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Valheim Portals: Pairing and Ore Limits

Scope: Vanilla standard survival; world modifiers, mods and later patches can change the rules

Language: English中文

Key points

  • Each ordinary portal costs 20 Fine wood, 10 Greydwarf eyes and 2 Surtling cores, and you build one at each end.
  • Give both ends the same tag, wait for the connection, then do one empty round trip as a test.
  • On standard settings certain ores, metals and special items block an ordinary teleport — read the tooltips before you plan the long route.
  • Name tags “biome — purpose — number”, and keep one mobile portal at home separate from the permanent lines.
Three Viking warriors with shields and weapons stepping into a burning circular portal in a forest at night
Official screenshot · Iron Gate Studio (Steam store page)

Portals are best at moving people, supplies and whatever the game lets you teleport. Do not assume they solve all your logistics. Before an expedition, check the world's teleport settings, then decide how ore and special items are getting home. Ordinary wood portals and the later stone portals do not do the same things either, so do not apply late-game rules to a save that just reached the Black Forest.

Preparing your first pair

Each ordinary portal costs 20 Fine wood, 10 Greydwarf eyes and 2 Surtling cores, and you build one at each end. Give both the same tag, wait for the connection to confirm, then do one empty round trip as a test. The recipe and the pairing mechanic are on the Portal page.

The build menu open in front of a village of wooden Viking huts, listing roof, wall and stair pieces
Build one end at home first, then set out with materials for the other · Official screenshot · Iron Gate Studio (Steam store page)

Build one end at home first, then set out with materials for the other. On arrival, clear the spot, place the portal and verify the route home before you push deeper. That way a failure costs you scouting progress at most, instead of the ship and every supply you brought.

Cannot teleport? Check your pack first

On standard settings, certain ores, metals and special items block an ordinary teleport. Read the item tooltips and go through whatever you just picked up; do not assume there is no restriction because the portal lit up. If the world's rules were changed, behaviour can differ.

You can park a temporary chest by the portal to hold restricted cargo while you go back to repair and restock, but that cargo still has to travel under the current rules in the end. Storing it is not the same as getting it home. When a key item is involved, confirm what you can personally carry through before you plan the long route.

Tags your teammates can read

Use "biome — purpose — number", for example "Swamp — iron — 01". Give a newly found site its own tag, and tidy the naming once it becomes a permanent base. Do not rely on names like "home", "new home" and "real home", which stop meaning anything within a week.

On a shared server, talk before you rename anything, especially to confirm nobody is out at the far end. Retagging someone's route home to a different line can strand them even though the portal itself is undamaged.

Keep one mobile portal at home

Separate your permanent lines from your temporary exploration line. The permanent lines serve traders, fields and important outposts; the mobile portal handles whatever you are exploring today. Note the mobile portal's current tag before each trip rather than trusting memory.

A Viking longship under a black and white striped sail on open water, a warrior standing at the bow
For restricted cargo and new territory, ships and roads still matter · Official screenshot · Iron Gate Studio (Steam store page)

Protecting a portal is more than putting a wall around it. You also need room to stand and to retreat on arrival, no fight starting the instant you step out, and no material chests blocking the exit. A portal for a boss fight belongs outside the arena, not tucked against the altar to save a few steps.

A portal network does not retire your ships

Within teleport range, portals save you repeating the same route. For restricted cargo and for exploring new territory, ships and roads still matter. Treat teleporting as a supply network and hauling as a separate job, and planning gets much cleaner.

Common faults at a glance

SymptomCheck firstNext step
Portals will not pairWhether both tags match exactly, whether the far end is builtCompare character by character, then do an empty round trip
Connected but you cannot passRestricted items in your pack, world teleport settingsStore the restricted items, then test again
You arrive in the wrong placePortals sharing a tag, recent renamesConfirm with teammates at the far end, then tidy tags
You get attacked on arrivalThe area around the exit, outpost defencesFix the surroundings, not just the portal

This table is ordered by what to check first; it does not claim every problem has the first cause.

Recipe · Portal

MaterialQty
Greydwarf eye10
Finewood20
Surtling core2

Recipe · Portal – Stone

MaterialQty
Greydwarf eye10
Grausten30
Molten core2

Sources

The mechanics and numbers in this guide come from the material below. Open the original pages to check them yourself.

  1. S001 Portal valheim.fandom.com Accessed
  2. S002 valheim.wiki valheim.wiki Accessed
  3. S003 valheim.wiki valheim.wiki Accessed