Skills are a big part of Valheim. They make you more effective, you gain them passively, and lose some of your skills upon death.
Valheim uses a skill-based progression system. There are no levels and everything in the game is broken out into skills that increase passively while you play the game. Meaning, that to improve your jump skill you just start jumping.
This type of progression system was popular with many old-school games but has been overshadowed recently by level-based systems and attribute-point-based systems.
Table of Skills
| Name of Skill | Type of Skill |
|---|---|
| Run | Movement |
| Jump | Movement |
| Swim | Movement |
| Sneak | Movement |
| Pickaxes | Gathering |
| Woodcutting | Gathering |
| Axes | Combat |
| Bows | Combat |
| Clubs | Combat |
| Knives | Combat |
| Polearms | Combat |
| Spears | Combat |
| Swords | Combat |
| Blocking | Combat |
System Details
Leveling Up
When you level up, a yellow halo appears around your head, a sound cue plays, and words appear to let you know which skill has improved and what its new level is. Here’s a picture of what that looks like:
Skill Cap
The skill cap in Valheim is 99.
Skill Loss on Death
When you die, you lose 10% of each skill.
Skill loss includes levels and current experience. Percentage-based losses will be more impactful at higher levels where reaching the next level is harder.
To put this numerically:
- Lv 10, with 0 xp → lv 9 with 0 xp
- Lv 10, with 99% xp → lv 9 with 89% xp
- Lv 10.0 → lv 9.0
- Lv 10.99 → lv 9.89