Valheim's map is filled with dangerous creatures. Even if Valheim players build a house, enemies can still attack their fortifications and cause damage to their home and their crafting stations. Therefore, great home defenses are necessary to keep safe.
Defending the Homestead
Players' homes will face some invaders from time to time; some creatures will attack their walls and fortifications any time they wander by. But Valheim also features special incursions that bring several dangerous enemies to their homes to cause mayhem. Depending on how far along a player is in the story and what biome their home is in, one of nine possible events can happen. Players will know an event has started when one of several sentences will appear on their screens:
- The Forest is Moving - Greydwarves, Greydwarf Shamans, and Brutes will attack
- The Earth is Shaking - Several trolls, usually with tree trunks as weapons, will invade the area and attack any player-made buildings
- There's A Smell of Sulphur in the Air - Surtings will invade, and players can kill them for their Surtling Cores
- Skeleton Surprise - Skeletons will attack
- You are Being Hunted - Wolves will invade
- The Horde is Attacking - A player's base will be attacked by Fulings, Fuling Berserkers, and Fuling Shamans
- A Cold Wind Blows from the Mountains - Drakes will invade
- Eikthyr Rallies the Creatures of the Forest - Meadows creatures will attack, like board and Greylings
- A Foul Smell from the Swamp - This invasion is mostly Draugr and Skeletons
This makes fortifying a home necessary, ensuring that no matter what attacks, players are ready.
Best Defenses Early Game
Early game, players won't have to worry about much. While Greylings, boars, and Greydwarves can damage structures, they most likely won't do much again a basic wall build from the wooden fencing around a home. Once a player has core wood in Valheim, they can also build Sharp stakes around the wall to kill anything that comes close by. In the morning, they will be able to reap the benefits of these defenses by picking up all the loot dropped from enemies killed.
Best Defenses Mid to Late Game
After players begin to take on the later bosses in Valheim and explore the more dangerous biomes, they will need to start building better defenses. Trolls can smash through sharp spikes and walls easily, especially if they are armed. Therefore, players will have to be a little more crafty.
The best defense is to either build up the ground or dig deep. Trenches or dirt walls are impassable to creatures in the current versions of Valheim. While the game is currently in early access and this is subject to change, it's a great strategy for the time being. Using a pickaxe to build a moat around a home or using the hoe to raise the ground into a dirt wall will both make a home inaccessible to anything that doesn't fly. The moats have the advantage of making it easy to pick off some of the enemies at a safe distance with a good bow, allowing players to pick up the spoils after the invasion is over.
Unfortunately, there's not much players can do against Drakes; there are no flying defenses in Valheim just yet. Killing them with arrows or just fixing whatever they damage is still the best way to deal with them. And killing the drakes gives the added benefit of making it more likely to get one of the Drake trophies, a rare drop from Drakes that can be made into a strong helm.
Valheim is currently in Early Access for PC only.
Source: Fandom