Valheim Armor Guide - How To Outfit Your Viking To Survive

Crafting armor in Valheim on Xbox and PC is quickly a vital part of the game if you plan on surviving more than a few minutes, and in order to survive long enough to fight through Greydwarves, Trolls, and the game's huge bosses, you're going to need strong armor. The trouble is, how you create that armor can be pretty confusing. It requires you to expand your toolset, upgrade your workbench, hunt certain creatures, and learn how to work metal.

We've put together a full rundown of each of Valheim's current armor sets below, including how strong they are, what benefits you can expect from them as you create full sets, and most importantly, how to unlock and create them. Expect to do a lot of work hunting and mining along the way. It's also worth noting that each set of armor can be upgraded several times to increase its durability and armor levels. Leather armor might be your first armor set and among the weakest, but it can become very effective if you upgrade it while working on advancing to the next tier.

Valheim Armor Sets

Rags

• Set Items: Pants, Tunic
• Crafting Requirements: Workbench; Leather Scraps (obtained from boars)
• Armor per piece: 1
• Weight per piece: 2

Leather Armor

• Set Items: Pants, Tunic, Helmet, Cape
• Crafting Requirements: Workbench Level 2, Deer Hide
• Armor per piece: 2 (1 for cape)
• Weight per piece: 5 (1 for helmet, 4 for cape)

Troll Leather Armor

• Set Items: Pants, Tunic, Helmet, Cape
• Crafting Requirements: Workbench Level 3, Troll Hide, Leather Scraps, Deer Hide
• Armor per piece: 6 (1 for cape)
• Weight per piece: 5 (1 for helmet, 4 for cape)
• Set Bonus: Sneak +25

You'll get access to Troll Leather Armor once you slay your first troll and gathered its hide. Crafting the armor requires upgrading you workbench twice, which means you'll need a chopping block and a tanning rack nearby. Troll Armor is solid if you can get the hides for it, and it doesn't take much to upgrade to make it pretty strong. Troll armor will cover you while you do all the work to mine and smelt Bronze, which can take quite a while.

Bronze Armor

• Set Items: Helmet, Plate Cuirass, Plate Leggings
• Crafting Requirements: Forge, Deer Hide, Bronze
• Armor per piece: 8
• Weight per piece: 10 (3 for helmet)
• Set reduces movement speed by 10%

Bronze Armor is a step up from the leather varieties you've been using up to this point, but it'll take some time to unlock. First and foremost, you'll need to kill Eikthyr, the game's first boss. Look for altars marked with a deer relief to find places to summon it, and use deer trophies to do so. When you defeat Eikthyr, you'll get his antler, which you can fashion into a pickaxe tough enough to start mining ores. That's the first step in your quest toward Bronze.

The second step is to mine Tin and Copper, which you'll find around the Meadows and Black Forest biomes. Once you've mined both, you'll unlock the ability to build new crafting stations, including a Smelter and a Forge. Use the Smelter to turn ore into useable Copper and Tin, then use the Forge to combine them into Bronze. From there, you can start actually making things out of Bronze, including tougher tools and new armor.

Iron Armor

• Set Items: Helmet, Scale Mail, Grieves
• Crafting Requirements: Forge, Deer Hide, Iron
• Armor per piece: 14
• Weight per piece: 15 (3 for helmet)
• Set reduces movement speed by 10%

Like Bronze Armor, Iron takes some work to unlock. Scrap Iron is only found in certain places in the Swamp biome, and to get it, you'll have to defeat the Elder, your second boss. To locate the Elder, you'll need to explore the Black Forest for certain rune stones, which you can find near altars and inside burial chambers. Interact with the rune stones to mark the Elder on your map so you can hunt it down.

You'll find Iron in Muddy Scrap Piles, which are located in Sunken Crypts. If you find a Wishbone, you can also uncover Muddy Scrap Piles buried throughout the Swamp biome. Use the Smelter to create Iron, which can then be crafted into armor at the Forge.

Wolf Armor

• Set Items: Drake Helmet, Chest, Legs, Cape
• Crafting Requirements: Forge, Wolf Hide, Drake Trophy, Silver, Wolf Trophy, Wolf Fang, Workbench
• Armor per piece: 20 (1 for cape)
• Weight per piece: 15 (3 for helmet, 4 for cape)
• Set increases Frost resistance; reduces movement speed by 10%

You'll need to head to the Mountain biome to find everything you need for Wolf Armor. The upgrade is significant, but so is the cost--you'll need to find Silver, Wolf Hides, and Drake Trophies to craft this gear, so expect to be busy. Drakes are frost-infused dragons that hang out in the Mountain biome, and you'll need to bring some down to earn their trophies in order to make your armor. You'll also need to find Silver in the Mountain, which requires both a Wishbone to locate and an Iron Pickaxe to harvest.

The Drake Helmet, Wolf Armor Chest, and Wolf Armor Legs can be made at your Forge and require Drake Trophies, Wolf Hides, and Silver to make. The Wolf Fur Cape is a little different; you won't need Drake Trophies for it, but you will need Wolf Trophies, in addition to Wolf Hides and Silver. Craft the cape at the Workbench, rather than the Forge, to complete your set.

Padded Armor

• Set Items: Helmet, Cuirass, Greaves, Linen Cape
• Crafting Requirements: Forge, Iron, Silver, Linen Thread
• Armor per piece: 26
• Weight per piece: 10 (3 for helmet)
• Set reduces movement speed by 10%

The top armor in Valheim right now is the Padded Armor set, and of course, it requires a lot of effort to create. First, you'll need to take down Moder, the boss in the Mountain biome, which will allow you to build the Artisans Table, and then the Spinning Wheel. Next, you'll need to go to the Plains biome to get Flax, which you can turn into Linen Thread with the Spinning Wheel.

After that, you just need a lot of Iron, Silver, and Thread to make the items in the armor set. The benefits are huge, however, providing you a ton of protection and relatively little drawback.