In times of combat, having a shield is crucial to survival, especially when dealing with enemies in Valheim. From simple mobs to dangerous bosses, the shield negates as much of the damage you take from a damage source as it possibly can, which ranges to small-time hits to heavy, potentially one-shot attacks. While there are different kinds of shields in the game, the early access nature, as well as the linear gameplay makes things far less complicated to understand which is good, as you’ll only need to know what your playstyle is and what tier your shield is. Learning all the shields is one thing, but knowing which one to get on different parts of the game is the challenge, and with this list, we deflect confusion and understand which shield goes where.
As with the previous lists, this was created using the latest version available at the time of writing (version 0.202.70). The list is ranked worst to best, with shields being grouped to their material tier as the use of different kinds of shields are different for each shields’ use case. Videos shown will either be a full walkthrough of the item or a walkthrough of a core item needed to make the shield that isn’t immediately obtainable or requires that specific item to unlock the shield.
7. Wood Shields (Wood Shield / Wood Tower Shield)
They are by far the easiest to craft and gather and that is all you need for your start in the game. When you go through the Plains, gathering Wood and other necessities, this will be the thing keeping those pesky Graylings at bay, as well as a blocking option for when you hunt aggressive mobs like Neck and Boar, if you are not confident with kiting them. Expect this to be with you for at least the Black Forest phase of the early game.
What Makes the Wooden Shields Great?
Wood Shield:
- Customizable
- More versatile compared to the Wood Tower Shield
- Parry is a plus
Wood Tower Shield:
- Customizable
- Cheap to make early
- Ok blocking for early mobs
