Raids and Events

0:00 A raid is a timed attack on a player's base, Valheim's way of bringing the fight to the player. At intervals the game rolls for a random event; if the roll succeeds and a player is standing near enough of their own build pieces, yellow text announces the attack, a red circle appears on the map, the music changes and waves of creatures spawn in "hunt mode" around the base for a fixed number of seconds. Which raids can happen depends on which bosses the world has defeated, so the threat grows with progression: boars and necks at the start, Fulings after Moder, Seekers and Gjall after Yagluth, the Charred after The Queen. Valheim 1.0 Release added a different kind of event, the Jotun Invasion, which is triggered deliberately, does not end on a timer, and is the key to reaching the final boss Kall Fimbulbringer.

Quick facts

How a raid is rolled

0:51 By default the game checks every 46 minutes of play (about a day and a half in-game) and starts an event with a 20 per cent chance (Valheim Wiki). The timer only runs while someone is on the server, and it pauses when everyone logs off. When the roll succeeds, the game runs three checks to find a valid target: is a player in a biome that at least one enabled raid allows, is that player outside a dungeon, and is the player near a base? If more than one player qualifies, one is chosen at random and the event begins at their position. On a shared server each player is a separate candidate, so a group can be raided more often than a solo player.

4:08 "Near a base" has a precise meaning: within 40 meters of at least three base structures. Roughly two dozen build pieces count, among them the campfire, workbench, bed, portal and chests, so even a modest outpost qualifies. Dungeons such as Burial Chambers, Sunken Crypts and Frost Caves are exempt. The one raid that ignores the base rule is the wolf hunt, which targets players out in the open in the Mountain and Plains.

Inside the red circle

3:12 Every raid is announced by three signs: the yellow message specific to the raid, a red circle on the map showing the affected area, and a change of music that persists only inside the circle. Creatures spawn 40 to 80 meters from the player in hunt mode, marked by a red exclamation mark, so they know where the player is; killing one spawns a replacement after a short interval, as little as two seconds for wolves. Thirteen of the sixteen pre-Ashlands raids spawn only the starless form of each creature; the three Hildir raids are the exception. Raids last 80 to 150 seconds, but the timer only ticks while a player is within an effective radius of 96 meters (the circle drawn is 64 meters), so the fastest way to end one is to stay and fight. When the time runs out the survivors calm down, wander off and eventually despawn.

Base structures also prevent creature spawns within about 20 meters of themselves, which is why workbenches scattered around a base push raid spawns outside the walls. Patch 1.0.14 of Sep 17, 2026 strengthened that effect for some build pieces, and patch 1.0.16 of Sep 25 fixed a bug that could spawn far too many enemies, especially during raids (Iron Gate, Patch 1.0.14; Iron Gate, Patch 1.0.16; Patches Since 1.0). See Building and Structural Integrity for walls, moats and raised earth, and Death and Corpse Runs for what happens when a raid goes wrong.

Army raids and non-army raids

0:15 Raids fall into two families. Army raids are "sent" by the next Forsaken the player is expected to fight, use the creatures of that boss's biome, and are removed from the pool when the boss dies: Eikthyr's boars vanish once Eikthyr is dead and the Elder's greydwarfs take their place. Non-army raids are also unlocked by boss kills, sometimes with the extra condition that a particular creature has died somewhere in the world, and they never leave the pool. A third group, the three Hildir raids, is unlocked by returning her stolen chests and likewise stays forever.

9:31 The pool changes most after Bonemass: his death unlocks six raids at once, including Moder's drakes, the blobs, the skeleton surprise, the surtlings, the bats and the wolf hunt, so a base built for the Swamp tier suddenly needs roofs over its animal pens and archers on its walls. The full list, from the Valheim Wiki, is:

Several raids also force weather: the swamp armies bring rain and the Wet effect, Moder's drakes bring a snowstorm and Freezing, and the surtlings bring a harmless rain of ash (Weather, Cold and Wet). The bat raid can happen in any biome; most of the others are limited to the Meadows, Black Forest, Swamp, Plains and, for the swamp and mountain armies, the Mountain.

9:01 The Mistlands raids are the first that walls cannot stop: the Gjall floats over them and only strikes bases built inside the biome, while Seekers fly and can appear in older biomes too.

9:36 The Hildir raids, added by the Hildir's Request Update, bring back each mini-boss with an escort that spawns at one star at minimum and sometimes two, making them the hardest raids in the pool by creature quality.

16:17 The Ashlands Update added the two Charred raids, both unlocked by killing the Queen and both able to occur in any biome. "The undead army marches" sends Warriors, Marksmen and Twitchers; "The dead have been summoned" instead plants Monuments of Torment, the Twitcher spawners of the Ashlands, which keep producing until they are broken. The Fader kill retires both. As of 1.0 no army raid follows them: the Deep North's threat takes another form.

The Bog Witch ghosts

9:03 The Bog Witch Update (patch 0.219.13, Oct 29, 2024) listed "1 new event" and named it simply "Ghosts" (Steam news post). Its message is "You feel a chill down your spine..." and it fills the base with ghosts and wraiths, the two spectral creatures of the Swamp and the Black Forest's Burial Chambers, under a darkened "ghost" sky. It is enabled by Bonemass and removed by Moder, lasts 150 seconds, and because wraiths drop chains it is one of the few raids players deliberately farm. The Bog Witch herself is not involved; the event shares the update's spooky theme rather than its trader.

Jotun Invasions in 1.0

15:12 The 1.0 patch notes announced "The Jotun have begun their invasion of Valheim – set out into the world to halt their advance" and, under "New events", listed two by their messages: "The Jotun have found you" and "They emerge from below…" (Iron Gate, Sep 9, 2026; KeenGamer). Unlike a raid, a Jotun Invasion is not rolled on a timer. It is started by the player, it appears somewhere far from the player, and it stays in the world until someone ends it. The notes do not say which message belongs to which stage, and no reliable source yet documents that.

33:45 The trigger sits at the bottom of the Gates of Mörkhalla, the second Deep North dungeon, which is opened with an Intricate Key from the Frost Foundry (each key opens one gate). Beneath the Krigen and Hexen that guard it is a block of Malicious Ice. Breaking it shows the message that the Jotun advance, and a marker like a normal event circle, with a red exclamation, appears on the map, possibly on the other side of the world (Game8; 9puz).

34:37 At the marked spot the biome, whatever it was, is frozen over: a Plains Fuling camp or a Black Forest turns white with snow, meteors fall from the sky, and Krigen, Hexen and Elaking from the Deep North Creatures roster roam the area fighting whatever natives live there. The zone does not go away when the player leaves and keeps spawning invaders, which some players use as a farm once the game is finished. Its center is always on land, though the circle can reach out over the sea.

35:40 Ending an invasion means fighting to the center and breaking the Malicious Ice there, which looks different from the one in the dungeon. The Jotun retreat, the landscape thaws, and the ice drops one Malicious Blood. Three are needed for the Strange Bowl at the Aesir Passage, so a full playthrough involves three Mörkhalla clears, three keys and three invasions before the door to Kall Fimbulbringer opens. A backup portal and a chest of spare gear near the gate are common advice, since the journey to an invasion can be long (Game8). Full page: Jotun Invasion.

The raid-frequency modifier

10:45 Since the Hildir's Request update of 2023, raids are one of the World Modifiers that can be set when a world is created or changed later from the menu (PCGamesN). The "Raids" setting scales both halves of the roll (Valheim Wiki):

11:07 A second toggle, player-based raids, ties the pool to each character's own progress instead of the world's. On a default world, a newcomer joining a server where Yagluth is dead is immediately eligible for Fuling hordes; with player-based raids, that player's pool is built from what they personally have done, such as killing a troll, picking up a trophy or holding a boss key. Servers with players at very different stages use it to keep the late raids away from beginners (Dedicated Servers). Both settings are set through the world-modifier menu or the setworldmodifier console command; see Console Commands, Cheats and Mods.

Surviving raids

The usual advice is to fortify before the pool grows: a moat or perimeter wall after Eikthyr, stone walls from the Stonecutter once iron arrives, and roofs over tamed animals before Moder's drakes and the bats join the pool. Because raids arrive while players are at home, often unarmored and unfed, keeping food and the Rested buff up at base matters more than any wall (Rested, Comfort and Sleeping; Food and Cooking). Most raids are also a resource: Eikthyr's army feeds an early base with meat and leather, skeletons train the blocking skill, surtlings drop cores, and Fulings drop black metal scraps (Materials and Resources).

Frequently asked questions

How often do raids happen in Valheim? By default the game checks every 46 minutes of play and starts an event with a 20 per cent chance. The timer only runs while someone is on the server, and on a shared server each player is a separate candidate, so a group is raided more often than a solo player.

What counts as a base for a raid? Being within 40 meters of at least three base structures. Roughly two dozen build pieces qualify, among them the campfire, workbench, bed, portal and chests, so even a small outpost can be raided. Dungeons are exempt, and the wolf hunt ignores the rule entirely.

How do you end a raid quickly? Stay and fight. The raid clock only ticks while a player is within an effective radius of 96 meters, so running away stretches it out; killing creatures also spawns replacements, which is why walls, moats and workbenches that push spawns outside them matter.

Can you turn raids off? Yes. Raids are one of the World Modifiers and can be set when a world is created or changed later from the menu, from None through to Much more, which checks every 13.8 minutes with a 66.7 per cent chance.

How do you start a Jotun Invasion? Break the Malicious Ice at the bottom of the Gates of Mörkhalla, the Deep North dungeon opened by an Intricate Key. The invasion appears somewhere in the world, freezes that area whatever its biome, and ends only when its own Malicious Ice is broken, dropping one Malicious Blood; three are needed for the Aesir Passage.

Sources

• Events, Valheim Wiki
• World Modifiers, Valheim Wiki
• Valheim 1.0 Has Arrived! (patch notes), Iron Gate Studio, Sep 9, 2026
• Patch 1.0.14 and Patch 1.0.16, Iron Gate Studio, Sep 17 and 25, 2026
• Valheim 1.0 Patch Notes: Deep North, Weapons, Armor & More, KeenGamer
• Patch 0.219.13 – The Bog Witch, Iron Gate Studio, Oct 29, 2024
• How to Start a Jotun Invasion and Get Malicious Blood, Game8
• Valheim Deep North progression guide, 9puz
• Valheim Hildir's Request patch notes, PCGamesN
• Everything About RAIDS in Valheim! (+ All 11 Raids Explained), Embr, 2022
• Have YOU Mastered Valheim Raids?, SnazzyGames, 2024
• Valheim 1.0 Deep North Full Guide!, Kysen, 2026