How to find Valheim Tar and craft Darkwood items

Valheim Tar Pits and Darkwood were originally introduced with the Hearth and Home update, and are located within the Plains biome. Tar is a particularly useful resource, as it's used to produce plenty of building materials including Darkwood, as well as other items including the Raven Adornment, the Wolf Adornment, and the Viking Hot Tub – clearly an essential item for any settlement! All of this revolves around finding Tar Pits, extracting Tar from them, and ultimately crafting Darkwood, so here's everything you need to know about finding Tar in Valheim.

How to craft Darkwood items in Valheim

Valheim Hearth and Home Tar Pits Darkwood — (Image credit: Iron Gate)

If you’ve kept up with the Valheim Hearth and Home news, you might have heard about the new building material: Darkwood. Darkwood items are usually better looking compared to the normal wooden ones, so it’s nice to have it.

However, you can’t get Darkwood by simply chopping down a new type of tree. Instead, you need to use normal wood (just as before) and Tar. If you have both items in your inventory, and you’re near a workbench, using the Hammer (build mode) will show you the following Darkwood items:

Darkwood Gate (double doors).
Shingle Roof. These are the Darkwood roof pieces, available in all shapes and sizes.
Darkwood Pole and Darkwood Beams. Also in bigger and smaller sizes.
Darkwood Arch.
Carved Darkwood Divider.
Raven Adornment. Needs Fine Wood instead of normal.
Wolf Adornment. Also requires Fine Wood.
Darkwood Tables and Chairs. Including the largest table Valheim has seen so far.
Viking Hot Tub. Obviously the most important item on this list.

How to find Tar in Valheim

Tar is a base material exclusive to the Plains Biome. Just go to the Plains and look out for pools filled with a dark substance. These dark pools, the Tar Pits, are hard to miss in daylight. Beware of enemies before you continue though, and make sure not to get stuck in the pits yourself.

As Tar Pits were added in the Hearth and Home update, bear in mind that they can only spawn in previously unexplored areas (only the brown, hidden parts on your map). If you try to find them in a world that existed before the Hearth and Home update, just know that you’ll have to find Plains that haven’t been explored yet. It may be easier to just start a new world with plenty of Tar Pits all over the place.

How to get Tar from Growths in Valheim

If you thought you could simply extract some Tar without further ado, you were wrong. Once you get close to a Tar Pit, you’ll notice a new type of enemy jumping out of the dark liquid: the Growths.

These big, slimy blobs will attack you on sight. They’re pretty strong, but you probably need good armor and food to enter the Plains anyway. Try to block their jumping attacks, and beware of the ‘tarred’ state they may inflict upon you. If they land a hit, you’ll be slowed.

Naturally, every Growth will drop some Tar. Doing this for the first time will also unlock all the Tar recipes. However, you can get much more of the stuff by draining the pits after you finished off every Growth.

How to extract Tar from the Tar Pits in Valheim

As you can see, there’s a lot of Tar left in the Tar Pit. Although you can try to interact with these Tar pieces, the only thing this will achieve is a ‘it is stuck in the tar’ message on your screen. If you want to extract the remaining tar pieces, you need to drain the Tar Pit.

It’s not too complicated, but quite a lot of extra work. Take a pickaxe and start digging a trench next to the Tar Pit (preferably downhill). Make it quite long and deep, and then connect it to the Tar Pit. As the liquid drains away, you’re able to pick up the Tar pieces.

Enjoy your beautifully decorated Darkwood home!