Valheim does not have a best weapon — it has a resistance table with seven damage types and six multipliers, and the weapon that wins is the one whose type the target does not resist. This page is that table read backwards: enemy first, weapon second.
Every entry below comes from that creature’s own wiki infobox rather than a summary chart, because the summary charts hide empty cells that shift columns and quietly put a number in the wrong place.
The multiplier scale
| Tier | Damage taken | In practice |
|---|---|---|
| Very weak | 2.0x | Stone Golem against pickaxe, Greydwarf against fire |
| Weak | 1.5x | Skeletons against blunt |
| Neutral | 1.0x | Most matchups |
| Resistant | 0.5x | Lox against slash |
| Very resistant | 0.25x | Yagluth against pierce |
| Immune | 0x | Drakes against frost |
Each damage type is multiplied separately, then summed. A 50 blunt / 45 pierce Porcupine against a target that resists pierce by 0.25x and takes blunt neutrally scores 50 + 11.25 = 61.25, not 95. This is the whole mechanic, and it explains nearly every “why is this weapon bad here” moment in the game.
The Black Forest: the first wall
| Enemy | Weak (1.5x) | Resists | Bring |
|---|---|---|---|
| Skeleton | Blunt, fire | Pierce 0.5x, frost 0.5x, poison immune | Bronze mace |
| Rancid remains | Blunt, fire | Pierce 0.5x, frost 0.5x, poison immune | Bronze mace |
| Troll | Pierce | Blunt 0.5x, spirit immune | Atgeir or spear |
| Ghost | Spirit | Blunt, slash and pierce all 0.5x, poison immune | Anything but a spear |
| Greydwarf | Fire (2x) | Poison 0.5x, spirit immune | Axe, or fire arrows |
Skeletons are the reason every Black Forest loadout needs a mace: 52.5 for a bronze mace, 40 for an axe, 22.5 for an atgeir and 17.5 for a spear. Trolls are the mirror image — they take 1.5x pierce and only 0.5x blunt, so the mace you just built is the wrong tool for the forest’s biggest enemy.
The Swamp: two opposite jobs
| Enemy | Weak (1.5x) | Resists | Bring |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blob / Oozer | Blunt, frost, lightning | Slash 0.5x, pierce 0.5x, fire 0.5x, poison immune | Iron mace |
| Abomination | Fire | Blunt 0.5x, pierce 0.25x, frost/poison/spirit immune | Axe or sword plus fire |
| Draugr | — | Fire 0.5x, poison immune | Slash |
| Wraith | Fire, spirit | Blunt, slash and pierce all 0.5x, frost and poison immune | Silver sword, or a torch |
| Bonemass | Blunt, frost | Slash 0.5x, fire and pierce 0.25x, poison immune | Iron mace |
The swamp is where a single loadout stops working. Blobs want the mace; Abominations punish the mace harder than almost anything else in the game. Against an Abomination, Frostner — the best blunt weapon of its tier — lands 17.5 while a black metal axe lands 100.
Wraiths are worth a note: they are weak to both fire and spirit at 1.5x while resisting all three physical types, which makes them one of the few enemies a torch meaningfully hurts.
The Mountains: frost is mostly useless
| Enemy | Weak (1.5x) | Resists | Bring |
|---|---|---|---|
| Drake | Fire | Frost, spirit immune | Bow with fire arrows |
| Fenring | Fire | Poison 0.5x, fire 0.25x | Slash |
| Ulv | Poison | Fire 0.25x | Slash |
| Stone Golem | Pickaxe (2x) | Slash 0.5x, pierce 0.5x, fire/frost/poison/spirit immune | Pickaxe |
| Moder | Fire | Frost and spirit immune, everything else neutral | Fire arrows, then melee |
This is the biome that breaks Frostner’s reputation. Drakes and Stone Golems are frost immune, Moder is too, and Wraiths elsewhere in the game resist it. A silver sword lands 105 on a Drake where Frostner lands 55.
The Stone Golem’s infobox lists exactly one very-weak entry: pickaxe at 2x. It resists slash and pierce, and is immune to fire, frost, poison and spirit. Blunt is neutral, so a mace functions, but the pickaxe is the only weapon the golem is actually weak to.
The Plains: Lox and Yagluth want opposite things
| Enemy | Weak (1.5x) | Resists | Bring |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lox | Fire | Blunt 0.5x, slash 0.5x, frost 0.5x | Atgeir or spear |
| Growth | Blunt, fire | Slash and pierce 0.5x, frost 0.5x, poison immune | Mace or fire |
| Fuling | Nothing | Nothing, spirit immune only | Any — pure damage race |
| Yagluth | Nothing | Pierce 0.25x, fire 0.5x, poison immune | Sword |
| Deathsquito | Nothing | Nothing, spirit immune only | Any fast weapon |
Two enemies, one biome, opposite answers. The Lox you farm hide from resists slash and blunt at 0.5x but takes full pierce, so a black metal atgeir lands 105 where an axe lands 50. Yagluth is very resistant to pierce at 0.25x and also halves fire, so the same atgeir lands 26 where a black metal sword lands 95. Carrying both is not redundancy here — it is the biome’s actual requirement.
The Mistlands: physical damage is halved
| Enemy | Weak (1.5x) | Resists | Bring |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seeker | — | Blunt, slash, pierce all 0.5x, spirit immune | Himminafl or Mistwalker |
| Seeker Soldier | Frost on the abdomen | Blunt/slash/pierce 0.5x on the body | Hit the abdomen, or use element damage |
| Seeker Brood | — | Blunt/slash/pierce 0.5x | Any non-physical source |
| Tick | Pierce | — | Any |
| Gjall | — | Fire 0.5x, spirit immune | Pierce the egg sacs |
| The Queen | — | Pierce 0.5x, spirit immune | Slash or blunt |
| Morgen | Lightning | Blunt/slash/pierce 0.5x, fire 0.5x | Himminafl or Dundr |
Every physical type is halved here, which is the largest damage wall in the game and the reason the Mistlands pushes players into element damage. Himminafl’s 40 lightning is untouched by that resistance, so it lands 82.5 against a Seeker where a Krom — whose slash half lists 65 higher — lands 75. Against a Morgen, which takes 1.5x lightning, Himminafl reaches 102.5.
The Ashlands: spears and bows fall off
| Enemy | Weak (1.5x) | Resists | Bring |
|---|---|---|---|
| Charred Warrior | Spirit | Pierce 0.5x, fire 0.25x, poison immune | Slayer, Dyrnwyn, Flametal mace |
| Charred Marksman | Spirit | Same as above | Same |
| Fallen Valkyrie | Spirit | Fire 0.5x, poison immune | Slash |
| Lava Blob | Blunt, frost, lightning | Pierce and poison 0.5x, fire immune | Flametal mace |
| Bonemaw | Frost | Poison 0.5x, fire and spirit immune | Frostner or Staff of Frost |
| Morgen | Lightning | Physical 0.5x, fire 0.5x | Himminafl |
| Fader | — | Pierce 0.5x, fire and spirit immune | Slayer or Flametal mace |
A Splitnir’s 135 pierce lands 67.5 on a Charred Warrior; a Slayer’s 170 slash lands the full 170. An Ash Fang bow lands 41 — worse than a Plains-tier sword. This is the one biome where a plain Flametal mace at 135 beats a spear with a higher listed number.
Four habits that cost the most
- Carrying one weapon. The Plains alone needs two opposite picks, and the swamp needs three. A weapon rack is not vanity — it is the resistance table made physical.
- Trusting the tooltip. Frostner lists 95 total and lands 17.5 against an Abomination. Read the target before the number.
- Upgrading the wrong entry. Frostner gains +6 frost per level and nothing to blunt or spirit; Porcupine gains +6 pierce and nothing to blunt. Upgrade the type you actually use it for.
- Ignoring the odd weakness. Stone Golems take 2x from a pickaxe and Greydwarves take 2x from fire. The single very-weak entry on an infobox is usually the cheapest answer in the game.
Related guides
- Best weapons tier list — what to craft at each stage
- Valheim weapon stats compared — every weapon’s listed numbers
- Combat guide — parry windows and stagger
- Boss strategies — the fights themselves
- Creatures strategy — behaviour and spawns
- Valheim hub — everything else