Every Status Effect in Valheim, With the Numbers Behind Each One
Valheim shows you a row of small icons and never tells you what any of them are worth. Wet is −25% health regeneration. Cold is −50%. Freezing is −100% and one damage a second. Once the numbers are attached, the difference between an inconvenience and a genuine problem becomes obvious — and so does the fact that two of the best armour sets in the game make you take 25% more physical damage.
On sourcing. Iron Gate do not publish system documentation. The figures below come from the community wikis and can change with any patch.
The Ones That Help
| Effect | Source | What it gives |
|---|---|---|
| Rested | Sleeping, or 20s of Resting | Health +50%, Stamina +100%, XP +50%, Eitr +100% |
| Resting | Sheltered, or under the Fire effect | Health +200%, Stamina +300%, Eitr +300% |
| Corpse run | Collecting everything from your grave | Jump and run stamina −75%, +5 hp/sec, +150 carry, 0.25× physical damage |
| Megingjord | The belt | Max carry weight +150 |
| Feather fall | Feather cape | Fall speed capped at 5 m/s, fall damage −100%, jump stamina −20% |
| No skill drain | Dying | No XP loss for 10 minutes |
| Magic barrier | Staff of Protection | Blocks 200–700 damage by skill level |
| Wishbone | The Wishbone | Pings near hidden objects |
| Wisplight | The Wisplight | Dispels mist |
Resting is the strongest buff in the game and almost nobody notices it. At +200% health, +300% stamina and +300% Eitr regeneration, sitting by a fire under a roof recovers you several times faster than Rested does — and after twenty seconds it converts into Rested, which you then carry away with you.
Corpse run is a genuinely powerful effect, not a consolation prize. 0.25× damage from Blunt, Slash and Pierce, +5 health per second, +150 carry weight and −75% movement stamina for 50 seconds. It is the strongest defensive state a player can be in, and it fires exactly when you are least equipped.
No skill drain runs for ten minutes and resets on each death, which is why a bad run does not have to cost you your skills — as long as you keep dying inside the window.
The Ones That Hurt
| Effect | Source | Penalty |
|---|---|---|
| Wet | Rain, or being in water | Health −25%, Stamina −15%, Eitr −15%, 0.5× Fire, 1.5× Frost and Lightning |
| Cold | Outside at night with no heat | Health −50%, Stamina −25%, Eitr −25% |
| Freezing | The Mountain, Moder, Drake events | Health −100%, Stamina −60%, Eitr −60%, 1 damage/sec |
| Encumbered | Over carry capacity | No running, jumping, blocking, dodging or stamina regen |
| Smoked | Standing in smoke | 2 damage per second, with no sound cue |
| Tarred | Tar pits, growths | Movement −50%, 2× Fire damage |
| Slimed | The Queen's spit | Movement −50%, 2× Fire damage |
| Feeling sick | Bukeperries, rotten meat | 15s of no regen, half speed, 1 damage every 2s and one food undone |
| Immobilized | Traps, Jade weapons | Movement prevented for 10 seconds |
| Frost | Frost damage | Up to −100% movement speed, decaying |
Wet is worse than it looks, and it is also useful. −25% health regeneration is minor; 1.5× Frost and Lightning damage taken is not, and a wet player in the Mountain is in real trouble. But 0.5× Fire damage cuts both ways — being wet is a legitimate defence against the Ashlands.
Freezing is the only status effect that deals damage purely for existing — 1 per second, on top of stopping health regeneration entirely. It does not apply if you have frost resistance, shelter, or the Fire effect.
Smoked is the quiet killer. 2 damage per second with no sound cue is how players die inside their own houses. Our smoke guide covers venting properly.
Feeling sick is the one that costs you the most. It undoes one consumed food every two seconds for fifteen seconds — potentially wiping your entire food buff. Never eat Bukeperries or rotten meat.
Burning has a hidden interaction: it makes the Wet timer expire sixty times faster. The Fire effect from a campfire does the same thing at ten times.
Set Bonuses Are Status Effects Too
| Set bonus | Set | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Berserk | Bear | +30% health regen, +15% stamina regen, +10% Slash and Chop, and +25% damage taken from Blunt, Slash and Pierce |
| Vilebone Wrath | Vilebone | +20% health regen, +40% stamina regen, +20% Blunt and Pierce, and +25% damage taken from Blunt, Slash and Pierce |
| Fenris blessing | Fenris | 0.5× Fire damage, Fists +15 |
| Sneaky | Troll | Sneak +15 |
| Improved archery | Root | Bows +15 |
Berserk and Vilebone Wrath are glass-cannon bonuses, and the game does not say so. Both grant real offensive and regeneration upgrades — and both carry "Slightly weak (+25% damage taken) vs Blunt, Slash and Pierce", which covers essentially every physical attack in the game. You are trading a quarter of your effective health for the damage.
Fenris blessing is the opposite trade — pure defence (0.5× Fire) plus a fists bonus, with no drawback attached.
Sneaky and Improved archery are flat skill points, +15 each, and both note they do not exceed the skill cap of 100 — so at high skill they are worth progressively less.
All five are permanent only while the entire set is equipped. Swapping one piece for a better helmet removes the bonus entirely.
Practical tips
- Resting is +200% health / +300% stamina / +300% Eitr — the strongest buff in the game.
- Corpse run gives 0.25× physical damage and +150 carry for 50 seconds.
- Wet is 1.5× Frost and Lightning taken — but 0.5× Fire.
- Freezing deals 1 damage per second and is cancelled by shelter or fire.
- Smoked is 2 damage per second with no sound cue.
- Feeling sick undoes one food every 2 seconds — never eat rotten meat.
- Bear and Vilebone set bonuses add +25% physical damage taken.
Running your own Valheim server
Most of these effects are about shelter, fire and a bed — infrastructure that only pays off on a world that is still standing when you log back in. A gamever Valheim server keeps that world persistent for up to 10 players, with one-click backups so the hall you built to keep Cold and Freezing off never has to be rebuilt.
Conclusion
Valheim's status effects are all specific numbers behind vague icons. On the helpful side, Resting (+200% health, +300% stamina, +300% Eitr) is the strongest buff in the game and converts into Rested (+50% / +100% / +50% XP / +100% Eitr) after twenty seconds, while Corpse run grants 0.25× physical damage taken, +5 hp/sec and +150 carry weight exactly when you have nothing. On the harmful side, Wet (−25% health regen, 1.5× Frost and Lightning), Cold (−50%) and Freezing (−100% and 1 damage per second) form a clear ladder, Smoked deals 2 damage per second with no audio warning, and Feeling sick undoes one consumed food every two seconds. And the set bonuses hide a real cost: Berserk and Vilebone Wrath both add +25% damage taken from Blunt, Slash and Pierce in exchange for their offence — a trade the tooltip never frames as one.
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