Defeat Eikthyr to collect his antlers and unlock the pickaxe recipe in Valheim.
Your first pickaxe in Valheim can't be crafted until you've learned the recipe, and the only way to do that is by defeating the game's first boss, Eikthyr. We've got a full guide detailing how to summon and defeat him here, but for the sake of brevity: you need to craft leather armor, shield, and flint ax before you even consider taking on this mighty deer. You will need deer skins, pieces of leather (from wild boars), flint, stone, antlers and two deer heads. All said that you should be able to defeat Eikthyr within an hour or two of starting Valheim.
Once you've killed the mighty beast, it will drop its head and a pair of antlers. Looting these woods will unlock the pickaxe recipe in Valheim, and you can combine any of these woods with wood on your workbench to create the pickaxe. This tool is crucial, as the next biome you'll visit - the Black Forest - is where you'll find both copper and tin. You'll need it to unlock your forge and some of Valheim's more complex recipes, which means you're about to use your new pickaxe extensively.
A word of advice: the starting pickaxe is quite fragile and the ores you will collect are heavy. Save yourself a bit of trouble and establish an outpost in the Black Forest. You can store your minerals there, repair your pickaxe, and rest your head at night instead of bringing your ass back to your main base. It's your job to create multiple outposts as you progress through Valheim, and you'll quickly learn why you should head to the Black Forest and find yourself cluttered with ore and wielding a broken pickaxe.
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