With survival games like Valheim whenever you face enemies, your goal is to dish out as much damage as possible while spending as little time towards enemies as possible. Seeing as how you’re dealing with many different types of weapons, enemies with various resistances, and stamina drain per attack, finding the ideal balance is key as that extra stamina saved can land you more attacks or time to flee when you don’t have health left. That being said, it should be easy to do this list as you just need to find the weapon with the most damage, right? Well, it isn’t as easy as that.
With so many factors into play, DPS isn’t exactly the most consistent thing to test in this game. Some weapons may be phenomenal against one mob, but completely ineffective against another. There is a formula that exists to test how much DPS a weapon can be achieved but that would be too much for a casual player to mind. With all those taken into account, we’ll be tackling this list in a more layman’s approach, by ranking weapons that can get you through the enemies in the game faster, albeit with a certain scenario.
As with all Valheim lists, this was written at the time of the games’ latest version (version 0.206.5) and is based on the overall usability and importance of the weapon. This list will be in a unique view as the ranking of the weapons is based on damage against a theoretical, with the mobs dealing the same damage and health as present but with no immunity to any form of damage type.
With the parameters set, let’s speed through this list.
10. Iron Atgeir
Kicking off the list is the Iron Atgeir that does great damage for mid-game and gets things done with its primary combo.
What’s Good About the Iron Atgeir?
For a dual-handed weapon, the atgeir is a special case of being able to maneuver and attack as fast as the one-handed weapons on this list. On its own, it has the benefits of being a good weapon in general as listed below.
Iron Atgeir:
- Faster combo animations than other dual handed weapons
- The alternate attack does good pierce damage on a targeted enemy
- Has a 3-attack combo instead of two-handed weapons’ single attack
For the Iron Atgeir, its damage chain is more in terms of DPS than niche items on tiers above it (e.g., Silver Knife). Contrary to most of the two-handed weapons, it has faster animations and does give significant damage, depending on the enemy. For our DPS list against an enemy, it does flat damage in line with other iron-based weapons. Not bad, but definitely lower compared to things below this entry.
How to Get the Iron Atgeir?
Iron Atgeir:
- Get Iron
- Get Wood from trees or fallen branches
- Kill Boars for Leather Scraps
- Combine in the Forge
For a detailed look at the weapons stats, you may look at the table or use the key points below.
- Damage Profile: Pierce
- Base Damage: 65
- Full Upgraded Damage: 83
- Minimum Crafting Area: Forge (Level 2)
9. Iron Mace
The MVP of the Swamp runs relative to the weapon tier given, the Iron Mace offers good damage in the game and still has decent DPS when looked at overall.
What’s Good About the Iron Mace?
A great weapon with great utility, here are the things the Iron Mace can provide.
Iron Mace:
- Slight knockback increase from the Bronze Mace
- Damage increase can help with higher difficulty mobs
- A good weapon for doing Swamp runs or killing Bonemass
This weapon is really good on the mid-game, especially Swamps, but when you negate the effectiveness of it outside that biome, it is a relatively standard weapon for mid-game creatures like 1 or 2 star Black Forest creatures and the aforementioned Swamps. With that being said, this is a reliable weapon with the same fast 3-combo attack as any other one-handed weapon.
How to Get the Iron Mace?
The Iron Mace is created by doing the following:
Iron Mace:
- Get Iron
- Get Wood from trees or fallen branches
- Kill Boars for Leather Scraps
- Combine in the Forge
For a detailed look at the weapons stats, you may look at the table or use the key points below.
- Damage Profile: Blunt
- Base Damage: 55
- Full Upgraded Damage: 73
- Minimum Crafting Area: Forge (Level 2)
8. Fang Spear
This weapon is an exception to the 3x combo chain damage, the Fang Spear is really good for consistent attacks against 1 or even 2 enemies.
What’s Good About the Fang Spear?
Offering safety by its range is a good start point for the usability of the weapon, which also brings in its usual benefits like.
Fang Spear:
- Best spear to craft
- Long-range can hit enemies at better range
- Relatively low stamina reduction per attack
Even without the usual combo animation, the fact that the stamina loss is per attack and in quick succession at that makes this unassuming weapon give strong DPS relative to what it does. Granted you need a lot of stamina to chain that damage together, but with an abundance of stamina, especially late game food sources, you’ll have no worries making that enemy die in no time.
How to Get the Fang Spear?
- Kill Wolf for Wolf Fang
- Get Ancient Bark from cutting Ancient Trees
- Get Silver from the Mountains
- Get Leather Scraps from killing Boars
For a detailed look at the weapons stats, you may look at the table or use the key points below.
- Damage Profile: Pierce
- Base Damage: 70
- Full Upgraded Damage: 93
- Minimum Crafting Area: Forge (Level 3)
7. Crystal Battleaxe
A bit of a surprise as this, initially, has the slowest animations for a weapon, the Crystal Battleaxe
What’s Good About the Crystal Battleaxe?
Seeing a two-handed weapon be on a DPS list is weird as these weapons tend to have slow windup animations, but here it is, and ready to help clear enemies while retaining the usual benefits of this weapon listed below.
Crystal Battleaxe:
- The only weapon to currently use Crystals
- Great slash damage for a two-handed weapon
- Gives two damage types instead of one, thanks to Silver’s spirit damage
Now, why is the slow winding Crystal Battleaxe here? Surprisingly, the weapon, while slow on the initial windup, is as fast on a combo as the other high damage weapons listed here. You can think of this as a standard 3x combo weapon, but with a slower initial 1st hit to enemies. Adding to the fact that this weapon has great damage from the hybrid damage type, and with our hypothetical setting, this still out damages faster, but weaker weapons below its tier.
How to Get the Crystal Battleaxe?
Crystal Battleaxe:
- Get Ancient Bark from cutting Ancient Trees
- Get Silver from the Mountains
- Get Crystal from killing Stone Golems
- Combine in the Forge
For a detailed look at the weapons stats, you may look at the table or use the key points below.
- Damage Profile: Slash / *Spirit
- Base Damage: 90 / *30
- Full Upgraded Damage: 108 / *30
- Minimum Crafting Area: Forge (Level 3)
*applied when applicable
6. Silver Sword
A sword that is best used for Swamp runs, and in terms of the tiers for good DPS weapons, the sword offers the best out of all weapon types we have.
What’s Good About the Silver Sword?
This weapon is shiny as it is effective with the benefits being listed below.
Silver Sword:
- A good weapon through any biome
- Good damage output with the alternate attack
- The only sword that has 2 damage types
This item while good makes this even better for DPS when utilizing the spirit damage. It is the reason why this weapon is so good in the Swamp as most, if not all the enemies you encounter there are undead, making this a solid weapon. Now, by the numbers, this should be number 1, so why isn’t that so? Again, we look towards our theoretical enemy.
Spirit damage will only apply to those who are undead, and given that only a few enemies in the game are, this makes it an unfair representation of damage. Looking at the base damage of the weapon, we find it sitting as expected, linearly scaling just under the Blackmetal Weapons, and given the jump in power Blackmetal weapons have in this game, it’s safe to assume the DPS wouldn’t be as good as the weapons using that material.
How to Get the Silver Sword?
Silver Sword:
- Get Wood from trees or fallen branches
- Get Silver from the Mountains
- Get Leather Scraps from killing Boars
- Get Iron from Sunken Crypts
- Combine in the Forge
For a detailed look at the weapons stats, you may look at the table or use the key points below.
- Damage Profile: Slash / *Spirit
- Base Damage: 90 / *30
- Full Upgraded Damage: 108 / *30
- Minimum Crafting Area: Forge (Level 3)
*applied when applicable
5. Blackmetal Atgeir
An example of how Blackmetal weapons give good damage stats, the Blackmetal Atgeir may not be as fast as lower-tier weapons, but makes up for it from the damage being chained.
What is Good About the Blackmetal Atgeir?
With a fast combo attack and a powerful secondary attack, this is an amazing weapon towards varying enemies you’ll find in the Plains, and a good DPS source considering it’s a two-handed weapon. Below are the things that make it so great.
Blackmetal Atgeir:
- Best polearm in the game
- The alternate attack does huge pierce damage on a targeted enemy
- Is made of blackmetal, and allows for high stats in general.
Like the previous atgeir before it, it does a lot of damage in a combo and since it’s a Blackmetal Weapon, that also leads to some good DPS as a consequence. The current tier gap of going from Silver to Blackmetal is a lot, and in turn, out-damages on the DPS department as you land more combos. With that said, the DPS of the Blackmetal Atgeir is respectable, and something you’d want if you like a long-range poke to kill enemies, both in the game now, and the hypothetical enemy we have.
How to Get the Blackmetal Atgeir?
A modest amount of things are needed compared to the others on the list, but still a lot as you’ll need the following:
Blackmetal Atgeir:
- Get Blackmetal from killing Fulings or searching chests in their camps
- Get Fine Wood from Birch or Oak Trees
- Process Flax to a Spinning Wheel to create Linen Thread
- Combine in the Forge
For a detailed look at the weapons stats, you may look at the table or use the key points below.
- Damage Profile: Pierce
- Base Damage: 105
- Full Upgraded Damage: 123
- Minimum Crafting Area: Forge (Level 4)
4. Blackmetal Axe
As with the recurring theme with these Blackmetal weapons, the DPS scales with the tier, but surprisingly this deals as much damage as the strongest weapon in this list but at a small cost.
What’s Good About the Blackmetal Axe?
While the damage does seem great, you’ll have to keep in mind that the Blackmetal Axe is not a full-fledged weapon, despite having the ‘axe’ in the name. Even with that in mind it still does the usual things that help you in the game such as the following.
Blackmetal Axe:
- Fastest clearing axe for trees
- Best durability among all single-handed axes
- Damage is decent for what it is
This is more or less classified as a tool by the game, but the shocker here is that the initial damage matches the Blackmetal Sword (spoiler, it’s the best DPS weapon in this list with things taken into account). There are 2 reasons why it isn’t as far up the list, despite the damage, one is the drop-off on the 2nd and 3rd attack on the combo and the other one is durability.
Durability is gonna hamper the long-term usability of this item, but it doesn’t do much on DPS. What does affect it is the combo chain, with the initial hit being as strong as the weapons above the axe, but when the 2nd and 3rd strikes come through, it becomes much weaker, making this weaponless on DPS longer term.
How to Get the Blackmetal Axe?
Blackmetal Axe:
- Get Blackmetal from killing Fulings or searching chests in their camps
- Get Fine Wood from Birch or Oak Trees
- Process Flax to a Spinning Wheel to create Linen Thread
- Combine in the Forge
For a detailed look at the weapons stats, you may look at the table or use the key points below.
- Damage Profile: Slash
- Base Damage: 100
- Full Upgraded Damage: 115
- Minimum Crafting Area: Forge (Level 4)
3. Frostner
Upping the complexity and usage for your endgame, the Frostner offers an unparalleled utility that helps you survive towards the end while giving insane utility on the damage front.
What’s Good About the Frostner?
Its flexible damage profile is split between three types, which in itself makes an endgame viable weapon. This for DPS makes the weapon a whole lot more useful especially when utilizing the 3 damage types. As for the weapon itself, the benefits of using the Frostner are listed below.
Frostner:
- Triple damage profile with both blunt, frost, and spirit damage
- A varied effective rate against many types of enemies
- Highest knockback amount of any one-handed club in the game
While on paper, the 3 effects make it a force to be reckoned with against all enemies, but in reality, the spirit damage only applies to undead mobs, and if we look back to the previous entries with Silver as a component, you’ll know that the spirit damage is only for the undead mobs. There’s also the matter of the Frostner dealing DoT in addition to the initial blow, making this weapon complicated to assess the true DPS. If we look at face value, eliminating the spirit and DoT damage, this weapon is just a very good hammer that does good damage, but has some weapons best it in raw output.
How to Get the Frostner?
On the subject of gathering materials, it’s a chore to get all the items listed, but when you do, you’ll get to enjoy it for sure. Below are the tasks needed to show you’re worthy.
Frostner:
- Get Ancient Bark from cutting Ancient Trees
- Get Silver from the Mountains
- Purchase Ymir’s Flesh from Haldor (the Trader)
- Kill Drakes to get Freeze Glands
- Combine in the Forge
For a detailed look at the weapons' stats, you may look at the table or use the key points below.
- Damage Profile: Blunt / Frost / *Spirit
- Base Damage: 35 / 40 / *20
- Full Upgraded Damage: 35 / 58 / *20
- Minimum Crafting Area: Forge (Level 3)
*only applies to certain enemies
2. Porcupine
Valheim’s best weapon, the Porcupine has amazing damage numbers and gives equally amazing DPS numbers.
What’s Good About the Porcupine?
It’s got hybrid damage profiles similar to the Frostner, though limited to 2 of them, unlike the Frostner, it gets its secondary stats from the piercing attribute. To put that into context, we must look at what it’s good at, which is listed below:
Porcupine:
- Highest overall damage profile from all the clubs
- A suitable weapon to many enemies, even the highest-level ones
- Its combination of blunt and piercing make many enemies with no resistances easy to burst
A combination of Blunt and Piercing makes resistances of most enemies neutralized, and if you encounter a mob that doesn’t resist these damage types, like the 1st boss, Eikthyr, you’ll be in for a good time in dealing such consistent damage. The upfront damage and scaling with the combo is what makes this such a good weapon in general, and with DPS being your goal, this is one of the weapons you should get, only being outclassed by the top weapon in this list.
How to Get the Porcupine?
For a high-grade weapon, the Porcupine has a pretty modest construction to it, in terms of its materials, namely the following items:
Porcupine:
- Get Iron from the Swamps
- Get Fine Wood from Birch or Oak Trees
- Kill Deathsquitos for Needles
- Process Flax to a Spinning Wheel to create Linen Thread
- Combine in the Forge
For a detailed look at the weapons stats, you may look at the table or use the key points below.
- Damage Profile: Blunt / Piercing
- Base Damage: 50 / 45
- Full Upgraded Damage: 50 / 63
- Minimum Crafting Area: Forge (Level 4)
1. Blackmetal Sword
With the hierarchy established that DPS, and in general, killing mobs are best with a sword, it’s only fitting that the best weapon here is the Blackmetal Sword.
What’s Good About the Blackmetal Axe?
This is nothing short of a great weapon, with the benefits being as simple as the ones listed below.
Blackmetal Sword:
- Very reliable weapon through any biome
- Great damage output with the alternate attack
- A very durable weapon that can last a good while
This is an amazing weapon, period. Its 3-combo attack is super strong against so many enemies that don’t have slash resistances and generally out-damages the Porcupine when presented with an equal target, as our theoretical enemies. You’ll be seeing the Blackmetal Sword slash and swipe at every enemy, big and small with ease while the Porcupine being close with 1 or 2 enemies behind the damage you dish out. Even in regular gameplay, the Blackmetal Sword is still a great item to have around in your inventory as it will get you out of tricky situations, and by that I mean, you’ll be killing enemies whenever they pose a threat.
How to Get the Blackmetal Sword?
Blackmetal Sword:
- Get Blackmetal from killing Fulings or searching chests in their camps
- Get Fine Wood from Birch or Oak Trees
- Process Flax to a Spinning Wheel to create Linen Thread
- Combine in the Forge
For a detailed look at the weapons stats, you may look at the table or use the key points below.
- Damage Profile: Slash
- Base Damage: 95
- Full Upgraded Damage: 113
- Minimum Crafting Area: Forge (Level 4)
Conclusion:
Again, DPS is a tricky matter in Valheim with tiers being linear and things like resistances coming into play and with the game being early access, things will inevitably change, but that doesn’t mean people haven’t attempted it. Here’s one Reddit user who has laid out a damage chain chart of all the various types of weapons in the game, listed here in case you wish to know how it goes.
Given how they have overhauled the food’s health and stamina gains back in Hearth and Home’s initial patch last September, it’s highly likely they’ll add more weapons, overhaul the weapon tiers, or completely rework how damage is computed, it will inevitably revamp the DPS numbers that we see today. With Valheim’s freedom to explore with no class or limits, you’re better off getting good at the weapon of your choosing and kill mobs outright with that, and that DPS gratification will be there with you no matter what you use… except for some two-handed weapons, then it will just be a waiting game.
