Starting with the Mistlands update, Vikings in Valheim can use magic to help them on their journey. Appearing in the Mistlands biome and beyond, these spells are specific to certain weapons that let you cast them with Eitr. This guide will explain how magic works in Valheim and list all the magic weapons and their effects.
How Magic Works
To interact with Valheim’s magic system you first need to unlock Eitr, your third resource bar that goes along with your health and stamina. You do that by consuming Eitr-rich foods. These start appearing in the Mistlands. You can learn which Eitr foods are the best for each biome in our dedicated guide. And here’s a quick list of food that fills up your Eitr bar:
Once you have Eitr, you can start spending it on magic. Additionally, certain armor sets, like the Eitr-weave or Embla sets, increase your Eitr regeneration. Lingering Eitr Mead can also help you there. Using these items isn’t required, but if you want to become a dedicated spellcaster, they’ll help you manage your Eitr pool better.
The next step before you can actually use magic is to build a Galdr Table. This Mistlands crafting station will let you craft everything you need to become a Viking mage. To build one you’ll need:
x10 Black Metal
x20 Yggdrasil Wood
x5 Black Core
x5 Refined Eitr
Black Metal is the main ore of the Plains biome. Yggdrasil Wood is a basic Mistlands resource you’ll find during exploration. Black Cores are located inside Infested Mines acting as the Mistlands dungeons. And Refined Eitr is produced by combining Sap with Soft Tissue at an Eitr Refinery.
Refining Black MetalHarvesting Yggdrasil WoodBlack CoresExtracting Sap
After you set up the Galdr Table, you’ll want to upgrade it with a number of improvements, so that you can create more powerful items there. These are:
With all that done, you’re ready to learn and use magic.
An upgraded Galdr Table
Available Spells
As of the Ashlands update, there’s a total of 8 spells in Valheim. They’re split between two skills – Elemental Magic and Blood Magic. Raising your Elemental Magic skill increases the damage of elemental spells and lowers their Eitr cost.
Blood Magic spells cost both Eitr and health, so leveling that skill lowers the cost for both. Since Blood Magic spells aren’t direct damage dealers, its greater skill ranks can have varied effects, like making your summons deal more damage or making your magic barriers stronger.
Spell
Skill
Biome
Dead Raiser
Blood Magic
Mistlands
Staff of Embers
Elemental Magic
Mistlands
Staff of Frost
Elemental Magic
Mistlands
Staff of Protection
Blood Magic
Mistlands
Dundr
Elemental Magic
Ashlands
Staff of Fracturing
Elemental Magic
Ashlands
Staff of the Wild
Elemental Magic
Ashlands
Trollstav
Blood Magic
Ashlands
Dead Raiser
Materials: x10 Bone Fragments, x16 Refined Eitr, x4 Skeleton Trophy
Effect: summon Skelett
Base Cost: 100 Eitr, 40% current health
Dead Raiser is a Blood Magic spell that lets you summon undead Skelett to fight for you. You get an 80% chance to get a melee Skelett with a sword and 20% to get a ranged Skelett archer.
An unupgraded Dead Raiser lets you summon only a single Skelett. This number goes up as you upgrade the item. At level 4, you can have 4 Skelett following you at once. Their damage is dependent on your Blood Magic skill. But even early on, they can serve as a good distraction for enemies.
The main use of the Dead Raiser is to give your AI opponents more targets to focus on. This can be invaluable when fighting groups of enemies or particularly tricky foes. The melee vs ranged Skelett options also add some extra flexibility to the spell.
Its one negative is the high base cost, which means you won’t be able to eat a single Eitr food to augment your usual melee or ranged playstyle with some summons. You’ll want to specialize in magic to get good use out of the Dead Raiser.
Staff of Embers is an Elemental Magic spell that shoots fireballs. Despite the humble name, these fireballs are potent, relatively cheap and have great range. Upon hitting a target, they deal Blunt damage, and then area Fire damage that comes with the Burning DoT effect.
Upgrading the staff raises the Fire damage without adjusting the initial Blunt attack. Another way to increase the damage output of the Staff of Embers is by raising your Elemental Magic skill. Together, this can create devastating ranged attacks.
This spell is great at softening foes from a distance, and it remains relevant in later biomes, where it’s especially effective at clearing out Charred Fortresses without any danger to your character.
Staff of Frost is an Elemental Magic spell that shoots rapid-fire ice shards directly at your foes. These shards are highly inaccurate from a distance but work wonders from up-close. Each shard comes with a slowing effect, making it much easier to manage tough foes. Additionally, while this staff works as an ice machine gun on paper, in reality, with how its projectiles scatter, you should think of it more as a close-range shotgun.
When you upgrade the Staff of Frost, the damage of each shard it sends goes up. The same happens when you level your Elemental Magic skill. With some investment, the staff can put out impressive damage, fast. And the slowing effect will make it easier for the inaccurate shards to connect.
With how each shard creates Adrenaline, Staff of Frost is actually one of the best tools for charging up your Trinkets. That alone makes it a worthwhile addition to your arsenal.
Staff of Protection is a Blood Magic spell that surrounds the caster and nearby allies in a protective bubble that acts as extra health for the spell’s duration. Notably, this also applies to your summons, therefore a combination of Dead Raiser and Staff of Protection can give you a squad of extra tanky skeletons.
Upgrading the staff increases the duration of the bubble but doesn’t actually make it any stronger. At level 1, the shield will stay up for 60 seconds, while at level 4 it will remain active for 240. Your Blood Magic skill is what determines how strong the shield is. With no skill, it will protect you from 200 points of damage, while at the max rank of 100, it will sustain 700 damage.
It’s important to note that the shield doesn’t inherit any of your armor or resistances, and in effect takes pure damage from all attacks, meaning it may not be as tough as you expect it to be. It’s still a very worthwhile investment for any Valheim magic user.
Another quirk of the staff is that recasting it extends the shield’s timer without restoring its health. This means that during battle, you want for the shield to actually drop before casting it again, otherwise you’ll simply waste your health and Eitr.
Dundr is an Elemental Magic spell that’s even more of a shotgun than the Staff of Frost. Each cast launches a barrage of 12 close-range lightning bolts. If they all hit, they can deal a lot of damage to your foes. To balance that, after each cast, you need to ‘reload’ Dundr. This works in a similar way to crossbows, where you get locked into a reloading animation, during which you can move, jump, and dodge, but dashing will cancel the animation.
Once you start upgrading Dundr, the damage of each projectile goes up. The same goes for the Elemental Magic skill. Together this can result in some really impressive damage output.
Because of the reload, Dundr is best used as a devastating opener for a fight, or in multiplayer games where you have allies to keep aggro. It’s also worth noting that each individual projectile helps raise the Elemental Magic skill, making Dundr a great leveling option. Also worth mentioning is that Dundr consumes Eitr on reload not upon shooting.
Valheim’s developers seem to love their shotgun spells. Staff of Fracturing is yet another one. It’s an Elemental Magic spell that shoots 12 tiny exploding fireballs in a swarm. It’s essentially a combo of the Staff of Embers and Dundr. Staff of Fracturing’s projectiles explode on contact and set their targets on fire, stacking a Burning effect on them.
Just like with the Staff of Embers, upgrading Staff of Fracturing increases its Fire damage, but keeps the Blunt portion of it static. Elemental Magic skill also helps you increase your Fire output with this spell.
With how close you need to be to a target to deal the full Staff of Fracturing damage, it’s a high-risk high-reward option. A proper blast can instantly delete many of the late-game enemies, and if they don’t drop right away, the burn will take care of them shortly.
Because you can block and parry with a staff, it’s a good idea to let a foe hit you, stagger them with a parry, then line up a shot before unleashing the staff.
Staff of the Wild is an Elemental Magic spell that goes beyond simply dealing damage in different ways. The staff’s cast fires a projectile that deals minor damage and Poison DoT. Upon landing, that projectile turns into a Root – an immobile plant summon that attacks all enemies in range, and has a 10% chance to immobilize them for 10 seconds. Each Root lasts around 25 seconds before disappearing, and you can have a total of up to 10 Roots active at the same time.
Unlike the fire staffs, when you upgrade the Staff of the Wild, both its Poison and Blunt damage go up considerably. Increasing your Elemental Magic skill also increases the damage of both the initial cast and the summoned Roots.
Staff of the Wild is a great tool for controlling the battlefield thanks to the immobilize effect. And while Roots aren’t treated as targets by your foes, they can still physically block them or their projectiles, acting as a living wall between you and the monsters.
Staff of the Wild projectileStaff of the Wild root
Trollstav is a Blood Magic spell that lets you summon giant skeletal Trolls. These Trolls are tough, deal a lot of damage, can destroy buildings and trees, and are hostile to everything, including you.
You can have up to 2 Trolls summoned at the same time, and they come in two versions: with and without a club. Upgrading the staff or your Blood Magic skill doesn’t affect the Trolls in any way. You can always have 2 of them out, and they’ll still deal the exact same damage. Considering the large base cost for both health and Eitr, Blood Magic is still useful here, as it will make each cast cost less.
Due to how large, tanky, and strong the Trolls are, they can clear out entire areas for you. Just make sure to stay out of their way while they’re on their rampage. They’re particularly good at clearing out Charred Fortresses in the Ashlands. You can use the staff through a wall, summon your Trolls inside and let them destroy all your foes within without doing anything.
Trollstav TrollsTroll in a Charred Fortress
We’re sure that the upcoming Deep North biome will add more magic to Valheim. And when that happens, we’ll keep you updated.
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Val Hull
Resident role-playing RPG game expert. Knows where trolls and paladins come from. You must fight for your right to gather your party before venturing forth.
