Weapons

**Weapons** are items that can be used to deal damage to creatures and structures.

## Properties

### Wielding (One-handed/Two-handed)

Only **One-handed weapons** can be simultaneously equipped with shields or a torch. All melee **two-handed weapons** have a greater movement speed reduction and cannot be used together with shields or a torch.

### Offensive and defensive properties

#### Damage/Damage type

All damages in *Valheim* have a **damage type**. Some creatures have weaknesses/resistances to certain damage types, which increases/decreases the effectiveness of these damages. For example, skeletons are weak to blunt damage and resist pierce damage.

When creatures are hit by damage with damage types they are weak/resist to, the damage numbers would be shown in yellow/grey color compared to the usual white color.

Similar types of weapons mostly deal same type of damage:

* Blunt damage: One/two-handed Clubs
* Slash damage: One/two-handed Axes, Swords
* Pierce damage: Spears, Polearms, Pickaxes, Bows
* Half slash, half pierce damage: Knives

Exceptions include weapons that deal elemental damage like torch, Frostner and Draugr fang. Some clubs including Stagbreaker and Porcupine also deal pierce damage besides blunt damage. Keep in mind that not all damage types are upgraded when upgrading some weapons.

#### Block armor and block force

All weapons have a value of block armor, indicating the amount of damage absorbed when blocked by the weapon.

Block force shows the amount of knockback applied to enemies when blocked.

#### Parry and Parry bonus

Weapons and shields, except tower shields, can be used to parry attacks, with varying parry bonuses.

Parry bonus is a multiplier to block armor (damage absorbed) when parrying. Damage dealt to the enemy in a period of time after a successful parry that absorbs all the damage is always 2x. Parry bonus is mostly determined by the weapon type:

* Tower shields: Cannot parry
* Tankard, Bows, Round shields: 1.5x
* Buckler shields: 2.5x
* Polearms (atgeirs): 3x
* Knives: 4x
* Flesh Rippers: 6x
* All other weapons: 2x

#### Backstab

Backstab indicates the multiplier applied to enemies when backstabbing. The backstab bonus is applied when attacking unaware enemies, regardless of whether they are facing towards or away from the player. Backstabbing an enemy gives it a backstab immunity for 5 minutes. Backstabbing can occur even if enemy has partial HP. An enemy which has a red exclamation point over its name and HP bar, indicating that it is aware of your location, cannot be backstabbed.

* Abyssal harpoon: 1x
* Two-handed clubs: 2x
* Tankard (Cannot attack): 4x
* Knives and Flesh Rippers: 6x
* All other weapons, including bows and one-handed clubs: 3x

#### Knockback

Knockback shows how far enemies are knocked back when attacked by the weapon.

### Movement speed

Most weapons, when equipped, decrease the character's movement speed and increase dodge roll cost. The movement speed effect is mostly determined by the weapon type:

* Flesh Rippers and Knives: -0% (No movement speed reduction)
* All other one-handed melee weapons, Bows, non-Tower Shields, Pickaxes, Polearms, and Magic: -5%
* Serpent scale shield: -15%
* Two-handed Axes, two-handed Clubs, and Tower Shields other than Serpent scale shield: -20%

## Melee weapons

Melee weapons are items that can be equipped to increase attack damage. Different types of melee weapon can have different ranges, attack speeds, stamina costs per attack and secondary attacks. When equipping one-handed weapons, the character can also equip shields.

Most melee weapons' attack pattern involve a 3-hit combo. Generally, the first hit has the slowest delay (from the initial click), the second hit has less delay, and the third hit is slightly slower while dealing the most damage. Most melee weapons are quicker to recover and block from a miss than after a direct strike. Below are details regarding each type of melee weapon:

## Bows

Bows are weapons that shoot equipped arrows. Unlike melee weapons, attacks consume equipped arrows and can be charged while spending stamina to increase range and damage. Bows cannot be used when there are no arrows left in the inventory.

## Crossbows

Crossbows are weapons that shoot equipped bolts. Like bows, attacks consume bolts. Crossbows are slow to load, but have great damage and long range with no trajectory drop.

## Arrows

Arrows are items that can be shot by bows. Bows cannot be used without arrows.

## Bolts

Bolts are items that can be shot by crossbows. Crossbows cannot be used without bolts.

## Missiles

Missiles are items that can be shot by the Ballista. Ballistae cannot be armed without missiles.

## Shields

**Shields** are weapons that can be used with other one-handed weapons. The block power, parry force and parry bonus of the weapons used with shields would be replaced by that of the shield used. **Round shields** have lower block power than **tower shields**. However, tower shields cannot parry and reduce 20% of the movement speed when equipped (except Serpent scale shield, which reduces 15% of the movement speed only), while round shields can and only reduce 5% of the movement speed when equipped.

## Magic weapons

Magic weapons need Eitr to be used. They should not be confused with weapons that deal elemental damage such as Frostner or Draugr fang without the need of spending Eitr. There are two types of magic weapons, Elemental magic and Blood magic. Blood magic weapons drain up to 40% of the caster's Health (*current* health, *not* maximum health) per cast.

The amount of damage dealt, Eitr used, and (for blood magic only) health drained by each magic weapon depends on the caster's skill level of the respective magic type. See the pages on these respective skills for more details. Values listed in the table below for Eitr usage and health drain are for a player whose respective skill level is 0.

## Bombs

Bombs are weapons that are thrown by the character and consumed when used.