The Meadows in Valheim: Three Creatures With 5, 10 and 20 Health
Valheim's starting biome is genuinely gentle, and the numbers show exactly how gentle. The Neck has 5 health. The Boar has 10. The Greyling has 20. Between them that is 35 health for the entire Meadows roster — less than a single Greydwarf, and a fraction of the 150-health Brute waiting in the Black Forest. Two of the three are also the first things you will tame and the first things you will eat.
On sourcing. Iron Gate do not publish system documentation. The figures below come from the community wikis and can change with any patch.
All Three
| Neck | Boar | Greyling | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Health 0★ / 1★ / 2★ | 5 / 10 / 15 | 10 / 20 / 30 | 20 |
| Weak to | Fire | — | Very weak: Fire |
| Resistant to | Poison | — | Poison |
| Immune to | Spirit | Spirit | Spirit |
| Stagger threshold | 50% | 50% | 30% |
| Attack | — | 10 Blunt | 5 Slash |
| Tameable | No | Yes | No |
| Drops | Neck tail 70%, trophy 5% | Boar meat, Leather scraps, trophy | Resin |
The Boar attacks for 10 Blunt and the Greyling for 5 Slash. Those are the two highest numbers in the biome, and neither will kill a starting character with 25 base health in fewer than three hits.
All three are immune to Spirit and two of the three resist Poison — inherited faction traits rather than meaningful defences at this scale, since everything here dies to one or two hits regardless.
Fire Works on Two of Three
The Neck is weak to Fire and the Greyling is very weak to it — the stronger of the two grades. That is a preview of the Black Forest, where every Greydwarf variant is very weak to Fire, and it means a torch is a legitimate weapon in the opening hours.
The Boar has no weakness and no resistance at all. Like the Fulings much later, it takes normal damage from everything — which at 10 health is entirely academic.
What Each One Is Actually For
The Boar is the food and leather engine. It drops Boar meat and Leather scraps, and it is tameable — the first tameable creature in the game and the one that teaches the mechanic. A boar pen producing meat and scraps indefinitely is the single most valuable thing a new player can build, and it costs almost nothing.
The Neck is the tail supply. Its Neck tail drops at 70% at zero stars, rising to 2 guaranteed at one star and 4 at two. Neck tails feed the Poison Resistance Mead base — Honey 10, Thistle 5, Neck tail 1, Coal 10 — which is the item that makes the Swamp survivable. A creature with 5 health gates a biome three tiers later.
The Greyling drops Resin. Resin fuels torches and standing braziers, and at 20 health with a 5 Slash attack the Greyling is essentially a resin node that walks toward you.
The Star Tiers Matter More Than the Base Values
| Creature | 0★ | 1★ | 2★ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neck | 5 | 10 | 15 |
| Neck tail | 70% | 2 | 4 |
| Boar | 10 | 20 | 30 |
A 2★ Neck gives four Neck tails against a 70% chance of one from a base Neck — a swing of roughly six times, from a creature that goes from 5 health to 15. That is the best effort-to-reward ratio anywhere in Valheim's early game, and it costs one extra arrow.
The Boar's tripling to 30 health at two stars matters for a different reason: starred boars can be tamed and bred like any other, and a 2★ breeding pair passes its tier on. A pen of 2★ boars is more resilient to a raid than a pen of base ones.
What This Means for a New World
- Pen boars first. Tameable, renewable, and they supply both food and leather. Prefer starred ones if you find them.
- Shoot Necks rather than chasing them. At 5 health one arrow does it, and the 70% tail rate means you want volume.
- Do not skip starred Necks. Four tails against a 70% chance of one.
- Use fire on Greylings. They are very weak to it, which is the same grade the entire Black Forest Greydwarf family shares.
- Bank Neck tails early. They are one of four ingredients in Poison Resistance Mead, which you will want long before you think you will.
- Nothing here can meaningfully hurt you. 10 Blunt and 5 Slash are the biome's worst attacks.
Running your own Valheim server
A boar pen breeding while you are offline is the first thing a persistent world does for you that a local save cannot. A gamever Valheim server keeps it running for up to 10 players, with one-click backups.
Conclusion
Valheim's Meadows roster is three creatures totalling 35 health at base — Neck 5, Boar 10, Greyling 20 — with the biome's hardest attacks being a 10 Blunt boar charge and a 5 Slash greyling swipe. Fire works on two of the three: the Neck is weak to it and the Greyling is very weak, the same grade every Black Forest Greydwarf shares, while the Boar has no weakness or resistance at all. Each supplies one early necessity — the Boar is the first tameable creature and the source of meat and Leather scraps; the Greyling drops Resin for torches; and the Neck drops Neck tails at 70%, which feed the Poison Resistance Mead that makes the Swamp survivable three biomes later. The star tiers are where the value sits: a 2★ Neck gives four tails against a 70% chance of one, roughly a six-fold swing for one extra arrow, and starred boars breed true, making a 2★ pen at 30 health each far more raid-resistant than a base one.
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