Valheim Wiki

Skills are a player progression system that improves effectiveness with certain actions or weapon types/tools by repeatedly performing matching actions.

Experience is gained independently for each skill with its own trigger for advancement. Effective skill levels are reduced upon Death.

The maximum level for each skill is 100.

Skills, effects, and experience gain[]

Skill Total effect at max level Experience gain
Axes +141% damage and knockback against non-trees, -33% stamina usage 1.5 per attack when hitting a creature
Blocking +50% block armor 0.5 per blocked attack (+0.5 when parrying)
Blood magic +200% damage and knockback, +250% protection, -33% eitr usage, -33% health usage 0.75 per skeleton hitting a creature, 0.5 per skeleton bow hit a creature, 1 per shield breaking from damage
Bows +141% damage and knockback, -33% stamina usage, -80% draw time 1.5 per arrow when hitting a creature
Clubs +141% damage and knockback, -33% stamina usage 1.5 per one handed and 1 per two handed attack when hitting a creature
Cooking -60% crafting food time, 25% chance of extra craft, -50% Serving tray stamina usage 0.25 per food craft, 0.1 when placing items on a Cooking station, 0.15 when picking items
Crafting -60% crafting time, -50% stamina and durability usage for Hammer, 25% chance of extra craft 0.25 per craft, 0.25 per build, up to 0.25 proportionally to repaired durability
Crossbows +141% damage and knockback, -50% reload time 1 per bolt when hitting a creature
Dodge -50% stamina cost 0.025 per dodge with another 0.25 if an attack is dodged
Elemental magic +141% damage and knockback,-33% eitr usage Attack hitting a creature gives 1 for Staff of embers and Staff of the Wild, 0.2 for Staff of frost, 12x0.1 for Dundr and Staff of Fracturing.
Farming 25% chance of extra harvest, +1m Scythe range, -33% scythe stamina usage, -50% stamina and durability usage for Cultivator 0.25 per scythe or cultivator use, 0.25 per manual harvest
Fists +141% damage and knockback, -33% stamina usage 1.5 per attack when hitting a creature
Fishing +200% reeling speed,-80% stamina usage 0.25 per second while reeling (+0.25 with a hooked fish)
Jumping +40% jump force (+100% jump height) 0.5 per jump. Player must have enough stamina.
Knives +141% damage and knockback, -33% stamina usage 1.5 per attack when hitting a creature
Pickaxes +141% damage and knockback, -33% stamina usage 1.5 per attack when hitting stone or ore deposits
Riding +25% sprint speed,-50% stamina usage 0.2 per second while sprinting
Running +25% run speed,-50% stamina usage 0.2 per second while running
Polearms +141% damage and knockback, -33% stamina usage 1.5 per attack when hitting a creature
Sneaking -60% initial sneak visibility, -20% light based visibility, -75% stamina usage 0.05 per second while sneaking (+0.45 when undetected within the view range of a creature)
Spears +141% damage and knockback, -33% stamina usage 2.25 per primary attack when hitting a creature
1.5 per secondary attack when hitting a creature
Swimming -50% stamina usage 0.3 per second while swimming
Swords +141% damage and knockback, -33% stamina usage 1.5 per attack when hitting a creature
Wood cutting +141% damage against trees 1 per attack when hitting a tree (+0.5 when also hitting a creature)
  • Most skill effects scale linearly per level, the exceptions are:
    • Average weapon damage and knockback increases +1.5% per level until level 75. After that the maximum damage and knockback is capped resulting in only +1.13% average damage and knockback per level.
    • Sneak stamina usage is exponential.
  • At max level, weapons have +240% minimum damage and knockback,+81.82% maximum damage and knockback and +140.625% average damage and knockback.
  • Bows have 2.5 seconds of draw time at skill 0. The maximum fire rate of 0.8 seconds is reached at skill 85 (capped by the firing animation) which reduces the duration by 68% (3.1x attack speed).
    • The max skill increases DPS by +623% (7.23x) due to increased damage and reduced draw time.
    • The max skill decreases stamina usage by 83% due to reduced stamina cost and reduced draw time (half drain while fully drawn).
  • Base jump height is about 1.5 meters, at max level it's about 3.0 meters.

Experience gain[]

  • Rested Effect increases the total experience gain by 50% (for example parry experience increases from 1 xp to 1.5 xp).
    • This only applies when it is the player performing the action (the only exception to this is blood magic, where for example the experience from a skeleton hitting a creature will not get the 50% boost if the player is rested)
  • Weapons get the same experience regardless of the amount of targets, the only exception being axes when hitting a creature and a tree at the same time.
  • Weapons get experience when hitting players when PvP is turned on. Blocking gains experience while blocking against PvP damage.
  • Birds aren't classified as creatures and won't give experience when hit.
  • Pickaxes don't get experience for lowering terrain.
  • For skills where experience is gained per second (run, sneak, swim), the experience gain rate is actually every 1.02 seconds. This is likely unintentional by the developers.
  • Disassembling pieces gives a hidden debuff that prevents experience gain from the next building. This debuff stacks up to 20 times.

Progression[]

Once the player has accumulated enough skill experience, they reach the next level. This sets the new, effective level to current_level + 1 (even if current_level is a decimal value) and calculates a new experience requirement to level the skill again.

The amount of skill experience required can be calculated using the following formula:

skill experience to next level =

If a skill's new level is greater than or equal to 100, it is set to precisely 100 and further experience gain for that skill is disabled.

Experience gain doesn't overflow into the next level: a player's first punch against a creature will gain 1.5 Fists skill experience, leveling it from 0 to 1 (required: 1.0xp), and the remaining 0.5xp gained will be lost.

Required and total experience values per level[]

Level 1-50 Level 51-100
Level XP next level Total XP % to level 100
1 1.0 1.0 0.00%
2 1.9 2.9 0.01%
3 3.1 6.0 0.03%
4 4.5 10.5 0.05%
5 6.1 16.6 0.08%
6 7.8 24.5 0.12%
7 9.8 34.2 0.17%
8 11.8 46.0 0.23%
9 14.0 60.0 0.30%
10 16.3 76.3 0.38%
11 18.7 95.1 0.47%
12 21.3 116.4 0.57%
13 23.9 140.3 0.69%
14 26.7 167.0 0.82%
15 29.5 196.5 0.97%
16 32.5 229.0 1.13%
17 35.5 264.6 1.30%
18 38.7 303.3 1.49%
19 41.9 345.2 1.70%
20 45.2 390.4 1.92%
21 48.6 439.0 2.16%
22 52.1 491.1 2.42%
23 55.7 546.8 2.69%
24 59.3 606.0 2.99%
25 63.0 669.0 3.30%
26 66.8 735.8 3.62%
27 70.6 806.5 3.97%
28 74.6 881.1 4.34%
29 78.6 959.7 4.73%
30 82.7 1,042.3 5.13%
31 86.8 1,129.1 5.56%
32 91.0 1,220.1 6.01%
33 95.3 1,315.4 6.48%
34 99.6 1,415.0 6.97%
35 104.0 1,519.1 7.48%
36 108.5 1,627.6 8.02%
37 113.0 1,740.6 8.57%
38 117.6 1,858.2 9.15%
39 122.3 1,980.5 9.76%
40 127.0 2,107.5 10.38%
41 131.8 2,239.2 11.03%
42 136.6 2,375.8 11.70%
43 141.5 2,517.3 12.40%
44 146.4 2,663.8 13.12%
45 151.4 2,815.2 13.87%
46 156.5 2,971.7 14.64%
47 161.6 3,133.3 15.43%
48 166.8 3,300.1 16.26%
49 172.0 3,472.1 17.10%
50 177.3 3,649.4 17.98%
Level XP next level Total XP % to level 100
51 182.6 3,832.0 18.88%
52 188.0 4,019.9 19.80%
53 193.4 4,213.4 20.75%
54 198.9 4,412.3 21.73%
55 204.4 4,616.7 22.74%
56 210.0 4,826.8 23.78%
57 215.7 5,042.4 24.84%
58 221.4 5,263.8 25.93%
59 227.1 5,490.9 27.05%
60 232.9 5,723.8 28.19%
61 238.7 5,962.5 29.37%
62 244.6 6,207.1 30.58%
63 250.5 6,457.6 31.81%
64 256.5 6,714.1 33.07%
65 262.5 6,976.6 34.37%
66 268.6 7,245.2 35.69%
67 274.7 7,519.9 37.04%
68 280.9 7,800.8 38.43%
69 287.1 8,087.9 39.84%
70 293.3 8,381.2 41.29%
71 299.6 8,680.8 42.76%
72 306.0 8,986.8 44.27%
73 312.4 9,299.1 45.81%
74 318.8 9,617.9 47.38%
75 325.3 9,943.2 48.98%
76 331.8 10,275.0 50.61%
77 338.3 10,613.3 52.28%
78 344.9 10,958.2 53.98%
79 351.6 11,309.8 55.71%
80 358.3 11,668.1 57.48%
81 365.0 12,033.1 59.27%
82 371.8 12,404.9 61.11%
83 378.6 12,783.5 62.97%
84 385.4 13,168.9 64.87%
85 392.3 13,561.2 66.80%
86 399.3 13,960.5 68.77%
87 406.2 14,366.7 70.77%
88 413.3 14,780.0 72.81%
89 420.3 15,200.3 74.88%
90 427.4 15,627.7 76.98%
91 434.5 16,062.2 79.12%
92 441.7 16,504.0 81.30%
93 448.9 16,952.9 83.51%
94 456.2 17,409.1 85.76%
95 463.5 17,872.5 88.04%
96 470.8 18,343.3 90.36%
97 478.2 18,821.5 92.71%
98 485.6 19,307.1 95.11%
99 493.0 19,800.1 97.53%
100 500.5 20,300.6 100.00%

Skill loss[]

Upon Death, if the player is not under the effect of no skill drain as granted by another recent death, the player loses a portion of each skill level according to configured World Modifiers (default: 5%) and also loses all progress towards the next skill level.

Note[]

In fact, the skill level is a floating number with an integer part and a decimal part. The integer part is used for all purposes: displayed in the UI, used to determine the strength of the skill effects and the experience needed for the next level. The decimal part is not linked to the progression toward the next level, its only effect is to sometime save a level on death. Examples:

  • A player with a skill at level 50 dies: the new skill level is effectively 47 for all purposes.
  • If this player dies again at 47.5 (effectively 47): the new skill level is , effectively 45.
  • Whereas if a player is at 47.0 (also effectively 47): the new skill level is , effectively 44.
  • Gaining a level doesn't round the level it just add +1 to the current value, the next level after 47.5 is 48.5, etc.

Note that progress to the next level does not factor into this calculation.