Race overview
Seven races, plus the option to stay Human. They are not balanced against each other — each one bends a different rule of the game, and how strong that feels depends entirely on what you were finding annoying about vanilla.
At a glance
| Race | Fantasy | Signature mechanic | Transforms into |
|---|---|---|---|
| Skeleton | Undead warrior | No stamina bar at all; cannot eat mortal food | — |
| Skadi | Child of the mountain | Frost immunity and real, aimed flight | Drake · Moder · Skeleton Dragon |
| Fenrir | Cursed wolf-blood | Beast melee forms; wolves ignore you | Wolf · Ulv · Fenring · Cultist |
| Aswid | Vampire | Blood magic with no eitr cost; day/night duality | Bat · Mist |
| Furling | Goblin opportunist | 2× combat XP forever; doubled drops and yields | — |
| Trol | Mountain brute | Enormous size, carry weight, thrown boulders | True Form (tree-wielding) |
| Draugh | Swamp undead | Eats only raw flesh; physical resistance | — |
How they eat
Food is the rule Races of Valheim breaks most often, and it is usually the first thing you notice.
| Race | Diet |
|---|---|
| Skeleton | Cannot eat at all. Max health comes from boss kills instead |
| Aswid | Consumes fallen enemies directly; 4th stomach slot for prey |
| Draugh | Raw meat, eyes, entrails and blood only — cooked food is rejected |
| Trol | Normal food, but unlocks a 4th and 5th stomach slot |
| Furling | Normal food, but eitr foods last twice as long at the Queen tier |
| Fenrir | Normal food; physical kills auto-consume edible enemies |
| Skadi | Normal food |
Stamina and eitr
| Race | Stamina | Eitr |
|---|---|---|
| Skeleton | None — no bar, no cost | Normal |
| Aswid | Infinite | Blood magic items cost no eitr (health only) |
| Skadi | Normal | +50% regen at Yagluth; dragon breath costs eitr |
| Others | Normal | Normal |
Who leaves you alone
Two races change monster aggression.
- Fenrir — wolves, ulvs, fenrings and cultists never treat you as an enemy, at any tier.
- Aswid — creatures stop attacking you progressively as you advance: boars at Eikthyr, bears at The Elder, leeches/ghosts/wraiths at Bonemass, wolves at Moder, lox/deathsquitos at Yagluth, hares/gjalls at The Queen, and asksvin/voltures/valkyries at Fader.
Difficulty of play
Rough guidance, not a ranking:
- Simplest — Furling and Draugh. Passive bonuses, no keys to learn.
- Middle — Skeleton and Trol. One or two abilities, but a rewritten survival loop.
- Most involved — Skadi, Fenrir and Aswid. Multiple transformation keys, forms with their own attack sets, and timings that depend on day/night or cooldowns.
Picking up the details
Every race page follows the same layout: the fantasy, the base kit you get at tier 1, a tier-by-tier unlock table, the controls, and the mechanics that are easy to miss.
For the keys themselves across all races at once, see Key bindings.