Porcupine

0:14 The Porcupine is a one-handed spiked mace in Valheim that deals blunt and pierce damage together, crafted in the Plains from the needles of Deathsquitos. It is the fifth one-handed club, after the Club, Bronze Mace, Iron Mace and Frostner, and the only weapon of the Plains' black-metal tier that needs no black metal. Iron Gate introduced it in its development news of October 2020 with the words "talk about weaponizing your worst fears", and in the first weeks of early access ESO's guide called it the weapon then widely accepted as the best in the game, because few creatures resist both of its damage types (Development news and new content, Iron Gate; Porcupine, Valheim Wiki).

Quick facts

Sources: Porcupine and Clubs, Valheim Wiki.

How to craft the Porcupine

1:01 Needles are the defining ingredient. Every Deathsquito drops one, and chests in Fuling villages and ruins hold more (Needle, Valheim Wiki; Fuling Villages). The giant mosquitoes are the Plains' first threat: they have only 10 health but lunge for 90 pierce damage, spawn anywhere in the biome up to three at a time, and are immune to stagger (Deathsquito, Valheim Wiki). ESO's advice is to shoot each one as it flies in, or block the sting and answer with a fast weapon, rather than run.

3:08 Linen Thread is the slow part. Its Flax grows wild only in the small fields of Fuling villages, so the first harvest is usually a raid, and ESO recommends starting a flax farm in the Plains as soon as there are seeds to plant (Farming and Taming).

4:07 Flax becomes thread at a Spinning Wheel, built at the Artisan Table that Moder's Dragon Tears unlock: 10 Wood and 2 Dragon Tears for the table, then 20 Fine Wood, 10 Iron Nails and 5 Leather Scraps for the wheel. Each Flax becomes one Linen Thread, about 30 seconds apiece (Linen Thread, Valheim Wiki; Crafting Stations and Upgrades). The Iron comes from the scrap piles of the Swamp's Sunken Crypts, and the Fine Wood from birch and oak (Metals and Smelting).

Porcupine stats and upgrades

Source: Porcupine, Valheim Wiki. The quality 4 upgrade needs a Forge with all six extensions.

4:57 Upgrades raise only the pierce damage, six points a level. At quality 4 the mace hits for 113 in total, 50 blunt and 63 pierce, the same as the 113 slash of a fully upgraded Black Metal Sword (Black Metal Sword, Valheim Wiki). Like other clubs it has a three-hit combo with a double-damage final blow and a slower secondary swing that does 2.5 times the damage and staggers twice as hard, and it blocks with 39 block armor. It glows faintly, even on a Viking's back (Combat).

1:21 The cost is its other selling point. Waffles works out that the whole upgrade path takes 32 Iron, against 80 Black Metal to max the Black Metal Sword, 120 for the black metal atgeir and 120 Silver for Frostner. Because it needs no black metal, it can be made before the first black metal scrap has been hauled home and smelted.

Why the Porcupine is a Plains favorite

12:33 Most weapons in Valheim deal one physical type; the Porcupine is unusual in dealing two. SnazzyGames' weapon guide likes it for exactly that flexibility, and the wiki explains the trade-off: creatures weak to blunt tend to resist pierce and the reverse, so the mace rarely exploits a weakness to the full, but it seldom meets a creature that shrugs off both halves (Porcupine, Valheim Wiki; Damage Types).

1:57 The Plains shows why. The Lox resists blunt, slash and frost, which weakens Frostner and swords, but takes pierce in full, and Fulings resist nothing and are immune only to spirit, so both halves of the Porcupine land (Lox and Fuling, Valheim Wiki). The same pierce makes it good against the Black Forest's Trolls, which resist blunt but are weak to pierce (Plains Creatures).

5:20 In his 2026 ranking SnazzyGames still names the black metal atgeir as the Plains' best weapon for its spinning attack against Fuling crowds, with the dual-damage Porcupine and the Call to Arms Update's Vilebone Maulclaws as the excellent alternatives; he adds that a club's knockback buys space from enemies (Weapons and Shields).

Drawbacks

14:35 The same knockback is the Porcupine's main complaint. Waffles, testing it in the Plains, found that it kept shoving Fulings out of reach before his three-hit combo could land, since its knockback is more than double the Black Metal Sword's; it made a fine crowd-control tool but held back his damage, and he retired it to a display stand.

2:48 It also falls off in the Mistlands. Seekers resist blunt, pierce and slash alike, so both halves of the mace are reduced, and Waffles found the small ticks hard to hit with it. Skeletons and the Plains' Growths are weak to blunt but resist pierce, which wastes part of every blow (Seeker, Skeleton and Growth, Valheim Wiki).

After the Porcupine

The next maces are the Ashlands' Flametal Mace, at 135 blunt, and its gem-fused versions, and in the Valheim 1.0 Release of Sep 9, 2026 the Nord Mace with its Frostfire and Thunderblood refinements (Weapons and Shields). The 1.0 patch left the Porcupine's stats unchanged, but like any weapon it can be refined past quality 4 at the Forge of Potential, at the risk of losing it (Valheim 1.0 Has Arrived!, Iron Gate). Needles keep one other use, the Needle Arrow, the strongest pierce arrow before the Mistlands (Bows, Crossbows and Arrows).

Frequently asked questions

How do you get needles for the Porcupine? Kill Deathsquitos in the Plains, which always drop one Needle each, or loot the chests of Fuling villages. The mace needs 5 Needles to craft and 12 more to reach quality 4.

Does the Porcupine need black metal? No. It is the only Plains-tier weapon made without black metal, from Fine Wood, Iron, Needles and Linen Thread.

What Forge level does the Porcupine need? A level 4 Forge to craft it, and levels 5, 6 and 7 for qualities 2, 3 and 4.

Is the Porcupine good against lox? Yes. Lox resist blunt, slash and frost but not pierce, and the Porcupine's pierce reaches 63 at quality 4.

Porcupine or Frostner? Frostner's frost and spirit suit Bonemass, undead and the Mistlands; the Porcupine's pierce suits the Plains, especially lox, Fulings and trolls. Many players carry whichever matches the biome.

Sources

• Porcupine, Valheim Wiki (weirdgloop)
• Clubs and Black Metal Sword, Valheim Wiki
• Needle, Deathsquito and Linen Thread, Valheim Wiki
• Lox, Fuling, Troll, Seeker, Skeleton and Growth, Valheim Wiki
• Spinning Wheel and Artisan Table, Valheim Wiki
• Development news and new content, Iron Gate Studio (Steam news), Oct 30, 2020
• Valheim 1.0 Has Arrived!, Iron Gate Studio (Steam news), Sep 9, 2026
• Getting The Best Weapon in Valheim Guide! (Porcupine Mace), ESO (video)
• Porcupine 2: The Reckoning, Waffles (video)
• BEST Weapons in Valheim - Ultimate Weapon Guide, SnazzyGames (video)
• Valheims BEST Weapons have FLIPPED in 2026, SnazzyGames (video)