meadows there are two types of trees you can't cut down, Also take a good look at your forge build menu. I believe you have some unexplored options there.

Troll armor is good, especially when it comes to moving around without penalty as well as sneaking, but check your workbench upgrade options.

Brew up some poison resist potion and look for the nearest swamp. Be very, very careful because you are not fully ready to be here yet, but the next step is important. Sneaking in by land is an order of magnitude safer than landing by boat.

Look around in the swamp for a small plant with yellow flowers. It's very rare and difficult to find. If you are lucky you can skim the edges of a swamp, grab the seeds and go. Or if you are unlucky you will be carefully sneaking around, daytime only, looking for the dang thing and probably dying a few times while you're at it.

Then take your turnip seeds back to your base and get busy farming so you can move up to the next tier of cooking which will greatly help your HP and stamina.

As for the elder, you will want what it drops before you start mining iron from swamp crypts. The way I do it is a bit cheesy but it worked great when I was playing permadeath. Dig under the altar from 2-4 sides. You want a nice cave under there with several entrances. (It's even a mini-base because of the eternal fire on top.) Get a lot of fire and flint arrows and alternate them. (No point in using a fire arrow while it's still on fire.) Play reverse whack-a-mole. Ready your bow while you're still in the tunnel then fire off one or two arrows before ducking back inside. Make sure you have enough room in the outside ditch to get around the roots, but better if you go inside before those come up.

As other said , bronze weapons
Troll gear full upgrade for good movility that youll need in the swamp ( bronze helmet can give you some extra defense ) , next and risky biome
You most craft a bronze axe for tool and bronze swordor mace for fight in the swamp
Remember eat you best foods : deer stew , meanced boar souce or cooked fish and carrot soup
When you get into the swamp use anti poison me/ad

K...

So how do I get bronze? I have both tin and copper bars...

How do I get the forge to populate with more recipes than copper dagger.

There is an upgrade option in the forge but only applies to copper dagger.

the forge should have a recipe for bronze bar(s) - try holding at least 2 copper bars and 1 tin bar then look at forge recipes.

That might be the issue, why its not populating with fresh recipes.

Originally posted by Bonegrinder:

So I defeated the first boss, made a pickaxe, mined a lot of copper and tin, found surtling cores, made a kiln and smelter, smelted the ore into bars, made a forge, made a copper dagger, have a tannery and a chopping block next to my workshop, explored a bunch of caves, killed a lot of trolls and have a full set of troll hide armor.

What am I supposed to do now? Winter locations are super dangerous and the wolves three-hit kill me. Am I supposed to get more gear from the forge to survive it? Also I did unlock the Elder location, but as I'm still just wielding a basic bow (level 3), a flint spear (level 3), and a wooden shield (level 3), I don't think I have the gear to defeat it yet.

But It is unclear of how to progress from my current point. Can someone point me in the right direction? I do like that the game doesn't hand-hold, but it feels like I'm missing something and felt like I should ask for help!

The game is set up in a very progression-based way. It's not required to follow that progression, but (especially for new players) it's the prescribed way.

What this means is that Each biome is considered it's own self-contained play area, where the player fully explores that biome, collecting resources, recipes, foods, work stations, tool and weapon unlocks / upgrades etc., based on that biome and get's you prepared to fight the boss of that biome, which then gives you an item which will help you in the next biome.

Once the boss is defeated, the player then moves to the next area (biome) and the process repeats.... stay within that area, exploring and gathering all the new recipes, upgrades, resources etc., preparing the player to battle the boss of that biome, which drops an item needed in the next biome, and so on.

Each biome has a fairly huge jump in difficulty, compared to the last, so wandering into a different biome, higher than the player is ready for, is almost always a fast way to be killed and then frustration when their gear is sitting in a biome they weren't yet ready to be in.

You are allowed to explore and travel wherever you want, but that doesn't mean you should... It;s generally best to stay within the current biome you are playing, and fully explore and discover everything that biome has to offer, before fighting the boss and moving on.

The current Progression goes Meadows, Black Forest, Swamp, Mountains and then Plains.
Each of those biomes has it's own upgrades and new items and resources and finally each has it's own boss to defeat.

Originally posted by Bonegrinder:

That might be the issue, why its not populating with fresh recipes.

Once you see the recipe for bronze bars, make one. You will then see a recipe for nails. I recommend making one bar's worth of nails as it will also give you recipes.

Once you have bronze figured out, get yourself a bronze shield and recommend you upgrade it twice. That will allow you to parry almost anything in the Black Forest and Swamp biomes.

Make a bronze axe and you can cut down oak and birch trees. From those you can get fine wood, which can be used to make many things, including a new bow, fermenters for crafting potions (poison resist will be very important in the swamp), and much more.

You need more bronze gear, the mountains are far ahead of where you are currently now. Next is the elder which you say you already have the location for, then it is swamp.

Hi ! After Black Forest the next biome you should look for is Swamp. It's a good idea to make a bronze axe to get finewood which will allow you to make a better bow and ship. Toll armor is fine as bronze armor doesn't give you an advantage and costs a lot of materials