The Cart in Valheim: 18 Slots, 500 Durability, and It Can Kill Things
The Cart is the only item in Valheim that cannot be deconstructed, cannot be teleported with, and deals damage by driving into things. It carries 18 slots — the same as your backpack — with no stated weight limit, and it has 500 durability, five times a beehive's.
It is also the single best answer to Valheim's ore problem, because ore does not teleport and a cart does not care what is in it.
On sourcing. Iron Gate do not publish system documentation. The figures below come from the community wikis and can change with any patch.
The Numbers
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Built with | Hammer, Misc. tab, near a Workbench |
| Materials | Wood x20, Bronze nails x10 |
| Unlocked by | Discovering Bronze nails |
| Durability | 500 |
| Size | 4x2 |
| Storage | 6x3 — 18 slots |
| Weak to | Fire |
| Resistant to | Frost, Pierce |
| Immune to | Poison, Spirit |
There is no published weight limit. The wiki says carts "do not appear to have a weight limit" — but if the cart is too heavy, you simply cannot pull it forward. The limit is practical, not numerical.
Eighteen slots is a full backpack, which is why a cart roughly doubles what one trip can move.
It cannot be deconstructed. Carts "cannot be destroyed or deconstructed for their resources via the Hammer, and can only be destroyed through damage" — so a cart you no longer want has to be smashed.
It is repairable with the Hammer, like any structure, but only near a Workbench.
It Obeys Physics
The cart is not a container that follows you — it is a physical object:
- Attach and detach with the interact key. You can also detach by dodging, preferably forwards, so you do not knock the cart over.
- Both total cargo weight and terrain steepness affect how hard it is to pull.
- It rolls downhill if you let go on an incline.
- It can be pulled while swimming.
That last one is genuinely useful — a cart full of ore can cross water without a boat, slowly.
The downhill roll is the danger. A loaded cart released on a slope becomes a projectile that will happily flatten your own fences.
The Ramming Mechanic
Carts both deal and receive up to 20 blunt damage when ramming creatures, structures or terrain at speed:
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Damage type | Blunt |
| Maximum | 20 |
| Scaling | Linear from 3 m/s to 5 m/s |
| Check frequency | Every 0.5 seconds |
| Ignored against | Players and fish |
Twenty blunt is not a weapon, but it is enough to matter to your own base. A cart rolling into a wooden wall damages the wall and itself.
The damage is ignored against players and fish, so you cannot cart-ram a teammate — deliberately or otherwise.
It scales linearly across a narrow 2 m/s band. Below 3 m/s there is no ramming damage at all, which is most of the time you are pulling it.
When It Breaks
If a cart is destroyed, the contents are not lost:
When destroyed, any contents will pop out into crate entities which the user can interact with to retrieve their belongings.
Those crates have 50 durability and take blunt, slash, pierce, fire and lightning damage, while being immune to other types. Crucially, they do not do damage when rolling — unlike the cart itself.
So a cart destroyed in a fight is recoverable, provided nothing then destroys the crates.
Fire is the thing to fear. The cart is weak to fire and the crates take fire damage too, which makes a Surtling or a fire arrow the fastest way to lose a full load of ore.
Keep carts away from your own campfires and bonfires.
What It Is Actually For
- Ore hauling above all. Ore does not teleport; the cart is the land answer, the Karve and Longship are the sea answer.
- Build it as soon as you have Bronze nails. The recipe unlocks on discovering them, and Wood x20 plus Bronze nails x10 is cheap for 18 slots.
- Flatten a route with the Hoe first. Terrain steepness is half of how hard a cart is to pull, and a levelled path turns an impossible haul into a walk.
- Never let go on a slope. It rolls, it rams, and it damages what it hits.
- Keep it away from fire. Weak to fire, and its recovery crates burn too.
- Remember you cannot dismantle it. Build it where you want it to live.
For the build steps, see How to make a Cart in Valheim; for levelling the route, see The Hoe in Valheim.
Running your own Valheim server
Ore hauling is the least glamorous job in Valheim and the one most obviously worth splitting between people on one persistent world. A gamever Valheim server keeps it running for up to 10 players, with one-click backups.
Conclusion
The Valheim Cart costs Wood x20 and Bronze nails x10, unlocks the moment you discover Bronze nails, and gives 18 slots — a full backpack — with no published weight limit, though a cart that is too heavy simply will not move. It has 500 durability, is weak to fire, resistant to frost and pierce and immune to poison and spirit, and it cannot be deconstructed — only destroyed. It is a physical object: it rolls downhill, it can be pulled while swimming, cargo weight and terrain steepness both affect pulling, and it rams for up to 20 blunt damage, scaling linearly from 3 to 5 m/s and checked every 0.5 seconds, though players and fish are ignored. When it breaks, contents pop out as crates with 50 durability that do no rolling damage. Level a route with the Hoe, keep it away from fire, and use it for the one thing that cannot be teleported: ore.
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