Creature scaling¶
How the game sets a creature's level, health and damage, and what stars, difficulty, defeated bosses and Monster Power change.
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.
Creature level¶
A creature's level is the level of the biome it stands in; stars don't change it. Its level sets its accuracy and the item level of what it drops. It does not scale its health or damage, except for the monolith bosses (see their pages).
| Biome | Level |
|---|---|
| Meadows | 1 |
| Black Forest | 19 |
| Swamp | 43 |
| Mountain | 77 |
| Plains | 97 |
| Mistlands | 130 |
| Ashlands | 181 |
| Deep North | 246 |
Health and damage¶
A creature's health and damage are Valheim's own, multiplied by these factors:
Biome: the factor of the creature's biome (table below; bosses use the boss columns). Stars: see Stars. Tamed: a tamed creature has 50% of it. Monster Power: see Monster Power. Blight Mist: only inside a mist. Valheim's own world difficulty settings apply on top.
Biome factors¶
A creature's biome is its kind's home biome, wherever it stands: a Greydwarf counts as a Black Forest creature everywhere. Kinds the mod doesn't know take the biome they stand in.
| Biome | Health | Damage | Boss health | Boss damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Meadows | ×1 | ×1 | ×1.65 | ×1.025 |
| Black Forest | ×1.2 | ×1.05 | ×1.8 | ×1.05 |
| Swamp | ×1.5 | ×1.1 | ×2.25 | ×1.1 |
| Mountain | ×1.9 | ×1.25 | ×2.85 | ×1.25 |
| Plains | ×2.4 | ×1.4 | ×3.6 | ×1.4 |
| Mistlands | ×3 | ×1.7 | ×4.5 | ×1.7 |
| Ashlands | ×3.5 | ×2 | ×5.25 | ×2 |
| Deep North | ×4 | ×2.3 | ×6 | ×2.3 |
Some kinds have their own health factor, which replaces the biome's: Wolf ×6, Draugr ×3.6.
Difficulty presets¶
The difficulty preset scales how far every biome factor is from 1, and sets the star chance and the most stars a creature can have:
| Preset | Health scale | Damage scale | Star chance | Most stars |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vanilla | 0 | 0 | 10% | 2 |
| Easy | 0.2 | 0.25 | 12% | 4 |
| Normal | 1 | 1 | 18% | 5 |
| Hard | 1.2 | 1.5 | 24% | 7 |
| Merciless | 1.5 | 2 | 30% | 8 |
After a biome's boss¶
Once a biome's boss has been defeated, the creatures of that biome move part of the way toward the next biome's factors (health, damage and penetration): 25% near the world centre, up to 80% far from it. Bosses don't step up, and nor does the Deep North.
| Biome | From (near) | Full step (far) |
|---|---|---|
| Meadows | 0 m | 5000 m |
| Black Forest | 600 m | 6000 m |
| Swamp | 2000 m | 6000 m |
| Mountain | 1000 m | 9000 m |
| Plains | 3000 m | 8000 m |
| Mistlands | 6000 m | 10000 m |
| Ashlands | 8000 m | 10500 m |
Wolves and Draugr keep their own health factor, so only their damage steps up.
Stars¶
Stars make a creature stronger, set its rarity and bring modifiers.
Each star step has a 18% chance (Valheim: 10%), rolled until it fails, up to two stars; hostile creatures in their home biome can always reach 2. A creature with two stars then gains another star with a 50% chance each time, up to the preset's most stars. Each star brings 1 modifier. Chances of the first roll:
| Stars | Chance |
|---|---|
| 0 | 82% |
| 1 | 14.76% |
| 2+ | 3.24% |
Boss stars¶
A boss summoned at its altar can rise with stars: a 25% chance of at least one star, and 5% of two (part of the 25%). By default, only once that boss has been defeated in the world. The mod's bosses can also be given stars with Runes of the Blood Challenge.
Modifiers per boss star: 0 on Normal, 1 on Hard and Merciless.
Monster Power¶
Offering boss trophies at an Altar of Power makes the creatures of that biome stronger, and their loot richer:
It multiplies the health and damage of the biome's wild creatures, bosses included (not tamed ones), and adds Monster Power − 1 to their loot quantity. It reaches its maximum after 40 offerings; each offering costs one trophy more than the last.
Data from Path of Valheiman 5.1.0, extracted 2026-10-19.