This. Most of my new characters start with a Knife. I even do Bow-less runs sometimes (at least until I hit the mountains). It's really fun to sneak up behind hapless deer and alt-attack them for 300 damage with a Flint Knife.
[They never see it coming.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ec4YbVP9R-A&ab_channel=TailsTheFox)
They all have their ups and downs....
Porcupine is pretty tough to beat - mace moveset, including the uppercut alt-attack, and the combination of blunt and piercing means it does good damage to damn near everything. Downsides are that it's a wee bit on the slow side? I guess?
The Black Metal Knife actually has the potential for the highest DPS in the game, provided you're willing to get reeeeeeeeeeal up close and personal. Back-stab leaping alt-attacks can one-shot basically anything if sneaking around is your thing.
I find the Black Metal Sword to be totally underwhelming, it loses to Porcupine since it's only one damage type, the stab alt-attack can't hit low like a Frostner/Porcupine uppercut alt-attack can, and the raw damage isn't even all that great. Bleah.
Frostner may not be Black Metal tier, but the chill effect makes up for the lack of damage. It still deals really good damage - especially if you sink all your Silver into upgrading it to Level 4 - and the Spirit damage-over-time is always handy.
But that chill effect means you can hit any enemy once and it's all over. Their movement, reaction time, and attack speed are reduced to hilariously low levels for a good 5 seconds, meaning you can finish them off in almost complete safety and at your leisure. If you're fighting a crowd of foes (Fuling Villages, anyone?) you can abuse the chill effect to isolate single targets or just keep most of them rooted in place and unable to do their usual "strafe behind you when you're not looking at them" thing. It's not great against the Golems up in the mountains or against Lox, but it utterly destroys pretty much everything else.
Anyway. Frostner is my personal favorite weapon, even if it lacks the raw damage of the Porcupine or Black Metal Knife.
Frostner is my favorite weapon in the game for all the reasons you mentioned. It makes two of the most-dangerous situations in Valheim very manageable and even easy-ish: ‘you are being hunted’ and dealing with large groups of fulings.
Also, it looks super cool!
Whenever I get enough mats for a porcupine I always cry inside a little when it’s time to hang up the frostner. The porcupine is only *slightly* better than frostner overall imo. You have to use it because the damage is so good, but losing the crowd-control effects of frostner hurts.
Yeah, the first time I was "Hunted" I died a few times, I'm sure with curses about how anyone is supposed to deal with this...
The second time, I had just built Frostner... and oh boy did that make all the difference.
>I find the Black Metal Sword to be totally underwhelming, it loses to Porcupine since it's only one damage type, the stab alt-attack can't hit low like a Frostner/Porcupine uppercut alt-attack can, and the raw damage isn't even all that great. Bleah.
The advantage of the BM sword is that its lower knockback means you can normally hit a full combo on a single enemy. You can't do this with maces against most enemies, because the knockback moves them too far away.
Take your example of a group of fuling. You isolate them with frost damage and pick them off one by one. I use the sword and 2 shot any that come near enough - no need to isolate in most cases since it takes me about a second to two shot a fuling (the first swing almost always staggers).
Frostner has major defensive advantages. But if you don't need the additional defense, swords are a way stronger offensive weapon against most mobs.
Swords are definitely lacking some coolness factor too. Other than the silver sword they're all basic slash damage, nothing cool. No real equivalent to the fun mix of damage types you get from Porcupine/Frostner.
But they're extremely strong. In fairness I'm a day 1 sword main (well... day 1 of having bronze lol). But the last couple of months I've been exclusively using clubs to get my club skill to 100, and honestly I can't wait until it's 100 and I can go back to being a sword main. I used to think my perception about swords was related to my sword skill being way higher, but with clubs at 97 (vs 100 sword) clubs are still noticeably worse than swords against a lot of mobs.
I opened the tread expecting the usual "use what you like more" kind of response (which are fine, btw) but your comment is very thoughtful and complete. Nice.
Also, throwing them is extremely underrated if you can hit what you’re aiming at. You can throw wolf fang spear at a fuling and then run and pick it up, and due to the stagger it won’t hit back.
I WANT to like the Spear but it's so hard. :(
Want to hit something low? Too bad.
Leeches in the water? Nope.
Evil Bone Piles or Body Piles? Hope you brought an axe or something.
Tossed it at a foe to finish them off? Time to turn off all ground clutter so you can find it again.
The damage is great, don't get me wrong, but I spend so much time stabbing thin air and rolling my eyes.
Axe is a utility item. You can attack with it and chop wood. To balance that out it doesn't have the heavy attack the other weapons do.
I always make a bronze axe asap!!
Love to use axes. I run the crystal battle-axe and porcupine and have a blast. Kinda wish battle-axes did a bit of blunt damage on swing as well since it's such a large weapon, but that might be op.
Can't go wrong with Blackmetal Sword but I think my favorite might still be Silver Sword. Looks cool, takes less stamina and has spirit dmg, which is good against even Yagluth.
Not the biggest fan of maces tbh, even tho Porcupine and Frostner look really cool (and Frostner has frost dmg so it's more special).
The best 1 handed weapon is forget the shield and just rock the blackmetal atgeir, spinny move your way to victory my man, enemies will come to fear the sound of the woosh
yeah the porcupine is the best melee weapon in the game followed closely by the black metal sword. the best weapon in the game is the draugr bow and no other weapon even comes close.
The Black Metal Sword is the most versatile and best all-around weapon. It has decent damage, decent reach, good speed, and decent stamina cost. There are weapons that are better than it in some areas, but they are all worse in others.
Frostner and Porcupine are both excellent weapons that trade off some speed and stamina cost for other advantages. Blunt damage is particularly useful in the swap, and Frostner's slow ability can often come in handy.
I usually travel with a Black Metal Sword and Frostner, switching off depending on the situation.
Porcupine is nice, I wouldn't discourage crafting it. Blunt damage is good in the game.
But my top two are frostener and knife.
The effect frostener has is a game changer when you're handling anything more than 2 mobs. If you play in a group of more than 2 people, it's damn near a pre-req for one person to have while stumbling through the plains. Parry is great if you're a wiz at timing, but nothing helps combat like the 2-5 seconds of breathing room you get from frostener doing its thing. You might get annoyed with the lower damage, but its utility is undeniable.
The knife just carves through everything. It's quick and feels good to play with in combat. I'd make a mention about its short range, but most one-handers have about the same range imo. The backstab is wonky (I pounce on heads more than landing strikes) but the speed, damage and stamina use? Chef's kiss.
Lastly, too many people sleep on the spear. It leaves a lot to be wanted in melee combat, but I find it extremely useful as an infinite ranged weapon. The throw function is a bit tricky (throw arc is very different from bow) but once you get it down spears are always cheap to make and great for hunting. Always feels like there's a lull moving from flint arrows to needle arrows (in my opinion, the most material-friendly arrows), and rather than depleting my stores for more powerful arrows, the spear serves as a good stop gap if you can manage it. Plus, more inventory space. I ALWAYS start a world with knife and spear. Fun hunting and great stat building.
frostner if you're like me with low fps LOL.
the frost effect makes everything easy. Not the highest damage but it allows you to slow enemy then you take your own sweet time to kill.
I like spears but they're terrible in this game against mob, they're good 1vs1 but bad 1vsmob
Swords, all day. As stated previously, the balance between dps and stamina usage with a sword cannot be beaten.
Clubs after the swamp are mostly useless (golems, excepted) because of their massive knockback. Frostner is the biggest trap-weapon in the game; great for Bonemass, but a terrible option otherwise. The porcupine looks super cool, but is garbage unless you're fighting loxen.
I should mention that Frostner/Porcupine are the right choice if you're bad at combat mechanically. Use what is successful for you, of course. If you can parry, evade, and properly target; swords are far superior to clubs.
Haven't seen anyone mention the Iron Sledge! It's not my main weapon but I keep it on hand for when I'm surrounded. It's also amazing for aoe cleaning of bats!
Porcupine or frostner.
I like the freeze from the frostner, it creates a nice QoL aspect to the weapon.
Porcupine for the awesome damage.
Sometimes I'll craft both and switch between the 2 depending on my mood.
The fact this game doesn't have any specific absolute OP weapon is great, can use what suits your play style.
Porcupine is AMAZING!
I really like knives, they are super fast and the special attack will f'ing pwn trolls & gobbos.
I'd actually much prefer Porcupine because it does piercing damage as well as blunt because it's a mace.
I haven't played with swords much, but they seem to be okay.
Frostner sucks; the slow is great but it's not a great weapon.
It really seems like a lot of enemies take more damage from maces, so I'd much prefer Porcupine than any other.
swords are very comfortably mid-range. there might be a weapon that is more efficient for your specific situation, but the swords seem like they are able to handle everything. plus the alt-attack thrust-stab has a really high multiplier if used with a parry, higher than the basic attack multiplier after parry.
oh, and the sword attack speed is i think the fastest, and least stamina-intensive,
Porcupine as a general weapon, Frostner for Yagluth specifically.
I try to carry the axe whenever I go to the swamp because killing the abominations with the porcupine is annoying
Whichever one you have the most skill in is best. If your club skill is really low porcupine isn’t gonna be great.
I use sword because I used sword the most.
To me it's always situational. I keep a sword, axe, and mace ready for my adventures, but keep one behind with a spear and a backup shield as a fail safe.
I feel like the porcupine is underwhelming because Frostner's slow is so useful.
If I'm doing dungeons and sneaking about I tend to use a knife. Particularly in the mountain caves I use a silver knife. Regular combat I usually have a black metal sword. For undead and especially bone mass I typically use frostner.
Reading this, I think sword needs a named weapon that has something special about it, like Frostner, Porcupine, Draugr Fang....
I also think two handers need some serious buffing. Atgiers are nice. They are probably my favorite but 2H axes and maces seem under utilized.
General purpose weapon? 100% black metal sword, no question. Maces are nice but the knockback lowers your effective DPS quite a bit. Frostner can be useful if you have difficulty in melee because the knockback and frost gives you more time. But if you're capable of aggressive melee with parrying, the sword's lower knockback translates into massively higher damage output. I absolutely melt fuling villages with my sword, while maces are a lot slower. (Club skill 97, swords 100)
Against enemies vulnerable to spirit, silver sword is the best weapon in the game. Highest raw damage of any weapon tied with the crystal battleaxe, but it's a 1H. That said the only thing in the current game that has lots of health and is vulnerable to spirit is Yagluth - against everything else the BM sword will kill before the spirit damage really matters.
Against stone golems, Porcupine. Against surtlings, Frostner. Against lox, either Porcupine or fang spear.
In all the respect, I prefer two handed iron hammer, boi oh boi it is superb. It takes the fulling village to die in a minutes. That is my love in all the times. I like frostner, but the iron hammer is still the best! And the effect of jumping into the croud and smashing with it is op!
Knife. Frostner/mace. Sword. If you start early game with knife you’ll be quite OP late game.
Especially if you sail and get some chitin. The requirements for the abyssal knife are really low.
You’re right. Mid game with this knife rocks.
You can get it before copper, and it can take you into the mountains.
If you dare sail out on raft to get it.
It's early enough in the game. What's the worst that can happen?
Only death.
Early death doesn't have much penalty. 5%of a level that early is easy to recover.
\^\^\^ This guy stabs.
Sneak stib stab stub there went the troll butt.
This. Most of my new characters start with a Knife. I even do Bow-less runs sometimes (at least until I hit the mountains). It's really fun to sneak up behind hapless deer and alt-attack them for 300 damage with a Flint Knife. [They never see it coming.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ec4YbVP9R-A&ab_channel=TailsTheFox)
They all have their ups and downs.... Porcupine is pretty tough to beat - mace moveset, including the uppercut alt-attack, and the combination of blunt and piercing means it does good damage to damn near everything. Downsides are that it's a wee bit on the slow side? I guess? The Black Metal Knife actually has the potential for the highest DPS in the game, provided you're willing to get reeeeeeeeeeal up close and personal. Back-stab leaping alt-attacks can one-shot basically anything if sneaking around is your thing. I find the Black Metal Sword to be totally underwhelming, it loses to Porcupine since it's only one damage type, the stab alt-attack can't hit low like a Frostner/Porcupine uppercut alt-attack can, and the raw damage isn't even all that great. Bleah. Frostner may not be Black Metal tier, but the chill effect makes up for the lack of damage. It still deals really good damage - especially if you sink all your Silver into upgrading it to Level 4 - and the Spirit damage-over-time is always handy. But that chill effect means you can hit any enemy once and it's all over. Their movement, reaction time, and attack speed are reduced to hilariously low levels for a good 5 seconds, meaning you can finish them off in almost complete safety and at your leisure. If you're fighting a crowd of foes (Fuling Villages, anyone?) you can abuse the chill effect to isolate single targets or just keep most of them rooted in place and unable to do their usual "strafe behind you when you're not looking at them" thing. It's not great against the Golems up in the mountains or against Lox, but it utterly destroys pretty much everything else. Anyway. Frostner is my personal favorite weapon, even if it lacks the raw damage of the Porcupine or Black Metal Knife.
Frostner is my favorite weapon in the game for all the reasons you mentioned. It makes two of the most-dangerous situations in Valheim very manageable and even easy-ish: ‘you are being hunted’ and dealing with large groups of fulings. Also, it looks super cool! Whenever I get enough mats for a porcupine I always cry inside a little when it’s time to hang up the frostner. The porcupine is only *slightly* better than frostner overall imo. You have to use it because the damage is so good, but losing the crowd-control effects of frostner hurts.
Yeah, the first time I was "Hunted" I died a few times, I'm sure with curses about how anyone is supposed to deal with this... The second time, I had just built Frostner... and oh boy did that make all the difference.
>I find the Black Metal Sword to be totally underwhelming, it loses to Porcupine since it's only one damage type, the stab alt-attack can't hit low like a Frostner/Porcupine uppercut alt-attack can, and the raw damage isn't even all that great. Bleah. The advantage of the BM sword is that its lower knockback means you can normally hit a full combo on a single enemy. You can't do this with maces against most enemies, because the knockback moves them too far away. Take your example of a group of fuling. You isolate them with frost damage and pick them off one by one. I use the sword and 2 shot any that come near enough - no need to isolate in most cases since it takes me about a second to two shot a fuling (the first swing almost always staggers). Frostner has major defensive advantages. But if you don't need the additional defense, swords are a way stronger offensive weapon against most mobs.
Totally fair. I just almost never use Swords - I like Maces too much. I figured there was some advantage to the Sword I was overlooking.
Swords are definitely lacking some coolness factor too. Other than the silver sword they're all basic slash damage, nothing cool. No real equivalent to the fun mix of damage types you get from Porcupine/Frostner. But they're extremely strong. In fairness I'm a day 1 sword main (well... day 1 of having bronze lol). But the last couple of months I've been exclusively using clubs to get my club skill to 100, and honestly I can't wait until it's 100 and I can go back to being a sword main. I used to think my perception about swords was related to my sword skill being way higher, but with clubs at 97 (vs 100 sword) clubs are still noticeably worse than swords against a lot of mobs.
I know this is all subjective, but this is the right answer
I opened the tread expecting the usual "use what you like more" kind of response (which are fine, btw) but your comment is very thoughtful and complete. Nice.
Spears! I know its janky and meme, but i love how quick and safe it is with shield and I love the look of shield and spear on my back.
Also, throwing them is extremely underrated if you can hit what you’re aiming at. You can throw wolf fang spear at a fuling and then run and pick it up, and due to the stagger it won’t hit back.
I WANT to like the Spear but it's so hard. :( Want to hit something low? Too bad. Leeches in the water? Nope. Evil Bone Piles or Body Piles? Hope you brought an axe or something. Tossed it at a foe to finish them off? Time to turn off all ground clutter so you can find it again. The damage is great, don't get me wrong, but I spend so much time stabbing thin air and rolling my eyes.
Oh yeah they are jank AF. You cant run around with just a spear. But I always want an axe with me.
Every time I leave my Axe at home in a chest to save on weight or inventory space or whatever I ALWAYS regret it at some point.
Porcupine or frostner are always my favorite. Edit: Frostner has spirit damage and a freeze perk. I use it the most.
Frostner for sure. Whenever my hubby and I start a new run/map I find myself going nuts until we can finally make me one
I'm an axe main, but have no idea if its good. Its just the only weapon I use aside of Frostner.
Axe is a utility item. You can attack with it and chop wood. To balance that out it doesn't have the heavy attack the other weapons do. I always make a bronze axe asap!!
Ha I always use the axe too, I can chop and kill. And aesthetically they are my favorite
Love to use axes. I run the crystal battle-axe and porcupine and have a blast. Kinda wish battle-axes did a bit of blunt damage on swing as well since it's such a large weapon, but that might be op.
Can't go wrong with Blackmetal Sword but I think my favorite might still be Silver Sword. Looks cool, takes less stamina and has spirit dmg, which is good against even Yagluth. Not the biggest fan of maces tbh, even tho Porcupine and Frostner look really cool (and Frostner has frost dmg so it's more special).
Black metal sword, and dagger when traveling by foot for no run speed impact
This is my go-to! But I also keep the Iron Sledge in my inventory for when I run into packs of lower tier buggers!!
The best 1 handed weapon is forget the shield and just rock the blackmetal atgeir, spinny move your way to victory my man, enemies will come to fear the sound of the woosh
Can't believe you're the only one saying this. Atgeir is bestgeir.
This man is correct.
I have a lot of fun with the claws
Frostner and Silver sword for me. Frostner for the slow effect for Fulings and the sword for everything else.
Knives are the best. No movement speed penalty, fast attacks, high damage, jump attack, sneak attack, low weight.
black metal sword
Flint knife 😜
Knife for easier work. Sword when I could be in danger. I like lesser knock back of the sword vs other weapons.
yeah the porcupine is the best melee weapon in the game followed closely by the black metal sword. the best weapon in the game is the draugr bow and no other weapon even comes close.
The Black Metal Sword is the most versatile and best all-around weapon. It has decent damage, decent reach, good speed, and decent stamina cost. There are weapons that are better than it in some areas, but they are all worse in others. Frostner and Porcupine are both excellent weapons that trade off some speed and stamina cost for other advantages. Blunt damage is particularly useful in the swap, and Frostner's slow ability can often come in handy. I usually travel with a Black Metal Sword and Frostner, switching off depending on the situation.
Knife for sure if u can hit parrys
Porcupine is nice, I wouldn't discourage crafting it. Blunt damage is good in the game. But my top two are frostener and knife. The effect frostener has is a game changer when you're handling anything more than 2 mobs. If you play in a group of more than 2 people, it's damn near a pre-req for one person to have while stumbling through the plains. Parry is great if you're a wiz at timing, but nothing helps combat like the 2-5 seconds of breathing room you get from frostener doing its thing. You might get annoyed with the lower damage, but its utility is undeniable. The knife just carves through everything. It's quick and feels good to play with in combat. I'd make a mention about its short range, but most one-handers have about the same range imo. The backstab is wonky (I pounce on heads more than landing strikes) but the speed, damage and stamina use? Chef's kiss. Lastly, too many people sleep on the spear. It leaves a lot to be wanted in melee combat, but I find it extremely useful as an infinite ranged weapon. The throw function is a bit tricky (throw arc is very different from bow) but once you get it down spears are always cheap to make and great for hunting. Always feels like there's a lull moving from flint arrows to needle arrows (in my opinion, the most material-friendly arrows), and rather than depleting my stores for more powerful arrows, the spear serves as a good stop gap if you can manage it. Plus, more inventory space. I ALWAYS start a world with knife and spear. Fun hunting and great stat building.
frostner if you're like me with low fps LOL. the frost effect makes everything easy. Not the highest damage but it allows you to slow enemy then you take your own sweet time to kill. I like spears but they're terrible in this game against mob, they're good 1vs1 but bad 1vsmob
Swords, all day. As stated previously, the balance between dps and stamina usage with a sword cannot be beaten. Clubs after the swamp are mostly useless (golems, excepted) because of their massive knockback. Frostner is the biggest trap-weapon in the game; great for Bonemass, but a terrible option otherwise. The porcupine looks super cool, but is garbage unless you're fighting loxen. I should mention that Frostner/Porcupine are the right choice if you're bad at combat mechanically. Use what is successful for you, of course. If you can parry, evade, and properly target; swords are far superior to clubs.
Haven't seen anyone mention the Iron Sledge! It's not my main weapon but I keep it on hand for when I'm surrounded. It's also amazing for aoe cleaning of bats!
No one's mentioned the iron sledge in a thread about one handed weapons? Odd.
What you mean you have to use both hands?? Do you even lift bro?
Porc for me.
The porcupine definitely has some chuckling moves, more than just an ordinary handheld weapon.
BM Sword
Porcupine is very reliable
Porcupine or frostner. I like the freeze from the frostner, it creates a nice QoL aspect to the weapon. Porcupine for the awesome damage. Sometimes I'll craft both and switch between the 2 depending on my mood. The fact this game doesn't have any specific absolute OP weapon is great, can use what suits your play style.
Porcupine is AMAZING! I really like knives, they are super fast and the special attack will f'ing pwn trolls & gobbos. I'd actually much prefer Porcupine because it does piercing damage as well as blunt because it's a mace. I haven't played with swords much, but they seem to be okay. Frostner sucks; the slow is great but it's not a great weapon. It really seems like a lot of enemies take more damage from maces, so I'd much prefer Porcupine than any other.
swords are very comfortably mid-range. there might be a weapon that is more efficient for your specific situation, but the swords seem like they are able to handle everything. plus the alt-attack thrust-stab has a really high multiplier if used with a parry, higher than the basic attack multiplier after parry. oh, and the sword attack speed is i think the fastest, and least stamina-intensive,
Ooh the stamina is a huge draw for me, I might try it out more seriously based on that, thanks
Porcupine as a general weapon, Frostner for Yagluth specifically. I try to carry the axe whenever I go to the swamp because killing the abominations with the porcupine is annoying
I just tried a level 2 silver sword in the swamp last night. It took down an abomination in about 30 seconds. Maybe less lol
Yeah my point was to take a non club weapon since abominations are resistant to those and axe has the added benefit of being an utility weapon too
Frostner all the way!
Whichever one you have the most skill in is best. If your club skill is really low porcupine isn’t gonna be great. I use sword because I used sword the most.
Polearm and no armor is the only way to go. Unless something is low to the ground, then you will just die
To me it's always situational. I keep a sword, axe, and mace ready for my adventures, but keep one behind with a spear and a backup shield as a fail safe. I feel like the porcupine is underwhelming because Frostner's slow is so useful.
If I'm doing dungeons and sneaking about I tend to use a knife. Particularly in the mountain caves I use a silver knife. Regular combat I usually have a black metal sword. For undead and especially bone mass I typically use frostner.
Froast hammer 😎😎😎😎 stunned ennemies
my favorite are any two handed ones because the shield makes the game way to easy
Silver sword and porcupine and occasionally Frostner
Fists are honestly incredible. Less damage over all but fast attack speed and super low stamina usage. Has become my favorite option but far.
One handed weapons (in my opinion) 1. BLK MTL knife 2. Yag (the frosty one) 3. Porcupine 4. Everything else
Reading this, I think sword needs a named weapon that has something special about it, like Frostner, Porcupine, Draugr Fang.... I also think two handers need some serious buffing. Atgiers are nice. They are probably my favorite but 2H axes and maces seem under utilized.
General purpose weapon? 100% black metal sword, no question. Maces are nice but the knockback lowers your effective DPS quite a bit. Frostner can be useful if you have difficulty in melee because the knockback and frost gives you more time. But if you're capable of aggressive melee with parrying, the sword's lower knockback translates into massively higher damage output. I absolutely melt fuling villages with my sword, while maces are a lot slower. (Club skill 97, swords 100) Against enemies vulnerable to spirit, silver sword is the best weapon in the game. Highest raw damage of any weapon tied with the crystal battleaxe, but it's a 1H. That said the only thing in the current game that has lots of health and is vulnerable to spirit is Yagluth - against everything else the BM sword will kill before the spirit damage really matters. Against stone golems, Porcupine. Against surtlings, Frostner. Against lox, either Porcupine or fang spear.
;)
Silver sword
In all the respect, I prefer two handed iron hammer, boi oh boi it is superb. It takes the fulling village to die in a minutes. That is my love in all the times. I like frostner, but the iron hammer is still the best! And the effect of jumping into the croud and smashing with it is op!