The best weapons and armor in Valheim

In the hardcore Viking survival game of Valheim, you’ll probably want to equip yourself with the best weapons and armor you can craft. As you progress, you’ll open up more powerful recipes and crafting options, so you’ll be wearing many hats throughout your journey. While the game is still in development, this list will most likely change as new content comes our way. For now, here are the best weapons and armor options in Valheim for the end game.

You’ll be able to craft all the items on this list after defeating Moder and making it to the Plains biome and acquiring and smelting a piece of Black Metal.

What’s the best armor in Valheim?

The best armor in Valheim right now is the Padded armor set, which includes the Padded Greaves, Padded Cuirass, and Padded Helmet. Here’s what you’ll need to craft each piece:

• Helmet: Padded Helmet
• Chest: Padded Cuirass
• Boots: Padded Greaves
• Cape: Lox Cape

Each base piece of Padded armor provides 26 armor, 1000 durability, and a 5% movement speed reduction. Upgrading each piece boosts the armor stat by 2, up to a maximum of 32 armor. Each subsequent upgrade costs more Iron.

While venturing out into the Mountain biome, you may want to rock the Wolf armor for natural frost resistance. The base armor stats on these pieces are 20 armor, making them one tier below the Padded armor set.

Padded Helmet: best helmet in Valheim

• Padded Helmet recipe: 10 Iron, 15 Linen thread, Forge

Padded helmet may not look as cool as the Drake helmet, but it’s got the most armor, as far as helmets go. It also fully covers your head, which seems a lot more effective than just wearing a cap. You can make this once you start spinning up some Linen thread.

Padded Cuirass: best chest in Valheim

• Padded Cuirass recipe: 10 Iron, 20 Linen thread, Level 2 Forge

To mitigate the most damage, you’ll also want to equip yourself with a Padded Cuirass. The chest piece boasts 26 base armor, up to 32 armor fully upgraded.

Padded Greaves: best boots in Valheim

• Padded Greaves recipe: 10 Iron, 20 Linen thread, Level 2 Forge

To finish off the set, grab yourself a pair of Padded Greaves. The Padded set will cost you 55 Linen and 30 Iron all-in, which isn’t too bad if you find yourself in the Plains biome picking Flax.

Lox Cape: best cape in Valheim

• Lox Cape recipe: 6 Lox hide, 2 Silver, Level 2 Workbench

In terms of capes, the Lox Cape is probably your best bet. Only this cape and the Wolf Fur Cape provide a passive bonus (both have Frost Resistance), but the Lox Cape has 200 more durability. If you want to look fancy, you may opt for one over the other, or opt to craft a Linen cape, which you can style in any color.

What are the best weapons in Valheim?

Here are the best weapons for every category:

• Polearm: Blackmetal Atgeir
• Knife: Blackmetal Knife
• Sword: Blackmetal Sword
• Axe: Black Metal Axe
• Club: Frostner
• Bow: Draugr Fang 
• Mace: Porcupine 
• Arrow: Needle Arrow
• Spear: Fang spear
• Sledgehammer: Iron Sledge

There are many weapons to consider in Valheim, and the best one will depend on your loadout. Enemies in Valheim all have different weaknesses and resistances, so it’s nice to carry a wide array of weapons. Maces deal blunt damage, have extra stagger, and are extra effective against skeletons. Axes tear down greydwarves, and double as your tool for chopping down trees. Knives provide huge backstab bonuses and are effective for sneaking around and taking down trolls.

Undead mobs like skeletons are weak to silver items that have the spirit bonus on them. You may opt to use the Silver Sword to slay skeletons more easily, for instance. It’s similar to poison in that it applies a damage-over-time burning effect to the mob. Look for the yellow damage numbers when you attack an enemy, as that will mean they are weak to your weapon.

Blackmetal Atgeir: best polearm in Valheim

• Recipe for Blackmetal Atgeir: 10 Fine wood, 30 Black metal, 5 Linen thread

If you’re flush with Black metal and like to rock a polearm as your primary, the Blackmetal atgeir is your best bet. It boasts an impressive 105 pierce damage and 30 knockback to keep enemy mobs at bay.

Blackmetal Knife: best knife in Valheim

• Recipe for Blackmetal Knife: 4 Fine wood, 10 Black metal, 5 Linen thread

Assassin players will want to opt for the Blackmetal knife for the highest base damage and overall stats in the game. Before going for this one, you’ll probably want to pick up the Abyssal Razor by farming some Chitin in the Ocean biome.

Blackmetal Sword: best sword in Valheim

• Recipe for Blackmetal Sword: 2 Fine Wood, 20 Black metal, 5 Linen thread

If slicing through mobs is more your style, consider the Blackmetal sword to do your bidding. You can craft this thing of death and beauty once you reach the Plains biome. If you’re fighting skeletons or other undead, though, you’ll probably opt for the Silver Sword to take advantage of the Spirit damage modifier.

Blackmetal Axe: best axe in Valheim

• Recipe for Blackmetal axe: 6 Fine wood, 20 Black metal, 5 Linen thread

The top-tier axe in the game is none other than the Blackmetal Axe, which you’ll unlock after crafting some linen and procuring Black metal from the Plains biome.

Frostner: best club in Valheim

• Recipe for Frostner: 10 Ancient bark, 30 Silver, 5 Ymir Flesh, 5 Frozen Gland

Like the Iron Sledge, you’ll need to save up some coins and purchase a few Ymir Flesh from a merchant. The Frostner is unique in that it deals Blunt, Frost, and Spirit damage, making it effective against a variety of enemies.

Draugr Fang: best bow in Valheim

• Recipe for Draugr Fang: 10 Ancient Bark, 20 Silver, 2 Deer Hide, 10 Guck

The best bow is also the coolest looking one and unlocked in the Mountain biome. After you take down Bonemass and use your Wishbone to find some silver, this bow is all yours.

Porcupine: best mace in Valheim

• Recipe for Porcupine: 5 Fine wood, 20 Iron, 5 Needle, 10 Linen thread

To get the coolest looking weapon in the game, you’re going to have to farm hands down the most annoying mob ever: Deathsquitos. You’ll need 5 Needles, along with a bunch of Iron and Linen, but it’s well worth it.

Needle Arrow: best arrows in Valheim

• Best arrows recipe: 4 Needles, 2 Feathers

It’s tough to say there’s a best arrow, but the highest base damage arrow is by far the Needle. Projectiles are one of those highly situational items in Valheim. Certain bosses are weak to different elements, so you’ll want to carry different ammo depending on your battle. Moder is weak to poison, and Bonemass is weak to forst, so Poison Arrows or Frost Arrows also work well.

Fang spear: best spear in Valheim

• Recipe for Fang Spear: 10 Ancient Bark, 4 Wolf Fang, 2 Leather Scraps, 2 Silver

The Fang spear is an excellent option for those melee players who like to keep a little distance for safe measure. It’s not too costly, and you’ll likely already have all the materials on hand by the time you unlock it.

Iron Sledge: best sledgehammer in Valheim

• Recipe for Iron Sledge: 10 Ancient Bark, 30 Iron, 4 Ymir Flesh, 1 Draugr Elite Trophy

Aside from the Stagbreaker, the Iron Sledge is the only other sledgehammer in the game. It requires Ymir Flesh, though, which can only be bought from the merchant with coins. It’s one of the most fun weapons to use in the game so far.

What’s the best shield in Valheim?

The highest tier shields in Valheim are the Black Metal Shield and Black Metal Tower Shield. A worth runner-up and perhaps the coolest looking shield is the Serpent Scale Shield, which you can make by gathering materials from Sea Serpents.

• Black Metal Shield: 10 Fine Wood, 8 Black Metal, 5 Chain, Level 3 Forge
• Black Metal Tower Shield: 15 Fine Wood, 10 Black Metal, 7 Chain, Level 3 Forge
• Serpent Scale Shield: 10 Fine Wood, 4 Iron, 8 Serpent Scale Shield

The Black Metal Shield boasts a healthy 90 block and 50 parry with a 5% move speed reduction, while the Tower Shield has 105 block and a 20% move speed reduction.

Black Metal Shield

• Recipe for Black metal shield: 10 Fine Wood, 8 Black Metal, 5 Chain, Level 3 Forge

The Black metal shield is the optimal choice for a shield. It has 90 block, 50 parry, a decent durability, and only a 5% movement reduction. You’ll be using this thing a lot in the more challenging biomes and boss battles. You can craft it after defeating Moder, crafting a blast furnace, and making your way into the Plains for Black metal.

Black Metal Tower Shield

• Recipe for Black metal tower shield: 15 Fine Wood, 10 Black Metal, 7 Chain, Lvl. 3 Forge

The tower shield sacrifices movement speed for a bit more block power. If that’s your style, the Black Metal Tower shield is your best bet, hands down. Similar to the Black metal shield, you’ll obtain this recipe once you smelt your first Black metal bar.

Serpent Scale Shield

• Recipe for Serpent scale shield: 10 Fine wood, 4 Iron, 8 Serpent Scales

The Serpent scale shield is an easy shield to obtain early on and lasts you through the entire game. It also looks awesome, so that’s a plus. You’ll need to hunt down some Sea Serpents with an Abyssal Harpoon after farming enough Chitin. You’ll really only need to kill one or two, since each one drops a lot of Serpent Scales.