Plains Creatures

3:26 The creatures of the Plains, the fifth biome of Valheim, are the first that can kill a well-equipped Viking in a hit or two. Four species share the yellow grassland: the Fulings, a tribal goblin race that lives in villages and fights as warriors, shamans and berserkers; the lox, huge shaggy grazers that can be tamed and ridden; the deathsquito, a giant mosquito with ten health and a ninety-damage sting; and the growth, a tar blob of the tar pits. A fifth encounter, the open-air Sealed Tower of the Hildir's Request Update, holds the twin mini-bosses Zil and Thungr (Valheim Wiki: Plains). The biome's boss Yagluth and its night predator the Vile are covered on their own pages.

All four species are immune to spirit damage and only the lox and the growth have any other weakness, so the biome is fought with raw damage: an upgraded silver or black metal weapon, the Draugr fang bow and Bonemass's power (Valheim Wiki: Aggressive creature strategies). Players usually arrive in Mountain gear after killing Moder, whose Dragon tear unlocks the Artisan table that processes what these creatures guard (Crafting Stations and Upgrades).

Quick facts

Fulings

0:27 Fulings ("Goblin" in the game files) are small, fast, cackling humanoids who worship Yagluth and live in villages of hide-and-bone huts, from a couple of fenced fields to something close to a town. Villages mix all three Fuling types with lookout towers, bonfires and totem altars, and are the main objective of the biome because barley, flax and Fuling totems are found nowhere else (Valheim Wiki: Fuling Village).

3:45 The common Fuling has 175 health and hits for 85 with whatever it spawned holding: a club (blunt), a sword (slash), a thrown or thrust spear (pierce) or a torch (45 blunt and 45 fire, which sets the target burning). Fulings circle before attacking in bursts of three, hear exceptionally well (felling a tree nearby wakes the village), swim badly, and drop black metal scrap, coins and a trophy at 10% (Valheim Wiki: Fuling). Starred Fulings, with double and triple health, spawn in villages and at night.

0:55 The Fuling shaman has only 100 health but two spells that make it the first target in any fight: a fireball of 20 blunt and 100 fire, and a Protect spell that shields every ally within 6 meters for 100 damage or 40 seconds, effectively tripling a village's health. Striking a shielded creature breaks the shield. Shamans drop black metal scrap, bukeperries and coins (Valheim Wiki: Fuling Shaman).

4:14 The Fuling berserker is as large as a troll and hits harder: 800 health and a club swing of 130 blunt plus 100 chop that flattens huts. Its rage attack is a roar and three overhead slams reaching 6 meters; both attacks can be parried, though a missed parry on a starred berserker (1,600 or 2,400 health) is usually fatal. It drops three or four black metal scrap and is the only regular creature with a chance (10%) of dropping a Fuling totem, five of which summon Yagluth (Valheim Wiki: Fuling Berserker).

3:40 The standard tactic is to pull one Fuling at a time with a bow and fight it out of sight of the village, shooting shamans from stealth and leaving berserkers for last; frost or needle arrows one-shot unaware zero-star Fulings from sneak, and a raised-earth pillar puts a player out of reach. Villages are one-time spawns, but the Plains keep producing Fulings, two by day and up to five by night, and once Yagluth is dead groups of three hunt at night in the Meadows, Black Forest and Mountain too. They also form two Raids and Events: "The horde is attacking!", unlocked by killing Moder, and "They were bros, man.", the Zil and Thungr raid.

Lox

5:08 The lox (lizard plus ox) is a shaggy, horned, bison-sized grazer that wanders the Plains in herds of two or three, eating cloudberries. With 1,000 health, a 130-slash bite and a stomp of 120 blunt and 100 chop that breaks anything built nearby, it is the biome's heaviest hitter and its most valuable animal: it drops four or five Lox meat, two Lox pelts and a trophy at 10%, and never spawns with stars (Valheim Wiki: Lox). Lox are weak to fire and resist blunt, frost and slash, so bows, spears and atgeirs beat swords and maces, and their senses reach only about 15 meters, so a knife backstab is a safe opener. The meat cooks on an Iron cooking station and goes raw into Lox meat pie (Food and Cooking); the pelts make the Lox cape and, since 1.0, Lox Fur armor; the trophy makes Misty fishing bait (Fishing).

2:38 Taming takes about thirty minutes of the lox eating cloudberries, barley or flax within 64 meters of a player while nothing frightens it. Because approaching a wild lox always frightens it, the usual method is to sprint through a herd scattering cloudberries and back off until yellow hearts appear; each item feeds a lox for ten minutes, and a Mead of Animal Whispers from The Bog Witch halves the time. Pens need a pit or stone walls, and the Abyssal harpoon drags a lox in. Two fed lox within 8 meters breed if no more than four lox stand within 20 meters, and a calf matures in one hour and forty minutes; tamed lox join the player's faction and guard a base by destroying everything hostile, and much else, around it (Farming and Taming).

5:33 Riding arrived with the Hearth & Home Update of September 2021. The Lox saddle (10 Leather scraps, 20 Linen thread, 15 Black metal) is placed on a tamed lox from the hotbar and mounted with the Use key; a tap forward starts the lox walking, back stops it, the camera steers, and sprinting draws on the lox's own 240 stamina. A sprinting lox is faster than a running Viking, ignores the rider's carry weight, tramples creatures and damages structures, and cannot reverse or be told to attack (Valheim Wiki: Lox Saddle; see Carts, Mounts and Vehicles). Mounted sprinting raises the Riding skill, which at 100 makes the mount 25% faster for half the stamina. Since the Valheim 1.0 Release the Deep North's Moose, "a faster Lox", has replaced it as the fastest ride (Sportskeeda).

Deathsquitos

7:00 The deathsquito is a hand-sized insect with 10 health whose sting does 90 pierce, enough to kill a Viking in bronze or troll leather outright and stagger one in wolf armor. It flies straight at its target, stings, circles for a few seconds and comes again. Because it does nothing but pierce, gear neutralizes it: the Root harnesk from the Swamp cuts a sting to about ten damage, a shield of 90 block or a parry stops it, a dodge roll into its approach makes it miss, and a single arrow of any kind drops it in the air (Valheim Wiki: Deathsquito).

Deathsquitos spawn only in the Plains, up to three per area, but range over the water at the biome's edge, which is why sailing close to a Plains coast in early gear is dangerous. The Anti-Sting concoction (10 Cloudberries, 3 Grouper, 1 Fragrant bundle, from The Bog Witch Update) makes them circle without attacking for ten minutes (Valheim Wiki (Fandom): Anti-Sting Concoction; Mead and Potions). Every kill drops a Needle, used for Needle arrows and the Porcupine mace, and a trophy 5% of the time (Bows, Crossbows and Arrows).

Growths

5:39 Growths are the black, glistening blobs of the tar pits added in Hearth & Home, and the Plains' only undead: they share the Swamp blobs' faction and attack Fulings, lox and deathsquitos on sight, so a pit beside a village tends to fight itself. Each has 100 health and drops one Tar, the material of darkwood building pieces and the Tar blob bomb, and a trophy at 10%; a pit has up to nine spawn points and two growths respawn every hour even after it is drained (Valheim Wiki: Growth; Materials and Resources).

4:04 A growth has no melee attack. From up to 15 meters it lobs a chain of six tar orbs, each 45 blunt and 50 poison, applying Tarred, which halves movement speed for ten seconds and makes the victim very weak to fire; then it pauses about five seconds before the next volley, and that pause is the window to attack. Blocking negates the damage but still applies the tar and shoves the player back, and only the first orb of a chain can be parried, so guides recommend dodging through the volley: rolling moves at full speed even while Tarred. Growths are weak to blunt and fire, resist pierce, slash and frost, and are immune to poison, so fire arrows, silver weapons and a sneak kill before the group wakes are the standard answers (Valheim Wiki: Aggressive creature strategies).

Hildir's Sealed Tower

13:43 The Sealed Tower is the Plains dungeon of Hildir's Request (August 2023), the third of the three that Hildir marks on her map; Iron Gate's patch notes call it an "open dungeon" (PCGamesN). It is a keep of unbreakable black stone with sealed doors and windows, so the only ways in are a balcony, if the tower has one, or the roof, reached by ladders or stairs built against the wall. Inside, building is disallowed and the player works down five floors of Fulings and shamans, some starred, past traps hidden under straw and rusted gates that break in a couple of hits, to two or three special chests of coins, chain, an egg and amber pearls. Each world holds three towers, 3,000 meters apart (Valheim Wiki: Sealed Tower).

16:45 At the bottom wait Zil and Thungr, the first creatures in the game built to fight as a duo: Zil, a shaman older than his partner, rides on the back of Thungr, a berserker, casting while Thungr swings. Thungr has 4,200 health and hits for 150 blunt and 100 chop, with the berserker's three-slam rage attack at 130 each; Zil has 2,400 health, throws the shaman fireball at anyone who keeps their distance and every 40 seconds shields them both for 100 damage. Neither has a weakness (Valheim Wiki: Zil & Thungr).

17:24 Thungr's slams can be parried like a berserker's, and Zil's pause to cast his shield is free damage; a strong attack removes the shield in one blow. When Thungr dies, Zil drops to the floor and fights like an ordinary shaman with a large health pool, whose fireballs can be dodged sideways or parried. Both drop their trophies, and Zil drops Hildir's bronze chest, a 200-weight item that cannot pass a wooden portal. Returned to Hildir, it upgrades her camp to its final form, unlocks her last clothes and her fireworks, and adds the "They were bros, man." raid, in which the pair and a one-star Fuling horde attack the player's base (Valheim Wiki: Hildir).

Stats at a glance

Zero-star values from the Valheim Wiki creature pages. All are immune to spirit, chop and pickaxe damage.

Changes at 1.0

The Plains creatures were not rebalanced in the Deep North Update (1.0 Patch Notes), but the Lox Fur set (hood, jacket and trousers, 16 armor each, from Lox pelts, bone fragments and roots) is the light set among the four new ones, with a "Boon of the Lox" bonus of +30 Sneak and +15 Bows (BisectHosting; see Armor and Capes), and Yagluth returns in the boss gauntlet before Kall Fimbulbringer.

Frequently asked questions

What is the most dangerous creature in the Plains? The deathsquito. It has only 10 health, but its 90-pierce sting kills a Viking in bronze or troll leather outright and staggers one in wolf armor, and it ranges over the water at the biome's edge.

How do you survive a deathsquito? With gear rather than skill: the Root harnesk from the Swamp cuts a sting to about ten damage, a shield of 90 block or a parry stops it, a dodge roll makes it miss, and a single arrow of any kind drops it in the air.

How do you tame a lox? Let it eat cloudberries, barley or flax within 64 meters of you for about thirty minutes with nothing frightening it. Since approaching a wild lox always frightens it, players sprint through a herd scattering cloudberries and back off until yellow hearts appear.

How do you kill a Fuling berserker? Pull it away from the village and fight it alone. Its club swing and its three-slam rage attack can both be parried, though a missed parry on a starred berserker with 1,600 or 2,400 health is usually fatal.

Where do you get Fuling totems? Five are needed to summon Yagluth. Berserkers drop one about a tenth of the time, and the totems also stand in Fuling villages, which are the only source of barley and flax as well.

Sources

• Plains, Fuling Village, Valheim Wiki (Weird Gloop)
• Fuling, Fuling Shaman, Fuling Berserker, Valheim Wiki
• Lox, Lox Saddle, Deathsquito, Needle, Growth, Tarred, Valheim Wiki
• Aggressive creature strategies, Valheim Wiki
• Sealed Tower, Zil & Thungr, Hildir, Valheim Wiki
• Anti-Sting Concoction, Valheim Wiki (Fandom)
• Valheim Hildir's Request patch notes, PCGamesN
• How to tame and feed Moose in Valheim 1.0, Sportskeeda
• Valheim 1.0 New Armor Sets, BisectHosting
• Press, Iron Gate Studio (screenshot source)