Leeches in Valheim: 60 Health, and Immune to Fire, Spirit and Stagger
The Leech has 60 health, which is less than a Greydwarf Shaman. It is also immune to Fire, immune to Spirit, and immune to stagger entirely — and its bite lands 70 Poison on top of 20 Pierce. It is the clearest example in Valheim of a creature whose threat has nothing to do with its health bar.
On sourcing. Iron Gate do not publish system documentation. The figures below come from the community wikis and can change with any patch.
The Numbers
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Location | Swamp — in water |
| Faction | Undead |
| Health (0★ / 1★ / 2★) | 60 / 120 / 180 |
| Attack | Bite: 20 Pierce, 70 Poison |
| Resistant to | Poison |
| Immune to | Fire, Spirit, Stagger |
| Drops | Bloodbag (1 / 2 / 4), Leech trophy (10%) |
The immunity list is the entire creature. Three things you would normally reach for do nothing:
- Fire immunity removes the answer that works on every Black Forest enemy. Fire Arrows, torches and burning ground are all wasted.
- Spirit immunity rules out the spirit component of Frostner — 35 Blunt, 40 Frost, 20 Spirit — so a fifth of that weapon's output is discarded. Its Blunt and Frost still land, which is why Frostner remains the best Swamp club regardless.
- Stagger immunity is the one that actually kills people. A Leech cannot be interrupted. There is no window, no knockback, no moment where it stops biting because you hit it hard enough. Every other early enemy in Valheim can be staggered; this one cannot.
Why the Poison Is the Problem
The bite does 20 Pierce and 70 Poison. The Pierce is almost irrelevant — 20 damage against Bronze armour is a scratch. The 70 Poison is the whole threat, and Valheim's poison mechanic has two properties worth knowing exactly.
Poison does not stack. This is the part most players get backwards. When a poison attack lands, the game checks how much damage the existing effect still has left to deal; if the new attack is larger, the effect is re-created at the new value, and if it is smaller, the incoming damage is simply ignored. Three Leeches biting you does not apply three poisons. It applies one, at the value of the biggest.
Poison lasts twice as long against players and ticks for half. The duration formula uses a multiplier of 5 against players and 1 against enemies, which stretches the same total damage over roughly double the time at half the per-tick rate. That is why Leech poison feels like a slow bleed rather than a burst, and why you usually have time to react — if you have something to react with.
Resistance is locked in at the moment of application. All resistances, including Poison Resistance Mead, are applied when the effect is created and ignored on every subsequent tick. Drinking the mead after you have been bitten does nothing for the poison already ticking. It has to be up before you enter the water.
The correct answer is therefore prevention, and it has two parts: Poison Resistance Mead drunk in advance, and not being in the water.
Fighting Them, and Not Fighting Them
- Stay out of Swamp water. This is not caution, it is the mechanic. Leeches are aquatic; on land they are not a threat because they are not there.
- Bring Poison Resistance Mead, and drink it early. The base is Honey x10, Thistle x5, Neck tail x1 and Coal x10, fermented into 6 meads granting very resistant vs. Poison for 600 seconds, on a 600-second cooldown. Resistance only counts if it is active when the bite lands.
- Use a bow from the bank. 60 health dies to two arrows, and Pierce is not resisted. Shooting Leeches out of the water before you cross is free.
- Do not rely on stagger. It has none. If you engage in melee, you are trading hits with something that never flinches.
- Do not bring fire or spirit damage. Both are fully ignored.
- Watch for the starred versions. 120 and 180 health with the same immunity list, and the Bloodbag yield doubles and quadruples.
What Bloodbags Are For
| Drop | 0★ | 1★ | 2★ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bloodbag | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| Leech trophy | 10% | 10% | 10% |
Bloodbags are a guaranteed drop at every tier, which is unusual — most Valheim creatures gate their useful material behind a percentage. They are also used in more places than their description suggests:
| Use | Item |
|---|---|
| Building | Red banner |
| Food | Black soup, Blood pudding, Swamp dweller's delight |
| Mead bases | Frost resistance, Medium healing |
Mead base: Frost resistance is the entry that matters, because Frost Resistance Mead is what makes the Mountain survivable before you have Wolf armour. The Leech you avoided in the Swamp is a prerequisite for the biome after it. A 2★ Leech handing over four Bloodbags at a time makes deliberate farming worthwhile once you know that.
The 10% trophy rate is on the low side and identical across all three tiers, so stars do not help you there.
Where They Fit in the Swamp
The Swamp's threat list is unusually well differentiated, and the Leech occupies a specific corner of it: low health, no stagger, water-bound, poison-heavy. That combination means it does not scale with your gear the way Draugr do. A player in full Iron armour with a Silver sword still takes near-full poison damage from a Leech bite, because the mechanic that hurts you is not the one your armour reduces.
This is why Poison Resistance Mead stays in the loadout long after the rest of your Swamp kit has been replaced. The Leech does not get easier; you just stop swimming.
Running your own Valheim server
Swamp runs are a group activity — one player pulling, another watching the water — and that needs a world that holds its state between sessions. A gamever Valheim server keeps that world persistent for up to 10 players, with one-click backups.
Conclusion
The Leech has just 60 health at zero stars — less than a Greydwarf Shaman — and is dangerous entirely because of what it ignores. It is immune to Fire, immune to Spirit, and immune to stagger, so the Black Forest answer does not work, a fifth of Frostner's output is discarded, and there is no interrupt window at all. Its bite lands 20 Pierce and 70 Poison, and Valheim's poison behaves in three ways worth knowing: it does not stack — a second bite is ignored unless it exceeds the damage still pending — it lasts about twice as long against players and ticks for half, and resistance is locked in when the effect is created, so mead drunk after the bite does nothing for the poison already running. That makes the counters preventative: Poison Resistance Mead up before you enter the water (Honey x10, Thistle x5, Neck tail x1, Coal x10 for six meads at 600 seconds each), staying out of Swamp water, and shooting them from the bank where 60 health dies to two arrows and Pierce is not resisted. Bloodbags drop guaranteed at 1, 2 and 4 across the star tiers, and they matter beyond the Swamp — Mead base: Frost resistance is what makes the Mountain survivable — while the trophy sits at 10% regardless of stars.
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