Choosing the best Valheim weapons will significantly increase your survival rates. There’s a lot of room to create your favorite build, of course, but some weapons tend to be better than others. And we’re not just talking about damage output, but also the type of damage and the effort it takes to craft the weapon. If you take that into account, there’s an overpowered Valheim weapon to be found at any stage of the game.
Here’s a list with the best Valheim weapons, roughly ranked from early to late game.
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Valheim Torch
A bit of a weird first entry, but players tend to overlook the power of the Torch as the first useful Valheim weapon. Besides being extremely easy to craft, you get one for free when you spawn as a new character.
Admittedly, its blunt damage is extremely low. But here’s the thing: it’s the only melee weapon that provides fire damage. And guess who’s extremely weak against fire? Every enemy in the Meadows (Greylings, Greydwarves, Necks, Boars). The fire will even scare them off, saving you a fight while you’re still in rags. If there’s one weapon that’s going to ensure your survival as a new Viking, it’s the Torch.
- 1 wood
- 1 resin
Valheim Crude bow
Is it the best bow in Valheim? No, but the Crude Bow is the best weapon you can get in the very first stage of the game, before you take down Eikthyr. Thanks to its range, the Crude Bow can take down the most dangerous opponents without putting you at risk. It’s therefore considered better than most early-game mele weapons.
It’s easy to further increase the Crude Bow’s damage by using fire arrows. You only need wood, resin (you will get heaps of the stuff by killing Greylings), and feathers. Once you have a few feathers, you can just shoot some birds to make even more.
This is all the material you need:
- 10 wood
- 8 leather scraps
Valheim Stagbreaker
Not only does this giant two-handed hammer look cool, it’s also the most powerful Valheim melee weapon you can get without much effort. Just take a look at its incredibly high knockback power! The only downside to the Stagbreaker is its slow attack speed, which makes it less suitable for players who prefer fast combat and rely on dodging skills.
The Stagbreaker crafting recipe is unlocked automatically after you collect your first pieces of ‘core wood’. You can get core wood by chopping down pine trees in the Black Forest biome. You only need to kill two boars to get enough leather scraps, but you will need to hunt a lot of deer as the deer trophies only drop occasionally.
Here’s the full list of requirements for the Stagbreaker:
- 20 core wood
- 5 deer trophies
- 2 leather scraps
Valheim Abyssal Harpoon
As the only harpoon available in Valheim, the Abyssal Harpoon has a rather specific use. It’s the perfect weapon to get if you want to kill a sea serpent. The only thing you need to do is hit it and drag it along while other players attack.
Alternatively, you can use the Abyssal Harpoon to catch a serpent and drag it to the shore. Once there, it will either die by itself or you can take it down with a melee weapon. As it turns out, the abyssal Harpoon also provides a great method of transportation: use it to pierce another player and send them flying across the map!
You may not have heard of the ‘chitin’ material you need to craft an Abyssal Harpoon. You can find it by mining abyssal barnacles on the tiny islands you’ll see on the open sea. Try not to drown though: these islands are actually living krakens who will disappear after a while.
These are all the materials needed to get this unique Valheim weapon:
- 8 fine wood
- 30 Chitin
- 3 leather scraps
Valheim Abyssal Razor
It’s easy to overlook the ‘knife’ weapon type in Valheim. However, while its base attack power is quite low, it has a very fast attack speed and a backstab multiplier. Although the Abyssal Razor is no longer the best knife in the game, it’s still the most overpowered one if you consider how early on you can get it.
Besides practicing your sneaking skill, you should craft some troll armor to make your Abyssal Razor a truly overpowered weapon. Wearing troll armor will grant you a sneaking bonus, which you can use to backstab even the most formidable opponents.
If you go for the Abyssal razor, you’ll get a weapon that’s similar to iron weapons, without the need to use ore. Instead, take a boat and collect Chitin from the moving islands.
Here’s what you need to craft your Abyssal Razor:
- 4 fine wood
- 20 chitin
- 2 leather scraps
Valheim Draugr Fang
The Draugr Fang is still the undisputed number one bow in Valheim. Not only does it deal higher piercing damage compared to every other bow, but it’s also the only bow that causes standard elemental damage: poison damage, to be more precise. Use it with the needle arrows and you’ll get maximum pierce damage, higher knockback damage, and the poison bonus.
The Draugr Fang is far from the easiest weapon to craft, mostly because of the ‘guck’ and silver. If you’re wondering what guck is; look for the green stuff found on trees in the Swamp biome. You’ll find the silver in the Mountain biome.
- 10 ancient bark
- 20 silver
- 2 deer hide
- 10 guck
Valheim Frostner
The Frostner axe’s blunt damage is decent, but not extremely high. As the name suggests though, the Frostner axe can also deal frost damage and spirit damage to enemies, and its knockback power is one of the highest in the game. Take all of this together, and you got yourself an amazing battle axe.
Unfortunately, it’s a difficult weapon to create. You can only buy Ymir flesh from a trader called Haldor, who is located somewhere in the Black Forest. The Freeze Gland and silver are only found in the Mountain biome.
To sum up, you need:
- 10 ancient bark
- 30 silver
- 5 Ymir flesh
- 5 freeze gland
Valheim Blackmetal Axe
If you’re looking for the best slash and chop damage weapon, go for the Blackmetal Axe. True, it’s slightly less powerful than the Crystal Battleaxe (if we count the latter’s spirit damage), but it’s a one-handed weapon. In other words, you get to swing a very powerful axe while still being protected by a shield.
The only downside is that you need access to the Plains Biome for most of the resources. While Fine Wood is found in the Meadows, Black Metal and Linen (made from Flax) is only found in the Plains Biome. You’ll find these items by conquering Fuling villages.
- 4 fine wood
- 10 black metal
- 5 linen thread
Valheim Porcupine
Have you ever heard of a Morning Star? That’s basically what the Porcupine weapon is; a heavy club with deadly spikes at the end. Not only is it quite fast for a heavy weapon, it can also deal blunt damage and piercing damage at the same time. This makes it suitable against almost any opponent.
To make the Porcupine, you need needles and linen thread. Both become available after discovering the Plains biome. See the giant Deathsquito’s? Kill them until you have enough needles. The Linen can be made from Flax by using a spinning wheel. These are all the Porcupine materials:
- 5 fine wood
- 20 iron
- 5 needles
- 10 linen thread
That concludes our list of the very best weapons you can get in Valheim, enjoy your crafting!