Valheim is an incredible open world Nordic-inspired exploration game with an incredibly fun and interesting skills system similar to many popular MMORPGs where players improve their regular skills by continued use of the skill. This blends perfectly into a player-owned dedicated server, seamlessly providing that MMORPG feel with the tightknit gameplay of a small group-based multiplayer server.
Among these many skills is a vast assortment of weaponry you'll want to start training early, as the more you train the weapon type, the more damage you deal with those kinds of weapons! There is an absolutely massive assortment of weaponry in Valheim, with both melee and ranged options, making for a completely customizable playstyle. Train hard, and make sure not to die, as each death comes with a toll of 5% of all your total levels lost each time.
Valheim Build deciding a Weapon
Primarily in Valheim players will be dealing with Axes, Spears, Knives and Clubs for a wide majority of the game, with many of these weapons being incredible accessible throughout all portions of the game. Swords and Polearms are also trainable skills, but these weapons are much more rare and require expensive materials in order to craft and progress along their respective tiers.
Once copper is achieved after defeated the first boss Eikthyr, the very first Polearm and Swords can be crafted, and training of their respective skills can begin. For players looking to create a sword-duelist parrying enemies with a buckler shield, it's important to start training sword damage as quickly as possible once a sword can be acquired. This concept passes along to other weapons, allowing players choosing Axes, Spears, Knives, or Clubs a small head-start over others.
Valheim Clubs Best Early Start
Clubs are a unique weapon choice that may go under the radar for many gamers. Despite being the favorite weapon of choice for a specific blog-writer out there...*cough cough*...they aren't as flashy as a slick sword, or a long and safe spear. Despite this, they are absolutely one of the highest damage early-game weapons available to the player, and one actually starts in the player's inventory! The magical..the incredible...the torch!
The torch is the most easily accessible club-weapon in the game, only requiring 1 wood and 1 resin. Punching a single Greyling to death should provide more than enough resources to craft one, and they more than pay off their worth in damage. Torches deal flame damage, which applies the Burning debuff to enemies. Almost all of the enemies in the early game are extremely weak to fire (and Burning), making the torch a perfect weapon of choice for even early bosses!
Valheim Axes Optimize your Inventory
Axes are also an incredibly early weapon for Valheim players to acquire, as a stone axe is crafted with 5 wood and 4 stone. These items are obtained within seconds from spawning, and provides the ability to now chop trees, and chop limbs equally as effective. Choosing axes as your weapon of preference provides both the option of one handed weaponry, as well as 2-handed great-axes as players continue into the late game stages.
The most beneficial part of an axe preference is the ability to save both inventory space, and inventory weight due to bringing less tools into the wild. Players bringing a pickaxe, woodcutting axe, weapon, and armor, will find themselves struggling in the late game stages with much spare inventory weight to carry loot from exploration runs. If you're combining your woodcutting tool and your head-cutting tool, that saves a LOT of item weight believe it or not!
Valheim Knives Multiplicative Damage
Knives in Valheim are incredibly unique as they take advantage heavily of the game's unique stealth mechanics. Stealth is another skill in Valheim that is trained by naturally sneaking around unalerted enemies within a short distance. When attacking an unalerted enemy from stealth, all weapons deal a unique bonus multiplier of damage with Knives specifically dealing x6 damage.
Knives also have a secondary leap attack, that deals x3 damage of a normal swing, which scales multiplicatively with the stealth bonus to provide a x18 multiplier when leaping from stealth. This can create some absolutely incredible combos, allowing stealth players to assassinate extremely high health enemies with ease. Even when alerted, knives allow their wielder to move freely, and dodge much quicker than any other weapon type in the game.
Valheim Spears for Safety
Spears as appropriately described in history, are notably the safest of almost any medieval weapon type in the world, allowing the wielder the complete flexibility of high thrusting power against a target, yet remaining a safe distance at the same time. This extends into the gaming world as well, allowing you to poke at your enemies safely without ever being too close or requiring a shield. Even enemies with longer reach are unable to hit a spear-wielder before they dodge after stabbing.
Spears are fortunately one of the quickest to obtain, requiring only a quick visit to the oceanside for some flint and a brisk battle with a boar for 2 leather scraps. Training spears is extremely effective, as stabs are extremely quick with this weapon type, fully taking advantage of higher levels particularly more than other weapon types. Spears also don't use much stamina to thrust, making them an even more effective weapon for safety-first fighters.
Valheim Sword and Polearms
Swords and Polearms are in the same boat....get it, cause Valheim has a lot of boat travel? Anyway, they both add a large variety of new weapon gameplay to the game and feel extremely fluid in combat. As of now, no bosses are currently weak to their weapon types in particular, but they have very satisfying primary and secondary attack types.
No matter the weapon you choose, the team of friends you take on bosses with together is the most important thing to consider. While Valheim is technically singleplayer as well, the multiplayer capability adds a layer of gameplay that completely changes the entire experience. If you've never tried multiplayer Valheim, grab a handful of friends, and boot up a Shockbyte server!
Looking for more Valheim Gaming Ideas?
- The Ultimate Valheim Progression Guide and Tips
- 11 Best Tips and Tricks for Beginners in Valheim
- Valheim Mistlands Update
About Shockbyte
Shockbyte is a game server host for Valheim, Minecraft, Ark, and more.
Do you want to start your own Valheim server? Click here to view our Valheim server hosting plans.
