In Valheim, players may have noticed a little number pop up in the corner of the game as they use certain tools or perform certain actions. There will also be a brief halo of light around a player's head. This mean that they have upgraded a skill to the next level.
Complete List of Skills
Currently, there are seventeen skills in a player's skill tree. Each of these is leveled by the player using the skill; for example, players must fight with a sword to level their Sword stat. The skills in the game are:
- Axes -Â Players level this by fighting with an axe; this is separate from the tree-cutting axe skill.
- Clubs -Â Raises damage for club-like blunt weapons, like hammers, maces, and even the Stagbreaker weapon.
- Unarmed -Â Raises damage with fists
- Swords -Â Raises damage with swords.
- Knives -Â Raises knife damage.
- Polearms -Â Raises polearm damage
- Bows -Â Raises the amount of damage done with each Valheim arrow fired from a bow as well raising draw speed.
- Spears -Â Raises damage with spears.
- Jump -Â Raises the player's jump height.
- Run -Â Raises runs speed and lowers stamina drain while running.
- Sneak -Â Raises a player's ability to sneak without being heard or seen and lowers the amount of stamina used while sneaking.
- Swim -Â Lowers stamina drain while swimming, but does not effect swimming speed.
- Pickaxes - Players require fewer hits to break rocks and ore deposits.
- Wood Cutting -Â Lowers the amount of strokes needed to fell trees.
- Blocking -Â Levels the amount of damage a player can block with a shield. This is not related to armor points from armor sets in Valheim.
- FireMagic - Currently not used in Valheim; it is unknown when this skill will be implemented.
- FrostMagic - Currently not used in Valheim; it is unknown when this skill will be implemented.
The last two suggest that both fire magic and frost magic are part of the future roadmap of Valheim, which is still in development. However, these may be skills that are only used by enemies, like Drakes with their frost breath and Fuling Shamans with their fireballs. Hopefully players will be able to use them as well in the future.
Skill Level Loss
When a player dies, they may have noticed a skill level decrease that pops up on the screen. With every death, players will lose 5% of their total skill points. Thankfully, there is a five-minute buff after death called "No Skill Drain" that prevents more skill drain if a player dies again while trying to retrieve their inventory from their tombstone.
Progressing With Skills
Players will have to gain a certain amount of XP in each skill to move to the next level. The amount of needed XP in each skill can be calculated with this formula:
(Current Skill Level+1^1.5) x 0.5+0.5
In order to get more XP in a skill, players just have to use it. Running, jumping, sneaking, fighting, chopping trees, and all the other activities will naturally level each of these skills. Attacking other players in Valheim's PVP mode does not currently level fighting or blocking skills. Each skill can be leveled to a max of 100.
In the skills menu, players can see what level they are in each category. The yellow bar is how far along they are to 100 levels, and the orange bar is progress to the next level. In order to open the skill menu, players must hit tab then click the second symbol in the upper right-hand corner. It will look like overlapping triangles, between the crow and the trophy.
The massively-popular, record-breaking Valheim is still in Early Access, however, so all of this information could change in future updates.
Valheim is currently in Early Access for PC.
Source: Wiki, Steam Community