Every Valheim Armour Set: All 16, and Only Six Are Just a Number
Valheim has sixteen armour sets, and only six of them do nothing but add armour. The other ten carry an effect — a skill bonus, a damage resistance, an Eitr boost or a regeneration buff — and several of those effects matter more than the armour number attached to them. Fenris weighs one per piece against Wolf's fifteen. Ask is a light set that out-armours Padded. This guide lists all sixteen with real values, marks every movement penalty, and says which of the ten bonuses are worth changing your build for.
On sourcing. Iron Gate do not publish system documentation. The figures below come from the community wikis and can change with any patch.
The Six Heavy Sets
Values are per piece, across the four upgrade levels.
| Set | Biome | Armour per piece | Effects |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bronze | Black Forest | 8 – 14 | −5% movement speed |
| Iron | Swamp | 14 – 20 | −5% movement speed |
| Wolf | Mountain | 20 – 26 | −5%, 0.5× Frost damage |
| Padded | Plains | 26 – 32 | −5% movement speed |
| Carapace | Mistlands | 32 – 38 | −5% movement speed |
| Flametal | Ashlands | 38 – 44 | −5%, +20% Heat Resistance |
Every heavy set costs 5% movement speed — including Flametal. Its breastplate and greaves both list −5% alongside the heat resistance; only the helmet carries no penalty. There is no heavy set that escapes the tax.
The heavy ladder is remarkably even at roughly six armour points per tier per piece, from Bronze's 8–14 to Flametal's 38–44. Within this ladder there is no tier that leaps ahead and none you can safely skip.
Flametal's bonus is heat, not frost. It gives +20% Heat Resistance for the Ashlands, which is a different thing from Wolf's 0.5× Frost damage — the two are not a matched pair.
The Eight Light Sets
| Set | Biome | Armour per piece | Weight per piece | Effects |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rag | Meadows | 1 – 2 | 2 | — |
| Leather | Meadows | 2 – 8 | 1 – 5 | — |
| Troll | Black Forest | 6 – 12 | 1 – 5 | +15 Sneak (set bonus) |
| Bear | Black Forest | 7 – 13 | 1 – 5 | Berserk — see below |
| Root | Swamp | 8 – 14 | 3 – 10 | −2% speed, 0.5× Pierce (harnesk), 0.5× Poison (mask), 1.5× Fire, +15 Bows (set) |
| Fenris | Mountain | 10 – 16 | 1 | +3% speed, 0.5× Frost, +15 Fists (set) |
| Vilebone | Plains | 12 – 24 | 1 – 5 | Vilebone Wrath — see below |
| Ask | Ashlands | 28 – 34 | 1 – 5 | Ask's Endurance (full set) |
Fenris weighs one per piece. Against Wolf armour's 15 per chest piece, a full Fenris set is a fraction of the load — and it adds 3% movement speed where every heavy set removes five. It is the only armour in the game that makes you faster.
Ask is a light set that beats a heavy one. At 28 – 34 it out-armours Padded's 26 – 32, at 5 weight against 10, with no movement penalty at all.
Vilebone is not uniform. Its visage is 12 – 18 while the cage and drapes are 18 – 24, so the set's average sits below what its chest piece suggests.
Root's resistances are split across pieces, not applied set-wide: the harnesk resists Pierce, the mask resists Poison, and every piece is weak to Fire at 1.5×.
The Two Mage Sets
| Set | Biome | Armour per piece | Effects |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eitr-weave | Mistlands | 16 – 22 | +20% Eitr regen (hood), +40% (robe and trousers), −2% speed |
| Embla | Ashlands | 19 – 25 | +30% Eitr regen (hood), +50% (robe and trousers), −2% speed |
Mage armour trades roughly half the armour value for Eitr regeneration. Eitr-weave's 16 – 22 sits well under Carapace's 32 – 38 from the same biome, and Embla's 19 – 25 is barely half of Flametal's 38 – 44.
Their movement penalty is −2%, not −5%, which is the same tax the Root set pays and less than half what heavy armour costs.
The Ten Sets With Bonuses
| Set | Bonus |
|---|---|
| Troll | +15 Sneak skill |
| Bear | Berserk — +30% health regen, +15% stamina regen, +25% weak to Blunt, Slash and Pierce, +10% Slash and Chop |
| Root | +15 Bows, 0.5× Pierce, 0.5× Poison, 1.5× Fire |
| Fenris | +15 Fists, 0.5× Frost, +3% movement speed |
| Wolf | 0.5× Frost damage |
| Vilebone | Vilebone Wrath — +20% health regen, +40% stamina regen, +25% weak to Blunt, Slash and Pierce, +20% Blunt, +20% Pierce |
| Eitr-weave | +20% to +40% Eitr regen |
| Embla | +30% to +50% Eitr regen |
| Ask | Ask's Endurance (full set) |
| Flametal | +20% Heat Resistance |
Only six sets are purely a number: Rag, Leather, Bronze, Iron, Padded and Carapace. Everything else changes something about how you play.
Two of the bonuses are a trade, not a gift. Both Bear's Berserk and Vilebone's Wrath make you 25% weaker to Blunt, Slash and Pierce — the three physical damage types — in exchange for their regeneration and damage bonuses. That is a genuine defensive downgrade, and it is why they read as glass-cannon sets rather than upgrades.
The Troll set's +15 Sneak is still the standout of the early game, because it changes how you play rather than how much you survive. Sneaking costs 5 stamina per second, and Sneak levels reduce that by 0.75% per level up to −75% — so +15 free levels is a real head start on a slow skill.
Wolf armour halving frost damage has the best timing in the game: you craft it in the Mountain, the biome whose environmental damage is frost, and it makes the Moder fight considerably more forgiving — Moder's Cold Breath does 200 Frost and its airborne shotgun carries 200 Frost per icicle. Fenris halves frost too, from the same biome, at a fraction of the weight.
Choosing a Set
Every biome from the Black Forest onward offers a real choice, which is the thing the old "one tier per biome" reading misses:
- Black Forest — Troll, Bear or Bronze. Bronze is ahead on armour at 8 – 14; Troll costs no speed and gives +15 Sneak; Bear trades 25% more physical damage taken for regeneration.
- Swamp — Root or Iron. Iron's 14 – 20 beats Root's 8 – 14, but Root gives +15 Bows, half Pierce damage and only −2% speed. Root is also 1.5× weak to Fire, which the Swamp does not punish but the Ashlands would.
- Mountain — Fenris or Wolf. Both halve Frost. Wolf gives 20 – 26 at 15 weight and −5% speed; Fenris gives 10 – 16 at 1 weight and +3% speed. That is the sharpest trade in the game.
- Plains — Vilebone or Padded. Padded's 26 – 32 against Vilebone's 12 – 24 and a 25% physical weakness.
- Mistlands — Eitr-weave or Carapace. Half the armour for +40% Eitr regen, which is not optional if you are casting.
- Ashlands — Ask, Embla or Flametal. Ask at 28 – 34 is light and unpenalised; Flametal at 38 – 44 is the armour ceiling; Embla is the mage answer.
Two things armour does not do, and both catch people out:
- Armour does not raise your health. That is entirely food — you have 25 health with nothing eaten regardless of what you are wearing.
- Armour does not affect your stagger bar, which is 40% of maximum health — so again, food. A well-fed player in Iron guards better than a starving player in Carapace.
Five percent sounds small until you stack it with encumbrance. You cannot dodge while overencumbered, and movement speed feeds into how much ground you cover before a wind-up lands — which is the real reason light sets outlive their armour values.
How to Choose Armour
- Upgrade a full set at a time. Mixed pieces average out badly, and several bonuses are full-set bonuses.
- Pick the axis before the tier. Heavy for blocking, light for dodging and stealth, mage for casting.
- Craft Wolf or Fenris before fighting Moder — the frost halving is the point.
- Remember every heavy set costs −5% movement speed, Flametal included.
- Read Bear and Vilebone as trades, not upgrades — both add 25% physical damage taken.
- Fix your food before you fix your armour — health and stagger both come from food.
Practical tips
- Sixteen sets: six heavy, eight light, two mage. Only six are purely an armour number.
- Every heavy set is −5% speed, Flametal included. Mage and Root are −2%. Fenris is +3%.
- Fenris weighs 1 per piece against Wolf's 15, and both halve Frost.
- Ask (light, 28 – 34) out-armours Padded (heavy, 26 – 32).
- Bear and Vilebone add +25% weakness to Blunt, Slash and Pierce.
- Armour never raises health or the stagger bar — food does both.
Running your own Valheim server
Armour tiers are group logistics as much as personal progression — a full set per player means a lot of ore, and the smelting happens whether or not anyone is watching. A gamever Valheim server keeps that base and its smelters live for up to 10 players, so the metal is ready when the group is. One-click backups protect a stocked forge, and automatic updates keep client and server aligned.
Conclusion
Valheim has sixteen armour sets — six heavy, eight light and two mage — and only six of them are purely an armour number: Rag, Leather, Bronze, Iron, Padded and Carapace. The heavy ladder runs evenly at about six points per tier — Bronze 8–14, Iron 14–20, Wolf 20–26, Padded 26–32, Carapace 32–38, Flametal 38–44 — and every one of them costs −5% movement speed, Flametal included, whose bonus is +20% Heat Resistance rather than frost. The light and mage sets are where the design lives: Fenris weighs 1 per piece, adds 3% speed and halves Frost; Ask at 28–34 out-armours heavy Padded; Root trades armour for +15 Bows and half Pierce damage at only −2% speed; Eitr-weave and Embla give up roughly half their armour for +40% and +50% Eitr regen; and Bear and Vilebone buy regeneration with a flat +25% weakness to Blunt, Slash and Pierce. Every biome from the Black Forest on offers a genuine choice, and none of it changes the two things armour never does: raise your health, or your stagger bar — both of which come entirely from food.
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