Lox

0:35 The Lox is a huge, shaggy, tameable beast of the Plains in Valheim, a bison-sized grazer with a lizard's scaly head whose name joins "lizard" and "ox". Lox roam in herds of two or three, never spawn with stars and graze quietly on cloudberries, but a Viking who comes close is charged, bitten and stomped by an animal with 1,000 health. They are also among the most useful animals of the mid game: they drop the meat for Lox Meat Pie and the pelts for the Lox cape, they can be tamed with Plains crops, they breed, and since the Hearth & Home Update they can be saddled and ridden. The biome's other creatures are on Plains Creatures.

Quick facts

Figures from the Lox page of the Valheim Wiki.

How to kill a Lox

0:48 A lox sees and hears only about fifteen meters, half the range of most enemies, so it can be approached for a sneak attack; Samo opens with a knife's backstab, or with an atgeir's secondary attack, which staggers it, followed by the three-hit combo. Because it resists blunt and slash, swords and maces do little, while bows, spears, atgeirs and the pierce-heavy Porcupine do full damage, and fire arrows do half again as much.

A lox always opens with its stomp: it rears on its hind legs and slams down, hitting everything within 2.5 meters every twelve seconds, and the chop and pickaxe damage flattens walls, fences and trees. Between stomps it bites every four seconds. The stomp reaches past a narrow ditch, so a lox does not need to cross one to wreck what is behind it. Lox fight while swimming, which makes them a hazard to boats, and a lox shot from long range may give up the chase and return to its herd (Aggressive creature strategies, Valheim Wiki). They share the Plains faction with fulings and deathsquitos, so the three leave each other alone.

1:18 The safe method for a bow is height. Lox path poorly, so a large boulder, or a pillar of earth raised with the Hoe, lets a player shoot one down from out of reach, though a lox can climb some boulders. It is a common way to take lox meat before the rest of the Plains is safe (Bows, Crossbows and Arrows).

Lox drops

1:50 A killed lox drops four or five Lox Meat, two Lox Pelts and, one time in ten, the Lox Trophy.

Sources: Lox Meat, Lox Meat Pie, Lox Pelt, Lox Cape and Bait, Valheim Wiki; see Food and Cooking and Fishing.

The Bracelets of the Brave, forged from 5 Black Metal, 5 Lox Pelts and the trophy, are a trinket that restores 100 health and adds 20 Clubs skill and 10% blunt damage for a minute once 85 adrenaline has built up (Bracelets of the Brave, Valheim Wiki).

How to tame a Lox

2:38 Lox eat Barley, Cloudberries or Flax. Taming takes 30 minutes of a lox eating while it is not frightened and a player stays within 64 meters; each item keeps it fed for ten minutes. Because approaching a wild lox always frightens it, the easiest "free range" method is to run through a herd dropping cloudberries and back off until it calms down and starts to eat; Samo throws about ten to be safe. The Brew of Animal Whispers (5 Onions, 10 Carrots and a Pungent Pebble from The Bog Witch) halves the time to fifteen minutes (Taming and Brew of Animal Whispers, Valheim Wiki; Farming and Taming).

2:04 A lox left in the open can be killed by the Plains' other residents, so many players trap theirs. Kysen builds his pen of stone, since a lox smashes weaker walls, and closes the gap behind it; Samo, who finds that lox break even stone, prefers a pit about two blocks wide and deep, dragging the lox in with the Abyssal Harpoon. Building the pen at the edge of the Plains, or in a neighboring biome, keeps it safer. Yellow hearts appear while a lox is taming; once tame it can be named, shows pink hearts when it breeds, and joins the player's faction, so fulings and deathsquitos attack it.

Breeding lox

4:16 Two fed, tame lox breed when they are within eight meters of each other, no more than four lox stand within twenty meters and a player is within about 64 meters. They also need headroom: lox use the troll's pathfinding and will not eat under a low roof, so a covered pen needs eight to ten meters of clearance. After a pregnancy of at least two minutes a calf is born, already tame, and grows into an adult in one hour and forty minutes; moving grown lox out of the pen keeps the others breeding (Lox, Valheim Wiki).

Riding a Lox

3:43 The Lox Saddle costs 10 Leather Scraps, 20 Linen Thread and 15 Black Metal at a Workbench. Placed on the hotbar and used on a tame lox, it fits the saddle; the Use key mounts and Shift+Use removes the saddle (Lox Saddle, Valheim Wiki; Carts, Mounts and Vehicles).

5:52 A lox is steered with the camera: one press forward sets it walking, the sprint key speeds it up, back stops it, and it cannot reverse. The rider cannot use weapons, since attacking dismounts, but a stationary lox attacks nearby enemies, and a sprinting one tramples creatures and damages structures. It has 240 stamina, which regenerates slowly (about a point every four seconds when fed, one every ten when hungry), and it heals when fed its favorite food.

7:05 Riding ignores the rider's carry weight, so an overloaded Viking can still sprint home on a lox. Sprinting while mounted trains the Riding skill; every 20 levels makes the mount 5% faster and 10% cheaper to run, up to 25% faster for half the stamina at 100 (Skills).

9:16 Lox swim, though a lox that runs out of stamina in deep water loses health and can drown, and they can be shipped on a longship, where they will jump overboard to fight a serpent.

Lox in Valheim 1.0

2:35 The Valheim 1.0 Release of Sep 9, 2026 gave the lox a new armor set. The Lox Fur Hood needs 4 Lox Pelts, 4 Bone Fragments and 2 Writhan Roots from the Swamp's new Writhan; the Jacket and Trousers each need 5 pelts, 8 Bone Fragments and 2 Root. All three are made at a level 2 Workbench, give 16 armor each, and together grant the Boon of the Lox, +30 Sneak and +15 Bows, which makes it the light set for hunters (Game8; Armor and Capes). A full set takes 14 pelts, the drops of seven lox. The same update made the Deep North's moose, fed on Lingonberries, the fastest mount in the game, while the lox remains the mount of the Plains, fed on its crops (Deep North Creatures).

Haldor keeps a tame lox called Halstein at his camp, and Hildir keeps two, Blåbär and Hallon (Lox, Valheim Wiki). The lox was introduced in Iron Gate's beta news of August 2020, which called it peaceful if left undisturbed, and became rideable with Hearth & Home on Sep 16, 2021 (Beta info and development news and Update: Hearth & Home arrives!, Steam).

Frequently asked questions

Can you tame a Lox? Yes. Feed a wild lox Barley, Cloudberries or Flax while it is calm and stay nearby; after 30 minutes of eating it is tame.

What do Lox eat? Barley, Cloudberries and Flax, all found in the Plains; each item keeps a lox fed for ten minutes.

How long does it take to tame a Lox? Thirty minutes of uninterrupted eating, or fifteen with the Brew of Animal Whispers.

How do you ride a Lox? Craft a Lox Saddle (10 Leather Scraps, 20 Linen Thread, 15 Black Metal) at a Workbench, use it on a tame lox from the hotbar, then press Use to mount and steer with the camera.

How long does a baby Lox take to grow? One hour and forty minutes of game time from birth to adulthood.

Sources

• Lox, Lox Saddle, Taming and Brew of Animal Whispers, Valheim Wiki (weirdgloop)
• Lox Meat, Lox Meat Pie, Lox Pelt, Lox Cape, Bait and Bracelets of the Brave, Valheim Wiki
• Aggressive creature strategies, Valheim Wiki
• Lox, Valheim Wiki (Fandom)
• Lox Fur Hood, Lox Fur Jacket and Lox Fur Trousers, Game8
• Beta info and development news and Update: Hearth & Home arrives!, Iron Gate Studio on Steam
• Press, Iron Gate Studio (Hearth & Home press screenshot)
• How to Use Lox the RIGHT way in Valheim!, Samo (video)
• How To Tame, Breed & Ride Lox in Valheim!, Kysen (video)
• So... Valheim 1.0 Is the Most AMBITIOUS Update EVER, SnazzyGames (video)