As you’re playing Valheim, you’re likely to take damage from various sources of danger, and you may even die as a result of your in-game actions.
In most games, you don’t want to allow your character to die as there tends to be penalties as a result, and Valheim is no exception to this rule. To explain further, we’ve put together a quick overview of what happens when you die in Valheim.
Valheim | What Happens When You Die
The quick answer to the question of what happens when you die in Valheim is you respawn in your bed or at the starting location in the game if you don’t have a bed at the time of your death. Anything you were carrying will be dropped where you died and marked on your map by a skull and crossbones.
When you return to that location, you’ll see a glowing stone that you can interact with in order to collect the items you had with you before you died.
Given that you can retrieve your items and not lose anything, it may seem that death isn’t too bad in Valheim. Unfortunately, the biggest penalty for death is one that’s not immediately obvious and that’s skill level reduction.
Specifically, you’ll lose 5% of the progress made to your skill levels when you die in Valheim. Like your items, this can also be regained, but it’s a slightly slower process and one that can be a real pain especially towards the beginning of the game.
If you haven’t died in the game yet and are looking to avoid activities that can result in death, it’s worth noting that there are a variety of interesting ways in which you can die in Valheim.
For example, as you’re chopping down trees to gather Wood, you can die if the tree falls down on top of you so be sure to step to the side and out of the way of any falling trees.
You can also die from smoke inhalation if you fail to properly vent your Campfire. The best way to mitigate this is to learn how to build yourself a little makeshift chimney. Fall damage can happen if you take a wrong step over a cliff, and you can die from drowning.
Obviously there are cooler ways to die in Valheim including during a boss fight, or when challenging a particularly tough batch of enemies. The longer you play, the more aware you’ll become of potential hazards which can help you avoid death and the annoyance of having to collect your dropped items on top of the skill level progress lost.
To recap, when you die you’ll respawn in your bed (the last place you slept) or at the starting area of the game. The items you were carrying will drop and be marked on your map by a skull and crossbones. You will also experience a 5% loss in skill level progress.
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