Iron Gate AB's Viking odyssey Valheim continues to enthrall players with its natural exploration and survival-based gameplay. From challenging boss fights to grand construction projects, Valheim is a game that has something to offer everyone.
The spectacular biomes of the tenth world are full of valuable resources and roaming monsters. Naturally, some areas will be all but inaccessible to low-level players until they can take on the more dangerous enemies within them. However, even smaller creatures can quickly become overwhelming if players don't have the necessary equipment to best exploit their individual weaknesses.
Updated June 26, 2023 by Joe Grantham: Valheim is a game that is technically still in the early access stages of development and as such is often receiving updates both small and large, that help flesh out the game and expand upon its initial brilliance.
The Mistlands biome update in particular added plenty of new enemies, and as the hardest biome in Valheim, it is now home to many of the strongest creatures found in the game. Simply surviving against these foes is no easy task by itself and players should try and avoid contact until they are at a high enough level with the best gear.
14 Greydwarf Shamans Have Poison Spells And Can Heal Allies
Wood is required for building anything from a mighty castle to a basic house. As the player's needs increase they will eventually have to venture deeper into black forest biomes to gather more core wood. Greydwarf nests are often found in these woods and will continuously spawn enemies until they are destroyed.
Greydwarf Shamans cast poisonous spells that will rapidly drain a player's health and they can also heal other enemies, including one of the boss monsters. Players can kill these shamans by getting up close and baiting their punch. This attack is easy to parry, and doing so will provide more than enough stagger time to kill the shaman.
13 Trolls Are Giant Enemies With A Lot Of Health
Deep within the black forests, players may encounter a beast significantly larger than the usual Greydwarfs and Surtlings. Trolls have 600 HP at level one and their attacks can destroy trees or nearby buildings causing them to fall and crush the player.
Due to their enormous size trolls are easy to dodge by rolling or strafing around them. The player can escape them by running through narrow gaps between trees as the troll will not be able to pursue. When players have a strong piercing weapon such as a spear they can kill trolls by parrying their attacks with a bronze shield or timing their dodge rolls to attack in between their swings.
12 Serpents Lurk Beneath The Waves Waiting To Wreck Ships
The map in Valheim is a randomly generated archipelago consisting of various islands separated by water. Players can use rafts or longboats to travel between strips of land, but should they venture too far out to sea they may encounter Sea Serpents.
These large sea snakes are easily capable of wrecking ships, especially rafts, and players will find it hard to hit them in melee without a spear. If players wish to hunt Serpents they will need a good range weapon such as the abyssal harpoon. With this item, it is possible to drag Sea Serpents to land and kill them outside of their natural habitat.
11 Draugr Elites Lurk In The Sunken Crypts
The zombified Draugr are found in the swamps, dungeons, and occasionally the mountains of Valheim. The Draugr Elite roam alongside their weaker brethren and are capable of killing weaker players in a single hit. These enemies are quite rare and can be distinguished from other Draugr by their glowing purple eyes.
As with other enemies that travel in groups, players should try to isolate the elites by killing their allies. Once the Draugr Elite is on their own they can be killed by parrying their slow attacks and hitting them with a good club, or another blunt weapon, while they are stunned.
10 Oozers Split Into Multiple Enemies When Destroyed
Iron is one of the more important resources in the game and some of the best map seeds for Vaheim include large swamp biomes, packed with sunken crypts where the player can gather scrap iron. While venturing into the swamps, players may encounter Leeches, Skeletons, and various sizes of aggressive Blobs.
Oozers are the largest Blobs and have a poisonous AoE attack that is very dangerous if the player gets caught in it. When killed, this enemy will split into multiple Blobs, with the number of blobs depending on the Oozer's level. These monsters are weak to blunt and frost attacks making Frostner one of the best weapons for dealing with them.
9 Fenrings Prowl Through The Mountains At Night
The mountains of the Valheim are as hostile as they are beautiful and the frozen slopes are especially dangerous at night. As well as regular wolves, players may also encounter a Fenring prowling the frozen slopes when the moon is full. These large werewolves are very dangerous in melee combat as they can recover from parries exceptionally fast.
The best way to deal with Fenrings is to shoot them with arrows while strafing to maintain distance. Their lunge attack is fast and very strong so players should focus on dodging and avoiding melee unless they have very powerful weapons.
8 Stone Golems Are Weak To A Very Specific Weapon
Like Trolls, Stone Golems can destroy trees and even smash rocks sending out showers of debris that can injure the player. These creatures are made of living stone and as such are resistant to most conventional weapons.
Pickaxes are the only weapon that can significantly damage a Stone Golem. Since the player will most likely be in the mountains to find silver ore, it is helpful to bring a spare pickaxe for fighting as well as mining. Jumping attacks are the best way to do maximum damage and avoid leaving holes in the ground whenever the player misses their swing.
7 Drakes Are The Children Of Modor
Players can find one of the game's five boss fights in the mountain biome. Modor is a white dragon whose name means mother in some Nordic languages. She is a formidable beast and not the only dragon in the game as her hatchlings also soar around the snow-capped peaks of Valheim.
Drakes never come down to land which makes melee combat practically impossible. In order to survive a drake attack, it is important to keep moving and dodge its swooping attacks. A good bow will be necessary to shoot them out of the sky and fire arrows are the most effective means of hunting these majestic creatures.
6 Cultists Lurk In Frost Caves
When players are brave enough to venture into the Frost Caves that randomly spawn in the Mountains, they will have to defeat some of the hardest creatures found in the mid-game, Cultists. These werewolf-like zealots are equipped both with deadly claws and fire, and the close-quarters nature of the caves makes them hard to escape from.
With a higher health pool than most other foes found at this stage of the game, players will need to make sure they are equipped with at least the best Iron weapons in Valheim. Cultists are also weak to poison damage.
5 Deathsquitos Are Fragile But Lethal
Of all the monsters in Valheim, few players would expect an insect to be one of the most dangerous. However, should players venture into the plains biome unprepared they may be quickly killed by giant mosquitoes.
Deathsquitos move fast and are very hard to hit with melee attacks. The giant insects will die in one hit but their own attacks deal 90 damage, meaning they can just as easily kill a low-level player. Ranged weapons are the safest means of killing a Deathsquito but players can also parry them with the best shields in Valheim.
4 Fuling Berserkers Guard Villages Of Goblins
Many enemies in Valheim travel in packs as is the case with goblins or Fulings as they are called in-game. As well as having weapons, Fulings can build their own villages, where players will often find their elite Berserkers standing guard.
To take on Berserkers, it is essential to kill all the smaller Fulings first before they have a chance to swarm around the player. Once the others are dead, players can take out the Fuling Berserkers by parrying the wide swings of their club and dodging when they go into a frenzy. In order to parry these enemies, the player will need a bronze buckler or a better shield.
3 Gjall Are Massive Flying Mini-Bosses
By the time players reach the Mistlands, they will be more than familiar with flying creatures, but nothing they have come across can compare with Gjall. First of all, Gjall are huge compared with Drakes and Deathsquitos for example, and not only have massive health pools, but the damage to match them too. Gjall have projectile attacks that need to be dodged, and also periodically spawn annoying Ticks.
To kill Gjall players will want to equip themselves with the best arrows in Valheim and use their bows to take them down. Alternatively, if players have unlocked the crossbow, Arbalest, this can be used too. To deal critical damage, players should aim for the orange egg sacs.
2 Seeker Soldiers Are The Most Durable Creatures
Seeker Soldiers found in the Mistlands have the joint highest health pool in the game, making them incredibly tough to take down. They are large insect-like creatures that thankfully cannot fly at players, unlike normal Seekers. To survive in Valheim's Mistlands, players will need to learn how to take these creatures down or avoid them.
The damage types that Seeker Soldiers are weak to are Blunt, Pierce, Slash, Fire, Frost, and Lighting meaning that a variety of builds can work against them. However, the best way to take down Seeker Soldiers is to try and flank them and hit their soft Abdomens with something like a spear.
1 Try Not To Aggro Dvergr Rogues
Thankfully, despite Dvergr Rogues being one of the strongest enemy types in Valheim, they will not attack players unless they or their protected structures are attacked. However, if players do need to get past them or require the loot they drop, their crossbow bolts should be avoided at all costs.
Other than having relatively high defensive stats and dealing plenty of damage, the problem with Dvergr Rogues is that they will often be accompanied by other Rogues or even Dvergr Mages at Dvergr structures.
Valheim is currently available on PC, Linux, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.