First thing I do with any iron is make a stone cutter and use that to make a wheel for the forge upgrade.

Boat is a biggie but depends on map RNG if I need it right away or if I found a good spot to process the ore near the swamp.

I want the pickax early to mine obsidian in the mountains. Silver if I get lucky. Probably want the banded shield as well.

Iron cooking station is a must. Longboat makes serpent hunting much safer and serpent stew is a top level food you can get fairly early. You need the station to cook the meat for the stew. You can eat cooked wolf meat as well but its better to use it raw in other recipes I think.

Does the butcher block take iron or is that silver?

Originally posted by GunsForBucks:

First thing I do with any iron is make a stone cutter and use that to make a wheel for the forge upgrade.

Boat is a biggie but depends on map RNG if I need it right away or if I found a good spot to process the ore near the swamp.

I want the pickax early to mine obsidian in the mountains. Silver if I get lucky. Probably want the banded shield as well.

Iron cooking station is a must. Longboat makes serpent hunting much safer and serpent stew is a top level food you can get fairly early. You need the station to cook the meat for the stew. You can eat cooked wolf meat as well but its better to use it raw in other recipes I think.

Does the butcher block take iron or is that silver?

Silver IIRC

Thank you very much, people.

I think i'm gonna build a new base, starting with a stone foundation.

Rather than making stone-cutter benches permanent fixtures in different bases. I carry a couple of iron bars to make a bench, then deconstruct it when I am done. I like to repair those intact stone towers in the wilderness, put a roof on them, and use them for portal hubs. I just finished doing that in a tower, then took apart the Stone-cutter bench and converted a Troll Cave on the coast of a distant continent into a base using stone. It's on a little peninsula very close to a swamp, and has a deep creek with very steep cliff walls making it an awesome place to safely park and store a longship.

That's very smart and economical. I'm doing the same.

Its needed to be able to cook bigger meat then deer/boars.
Also has more slots..

It cooks faster and I think is required for larger meats like the serpent.

As far as the first iron you get, I always use it to create the Stone Workbench so I can start building with stone. Then I usually go for a pick ax, then ax as I've played awhile and don't struggle too much with combat, so I prioritize the tools.

In order to cook the highest tier meats in Valheim (Lox meat and Serpent meat) you'll need the Iron Cooking Station. It's now the only way to cook Lox and Serpent. This unlocks Serpent Stew and Lox Meat Pie (if you've got Barley flour in production) the two highest health foods in the game. It has 5 slots and can also cook the "smaller" meats.

You want it.

Ok so I had a long list of stuff depending on your priorities, posted it, and then forgot about the boat. Regardless of your playstyle you want the boat first for one reason: it can hold all of the iron from an entire swamp. You want this. You REALLY want this. Park it near your swamp of choice, set a portal, and then start filling it. When the entire swamp is clear and there's no more iron you can haul the entire batch home. Even if you want to build a ton, you'll probably only need to raid a couple swamps for your entire career with your character and using the longship is key unless you want to make a ton of trips.