Valheim – How to Level Up Skills/A Guide to All Skills

This guide will look at all of the skills available in the current version of Valheim. There will be general information on how to level up each skill, along with some tips to help you level up the skills. As Valheim is in early access the game is subject to change and these changes may affect the information that is found in this guide. Every effort will be made to keep this guide up to date with the latest tricks and tactics to levelling up skill in Valheim.


Contents

You can click on any of the links below to jump straight to that section on the page


How to Open the Skills Menu

List of All Skills and How to Level Them
Unarmed
Clubs
Axes
Spears
Swords
Bows
Knives
Polearms
Blocking
Run
Swim
Jump
Sneak
Woodcutting
Pickaxes

The Well-Rested Bonus

Skill Loss on Death

Cheats for Raising Skill Levels


How to Open the Skills Menu

In Valheim if you want to see what level you are in each particular skill you can open up the skill menu by pressing Tab and clicking on the button associated with the skills menu. This is the symbol that looks like a bunch of triangles together and can be seen in the image below. If you put the mouse over this symbol the word ‘Skills” will be shown.

Displaying the button used to open up the skill menu on the Valheim in-game UI

Once you select this menu a new overlay will appear on your screen. This is the skills menu. It will show what skills you are currently training and what level you are at. Skill levels go from 0 to 100 in Valheim, with 0 being the lowest skill level and 100 being the maximum level at a certain skill. Your skill level can also be decimal places between each level.

The skill menu from Valheim

There are skills associated with combat and different weapon types and also skills associated with different general movements and mechanics within the game. To see the effects of levelling each type of skill you can hover the mouse over each skill and a pop-up will have a brief description of what each skill means. These skills will be explained in more depth throughout this article.


Every Skill in Valheim and How to Level Them

As aforementioned there are a variety of different skills ranging from not only combat, but also general movement and industrial skills. Levelling up these skills will make you faster, attack stronger and mine/cut wood quicker. Each skill will have their own subheading below and some tips on how you can level these skills.

improved jump message in Valheim

Combat skills are gained through hitting things with the correct weapon type for the skill. For every combat ability you will gain EXP per hit. The damage you do with weapons does not affect the amount of experience you will gain for their particular skill.

The amount of experience needed to gain skill levels increases as the skill level gets higher. For example if will take barely any grinding to get from skill level 0 to 10, but it will take probably around double the amount of grinding to get from skill level 25 to 26. The higher the value is the harder it is going to be. This is reminiscent of many other skill grinding games and is a similar experience structure to Runescape.


Unarmed Skill

The unarmed skill is the skill that governs how much damage you will do whilst you have no weapon equipped. The higher that you can raise your unarmed skill, the more damage you will be able to do with your fists. This is a relatively simple one.

How to Level up/Raise your Unarmed Skill

To level this skill up you will just have to hit things whilst you have no weapon equipped. You can strike objects like rocks and trees and even if no damage is done to the object you will still gain experience for unarmed.

You will gain more experience in unarmed by striking NPC’s or other players. Even without PVP enabled you can still gain unarmed skill by striking another player. This can be exploited by constantly attacking a player to farm experience.


Clubs Skill

The clubs skill governs how much damage the player will be able to do with blunt weapons. Although the word club is thought to only include actual clubs, other blunt weapons like the Frostner also level from the club skill.

How to Level Up/Raise Your Club Skill

To raise the club skill level you just have to hit things with the club. You will gain a set amount of experience depending on the type of enemy that has been struck with the club. Hitting objects like trees and rocks will give experience but other enemy types and players will give more experience, as with all of the combat skills.

swinging the Frostner hammer in Valheim
Raising your club skill will allow you to do more damage with hammers and clubs

You are just going to be hitting enemies and other player with either a club, mace or hammer type of weapon for this one.


Axe Skill

The axe skill relates to the combat ability with axe weapons. The axe skill only affects how much damage you will be able to do with an axe as a combat weapon and the knockback value. This skill does not affect your wood-cutting ability as there is a separate skill level for that. This level affects axes at all quality levels from the stone axe to the metal axes that can be made at later levels.

How to Raise/Level Up Your Axe Skill Level

The axe skill will be raised the same way as other combat skill levels in the game. Simply attack other players or enemies to raise your skill level in axes. You will not gain axe skill levels by hitting trees. Although if the player swings and axe and hits both a tree and an enemy in the same strike they will gain experience for both the wood-cutting level and the axe skill level.


Spears Skill

The spear skill level will govern how much damage you do with spear type weapons. There are spears at almost every stage of the game from wooden spears to advanced types later on in the game. Spears are a great relatively long-ranged melee weapon and can also be thrown as a ranged attack.

How to Raise/Level Up Your Spear Skill Level

You can raise this skill by attacking enemies and players with the spear weapon. You will gain experience in spear by using the melee attack against something and also with the ranged spear throw attack. The experience gained will be the game whether you are hitting with a ranged or melee attack.


Swords Skill

The swords skill governs the amount of damage you deal with sword type weapons. This skill deals in slashing physical damage and is great against enemies weak to that. Slashing damage is used in the swords and axe weapon types. Some polearms will also to slashing damage.

How to Raise/Level Up Your Swords Skill

To level up the swords skill you will have to strike things with the sword. Striking trees and rocks will give reduced experience so your best bet is to use sword attacks on enemies and players to raise this skill. Apart from just using the sword for combat there is not good method for raising the skill. As with the other combat skills striking another player will give you experience so if you’re looking to farm your sword skill, fight with another player.


Bows Skill

The skill associated with using bows in-game is the bows skill. Levelling this skill will make the bow draw faster. Each level gained in the bows skill will allow the player to draw the bow 1% faster. At Maximum level the player will be able to draw the bow 100% faster from the base level.

How to Level Up/Raise the Bow Skill

Players will gain experience for the bows skill level by hitting things with arrows. The power of the shot and the damage dealt will not affect how much experience will be gained. Players will earn a set amount of experience based on whether they hit an enemy or an environmental object such as a stone or tree.

Hitting an object like a stone or tree will give half of the amount of experience as hitting an enemy or player. Distance travelled will not affect the experience gained.


Knives Skill

The knives skill affects how much damage the player will do with the knives weapon type. The great thing about the knives is the great bonus damage you can do with a backstab when using these weapons. By training this skill you can do fantastic backstab damage with knives.

How to Level Up/Raise the Knives Skill

If you want to gain experience and levels in the knives skill you will have to strike enemies with a weapon associated with the knives skill. All knives and the Abyssal Razor will give you experience point in the knives skill. You will gain experience per hit with a knife and more experience if the target is an enemy or player rather than a stationary object.

Getting a backstab bonus or critical hit will not give you more experience than a regular attack.


Polearms Skill

Raising the polearms skill will allow the player to do more damage with polearm weapons. The polearm skill relates to damage dealt while using a weapon like the Atgier. The player will not do polearm damage with the spear even though spears are technically polearms.

How to Raise/Level Up the Polearms Skill

To gain experience and raise your polearm skill level you will have to strike enemies with a polearm weapon. Using an Atgier will allow you to gain experience in this skill. You will get experience per strike where you make contact with an enemy. The Polearm skill follows the same experience structure as the other combat skills where hitting an enemy or player will increase the experience gain as opposed to hitting a tree or rock.


Block Skill

The block skill is associated with blocking ability. Players can block not only by using a shield but also with many different weapon types and tools. Raising the block skill will allow the player to block even more damage with each different weapon or item. The block skill does not affect the base armor level. Raising the block skill will not make it easier to parry.

How to Raise/Level Up The Block Skill

The player will gain block experience each time they successfully fully block an attack. The amount of damage blocked does not contribute to the amount of block experience gained. There is a set amount of experience gain every time the player blocks an attack. If the player doesn’t have enough stamina to block an attack and takes damage they will not gain block experience.

Weapon skills do not contribute to blocking ability. Blocking ability with a sword or any weapon only counts on the block skill. Your blocking ability will be raised up to %50 of the base level once you hit block level 100. Meaning if your shield can block 80 hit points at base level, with the block skill maxed out you will be able to block 120 hit points, if you have the stamina that is.


Run Skill

The run skill is associated with both regular passive jogging and sprinting as well. Raising your running level will affect both the stamina usage when sprinting and also the speed at which you can run in Valheim. By pressing the Left Shift key you can activate the sprint.

How to Level Up/Raise Running Skill

To gain experience in the running skill you will simply have to sprint around Valheim for a while. The surface you run on and the speed does not matter. You simply gain experience by running around.

Once you have defeated the first boss, Eikthyr, you will gain a forsaken power. You can activate this power to reduce the amount of stamina used when sprinting and jumping. An invaluable power for levelling up these two skills.

Eikthyr's power makes levelling up running and jumping skills easier and faster.

Swim Skill

The Swim skill affect how much stamina your character will use when swimming in Valheim. If you plan on doing a lot of swimming or boat travelling, this skill will keep you from downing as quick. If your stamina runs out while you are swimming you will drown and slowly lose health until you have died or made it back to land.

How to Level Up/Raise Swimming Skill

To raise this skill your only option is to swim around for a while. Just simply swimming will give you experience. There is not gain or reduction depending on how deep the water is or how far out of the water you go. Drink stamina gaining mead and high stamina foods before attempting long swim sessions.


Jump Skill

The jump skill level governs how high the player can jump. By using the Spacebar key the player can perform a jump. The skill does not reduce the amount of stamina that is used when performing a jump.

How to Level/Raise the Jump Skill

To raise your jump skill level simply jump around. The height at which you jump and the distance jumped do not have any effect on the amount of experience gained from a jump. There is simply a set amount of experience gained on each successful jump. If the player does not have enough stamina to jump there will still be a small jump animation present. You will not gain any jump experience when this happens.

By using the Eikthyr forsaken skill the player can reduce their stamina usage when jumping and thus have more energy and stamina to jump around.

Levelling the jumping skill in Valheim
Jump height and distance do not affect the jump experience gained.

Sneak Skill

The sneak skill governs how sneaky your player can be and how likely they are to be spotted when sneaking around near an enemy. Raising the sneak level will also reduce the stamina usage required when sneaking. TO enter sneak mode press the left ctrl key by default.

How to Level/Raise the Sneak Skill

To gain experience in the sneak level you don’t even have to be near enemies. As long as the player is in sneak mode they will gain a small amount of experience. The player will gain way more sneak experience if they are within a detectable range of an enemy, however. There is no extra gain depending on how close you are to an enemy or which type of enemy you are sneaking near.

Whilst attempting to tame a boar I noticed something interesting. Even though I was right next to the boar and behind a fence I could still gain sneak skill. A great method of raising your sneak level is to trap an animal such as a boar in an area with walls. Even though they would have no chance of seeing you, you can still gain experience in sneaking by walking around their cage. Very sneaky.


Woodcutting Skill

The woodcutting skill determines how much damage you can do to trees and logs with an axe. By raising this skill level you will be able to cut down trees and gather wood easier. This differs from the axe skill as woodcutting only deals in axe damage towards trees. You will not gain axe experience when hitting a tree unless you hit an object or enemy in the same swing.

Raising the woodcutting skill in valheim

How to Raise/Level Up Woodcutting

To level up your woodcutting skill you will just have to strike trees with an axe. You will gain a set amount of experience every time you hit a tree. This experience does not change depending on the quality of the axe. You will gain woodcutting experience per swing, even if you hit 2 trees with one hit.

The forsaken skill of The Elder will make you cut down trees faster. This will work against you if you are trying to level your woodworking skill as it will take less strikes to fell a tree and you will only gain experience per swing and hit.


Pickaxes Skill

Pickaxes is the skill associated with all types of pickaxe usage. This is both a combat skill and an environmental skill. Raising this skill will allow the player to mine quicker when using the pickaxe, and do more damage using a pickaxe in combat.

How to Raise/Level Up the Pickaxe Skill

There are a couple of different ways one can raise the pickaxe level. As aforementioned the pickaxe skill governs both the usage of pickaxes inside and outside of combat situations. You can raise the pickaxe skill by striking rocks or ores, and also by hitting an enemy or player with the pickaxe. Striking the ground and leveling the terrain with the pickaxe will not grant you any experience towards this skill.

The quality of the pickaxe does not effect the amount of experience gained per strike. There is a set level of experience gained from striking rocks and a set amount from attacks.

Levelling the pickaxe skill in Valheim
Striking rocks with the pickaxe will raise your pickaxe skill level

The Well-Rested Bonus

If a players rests at a shelter or by a lit fire for long enough they will earn a well-rested bonus for a set amount of time. This is a buff that will increase the amount of experience gain for all skills when active. Being well-rested will increase experience gained by 50% for as long as the buff is active. This is invaluable for players wanting to raise their skill levels and it affects all skills.

The comfort level of the rest does not affect the amount of skill gain. The comfort level only increases the amount of time that the well-rested buff is active for. To gain the well-rested buff simply relax indoors.


Skill Loss Upon Death

If the player is defeated by any means in Valheim they will lost some skill progress for all skills. Upon death the player will love 5% of every skill level that they have currently reached. This means that if you have a jump skill of 100, it will be reduced to 95 upon death. This value will drop in decimal places as well and does not deal in only full numbers but works as a percentage of the current level.

For 10 minutes after the character dies they will have an active buff which prevents them from any skill loss upon death. This is called corpse-run. If the player died a second time within 10 minutes of their first death there will be absolutely no further skill loss.

This is a good method of penalizing players that aren’t being careful without being too unfair to characters left with absolutely nothing.


Raising Skill Levels Through Cheats

There are cheat commands that can be used in Valheim to raise skills for a player. While you cannot set a certain level of skill, you can only raise a skill level by a specified amount. There is not way to lower your skill level by a certain amount. Although there is a way to reset skill levels through commands.

To raise a skill level through cheating the player will have to be an admin of the server they are currently playing on. To enable cheats in Valheim, open up the console with the F5 key. Once the console is open, enable cheats by typing in “imacheater” without the quotation marks and press the Enter key. You will then be notified that cheats are enabled by a ‘True’ message.

To raise a specific skill type in the command raiseskill followed by the skill you’d like to raise and then the amount you’d like to raise it by.

For example if I wanted to raise my jump skill by 10 levels I’d type into the console the following command:

raiseskill jump 10

cheating to raise skills in valheim

If my jump skill was at 15.5 it would now be raised to 25.5. You will see a printed message in the console if you have done this correctly. See the image above.


That is all we currently know about raising levels in Valheim. Which skill level are you currently farming? Do you have any more tips or tricks to raising skills in Valheim? Let us know in the comments below!


Related: How to Backstab in Valheim | 20 Must-Know Tips and Tricks for Valheim

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