Valheim: How To Farm Chitin (& What It's For) | Screen Rant
There are tons of crafting resources in Valheim, and each can be used to make a variety of tools, weapons, and armor that makes survival in the tenth Norse world just a little bit easier. Most resources are easy to locate, like Stone, Copper, Barley, and even Guck. Others are more hidden, like Iron, Silver, and Black Metal Scrap. One resource in Valheim is extremely hidden, only found on the backs of Kraken (Leviathans), giant, non-aggressive monsters who form small islands in the middle of the Oceans. Kraken grow nodes called Abyssal Barnacles, and, from Abyssal Barnacles, players can mine Chitin.
Because Kraken will submerge and resurface at random, it is nearly impossible to predict when players will find one. Additionally, each time a player tries to mine an Abyssal Barnacle for Chitin, they have a chance of causing the Kraken to take notice and sink below the waves, forcing the player back to their boat. Chitin is used to craft two relatively strong weapons, one of which is useful when hunting Sea Serpents. Players will need to craft a good boat and prepare to search the seas for these small, living islands. Here's how to farm Chitin in Valheim.
The first step toward mining Chitin in Valheim is to build a better sailing vessel than a raft. Players will likely want a Karve at least. These boats are a step up from the raft and are therefore cheap and easy to build but still have some speed and durability.
Players will also need a decent pickaxe, so it will be a good idea to wait to search for Chitin until after finding Iron the first time and crafting an Iron Pickaxe. While this is not required, it will help players mine more quickly.
Once players have these two things, they should sail out to the open sea until the map label says Ocean. They will need to watch out for Sea Serpents, which might try to ram the boat. The Karve can withstand a few hits, but not many, and players could end up stranded in the water if they aren't careful.
While sailing in the Ocean, players will need to keep an eye out for small, round, slightly dome-shaped islands with a tree or two. These are Kraken, and players will want to sail as close as possible and keep their boat's ladder facing the creature in case it submerges and they need a quick escape.
Players will see large, rounded growths with a brown stone in the center, usually in clusters of three, on the backs of Kraken. These are the Abyssal Barnacles, and players can use their Pickaxe on these to extract Chitin. They will want to keep an eye on stamina, in case the Kraken starts to sink and they need to swim back to the ship. Each barnacle a player mines has a 10% chance of triggering the Kraken to flee. If the Kraken is about to sink, it will telegraph this move with a howling sound. Players will have 20 seconds to escape before the Kraken disappears. They can continue searching the Ocean biome and find as many Kraken as possible to mine for all the Chitin they need.
In the Early Access version of Valheim, there are currently two weapons that use Chitin in their crafting recipe. The first and most important is the Abyssal Harpoon, which is used to wrangle a Sea Serpent to get Serpent Scales to craft the Serpent Scale Shield. The Abyssal Harpoon requires 30 Chitin, 8 Fine Wood, and 3 Leather Scraps to craft.
Players can also use Chitin to craft the Abyssal Razor, a decent knife that can be used as a weapon. To craft it, players need a Level 4 Workbench and 20 Chitin, 4 Fine Wood, and 2 Leather Scraps. It is possible more items that require Chitin will be added in future updates.
Valheim is in Steam Early Access and is available for PC.