Every Valheim Weapon Class and the Damage Type It Deals
Every boss guide tells you which damage type to bring. Almost none tell you which weapons actually deal it. That gap is why players turn up to Bonemass with a spear — reasoning that a spear is a strong weapon, not noticing it is a Pierce weapon and that Bonemass takes a quarter damage from Pierce. This is the missing table, and it produces one finding that should change how you pick a main weapon: Pierce is penalised by four of the game's seven bosses.
On sourcing. Iron Gate do not publish system documentation. The figures below come from the community wikis and can change with any patch.
Every Weapon Class, One Damage Type
| Class | Damage type |
|---|---|
| Swords | Slash |
| Axes | Slash + Chop |
| Clubs and maces | Blunt |
| Spears | Pierce |
| Polearms (atgeirs) | Pierce |
| Knives | Slash + Pierce |
| Bows and crossbows | Pierce (plus the arrow's own type) |
Chop is not a combat damage type — it is what fells trees. Axes deal Slash in a fight and Chop against wood, which is why an axe doubles as a tool and why The Elder's power (+60% chop) is a woodcutting buff rather than a combat one.
Some weapons add a second type on top of their class. A few worth knowing:
- Frostner — Blunt 35 + Frost 40 + Spirit 20
- Porcupine — Blunt 50 + Pierce 45
- Mistwalker — Slash 75 + Frost 40
- Silver Sword — Slash 75 + Spirit 30
- Jotun Bane (axe) — Slash 80 + Poison 40
- Himminafl (atgeir) — Pierce 85 + Lightning 40
These hybrids are how you escape a resistance. A Frostner used against Bonemass is not a Blunt weapon being lucky — it is a weapon whose two largest components are both multiplied by 1.5.
Pierce Is the Problem
Line up the seven bosses against Pierce and a pattern appears that nobody mentions:
| Boss | Pierce multiplier |
|---|---|
| Eikthyr | ×1 — no resistances at all |
| The Elder | ×1 |
| Bonemass | ×0.25 |
| Moder | ×1 |
| Yagluth | ×0.25 |
| The Queen | ×0.5 |
| Fader | ×0.5 |
Four of the seven resist Pierce, two of them severely. And bows, spears and atgeirs are all Pierce weapons — which means a player who mains any of those three is fighting uphill against more than half the boss roster, including both of the endgame bosses.
This is not an argument to abandon bows — see the arrow section below, because arrows change the maths. It is an argument against spears and atgeirs specifically, which have no such escape hatch: their damage is pure Pierce with no elemental component to carry it.
If you are choosing a melee main and you intend to fight bosses, a spear is the weakest structural choice in the game.
Blunt Is Never Resisted
Run the same exercise for Blunt, and the result is the mirror image:
| Boss | Blunt multiplier |
|---|---|
| Eikthyr | ×1 — no resistances |
| The Elder | ×1 |
| Bonemass | ×1.5 — boosted |
| Moder | ×1 |
| Yagluth | ×1 |
| The Queen | ×1 |
| Fader | ×1 |
No boss in the game resists Blunt, and one of them takes extra. That makes clubs and maces the safest weapon class in Valheim for boss content — never punished, occasionally rewarded, and requiring no ammunition or elemental planning.
Slash sits just behind it. Only Bonemass resists Slash, at ×0.5, and nothing else does — so swords and axes are strong everywhere except one fight, and that fight has an obvious substitute.
The honest ranking for boss fights, purely on resistance exposure:
- Blunt — never resisted, boosted once.
- Slash — resisted once, at half.
- Pierce — resisted four times, twice at a quarter.
Arrows Carry Their Own Type
Arrow damage is added to the bow's damage before any resistance is applied — and each damage type is then resisted separately. That single rule rescues archery.
| Arrow | Split |
|---|---|
| Fire Arrow | 11 Pierce + 22 Fire |
| Frost Arrow | 26 Pierce + 52 Frost |
| Poison Arrow | 26 Pierce + 52 Poison |
| Silver Arrow | 52 Pierce + 20 Spirit |
| Plain arrows (Wood → Charred) | Pure Pierce, 22 to 82 |
Look at the Frost Arrow. Two thirds of its damage is Frost, not Pierce. Against Bonemass, that Frost half is multiplied by 1.5 while only the small Pierce half is quartered — so frost arrows remain a genuinely viable ranged option against a boss that supposedly hard-counters bows.
The same logic runs through the roster:
- The Elder takes ×2 from Fire — fire arrows are the correct answer.
- Bonemass takes ×1.5 from Frost — frost arrows work despite the Pierce penalty.
- Yagluth resists Fire ×0.5 and Pierce ×0.25 — frost arrows, never fire.
- Moder is immune to Frost and weak to Fire — the reverse of Bonemass.
Plain arrows are pure Pierce and take the full penalty, which is why "bring a bow" and "bring the right arrows" are different pieces of advice.
How to Use This Table
- Check the boss's resistances first, then pick the class that is not penalised.
- Default to Blunt if you want one weapon that is never wrong.
- Avoid spears and atgeirs for boss content — pure Pierce with no elemental escape.
- Carry two arrow types, one plain and one elemental, if you shoot at all.
- Look for hybrid weapons — Frostner, Porcupine, Himminafl — when a resistance blocks your main.
- Remember Chop is not combat damage. An axe's Slash is what matters in a fight.
Practical tips
- Bows, spears and atgeirs are all Pierce — and four of seven bosses resist Pierce.
- No boss resists Blunt, and Bonemass takes ×1.5 from it. Clubs are the safe main.
- Only Bonemass resists Slash, so swords and axes are strong nearly everywhere.
- Arrow damage is added before resistances, so the arrow's special half escapes the Pierce penalty.
- Frostner is Blunt + Frost — the reason it is the canonical Bonemass weapon.
- Chop damage fells trees; Slash fights. Axes do both.
Running your own Valheim server
Weapon choice is a group decision as much as a personal one — a party that all mains Pierce will find the last two bosses considerably harder than it needs to be. A gamever Valheim server keeps the world live for up to 10 players, so a group can spread damage types across its members and swap loadouts between attempts without waiting on a host. One-click backups and automatic updates protect the gear behind those choices.
Conclusion
Valheim's weapon classes map cleanly to damage types: swords deal Slash, axes Slash plus Chop, clubs and maces Blunt, spears and atgeirs Pierce, knives Slash plus Pierce, and bows Pierce plus whatever the arrow carries. Line that up against the seven bosses and one pattern dominates — Pierce is resisted by four of them, twice at ×0.25 — which makes spears and atgeirs the weakest structural choice for boss content, since their damage is pure Pierce with nothing to carry it. Blunt is resisted by nobody and boosted by Bonemass, making clubs the safest main in the game, with Slash penalised only once. Archery escapes the trap because arrow damage is added before resistances are applied, so a Frost Arrow's 52 Frost dodges the Pierce penalty entirely. Check resistances, then pick the class — not the other way round.
Want a group that can cover every damage type? Rent a Valheim server at gamever.io — instant setup, one-click backups and updates, and 24/7 uptime. Start with a free trial and use promo code WELCOME.