Valheim is an expansive survival game where players are tasked with conquering harsh biomes, defeating fearsome bosses, and carving out their own Viking legacy. However, some players take a different approach—leveraging the game’s mechanics, glitches, and unintended interactions to gain advantages. Whether you call it cheating or creative problem-solving, these tactics can help you bypass traditional progression, maximize efficiency, and sometimes even completely outmaneuver the game’s intended design.
In this guide, we’ll explore various game-breaking strategies, from using trolls to chop down finewood trees to entering crypts without keys, skipping bosses with chairs, and even utilizing fire spread to mass-produce coal. Let’s dive into the best exploits in Valheim that let you bend the rules to your advantage.
Early Game Exploits: Troll Labor and Deer AI Abuse
The early stages of Valheim typically involve gathering essential resources like finewood, deer hide, and ores for progression. However, there are clever ways to circumvent some of these requirements.
Using Trolls to Harvest Finewood and Ore
Finewood, crucial for crafting early game structures and weapons, is usually locked behind the bronze axe. However, instead of spending time mining copper and tin to make bronze, you can use trolls to do the heavy lifting. Lure a troll to a birch or oak tree, then carefully dodge its attacks. If executed correctly, the troll will smash the tree for you, dropping the finewood you need.
Similarly, trolls can be employed to break apart copper and tin deposits. Without needing a pickaxe, you can gather ores simply by baiting their attacks and positioning yourself correctly. Later in the game, abominations in the swamp serve the same purpose for ancient trees, granting access to ancient bark much earlier than intended.
Deer AI Exploit for Easy Hunting
Deer are notoriously skittish, and using a crude bow to hunt them down can be frustrating due to its poor accuracy. However, by sprinting towards a deer and quickly placing a cooking station in its path, you can effectively block its escape. With the deer trapped, switching to a melee weapon allows for an easy kill. This method eliminates the need for early ranged combat and speeds up gathering deer trophies for the stagbreaker hammer.
Weapon Exploits: The Power of the Stagbreaker and Two-Handed Hammers
Once you’ve gathered enough deer trophies, crafting the Stagbreaker unlocks several unique mechanics that make it one of the most versatile weapons in the game.
Excavating Viking Graves with the Stagbreaker
In the meadows, certain rock formations shaped like Viking ships indicate buried treasure. Instead of crafting an antler pickaxe, the Stagbreaker’s secondary attack can damage these underground chests, breaking them open and bringing their loot to the surface with minimal effort.
Skipping Bonemass and Digging for Silver Without a Wishbone
Traditionally, players defeat Bonemass to obtain the wishbone, which helps locate buried silver deposits. However, two-handed hammers like the Stagbreaker provide a workaround. By walking through the mountains and smashing the ground, the game will display the message ‘too hard’ when silver is nearby. Digging in these spots can uncover silver veins without ever needing the wishbone.
Cheesing Burial Chambers and Crypts
Hammers also allow players to clear dungeons without engaging in direct combat. Their area-of-effect slam can damage enemies through walls, making it easy to clear burial chambers filled with skeletons or muddy scrap piles in sunken crypts without exposing yourself to danger.
Boss Skips, Chair Glitches, and Invincible Bases
Valheim is filled with boss fights meant to be conquered in sequence, but with the right exploits, you can skip entire boss battles and progress faster.
Entering Sunken Crypts Without a Swamp Key
Rather than defeating The Elder to obtain the swamp key, players can bypass locked crypt doors by placing a chair so that its hitbox slightly overlaps with the entrance. By sitting and standing up, the game pushes you forward, granting access to the crypt without the key.
Building an Impenetrable Base in the Plains
A similar trick can be used in the plains to create a base completely immune to enemy attacks. By placing a chair at the edge of a large boulder and sitting down, players can clip inside, allowing them to build a portal and safehouse entirely out of reach from hostile creatures.
Negating Damage Over Time with Cutscenes
Poison and fire damage are constant threats, but they can be nullified by engaging in a loading screen. Entering a portal or dungeon cuts off active damage while still allowing the effect’s duration to tick down, making it a useful survival trick in the most dangerous biomes.
Cheesing Boss Fights with Fire Damage
Fire sources play a significant role in defeating some of Valheim’s toughest bosses without direct combat.
Bonemass Cheese Strategy
A well-placed platform at eye level near Bonemass’ summoning location prevents him from hitting you while allowing you to attack freely. Additionally, players can type /die in the chat multiple times to generate tombstones, granting the corpse-run buff repeatedly for massive stamina regeneration and damage resistance.
Moder Fire Trap Strategy
For Moder, dig a cubby beneath her altar and place a bonfire inside. During the fight, she will periodically land on top of the flames, passively taking fire damage. This method ensures victory with minimal risk.
Yagluth Fire Pit Exploit
Similar to Moder, Yagluth can be lured over a shallow fire pit lined with bonfires. Without direct line of sight, he won’t attack, allowing you to safely wait for the flames to do their work.
Exploiting Mechanics in Mistlands and Ashlands
The later game biomes continue to offer creative exploits to bypass obstacles and gain advantages.
Bypassing Dvergr Wards in the Mistlands
Dvergr structures serve as safe havens but are protected by wards that prevent building inside. Instead of breaking them and provoking the dwarves, push a cart into the ward repeatedly to break it without consequences.
Fall Damage Prevention Trick
When falling from great heights, pause and log out just before hitting the ground. Upon reloading, the game resets your momentum, preventing lethal fall damage. This also works for removing poison and fire effects.
Ashlands Fortresses and Kiln Exploits
In the Ashlands, you can bypass fortress gates by raising the ground with a hoe and jumping over walls. Additionally, by enabling fire spread settings, a wood stack can be instantly turned into coal using the Staff of Embers, eliminating the need for kilns altogether.
Devcommands: The Ultimate Cheat Code
For those who want ultimate control, enabling devcommands grants access to creative mode, god mode, and the ability to spawn any item at will. While this completely negates the survival aspect, it allows for limitless possibilities in base building and experimentation.
Final Thoughts
Valheim offers a brutal yet rewarding survival experience, but sometimes bending the rules can make the journey even more enjoyable. Whether you use these exploits as a means to experiment or to gain an advantage, understanding these mechanics provides an edge over the game’s challenges.
Whether you call it cheating or ingenuity, these tricks allow you to experience Valheim in a whole new way.
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