Troll: How to Find, Fight & Farm Valheim's Black Forest Giant

What Makes Trolls So Dangerous (and So Rewarding)

A 7-meter blue giant crashing through the trees is the first truly dangerous enemy most players meet in Valheim. Trolls cause more rage-quits than almost any other creature, but they are also one of the most valuable: a single kill drops enough Troll Hide to start the Troll Set, which many veterans call the best early armor.

Two variants

Trolls belong to the Forest monsters faction and roam the Black Forest. They come in two forms:

• Unarmed Trolls punch, slam the ground and throw boulders.
• Log Trolls swing a tree trunk with much longer reach. Roughly one in three Trolls carries a log, and you will learn to spot them fast.

Star-rated Trolls

A 1-star Troll has a pale green tint and a 2-star Troll glows ruddy red; each has double or triple the base health (see the table below). Star-rated variants only spawn more than 2,000 meters from the world center, so players near spawn are safe from the worst of them.

Where to Find Trolls

Trolls spawn only in the Black Forest, in three ways:

1. Roaming: a very rare ambient spawn, limited to one per area.
2. Troll Caves: large rock formations with a wide entrance, usually ringed with bone piles. Each holds zero or one Troll.
3. Raids: the "The ground is shaking" event after you defeat The Elder.

Troll Caves

The cave Troll is a one-time spawn, so a cleared cave stays empty forever. Nothing else can enter the dungeon entrance, which makes a cleared cave an excellent safe shelter.

Loot scattered on the floor:

• Amber and Amber Pearl
• Ruby
• Bone Fragments and Coins
• Yellow Mushroom (the only thing that respawns, so remember cave locations)

Zero to two stone chests also hold random loot such as Deer Hide, Leather Scraps, Bone Fragments, Coins, Ruby, Stone and Wood.

The ground is shaking

After The Elder dies, this raid can send up to two Trolls straight at your base. Event Trolls never have stars unless a Love Potion is active. Veterans welcome it: it delivers free Troll Hide to your doorstep.

Troll Attack Patterns

Troll attacks are more predictable than they look. Every attack deals Blunt damage plus Chop and Pickaxe damage, which is why Trolls wreck buildings and terrain so easily. The table below lists damage, cooldowns and ranges.

Unarmed Trolls

• Punch: their bread and butter, a 45-degree horizontal arc that fires whenever you are within 4 meters.
• Ground Slam: the big hit, a 90-degree vertical arc. Its long cooldown means about five punches come before each slam, so count them and you will always see it coming.
• Boulder Throw: a ranged attack (8 to 20 meters). The boulder flies at 15 meters per second with a 10-20 degree spread.

Standing close to a Troll completely disables the boulder throw.

Log Trolls

Log Trolls are more dangerous because of their reach. The vertical swing slams 9 meters forward in a 90-degree arc, and the horizontal swing sweeps 10 meters in a 50-degree arc. Both trigger within 8 meters, which makes log Trolls much harder to kite in melee.

Troll Drops and Farming Strategy

Every Troll kill is profitable. A 0-star Troll always drops 5 Troll Hide and 20-29 Coins, with a 50% chance of a Troll Trophy. Star-rated Trolls drop much more hide and coin (see the drop table), and the trophy chance stays at 50%.

Where to farm

• Troll Caves: one-time spawns, but a guaranteed encounter, unlike rare roaming Trolls. Check every cave you find.
• Forest patrols: build a base near a large Black Forest and sweep it regularly.
• Raids: "The ground is shaking" sends Trolls right to you once The Elder is dead.

How much hide you need

The base-quality Troll Set (hood, tunic, trousers and cape) costs 25 Troll Hide and 13 Bone Fragments, so at least five 0-star kills. Upgrading everything to quality 4 takes 91 Troll Hide and 49 Bone Fragments in total, so plan on many more hunts.

Save your Troll Trophy drops too. The Trollstav, a Blood Magic staff crafted at the Galdr Table, needs one Troll Trophy to craft and one more per upgrade level.

Troll Set vs Bronze Armor

Experienced players overwhelmingly pick the Troll Set over Bronze armor. A full base-quality Troll Set gives 19 armor with no movement penalty. Full Bronze gives about 21 armor but slows you noticeably. Two armor is roughly 4 damage per hit, which is negligible next to the mobility.

The Sneaky Effect

Wearing all four pieces grants +15 Sneak, making bow and knife sneak attacks far easier. Stealth openers can deal 3x damage or more, and the speed lets you simply walk out of attacks that would clip a heavy-armor player, so you take fewer hits overall.

Upgrades and resource efficiency

The set reaches 40 armor at quality 4 (Workbench level 5) and stays viable deep into the Swamp. It also saves metal: Bronze and Copper are needed for tools, weapons, shields and Bronze Nails, while Troll Hide has few other uses. Spend your Bronze on a Bronze Pickaxe and Cultivator instead.

Using Trolls as Tools

All Troll attacks except the boulder throw have tool tier 2, so they can break anything that needs a Bronze Axe or Bronze Pickaxe. That opens up some powerful early-game tricks:

• Finewood: lure a Troll to Oak or Birch trees and let it chop them down. It is the fastest Finewood before Eikthyr, unlocking the Finewood Bow and Finewood furniture very early.
• Copper and Tin: Troll attacks, even rock throws, break Copper and Tin deposits, so a patient player can make Bronze before the first boss.
• Swamp farming: a Troll lured into the Swamp fights every Swamp creature, tearing through Draugr, Blob and Leech and leaving Entrails and Bloodbag drops behind.

The Swamp trick is not reliable, but it can help you stockpile Swamp materials while undergeared for the biome.

Defending Your Base From Trolls

Once The Elder is dead, "The ground is shaking" sends up to two Trolls at your base. Their tier 2 Chop and Pickaxe damage shreds wood, and a single log swing can level a wall section.

Best defenses

1. Moat: a trench at least 6 meters deep. Trolls cannot jump, so they stand glowering at the edge while you shoot them.
2. Stone walls: if a moat feels excessive, Stone structures take far more hits to break than wood.

If a raid catches you off guard

Lead the Troll away from your portals and crafting stations. Trolls turn on buildings when they cannot reach you, so keep them focused on you from range.