The Best Way to Defeat Trolls – Valheim

Valheim is a hard game full of intense battles and an even more intense soundtrack. One of the enemies plaguing early game players is known as a troll. These are a large step up compared to the other enemies found in the Black Forest and can surprise players with their strong attacks and large health pool.

Today we are going to go into exactly how you can defeat trolls including the troll’s attack set, weaknesses and methods to getting lots of troll hide. Without further ado, let’s get into it.


Contents

You can click any of the heading below to jump straight to that section of this page.

What Are Trolls?

Troll Attack Set

Wooden Log Troll
Unarmed Troll

Method of Defeating Trolls

Troll Loot


What are Trolls in Valheim?

Troll in Valheim
The large troll creature of the Black Forest

The troll is one of the enemies that the character will face in Valheim. They are very large ugly creatures that are found roaming around randomly in the black forest. Along with being a random spawn of the black forest there is also a dungeon/location called a troll cave where a troll will constantly respawn in after a given set of in-game days. There are two types of troll that can spawn as seen in the image below. Trolls that have no weapons and trolls that are armed with a large wooden log which can be used as a weapon.

showing a troll with a log wood and one without in Valheim
The two different types of trolls in Valheim

Trolls cannot pick up a wooden log in order to use it to attack. They will simply spawn with or without one in the game. Depending on whether or not they have a wooden log, they will have a different set of attacks. There are 1 star and 2 star variants of the troll also available in the game. The 1 star trolls will be slightly greenish in color and the 2 star trolls red.


Valheim Troll Attack Set

There are two different sets of attacks for the trolls, 1 for the unarmed troll and one for the one with a wooden log.

Wooden Log Troll

This troll uses the large wooden log in the right hand to swing at the player with a strong sweeping attack. The log gives the troll a larger swing with a pretty great distance to swing. The troll has two different melee attacks. One attack will see the troll swing the wood diagonally at the player. If the player is slightly downhill from the troll, the attack will generally miss.

the troll being defeated in Valheim
The log slam attack

The other attack that the wooden log troll has is a ground slam. The troll will slam their wooden log into the ground and damage a small radius around the area. While this attack can be parried, it cannot be blocked. This attack will always hurt the player and the best plan of attack is simply to dodge-roll or get some distance from the troll.

Melee Troll (no wooden log)

The other type of troll that can spawn is one without any wooden log. Don’t be fooled by the troll’s lack of a weapon, he still packs a punch! This troll not only has 2 different melee attacks, they also have a ranged attack that can hit the player from a distance.

The troll’s melee attacks are very similar to the log troll. They will swipe at the player using their right hand and also perform a ground slam attack which again, cannot be blocked. The best thing you can do is just get some distance from the troll.

Running from a troll in valheim
The bow is your best chance of defeating trolls

The troll can also throw large stones at the player from a distance. Although they are generally fairly inaccurate they may get a lucky hit on the player if they aren’t careful and do a lot of damage. Be warned, if you are running away from these trolls they may start throwing boulders at you if your back is turned!


Best Way to Defeat Trolls in Valheim

In short, the best thing you can do in order to defeat both types of trolls in Valheim is to run away and occasionally shoot arrows at them.

If the troll does get close, dodge the attacks using the dodge-roll. If you do manage to get hit early on, 1 hit can mean the end of your character.

All trolls are weak to piercing type attacks and all of the arrows in the game cause piercing damage. If you are intent on using melee attacks to defeat the troll, your best weapon in the early game will be a spear thanks to it’s focus on piercing type physical damage.

If the character is sneaky enough, equipping a dagger and sneaking up for a backstab attack can do a great amount of damage early on to the troll. (Although this has it’s obivious risks!)

rolling away from a troll in valheim. The best way to farm troll hide
Dodge-rolling a troll’s attack

To defeat a troll, first find one in the black forest. Then, lure them out towards a meadows biome so that you won’t get ganged up on by Greydwarfs or accidentally come across some skeletons. Trolls and Greydwarfs are friendly towards each other so they will not help you out in the fight.

Lure the troll out into the meadows and shoot them with arrows until they are defeated. It should take the player around 20 wooden arrows with a crude bow in order to defeat the troll.

If the troll hasn’t yet seen the player and is hit with an arrow, the player will also do backstab damage to the troll as well causing it to take damage relative to the weapon’s backstab damage multiplier.


Loot From Trolls

Once the player has successfully defeated the troll they will gain some pretty sweet loot. Trolls have some items that are guaranteed to drop upon being defeated and an item that has a 50% chance.

coins, troll hide and a troll trophy dropped from a defeated troll in valheim
All trolls drop great loot in Valheim

Trolls will always drop gold coins and troll hide upon being defeated. Depending on the quality level of the troll (star values), the player can potentially earn more coins and troll hide. The stronger the enemy, the more loot that they will drop. The troll also has a 50% chance to drop a troll trophy. They trophy isn’t used in any crafting recipes at the moment. It can only be used to hang up on the wall on an item stand for decoration.

The troll hide that the enemy drops can be used to create the troll hide armor set, which is great for sneaking and also is just a pretty strong armor type early on in the game. The hide is also used in the construction of the ancient bark spear.

Coins can be collected and used at Haldor the trader NPC. Once the player has explored the black forest biome they may come across this NPC. Interacting with Haldor will allow the player to trade their valuable loot items for gold coins, which can then be used to purchase rare items from this trader.


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