The Eitr Refinery in Valheim: 800 Seconds, 20 Refined Eitr, and No Coal
The Eitr Refinery is the only processing building in Valheim that does not burn coal — it burns Sap, which is also one of its two ingredients. That double role is what makes it feel like it drains faster than it should, and it is the number to plan around: a full load of 20 Sap gives 800 seconds of operation and yields 20 Refined Eitr. Since a single staff costs 16 Refined Eitr, arming yourself as a mage is roughly two full refinery cycles before you cast anything.
On sourcing. Iron Gate do not publish system documentation. The figures below come from the community wikis and can change with any patch.
The Eitr Refinery
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Materials | Black Marble ×20, Black Metal ×5, Yggdrasil Wood ×10, Black Core ×5, Sap ×3 |
| Inputs | Sap and Soft Tissue |
| Output | Refined Eitr |
| Ratio | 20 Soft Tissue + 19 Sap → 20 Refined Eitr |
| Capacity | 20 of each input, 20 output |
Note that it costs Sap to build as well as to run, and that both Black Cores and Black Marble are Mistlands materials — so the refinery is a Mistlands building through and through.
Where the inputs come from:
- Sap — from Yggdrasil roots in the Mistlands.
- Soft Tissue — from Dvergr structures in the Mistlands and from Ashlands creatures.
Both are Mistlands-gated, which means the whole magic system genuinely cannot start before that biome — a point the magic guide makes from the other direction.
Sap Is Fuel and Ingredient at Once
| Fact | Value |
|---|---|
| Each Sap provides | 40 seconds of operating time |
| A full tank of 20 Sap | 800 seconds of processing |
| Sap consumed as an input | roughly 1 : 1 with Soft Tissue |
This is the mechanic that surprises people. Every other processing building in Valheim separates fuel from material — the Smelter and Blast Furnace burn coal and process ore, two different resources from two different sources.
The refinery collapses that into one. Your Sap is simultaneously the thing keeping it running and half the recipe, which means you cannot stretch a batch by adding more fuel the way you can with a furnace. Twenty Sap is twenty Sap.
Practically, it means Sap is the binding constraint on your entire magic build, not Soft Tissue and not Black Cores. A Mistlands trip that gathers Soft Tissue but ignores the Yggdrasil roots comes home with half a refinery load.
And unlike a furnace, no Charcoal Kiln exists to manufacture the fuel. Coal can be made from wood; Sap cannot be made from anything.
What Refined Eitr Buys
| Item | Refined Eitr |
|---|---|
| Galdr Table | 5 |
| Staff of Embers | 16 |
| Staff of Frost | 16 |
| Rune Table (Galdr upgrade) | 10 |
| Unfading Candles (Galdr upgrade) | 10 |
| Feathery Wreath (Galdr upgrade) | 10 |
| Pulsating Earrings | 5 |
| Resounding Shackle | 5 |
| Jörmundling | 5 |
| Eitr-weave and Embla armour sets | — |
Add up a basic mage kit and the number is sobering. A Galdr Table (5) plus two staves (32) is 37 Refined Eitr — nearly two full refinery cycles, or 1,600 seconds of processing, before you have fired a single spell.
Push to a fully upgraded Galdr Table and you add another 30 for the three upgrades, plus armour on top.
Note that three trinkets need it too — Pulsating Earrings, Resounding Shackle and Jörmundling at 5 each — so even a non-mage build eventually wants a refinery.
And the Galdr Table's own upgrades need trophies as well as Eitr: Unfading Candles takes 3 Skeleton Trophies and the Feathery Wreath an Asksvin Trophy. See trophies.
Running It Efficiently
One full load runs 800 seconds and produces 20 Refined Eitr. That is a little over thirteen minutes of unattended work — the longest single cycle of any Valheim production building.
Top up both inputs together. Since Sap is consumed roughly 1:1 with Soft Tissue and also serves as the fuel, the two exhaust at close to the same time. Refilling one without the other leaves the building idle, exactly as with a Smelter's 20 coal and 10 ore both lasting 300 seconds.
Build more than one. Because the cycle is long and the demand is high — 37 Refined Eitr for a starter kit — two or three refineries running in parallel is the difference between an afternoon and an evening.
And gather Sap deliberately. It is the constraint, it has no manufactured substitute, and it comes only from Yggdrasil roots. A Mistlands trip should treat Sap as the primary objective and Soft Tissue as the thing you pick up along the way.
How to Set Up an Eitr Chain
- Clear an Infested Mine or Dvergr site for Black Cores — the refinery needs 5, the Galdr Table another 5.
- Harvest Yggdrasil roots for Sap. This is the binding constraint.
- Collect Soft Tissue from Dvergr structures while you are there.
- Build two or three refineries — a cycle is 800 seconds and you need 37+ Refined Eitr.
- Refill Sap and Soft Tissue together. They run out at the same time.
- Budget two full cycles before you expect to cast anything.
Practical tips
- 20 Soft Tissue + 19 Sap → 20 Refined Eitr, over 800 seconds.
- Sap is both the fuel and an ingredient — you cannot extend a batch with more fuel.
- No Charcoal Kiln equivalent exists. Sap cannot be manufactured.
- A Galdr Table plus two staves is 37 Refined Eitr — nearly two full cycles.
- Three trinkets need Refined Eitr too, so non-mages want a refinery eventually.
- It is the only Valheim processing building that burns no coal.
Running your own Valheim server
An 800-second cycle is the clearest argument in Valheim for a world that keeps running — thirteen minutes of processing that stops the moment a single-player save closes. A gamever Valheim server keeps refineries converting for up to 10 players, so the Sap someone hauled out of the Mistlands is Refined Eitr by the next session. One-click backups protect a magic chain that spans two biomes, and automatic updates keep client and server aligned.
Conclusion
The Eitr Refinery costs Black Marble ×20, Black Metal ×5, Yggdrasil Wood ×10, Black Core ×5 and Sap ×3, and converts 20 Soft Tissue plus 19 Sap into 20 Refined Eitr over 800 seconds — the longest unattended cycle of any Valheim production building, and the only one that burns no coal. The catch is that Sap is both the fuel and half the recipe, at 40 seconds of operation per unit, so a batch cannot be extended with more fuel the way a furnace can — and unlike coal, Sap has no manufactured substitute. That makes Sap, not Black Cores, the real constraint on a magic build. Since a Galdr Table (5) plus two staves (32) is 37 Refined Eitr — nearly two full cycles — build two or three refineries, gather Sap as the primary objective of any Mistlands trip, and top up both inputs together, because they exhaust at the same time.
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