How to Get Thistle in Valheim (& What It’s For)

Many of the items and resources players find in Valheimare consumable, or are at least used to craft consumables like food and Mead. As with any survival game, in Valheim, players need to ensure their Viking character has enough food to survive the harsh biomes they can explore. As they find more resources, they can cook new recipes that can be combined to provide generous buffs to health, stamina, and health regeneration. Players can also craft Meads, a honey-based alcohol that serves as Valheim’s potions. These are used to replenish health and stamina, improve health and stamina regeneration, or help the player character resist a certain effect, like cold or poison. One of the key ingredients in several of the best food items and the frost and poison resistance meads is Thistle, and this can be a difficult ingredient to find.

Thistle is found in the Black Forest and Swamp biomes. It appears as a viney plant with glowing, blue bulbs and is easier to see at night. Players may have difficulty locating Thistle due to the lush ground vegetation in the Black Forest. It also can only be foraged, as there is no way to plant and grow it at base. Here’s how to get Thistle in Valheim and how to use it in recipes.

How to Farm Thistle in Valheim

Players can normally find Thistle growing in clusters of up to five or six plants in both the Black Forest and Swamp biomes. It is typically easier to access in the Black Forest, so players may want to focus their attention in those locations, especially if they are still in the early hours of the game.

Like Obsidian in the Mountains biome, Thistle grows sparsely, though once players find one cluster, they are likely to find a few more spawned in the same general area. Players should make a point to harvest any they find. They can also make a map marker to remind them of the location for later. Though Thistle won’t respawn in exactly the same place, if players have found it in a certain location before, it is likely another nearby location will spawn some next.

It is possible to make Thistle more visible on the ground by entering the Settings menu and turning Vegetation Quality down to low. This way, Thistle stands out and won’t be as easily missed.

Unlike some of the other plants in Valheim, players won’t ever find Thistle seeds, so they won’t be able to plant Thistle at their homestead. While this is an option that could be patched in later, for now, players should do their best to collect Thistle while they are exploring.

Thistle is used in two recipes with the best health and stamina buffs: Blood Pudding and Sausage. Blood Pudding provides players with 90 Max Health 50 Max Stamina, and 4 HP per Tick of Healing for 2400 seconds, making it an important addition to any Viking’s diet before venturing into a boss fight or difficult terrain. Sausages aren’t quite as potent but can be paired with Blood Pudding for a massive energy boost of 60 Max Health, 40 Max Stamina, and 3 HP per Tick of Healing for 1600 seconds. The recipes for each of these foods appears below:

• Blood Pudding: 4 Barley Flour, 2 Bloodbag, 2 Thistle
• Sausages: 4 Thistle, 2 Entrails, 1 Raw Meat

Players will need to combine the ingredients in a Cauldron to finish cooking.

Thistle is used in both Frost and Poison Resistance Mead. Players will especially want a good supply of Frost Resistance Mead for traveling in the Mountains biome. Both Meads will provide a buff that lasts 10 minutes, giving players enough time to finish a fight or exploring. The recipes for each Mead Base appears below:

• Frost Resistance Mead: 10 Honey, 5 Thistle, 2 Bloodbag, 1 Greydwarf Eye
• Poison Resistance Mead: 10 Honey, 10 Coal, 5 Thistle, 1 Neck Tail

Players will cook the Mead Base in the Cauldron, then put each in a Fermenter for 2 in-game days. Each base yields 6 Meads.

Valheim is in Steam Early Access and is available for PC.

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