For those of us who struggle through Valheim alone and no mods this is a list of how to ‘cheese’ Valheim. Cheesing requires patience and time.
Exploits
All credit goes to Colonel McDoogle!
Intro
Most of the difficulty in this game comes from not knowing what to expect.
Spoilers ahead
Learning basic combat skills like parrying or stamina management, then equipping appropriate gear, leveling up skills, and spending time grinding out materials as required are on your (the reader’s) end. This is not a ‘cheat list’ it is a ‘cheese-it list’ if you are struggling.
General Exploits
First and foremost do not bother tracking your skills. They are hard to raise and can be lost quite easily. This is a mental deterrent and is done so to break your willingness to push past difficult parts of the game.
Daytime Exploit: Do not venture out at night. Mobs spawn at a higher rate at night.
Equipment Exploit: Decide which gear fits your play style.
- Lighter armous such as Troll Armour, Leather Armour, Fenris Armour, Root Armour, Eitr-weave tend to allow for higher mobility but sacrifice defence. Also note that some of these have weaknesses to elemental damage. This category allows players to escape conflict quicker and more easily than the next category.
- Heavy Armour such as Bronze Armour, Iron Armour, Silver/Wolf Armour, Padded Iron Armour, Carapace Armour allow players to tank damage at the sacrifice of mobility. These tend to require higher concentration on stamina while letting the player go close combat with mobs. Shield and Sword tend to be the best combination but there are other weapons worth experimenting with.
Recipe Exploits: Each time you clear a biome (finished boss) make sure you have at least a full basic chest worth of mats and ores (i.e. copper alone should fill one box). Doing this ensures you don’t have any back walking once you gain new recipes that require mats from a previous biome. (This helps reduce the time of sailing and fighting wind direction at later stages)
Portal Exploits Build portals at every point as much as possible. Each biome you go to you should make at least one portal. If you go more than 500 in-game steps away from your portal make a new one. No exceptions. You can use one main portal and simply change the Portal Name to the correct corresponding portal (or create a portal tower/base that is dedicated to mass amounts of portals). At each portal base ensure you have as many chest as needed to store mats for retrieval at a later date. Going back to point ‘C” on this list if you are sailing between points (assuming your map is not awful in distances) a Karve can carry four stacks in it’s storage box with your own inventory being at max weight (you can not pilot boats when over weight limit). The Longboat can hold eighteen stacks as well as your own inventory at max weight.
- Longboat should be a priority as soon as you get into Swamps because of carrying capacity. From there you can get most of what you need in two or three round trips.
- ‘Iron Scraps’ is an exception to the earlier full chest list for later recipes require absurd amounts of iron as well so gather a minimum of four basic chests worth.
Rest Exploit: Use your rest bonus to it’s full potential. Health, stamina, and eitr regen are significantly increased when rested. You can increase your rest bonus by upgrading your existing house and furniture. If you lose your rest bonus you will be at a major disadvantage.
Food Exploits: Always keep an eye on your food or any other stat such as health and stamina. Depending on play style either two health items and a stamina for help in combat or two stamina and one health for mobility and evasiveness.
Deconstruct Exploits: Build-able crafting stations can be deconstructed and have returned full material recipe (i.e. build a furnace to make charcoal. Deconstruct then make a smelter for ingots. Deconstruct then make a Forge to build items. Rinse and repeat.).
Map Exploits: You can find a seed that has an easier biome/distance relation. Your character maintains inventory as you load between maps. You can keep your main map from increasing in raid difficulty by using a different map to slay bosses and grind materials separately from the map you wish to simply build and ‘live in’.
Tree Falling Exploit: It is possible early on to get Fine Wood by directing trees to fall upon Birch Trees and having them break the tree in order to collect Fine Wood. This requires a lot of forethought. Allows for early access to Fine Bow.
God Power Exploits
- Eikthyr’s Power: Reduced stamina costs for sprinting and jumping. Crucial in being able to run and stay ahead of mobs. Also aids in retreating and maneuverability as well.
- Elder’s Power: Quicker tree felling. There’s no real exploit with this, it’s just easier to gather large quantities of wood for future uses.
- Bonemass’ Power: Reduced Slash Pierce, and Blunt damage. This is possibly the most useful power in the game. Highly recommend this being the default power for any situation.
- Modder’s Power: For five minutes wind is always at your back. When taking long voyages via boats this will help fight the irritating wind.
- Yagluth’s Power: Gives elemental defence increase. This is possible the second most useful power in game. Considering a lot of enemies in both Plains and Mistlands tend to use elemental damage then could possibly be a life saver.
- Queen’s Power: Increased mining speed as well as eitr regen. At this point there’s no real use for this power since this is current endgame reward.
Combat Cheesing
All bosses can be whittled down with arrows. Ensure you have enough arrows to do so. Possibly but not limited to a minimum of two stacks of preferred arrows.
Most mobs can not climb steep inclines that players can sprint or jump up (i.e. large boulders in Plains or cliff edges in Mountains).
Side Note: Bosses can destroy buildings and boulders so be warned!
Abuse arrows. You can’t always keep your distance but when you can you should. (Stay aware of your surroundings. Can’t stress it enough.)
Black Forest: Trolls are weak against Fire Arrows . Always carry a full stack of Fire Arrows. These will take you all the way to Mountain Biome before having damage drop off. Starting Skeleton Crypts can be arduous at first but a simple work around is either asking another player for five Surtling Cores (which is all you need to get started) or use Troll Armour, Wooden Tower Shield, and Wood Club (again learning combat skills is on you). Bronze Armour at maxed out levels reduces damage to a drastic degree in Black Forest. Best way to fight Elder is with a maxed out bow and Fire Arrows. Keep your distance and mind the tentacles.
Swamps: Keep an eye directly on your stamina bar. Use terrain to your advantage (i.e. climb up fallen trees for a quick rest). Abuse portals in this biome. Create so many portals as necessary to make Corpse Runs kind of fun and silly (This carries on to Mistlands as well). Maces are the best weapon to use in this biome especially since Bonemass is weak against blunt weapons.
Mountains: Wolves and ‘You Are Being Hunted’ raid. Keep an eye on your surroundings. Wolves can easily be dealt with if you know where they are. If you see said raid appear quickly get to high ground or a pit that funnels them head first towards you. Even with area appropriate armours and gear this raid is deadly. Golems can easily be dealt with by using Bonemass’s power and a blunt weapon. When fighting Modder be aware of surroundings. Use maxed out Draugr Fang (bow) and preferred arrows. Again a minimum of two stacks of arrows.
Plains Biome: Do not attempt to enter or be near Plains Biome until you have a full set of Silver/Wolf Armour, Fenris Armour, or even Root Armour. Basic Iron Armour or lower will allow Deathsquitos to one shot you. Use shield function to track Deathsquitos as they circle you. If you become surrounded by mobs just run and deal with Deathsquitos as necessary. For a more advanced playthrough you can stealth and try to bow/arrow them from a distances before they notice you. Barley and Flax can only be farmed in Plains. Fulings can easily be dealt with one on one but if more than three surround you just run. Even when looking for the Fuling Totems just run into base, grab item, and leave. Eikthyr’s power comes in handy here. Once you beat Yagluth you can build a Wisp Fountain. Catch a wisp and build a Wisplight to allow Mistland’s mist to mildly dissipate.
Mistlands: Use everything previously stated. Build tons of portals, keep a fierce eye on stamina and health. Enemies will attack you at the worst possible time (i.e. resting on a mountain side and having a seeker come out of nowhere and knock you off and fall to your death or in water from which you can’t get out of). Jotun Skulls contain around 80ish Soft Tissue (two stacks worth-ish). You only need to find five Dark Cores to build everything with the Deconstruct Exploit. Craft Feather Cape as soon as possible. Magecape and Jotun Puffs can only be farmed in Mistlands. To extract sap from Yggdrasil Roots you need to retrieve Dvergr Extractor from Dvergr strongholds and bases (they will become hostile once you hit anything). They are in boxes that have blue markings and are elongated. It is best to lead enemy mobs to their bases and take Dvergr Extractors amidst the chaos. Using Eitr Refinery will constantly shoot out singular magical bullets in all directions causing minor damage so be warned.
Queen Boss Fight: By far the hardest boss fight yet. This fight is to make sure players are aware of the importance of Eitr (magic) in upcoming updates. So you better get full Eitr-weave Robes and all staves to be ready for this fight. Food suggestion would be Misthare Supreme, Seekr Aspice, and Stuffed Mushroom. Leaving out Yggdrasil Porridge allows sap to be solely allocated to making Refined Eitr. There are four levels within the arena with staircases on either side. The stairs can not be destroyed but the ledges and alcoves can be (except the entry portal alcove is indestructible but the mobs and Queen can swarm this alcove). Before starting the fight make sure you have a portal within walking distance, enough supplies for the fight (health potions and food), maxed out gear and all staves. Use Staff of Protection before going in. Run all the way up the stairs to the fourth floor. With your back to the wall go to the staircase on the rightside. Stay here and manage your stats. When you stand just below the fourth floor the Queen should start descending the left staircase. When you stand on the fourth floor proper the Queen will start ascending the leftside staircase. Use your Staff of Embers to hit Queen as often as possible. Mobs will swarm you. Keep your shield up and use your choice weapon on clearing mobs (my personal preference was Staff of Frost and Krom.
Thank you SOOOO much for this! It’s the best prep-guide I’ve seen.