Originally posted by neuroperson:

Originally posted by Macdallan:

Please, please do not sit in your base smacking a rock to train. You get far less XP than you would from killing enemies and it's boring. You can hunt, fight, craft, forage, gather, mine, chop, explore, fish, and sail at night. All much more fun than smacking a rock repeatedly to maybe gain a few skill points.
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Hunt at night? Nah. Fight at night? If I have to. Forage at night? Hmm.. Fish at night? Ive done that. but I rather do anything than fish, even on pretty Valheim day. Sailing at night? That does tend to happen. You didnt mention farming.. thats tedious at night. Blasting a rock with wood arrows or your wood club I think gets the same count hit as an enemy? As long as you see the "0...0...0.." going up you're good. My goal is to get Bow and Club to 70. and I prefer doing this at night in my little training hut with my fire going, and leveling up then any of the other things mentioned. but thats just me.

You do not get the same XP shooting or smacking a rock as you do from fighting unless they changed it very recently but I am not aware of any such changes. It's not a huge difference, but it's enough that I can't be bothered wasting my time hitting rocks.

Melee attacks get 1.5x base XP per hit on players/enemies, and base xp for hits on objects. Range attacks get base xp for hitting players/enemies, and half xp for hitting objects. Yes, it's easy to argue that you can sit in one place and gain XP for skills at night (or any time), but how absolutely boring that is compared to doing almost anything else. I mean, if you really want to - go for it - but I'd rather do something that's actually fun and I think most players would, too.

Also, hitting objects is not going to help you as a player improve at fighting. Sure, your character's skill improves, but you don't get better at aiming, kiting, stamina management, attacking, parrying by hitting an object. That comes from fighting enemies. Basically the rock, or board, doesn't hit back.

Hunting at night is fun. Feels like more enemies come out in certain biomes at night, which means more resources and more xp. Foraging at night also makes certain things easier to find. Sailing at night is great fun!

Have you ever tried using a silver sword with the secondary attack at max level? Yea you should and will know why I'd prefer it with a shield most of the time. Black metal is bleh to me(ugly stuff)

I have a tendency to do farmwork at night. I mean, I'm locked inside my palisade anyway, may as well. I keep the grounds pretty well lit.

If you want even more specific info about weapon types, have a look here;
https://valheim.fandom.com/wiki/Weapons#Weapon_type_properties
It list things such as attack range (slightly different), and movement while doing combo's (swordwielders move more when doing combos). Details, schmeetails - but all melee weapons have their own properties (and combo's!!).
*if U wanna try a fun one, try polearms secondary ... 360 !!

Second poster kind of summed it up well.
Different bosses have different weaknesses but for the most part clubs are a solid choice "Blunt"damage and just use Axe for chopping wood.I try to use the bow as soon and often as possible as it is your go to weapon most of the time.

Originally posted by Macdallan:

Please, please do not sit in your base smacking a rock to train. You get far less XP than you would from killing enemies and it's boring. You can hunt, fight, craft, forage, gather, mine, chop, explore, fish, and sail at night. All much more fun than smacking a rock repeatedly to maybe gain a few skill points.
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Hunt at night? Nah. Fight at night? If I have to. Forage at night? Hmm.. Fish at night? Ive done that. but I rather do anything than fish, even on pretty Valheim day. Sailing at night? That does tend to happen. You didnt mention farming.. thats tedious at night. Blasting a rock with wood arrows or your wood club I think gets the same count hit as an enemy? As long as you see the "0...0...0.." going up you're good. My goal is to get Bow and Club to 70. and I prefer doing this at night in my little training hut with my fire going, and leveling up then any of the other things mentioned. but thats just me.

Clubs are the most universally effective weapon currently.
Swords have an advantage over axes of offering an alt power attack.
The advantage of axes is you'll almost always have one on you by default.
Bear in mind we likely will be seeing weapon changes with H&H so all given information may change shortly.

Use bronze sword or mace until get iron mace to fight , the best combo from black forest to mountains

Originally posted by Sablestar:

So, I have a bronze axe, which I can cut or attack with. I have a recipe for a bronze sword-- but why would I ever make that, since I have an axe?

Power attacks and not wearing out your main weapon chopping trees. You can power attack during a stagger for crazy damage. However, clubs are insanely good all the way up to the plains. Either mobs are super weak to blunt or you get a super long stagger (good for wolves). Though Frostner does less damage than the black metal sword, it's great for crowd control when you are getting zerged by fulings.

Well, IMHO, you should skill up Clubs. Clubs are great against almost everything. Plus the 2 best weapons in the game, Frostner, and Porcupine are clubs. Also, Axes is slower than clubs, I think.
If you are trying to save space, then yeah having one less tool/weapon is an option.
Using an axe for combat and for woodcutting trees are 2 different skill sets, they train seprately
If you like swords, thats cool, train up swords. Once I get my clubs to 70, Ill probably do the sword next, have a L4 Green metal sword waiting
Remember to keep a big boulder in your home or in your camp with roof and fire so you can practice your combat skills all night long to train them up.

Originally posted by Sablestar:

So, I have a bronze axe, which I can cut or attack with. I have a recipe for a bronze sword-- but why would I ever make that, since I have an axe?

Sword are faster, consume less stamina and possess a secondary attack.

Please, please do not sit in your base smacking a rock to train. You get far less XP than you would from killing enemies and it's boring. You can hunt, fight, craft, forage, gather, mine, chop, explore, fish, and sail at night. All much more fun than smacking a rock repeatedly to maybe gain a few skill points.

Using your axe for combat and for chopping means double the durability loss if you're running around doing both so many players have a different weapon for fighting. If you like using axes to fight, then by all means keep using it. Weapons can have different secondary attacks, different attack patterns, different speeds, and different special effects. A huge mallet isn't going to feel the same, or swing the same, as your axe or a sword. Also some weapons do more damage, or less damage, against certain enemies. Some enemies have weaknesses or resistances. Smack a skeleton with a club or mace instead of a spear or arrow, for example, and you'll see a big difference in damage.

Make the sword, fight with it a bit and see if you prefer that over the axe. I tend to prefer maces, they're very effective against many enemies and have a nice secondary attack, but when I make new characters I try to play using a different melee weapons for variety.

And I think they do more damage, definite higher DPS. But like FTZ said, you’d do well to learn to use a mace.

From a mechanical side, the sword has a secondary attack while the axe does not. I also think the sword is slightly faster to swing, but don't quote me on that. Sword also has a silver version that is pretty good against undead types.

Mechanical aspects asides, it's aesthetic largely. Do you like wandering around wearing and fighting with an axe instead of a sword? Do that! I've used an axe most of the game myself just cause I like that look of it.

Swords seem to degrade a lot slower in my experience, since they are pure attack tools. They're also a bit faster.

Axes are alright attack weapons too, but they seem to degrade much faster, either in combat or just cutting wood in general.