Magic in Valheim: Every Staff, Its Eitr Cost, and Why Frost Is the Only Sustained One
The Staff of Frost costs 5 Eitr per cast. The Staff of Embers costs 35. That is a seven-fold difference in a system where your Eitr bar refills at 2 to 4 per second — one staff you can hold the trigger on, and the other costs about ten seconds of regeneration every time you press the button. Understanding that gap is the whole of playing a mage in Valheim, and almost nothing in game tells you the numbers.
On sourcing. Iron Gate do not publish system documentation. The figures below come from the community wikis and can change with any patch. This article covers the five Elemental Magic staves. The three Blood Magic staves — Dead Raiser, Trollstav and Staff of Protection — work on a different resource entirely, charging health as well as Eitr, and are covered separately in Blood Magic in Valheim.
The Five Elemental Staves
| Staff | Eitr cost | Damage | Station |
|---|---|---|---|
| Staff of Frost | 5 | 30 Frost (→ 36 at quality 4), knockback 10 | Galdr Table L1 |
| Dundr | 25 | 20 Lightning (→ 29 at quality 4) | Galdr Table L2 |
| Staff of Fracturing | 30 | 12 Blunt + 12 Fire | Galdr Table L2 |
| Staff of Embers | 35 | 120 Blunt + 120 Fire (→ 138 Fire at quality 4) | Galdr Table L1 |
| Staff of the Wild | 55 | 20 Blunt + 20 Poison, summons up to 10 Roots | Galdr Table L2 |
Crafting materials:
- Staff of Embers — Yggdrasil Wood ×20, Surtling Core ×4, Refined Eitr ×16
- Staff of Frost — Yggdrasil Wood ×20, Freeze Gland ×4, Refined Eitr ×16
- Dundr — Ashwood ×10, Flametal ×4, Celestial Feather ×3, Bloodstone ×1
- Staff of Fracturing — Charred Bone ×15, Ashwood ×5, Proustite Powder ×8
- Staff of the Wild — Ashwood ×15, Fiddlehead ×10, Celestial Feather ×3, Jade ×1
Note the split by tier. The two Mistlands staves — Embers and Frost — cost Refined Eitr ×16 each and unlock at Galdr Table level 1. The three Ashlands staves need Flametal, Proustite Powder, Jade and Bloodstone, and require level 2.
And every one of these costs less as you level. The wiki notes for each staff that "damage and eitr usage are dependent on the caster's Elemental magic skill level" — so the figures above are the baseline, and a high-skill mage pays less than the table says. Iron Gate publish no scaling table, so treat these as the worst case rather than the fixed price.
What That Costs in Regeneration
Eitr regenerates on a formula that rewards an empty bar:
2 + 2 × (1 − remaining ÷ max)
So you regenerate 4 per second at zero Eitr and 2 per second at full — and regeneration starts one second after you stop casting.
Now convert the staff costs into seconds of standing still:
| Staff | Cost | ≈ Seconds of regeneration |
|---|---|---|
| Staff of Frost | 5 | just over a second |
| Dundr | 25 | ~8 s |
| Staff of Fracturing | 30 | ~10 s |
| Staff of Embers | 35 | ~10 – 12 s |
| Staff of the Wild | 55 | ~15 – 18 s |
This reframes the whole staff list. The Staff of Frost is a sustained weapon — at 5 Eitr against a regeneration of up to 4 per second you can very nearly hold the trigger, which is why its per-hit damage is modest at 30. Everything else is a burst weapon you fire, then wait to afford again.
The Staff of Embers is the extreme case: 240 total damage per cast (120 Blunt + 120 Fire), for ten seconds of regeneration. That is enormous burst and terrible sustain — the mage equivalent of a two-handed weapon.
And the Staff of the Wild is a different thing entirely. At 55 Eitr it summons up to 10 Roots lasting 23 – 25 seconds, which is area denial rather than damage. You pay once and the field fights for you.
The Galdr Table
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Materials | Black Metal ×10, Yggdrasil Wood ×20, Black Core ×5, Refined Eitr ×5 |
| Upgrade levels | 4 |
| Upgrades | Rune Table, Unfading Candles, Feathery Wreath |
| Total recipes | 17 |
The upgrade materials are worth flagging because two of them need trophies: Unfading Candles needs 3 Skeleton Trophies, and the Feathery Wreath needs an Asksvin Trophy and 8 Celestial Feathers. See trophies — this is another reason not to feed them to the Obliterator.
The Galdr Table makes far more than staves. It is also the only source of:
- The Eitr-weave set — Robe, Trousers, Hood
- The Embla set — Robes, Trousers, Hood
- The Feather Cape and the Asksvin Cloak
- The Sealbreaker, which opens The Queen
That last item matters even if you never cast a spell. The Sealbreaker is a hard progression gate, and it comes from the magic bench — so every player builds a Galdr Table, mage or not.
Gear That Pays for Casting
Magic gear in Valheim increases regeneration rather than the size of the bar, which fits the cost analysis above — you are buying casts per minute, not casts per bar.
| Source | Eitr regeneration |
|---|---|
| Eitr-weave Hood | +20% |
| Eitr-weave Robe | +40% |
| Eitr-weave Trousers | +40% |
| Embla Hood | +30% |
| Embla Robes | +50% |
| Embla Trousers | +50% |
| Pulsating Earrings (trinket) | +25% |
| Rested | +100% |
| Resting (sitting by a fire) | +300% |
| The Queen's Forsaken Power | +100% |
| Lingering Eitr Mead | +25% |
Stack those and the economy changes completely. A full Embla set is +130%, plus Rested at +100% and The Queen's power at +100% — which turns a base of 2 – 4 per second into something several times larger, and moves the Staff of Embers from a burst weapon toward a usable primary.
The other half of the equation is food. Eitr-providing foods exist only from the Mistlands onward — Marinated Greens, Seeker Aspic and similar — so a mage build genuinely cannot start before that biome.
And note what reduces regeneration: swimming stops it entirely, blocking is ×0.8, freezing ×0.4, cold ×0.75 and wet ×0.85. A mage in the Mountain without frost resistance is regenerating at 40%.
How to Play a Mage
- Build the Galdr Table — you need it for the Sealbreaker regardless.
- Start with the Staff of Frost. At 5 Eitr it is the only sustained-fire staff in the game — every other staff costs five to eleven times as much.
- Take the Staff of Embers for burst — 240 damage per cast, at 10 seconds of regeneration.
- Wear Eitr-weave, then Embla — regeneration is what you are buying, not bar size.
- Be Rested. +100% Eitr regeneration — and Resting, while you are actually sitting by a fire, is +300%, the largest multiplier in the game.
- Keep frost resistance in the Mountain — freezing cuts regeneration to 40%.
Practical tips
- Staff of Frost costs 5 Eitr; Staff of Embers costs 35. One is sustained, the other is burst.
- Eitr regen is 2 + 2 × (1 − remaining/max) — 4 per second at empty, 2 at full.
- Staff of Embers drops from 35 to 24 Eitr at maximum Elemental Magic skill.
- Staff of the Wild summons 10 Roots for 23 – 25 seconds — area denial, not damage.
- The Galdr Table also makes the Sealbreaker, so every player builds one.
- A full Embla set is +130% Eitr regeneration, before Rested and The Queen's power.
Running your own Valheim server
A mage build is the most gear-dependent path in Valheim — Refined Eitr, two armour sets and a bench that takes Black Cores to raise. A gamever Valheim server keeps that workshop and its materials available for up to 10 players, so the Eitr refinery someone set up keeps producing between sessions. One-click backups protect a build that spans two biomes, and automatic updates keep client and server aligned.
Conclusion
Valheim's five Elemental Magic staves span a thirty-five-fold range in Eitr cost: the Staff of Frost at 1 Eitr for 30 Frost damage, Dundr at 25 for Lightning, Staff of Fracturing at 30, the Staff of Embers at 35 — falling to 24 at max skill — for a huge 120 Blunt + 120 Fire, and the Staff of the Wild at 55, which summons up to 10 Roots for 23 – 25 seconds. Because Eitr regenerates at 2 + 2 × (1 − remaining ÷ max), or 2 – 4 per second, the Staff of Frost is effectively free to fire continuously while everything else is a burst weapon costing eight to eighteen seconds of standing still. All of them come from the Galdr Table (Black Metal ×10, Yggdrasil Wood ×20, Black Core ×5, Refined Eitr ×5), which also makes both mage armour sets, the Feather Cape and the Sealbreaker — so every player builds one. And magic gear buys regeneration, not bar size: a full Embla set is +130%, before Rested and The Queen's power add +100% each.
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