Combat and building¶
Critical strikes, evasion, resistances, what creatures pierce, and building costs.
Numbers are the defaults of the Normal difficulty; servers can change them. Every formula here is checked against the mod's code with each patch.
Critical strike damage¶
Critical hits multiply the hit's damage by:
The bonuses come in parts, each its flat bonuses × (1 + increases): general ones, those for your weapon kind, for the target, and for the alternative attack. The parts are computed separately and added up, so a general "reduced critical damage" doesn't lower your weapon's own bonus.
Critical strike chance¶
Critical strike chance starts from the weapon's base:
Base: knives 15%, polearms 10%, other weapons 5%, spells 5%. The weapon's own critical chance properties apply to its base first. The maximum is 100% by default.
Evasion¶
Evasion rating gives a chance to avoid a hit, which depends on the attacker's accuracy (enemy accuracy), growing with its level and stars:
Evasion isn't a dice roll per hit: hits are evaded in a steady rhythm, so over many hits the share evaded is the chance. Damage over time in an area can't be evaded. Chance against creatures without stars, by biome:
| Biome | Accuracy | 50 evasion | 100 evasion | 200 evasion | 400 evasion |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Meadows | 30 | 52.66% | 70.8% | 75% | 75% |
| Black Forest | 39 | 45.13% | 64.85% | 75% | 75% |
| Swamp | 51 | 37.1% | 57.98% | 74.74% | 75% |
| Mountain | 67 | 28.44% | 49.87% | 68.65% | 75% |
| Plains | 77 | 24.38% | 45.8% | 65.4% | 75% |
| Mistlands | 92 | 18.89% | 39.97% | 60.5% | 75% |
| Ashlands | 117 | 12.45% | 32.64% | 53.89% | 71.73% |
| Deep North | 148 | 6.55% | 25.39% | 46.82% | 66.23% |
Resistances¶
Resistances reduce damage of their type: damage × (1 − resistance).
Fire, frost and lightning also count elemental resistance. Penetration can take resistance below zero, which increases the damage taken.
Armour¶
Armour is Valheim's own: it reduces each hit by the same share for all its damage types, much against small hits, less against big ones. With hit damage the sum of the hit's damage types:
Armour applies after rune shield and block. Creatures ignore part of it: see enemy penetration. Damage taken, by armour and hit:
| Armour | Hit of 20 | Hit of 50 | Hit of 100 | Hit of 200 | Hit of 500 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 | 4 | 25 | 75 | 175 | 475 |
| 50 | 2 | 12.5 | 50 | 150 | 450 |
| 100 | 1 | 6.2 | 25 | 100 | 400 |
| 200 | 0.5 | 3.1 | 12.5 | 50 | 300 |
Enemy penetration¶
Creatures pierce your defences by their biome: with flat armour penetration and resistance penetration (a share of your resistances). Your armour counts for 105% against creatures' hits.
| Biome | Armour ignored | Resistance ignored |
|---|---|---|
| Meadows | 0 | 0% |
| Black Forest | 8 | 0% |
| Swamp | 15 | 0% |
| Mountain | 25 | 5% |
| Plains | 35 | 10% |
| Mistlands | 50 | 15% |
| Ashlands | 70 | 20% |
| Deep North | 90 | 25% |
Bosses move toward the next biome's values. Creatures with the Piercing modifier ignore more.
Build cost¶
Build cost reductions lower each material of a piece, the mod's buildings included, by at most 50%:
Dismantling gives back only what was paid. When a refund saves the materials of a placed piece, dismantling it gives nothing.
Data from Path of Valheiman 5.1.0, extracted 2026-10-19.