Originally posted by Hobo Misanthropus:

Originally posted by Humpenstilzchen:

You are right but there is one exception: golems.
In case you haven´t tried it yet, parry a golem with a shield and quickly swap to your pickaxe, you´ll be surprised how fast he´ll go down. It completely trivializes them.

You can jump on top of them, and they can't hurt you. You can then pickaxe away with impunity. Usually 3 good smacks and it's dead lmao.

I know but it´s not true that you can fight them with impunity, because there are two golem types with different attacks and one of them has some sort of overhead attack that definitly hits you when you are standing on top.

Furthermore the parry and then pick method is 100% more efficient. Try it, it´s awesome.

In regards to weapons, I can´t wait to try krom. I love two-handed swords. I have just cleared another infested mine and found 5 cores so now i have 7.

Is this enough or do I need ten cores?

When you get good with a Greataxe, it is an absolute beast, but it's all about picking your moment. It's one downfall is an inexplicable penalty to movement speed.

But there is no tier after Silver. Kromm supplants it as an incredible two handed weapon capable insane DPS. The Atgeir is superior in crowd control, but if you need to mop the floor with a nasty mob in one or two hits, Kromm's secondary attack is vicious, has range and is relatively fast. In general, if you're parrying or fighting a boss that doesn't stagger easily, spamming Kromm's secondary attack is a better option to the combo.

Originally posted by Humpenstilzchen:

Originally posted by jonnin:

** in general anything that is a tool is bad, like trying to fight with a picaxe

You are right but there is one exception: golems.
In case you haven´t tried it yet, parry a golem with a shield and quickly swap to your pickaxe, you´ll be surprised how fast he´ll go down. It completely trivializes them.

You can jump on top of them, and they can't hurt you. You can then pickaxe away with impunity. Usually 3 good smacks and it's dead lmao.

Originally posted by qwerm:

Originally posted by jonnin:

Axes are a grey area here, esp early game, but I stand by lumping them in the tools.

They lack the regular attack cleave of a sword, and swing a little slower, but that new power attack they have has proven to be unusually effective at hitting mobs below the expected plane of combat since the overhead swing finishes a little below where your feet are, so it can help when your opponent is downhill from you.

Plus, you'll likely almost always be carrying an axe for woodcutting, so if you want to travel light, you can run with that if you're not too concerned about minmaxing damage types and DPS.

Similar to Kromm, if you want to use an axe as your primary weapon, you should be using the secondary attack almost exclusively. Obviously if you're surrounded, it's better to combo and stagger lock what you can. In my opinion, Axes are slightly underpowered, but at least the One-handed axe is mostly just a tool. The battleaxe, while capable of chopping down wood, is very obviously intended as a weapon only. It really needs a slight damage boost (especially now with Kromm, though they both complete their three-hit combo at the same time, Kromm's first hit comes out faster, while the Axe final 2 hits come out faster than Kromm) but mostly just get rid of the extra 10% movement speed penalty, bringing it in line with Sword/Axe/mace + Shield and Kromm.

to some degree yes but... the big issue with this games combat leaves the weapons at a poor spot currently. the axe has a terribly unbalanced attack speed and the spear is used like a javelin having a odd downward angle to its reach. the sword is fast and strong and will be more common to use wile skeletons do take considerably more blunt its a one sided scale with the feel and flow of combat.

i think they need to go back and look at animations and speed of attacks for the weapons and treat the axe less like a tool and more like a weapon because its not like you are using a two handed tree chopper. have weapons of the 1h and 2h variety start having the same attack speed and allow players to focus on the type of swing you make and the damage type against foes to allow combat to feel more like you need to adapt and less like you just need to make the most meta gear and not care anymore.

and i know some people will get upset that i said make wepaons have the same attack speed for the size but there is a reason for that. once you make the attack a hammer does not have so much air drag that it slows tf down like its in water. focus more on if a weapon is a slash only or can stab. a axe can do wide arcing swings and powerful chops downwards and the sword can slash and stab being more universal.

Recently started a second playthrough and I wanted to change things up so I decided to play with knives.

I'm only in the bronze age using a copper knife. Been to lazy to build a boat and hunt down barnacles.

Knives are super op thus far and I still only have the ♥♥♥♥♥♥ copper one, albeit upgraded. I imagine it will only get better.

I survived raids I feel I would have died in had I been using another weapon type. Raids that I was unprepared for, being hungry, and not having the rested buff.

All thanks to a copper knife.

Knive's superpower is their speed. They are so fast it's hard to not get a 3 hit combo with each parry. Most times you'll get even more hits in, stunning the enemy again before their next counter attack lands.

Knives also use very little stamina to swing. They cleave in an arc in front of you hitting multiple enemies. Frequently staggering the enemies on the second or third hit.

Finally there is the alt attack. A lunging stab. It is a decent gap closer but it does take some player skill to land. Mobs crazy unpredictable pathing being the biggest hurdle. Which for me just makes it all the more satisfying when ya do land them, especially from distance.

I guess I should mention you can also backstab with knives too. That is just icing on the cake though and you are in no way forced to use stealth to make knives a viable weapon choice.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is, give knives a stab. You won't regret it.

Guess here's my opportunity to advertise for Team Polearm; Atgeirs are incredible crowd control weapons, they're two-handed pierce weapons with a noticeable reach advantage, but get a 2x parry bonus, so the lack of a shield hurts less. Their power attack interestingly does NOT get more damage, like many other weapons, but it does get cleave, AND a 6x stagger bonus!

Atgeirs are my go to for a lot of the run for crowd management as well as being fantastic combat openers, because you don't have to wait for the enemy to initiate an attack to parry; you just go in swinging with that power attack and most of the time anything within reach is staggered allowing you to pick off enemies as desired.

One caveat; because they do pierce damage, there are some important enemies with significant resistance to pierce, like abominations or stone golems( and bosses), but you should always carry at least a second damage type that you are comfortable with.

Worst comes to worst, you can always use your axe as your 1h sidearm, as it pairs well with a shield and does slash, which tends to have fewer enemies resistant to it compared to blunt and pierce.

Spin to win, baby!

Originally posted by Zep Tepi:

It's mostly a matter of preference, but having a blunt weapon in the swamp is highly recommended for blobs and skeletons, and for the thing which is both a blob and a skeleton. And having a ranged weapon in the mountains is a must.

Beyond that just go with your favorite.

I have two characters. The first one I played with sword, the other one uses blunt weapons. I cheated a little bit and gave my second character a frostner from my first character because I wanted to see how much better this weapon is in the swamps and crypts compared to my trusty sword.

I couldn´t see a difference tbh. The sword kills just as fast if not even faster, because it is easier to get your three hit combos in than with the frostner who pushes enemies far away which is on one hand good for crowd control but on the other hand you always have to interupt your combo and step closer to the guys to finish them. The sword kills faster from my experience.

Maybe the difference in resistances plays a bigger role on stronger mobs or bosses like bonemass but those squishy draugrs and skelletons are no match for a sword especially when you use parry so I would say take the weapon you like the most. Positioning, pacing, dodging, clever kiting, good stamina management and utilizing your shield properly are more important than the damage difference between swords and maces from my experience.

Can´t tell much about other weapons though, I never used an atgeir for example but will try it at some point.

I'm going to second the praise for the knife. I've gone through the entire game now (with the exception of the queen), and there it nothing you can't defeat with a knife (and some sort of ranged weapon, of course).

That said, my preferred weapon is still the sword. Mowing down a lox with a knife before it even gets a chance to attack is awesome, but it falls short against multiple targets compared to the sword.

I'm not a blunt weapon fan, but the frostner is a great weapon.

IMO, type damage type makes no difference. Don't concern yourself with trolls and skeletons, and blobs, and stone golem, etc. You can either kill those with anything, or they're too slow be a threat. You can carry a mace for a stone golem, but you can also kill them with a knife if you want to. It just take a bit more time.

None of the mobs that are a real threat are weak or resistant to anything, with the exception of the mistland mobs, which are resistant to all normal damage equally.

I've never used a spear, but I've seem some good things about them.

IMO, the weapons are pretty well balanced in Valheim, so pick what you like and use it. In the long run, you're personally going to fight better if you practice primarily on a single weapon type, and your character skill will increase faster. You also save the inventory space and cost of building multiple weapons.

yes, it matters. They all kill stuff, but consider a few of the many things...
- the toxic axe has poison dot but that does not stack so your 5 hit combo leaves it ticking for the same as a drive by 1 hit. The poison damage is effectively 0 after 1 hit.
- a lot of stuff resists pierce, which is because that is what bows use and cheesing with a bow is frowned upon a little bit.
- elemental and spirit damage are pretty handy. spirit for undead, which are plentiful including at least 1 boss. But elements and spirit can also be resisted or near zero.
-frost slows enemy, making them much easier to fight
-frost does extra damage to wet things.
- blunt is slightly > slash for getting the job done due to vulnerable/resist pairings. This is very notable in the swamp, and less outside it.
- aoe weapons have a number of exploits and strategic uses from finding things to stunning a group to fighting through a wall.
- knives and some other weapons have a high sneak attack modifier for a different style..

and so on. its not that complex -- with a few exceptions** anything you pick up will get the job done -- but there are tradeoffs in effectiveness, style/approach, and whatever makes you prefer one over another.

** in general anything that is a tool is bad, like trying to fight with a picaxe, and to a lesser but important degree, axes are generally more tool and less weapon here. Harpoon is a tool. The butcher knife or whatever is called for killing your pets is a tool, as is the fishing rod and the beer mugs. If it doesn't seem to kill things, that may not be its primary purpose. Axes are a grey area here, esp early game, but I stand by lumping them in the tools.

you can't go too far wrong using {sword, mace, ateigr, spear}. Those all are popular for various reasons.

Originally posted by jonnin:

Axes are a grey area here, esp early game, but I stand by lumping them in the tools.

They lack the regular attack cleave of a sword, and swing a little slower, but that new power attack they have has proven to be unusually effective at hitting mobs below the expected plane of combat since the overhead swing finishes a little below where your feet are, so it can help when your opponent is downhill from you.

Plus, you'll likely almost always be carrying an axe for woodcutting, so if you want to travel light, you can run with that if you're not too concerned about minmaxing damage types and DPS.

Originally posted by jonnin:

** in general anything that is a tool is bad, like trying to fight with a picaxe

You are right but there is one exception: golems.
In case you haven´t tried it yet, parry a golem with a shield and quickly swap to your pickaxe, you´ll be surprised how fast he´ll go down. It completely trivializes them.

The balance between weapon types in Valheim is... it's actually pretty good, overall. It's worth training with all weapons, but your own preferences and tactics are priority (so long as they work!).

You can usually make do with one weapon to use with shield, and a ranged weapon. Late game will open up further options in the latter category.

You don't need to carry all the tools with you all the time. You can leave hoe, pickaxe and cultivator at home when you don't need them. You can even use the item stands to make the swapping a bit easier, or at least I found it so.

I don't think the game actually says it clearly, but swords don't get the cleave penalty for hitting multiple targets. Other one-handed weapons (and even some two-handed) do, so that's something to keep in mind. You can check the Fandom wiki if you're unsure about weapons.

I think it can matter, especially in regards to durability. You can bring down any foe with enough skill and patience, but if you're using something truly ineffective, you'll find your weapon breaking after just a few kills. Some enemies can get up to 75% resistant to certain damage types (even immune in some cases), or up to double damage taken, so bringing the right weapons can make a large difference.

im close to being done the black forest i think?
i have bronze axe, bronze sword, bronze pick and copper knife all at level 3, highest tier i can get currently, as well as the 2nd boat.
and i have about 40 copper bars left, out of tin tho.
but i also have full set of troll armor, all level 2 some are 3, just havent seen enough trolls to finish upgrading them. i surely cannot take 2 hits in a row from a troll, so i have to kite them.

i got the location of a boss from the crypt thing. its suuuupppper far from where i am, tried to get there once, and it took me 7 days i had to turn back, cause of item durability and food, and bulging inventory.

was using flint then copper knife, so my skill in that was around 35, then i swapped to bronze sword, at 0 kill, heh.

but yea i not meaning to carry every weapon style, just the basics, like mace and sword.
not sure if a 0 skill mace on a skeleton would perform better than a sword you were practicing with and have up there with your current top skills.

in games like dnd, on a skeleton for example hittting it with a basic rock, would do more damage than a fine steel sword if your playing with a strict dm.

just not sure how the blunt vs slash, vs pierce is in this game for making fights that take 6+ swings with my sword are currently.

so far hardest enemy i do in melee is a grey brute, even 0 star makes me have to dance and wait for healing ticks.

If you're planning to make a long trip, setting up teleporters is important. Fine wood, greydwarf eyes, and surtling cores. Have some in your base, and bring materials to craft one if you plan to make another base at a distant location, like close to distant boss altars. Before you find out the hard way, certain items can't go through portals, like metal ores and ingots.

I generally find that a blunt weapon and bow/arrow work fine in most cases. Whatever is resistant to arrows is probably susceptible to getting bonked, and vice versa. And you typically also carry an axe with you, so that can work as a slashing weapon.

And having a good small shield that you're skilled at parrying with will make combat much smoother. Wait for the enemy to attack, parry it, which will cause it to stagger and leave it open for some double damage crit hits.

It's mostly a matter of preference, but having a blunt weapon in the swamp is highly recommended for blobs and skeletons, and for the thing which is both a blob and a skeleton. And having a ranged weapon in the mountains is a must.

Beyond that just go with your favorite.