Skeleton
| Skeleton | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Forty health, a rusted sword, and never on its own. | |
| Biome | Black Forest |
| Alignment | Aggressive |
| Faction | Undead |
| Health | 40 |
| Damage | |
| Weak To | Blunt, Fire |
| Resistant To | Pierce, Frost |
| Immune To | Poison |
| Stagger | 50% |
| Tameable | No |
| Trophy | Skeleton trophy |
| Spawn ID | spawn Skeleton
|
Push open a barrow door in the Black Forest and this is what stands waiting in the dark. The Skeleton is the cheapest undead in Valheim, with forty health and a corroded blade, and it is dangerous the way a leaking roof is dangerous: there is always another one. A single skeleton is an interruption. Six of them, backed by a bone pile that keeps producing more, is how a new Viking loses a Bronze Axe and a full inventory of ore.
Behaviour
Four in five carry a sword. They swing a horizontal slash for 25 slash damage through a ninety degree arc, reaching about a metre and a half, on a three second cycle. The other fifth carry bows and shoot for 20 pierce out to roughly twenty metres every four seconds. The archers are the ones that actually hurt, because they hang back and plink at you while the swordsmen keep your shield busy. Around a quarter of the melee skeletons carry a wooden shield or a Bronze Buckler, purely for show, and it never drops. Skeletons do not sleep, lose interest or flee: once aggravated, they walk straight at you until one of you falls apart. They cannot swim or drown, so a skeleton that follows you into water keeps walking along the bottom and comes up the far bank. They are not a coordinated pack, but they arrive as one, because the places they live spawn them in clusters and evil bone piles keep spitting out fresh ones until the pile itself is smashed. Star variants hit noticeably harder, up to fifty damage a swing at two stars, but they still only have forty to a hundred and sixty health.
Where to Find It
Their home is the Black Forest, and above all its Burial Chambers. They are a common spawn all through the interior, with three more spawn points waiting outside the entrance for anyone who backs out in a hurry. Beyond that they are widely scattered. In the Swamp they are a common wandering spawn, up to four at a time. At night they appear at Dolmens in the Meadows, which is the first undead many players ever meet. Ruined towers and collapsed houses in both the Black Forest and the Mountain carry several spawn points each. Evil bone piles in burial chambers, swamps and mountain towers keep producing them until destroyed. Finally, once Bonemass is dead, they start turning up anywhere at night, up to three at a time, and those despawn at dawn. One and two star versions can spawn almost everywhere they appear.
| Where and When | At Once | How Often | Stars |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anywhere in the Swamps | 4 | - | Yes |
| Anywhere during the night after defeating Bonemass, despawn at dawn | 3 | - | No |
| Possible spawn point at Dolmens in Meadows during the night | - | One time | Yes |
| 3 spawn points outside Burial Chambers | - | 1 respawns every hour | Yes |
| Common spawn point in Burial Chambers | - | One time | Yes |
| Multiple spawn points near Ruined towers and houses in Black Forests and Mountains | - | One time | Yes |
| From Evil bone piles in Burial Chambers, Swamps or Mountain towers | 2 | Every 6 seconds | Yes |
| Spawned by Bonemass (4 per ability) | 8 | - | No |
| During "A foul smell from the swamp" event before defeating Bonemass | 6 | Very common | No |
| During "Skeleton surprise" event after defeating Bonemass | 20 | Very common | No |
| During "She's hot on your tail" event after defeating Brenna | 4 | Very common | Yes |
Strengths and Weaknesses
Hit it with something heavy. Blunt damage tears skeletons apart, so a club, a mace or a sledge kills an unstarred one in a single swing. Fire does the same job, which is why a lit torch is a serious weapon in a burial chamber and why Fire Arrows make short work of the archers. Everything else disappoints. Arrows and spears are halved by the bare ribcage they pass through, frost does little, and poison does nothing to something with no flesh. Parrying is the other half of the answer: their attacks are slow, single and heavily telegraphed, so a wooden or Banded Shield turns every swing into a free riposte that finishes the job. Fight in the doorway rather than the room so they come one at a time, and smash the evil bone pile early, or you will be killing the same skeleton for the rest of the afternoon. Flint or bronze gear is enough, and by iron they are only a noise.
Drops
Bone Fragments by the armful, which is exactly what you cracked the barrow open for.
| Item | Image | Base | 1 Star | 2 Star |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bone fragments | 
|
1 | 2 | 4 |
| Skeleton trophy | 
|
10% | 10% | 10% |
Level Variants
A creature can spawn at one of three levels, shown as stars beside its name. Each level is rolled separately at spawn, so a two-star is rarer than a one-star. The difference goes beyond the numbers: a starred skeleton is recoloured or larger, so you can see it coming.
| Level | Stars | Image | Health | Damage | Drops |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | - | 
|
40 | 100% | x1 |
| 2 | ⭐ | 
|
80 | 150% | x2 |
| 3 | ⭐⭐ | 
|
120 | 200% | x4 |
Notes
- Skeletons cannot swim or drown, so they walk along the seafloor instead.
- All skeletons from the "She's hot on the tail" event are 1 star.
All Creature Categories
All Black Forest Creatures
All Categories
