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Valheim Wiki

leveling

Leveling in Valheim is the process of improving your skills through repeated use. Higher skill levels directly strengthen movement, combat, stealth, crafting, and other actions, so steady training makes your character more efficient and much safer to play.

How skill leveling works

Skills increase when you perform the related action and gain experience for that skill. Most skills level continuously through normal play, and experience accumulates even from partial actions such as short bursts of movement.

Skill gain is not affected by world progression or by the number of days passed. For creatures, the chance to spawn with a level is determined separately from player skill leveling.

Movement skills

Run

Run increases while sprinting. You gain experience every second you are running, and fractions of a second accumulate, so you do not need to maintain a full second at a time.

Run skill improves sprint speed and reduces stamina consumption while sprinting.

  • Base walking speed is 13.5 km/h
  • Sprint speed at skill 0 is 24 km/h
  • Sprint speed at skill 100 is 30 km/h

At maximum Run skill, sprinting is faster and much less stamina-hungry.

Jump

Jump increases when you jump, as long as you have enough stamina to perform the jump. It improves jump strength and effectively increases jump height.

Stealth

Stealth increases while staying hidden from creatures. It reduces stealth visibility and stamina use while sneaking.

Combat skills

Weapons and block skills

Different weapons level from using them in combat. In general, skills improve damage output and reduce stamina cost, with some skills also improving handling or defense.

  • Axes level when you hit creatures with axes
  • Blocking levels when you block attacks with a weapon or shield

Blocking skill improves the amount of damage absorbed while blocking. Parrying also grants extra experience.

Bows

Bow skill levels when arrows hit something.

  • Hitting a tree or structure grants 0.75 experience
  • Hitting an enemy grants 1.5 experience, regardless of damage dealt

Bow skill reduces aim time and increases damage. At very high skill, bows draw and aim almost instantly, enabling very rapid fire if you have enough stamina.

A simple way to train bows is to stay rested, build a sheltered shooting spot near a rock or tree, craft a large supply of arrows, and fire continuously. In multiplayer, shooting both enemies and players while using bows grants 50% more experience.

Crossbow-like weapons

The Dundr grants Elemental magic skill experience for each projectile that connects, making it an efficient way to train that skill rapidly.

The damage shown for the Dundr applies to each individual projectile. If all 12 projectiles connect, the total Lightning damage is 240 - 348, depending on quality. It must be reloaded before each attack, and reloading is canceled by running, jumping, or dodging.

Fish are scared by player noise and flee if they can hear a player. Each fish periodically checks for nearby bait, and bait can attract fish within range. Once a fish bites, quick reeling hooks it, after which it fights the line in alternating bursts that affect reeling speed and stamina use.

Fishing skill increases the speed at which you reel in fish. At skill 0, the base reeling speed is 2 m/s, and it increases by 2% per skill level up to a maximum of 6 m/s at skill 100. Stamina cost is reduced as the skill rises.

Creature leveling

Creatures can spawn as levelled versions of themselves. The chance to spawn with levels is random and depends on the source of the spawn, the creature, and sometimes the distance from the world center.

Spawn rules

This is separate from player skill leveling, but it affects how dangerous nearby enemies become.

Efficient leveling habits

  • Stay rested whenever possible to make long training sessions easier
  • Use repeated safe actions that are easy to sustain, such as sprinting, jumping, or practicing weapon use
  • For combat skills, train on targets you can reliably hit without being interrupted
  • For bow and fishing skill, consistency matters more than damage
  • For movement skills, continuous action builds experience steadily; terrain penalties and inventory weight do not change the experience rate for running

What skill leveling changes

Each skill represents a different area of mastery, such as movement, stealth, weapon handling, block efficiency, or fishing speed. Raising a skill makes that action more effective, more economical, or both, and the improvement is immediate as soon as the level increases.

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