Blood Magic Staffs: Protection, Dead Raiser, Trollstav & Deep North Staffs

Blood Magic is the most misunderstood weapon class in Valheim, and it may be the most powerful. Elemental Magic gets the attention with fireballs and ice storms, but Blood Magic offers a damage-absorbing bubble that guarantees parries, an army of undead minions and a rampaging troll. The catch: every cast costs some of your own health.

Valheim 1.0 has six Blood Magic staffs. The Mistlands and Ashlands gave us the Staff of Protection, the Dead Raiser and the Trollstav, and the Deep North added the Echo Spike, Spirit Caller and Northern Vengeance. All are two-handed, crafted at the Galdr Table and drain health on cast, but they serve very different purposes.

How Blood Magic Works

Every cast costs Eitr and a percentage of your current health, not your maximum, so you can never kill yourself by casting. At 50 HP, a Staff of Protection cast takes 40% (20 HP), leaving 30. The next takes 40% of 30. You get dangerously low, but casting alone won't finish you.

What skill levels improve

Raising Blood Magic toward 100 improves every staff:

• Eitr cost drops by up to one-third.
• Health drain drops by up to one-third.
• Each staff gains its own bonus, such as stronger barriers or harder-hitting Skeletts. The Trollstav only gets the cost reductions.

A level 100 blood mage is dramatically more efficient than a beginner, which makes skill investment central to any build.

Shared blocking stats

Every staff weighs 0.3, slows movement by 5% and has 48 block armor at 0 skill (72 at 100), 96 parry block armor (144 at 100) and a 2x parry bonus. They aren't blocking weapons, but you can parry with them in a pinch.

Staff of Protection: The Bubble Shield

The Staff of Protection is the single most valuable Blood Magic weapon and one of the most underrated items in the game. It wraps you and nearby allies, including tamed creatures and Skeletts, in a damage-absorbing barrier. It doesn't make you invincible, but it gives guaranteed protection from one big hit.

Barrier strength and duration

The barrier absorbs 200 damage at Blood Magic 0, plus 5 per level, up to 700 at level 100. Duration depends on staff quality: 60 seconds at quality 1, rising by 60 per level to four minutes at quality 4. A maxed staff in maxed hands is a 700-point shield lasting four minutes.

The guaranteed parry

With an active barrier, you always succeed at parrying an attack, regardless of weapon, max HP or stagger limit, even if the hit breaks the barrier. Two-star Ashlands enemies that would normally stagger you through a parry can be parried cleanly. Veterans bubble up before tough fights and open with guaranteed parries for big bonus damage.

The gotcha: no resistances

The barrier ignores your resistances, immunities and armor. It is raw HP, so Chop and Pickaxe damage that normally can't hurt you eats it fast. A Lox slam deals 120 Blunt, 100 Chop and 100 Pickaxe: harmless Chop and Pickaxe to you, but all 320 points to the barrier. Decide whether to trust the bubble or dodge.

Dead Raiser: Your Undead Army

The Dead Raiser is the necromancer's dream and the practical player's headache. It summons Skeletts, tamed skeletons that follow you and attack hostiles. It also demands the most Eitr of any Mistlands staff and serious skill to use well.

Cost and summon cap

Each cast costs 100 Eitr (about 67 at Blood Magic 100) and 40% of your current health. Staff quality sets your Skelett cap: one per quality level, up to four at quality 4. Summoning past the cap kills the oldest Skelett.

The Eitr wall

No single food gives enough Eitr to cast the Dead Raiser until Blood Magic 47, when Seeker Aspic finally covers it. Before that you need two Eitr foods, which cuts deep into health and stamina. Marinated Greens from the Ashlands helps but doesn't solve it alone at low skill. Veterans pair one Eitr food with Ashlands Gourmet Bowl or Mushrooms Galore á la Mistlands for balance.

Skelett types and scaling

• Melee (80%): Bronze Sword, with a 25% chance of a Wood Shield and 25% of a Bronze Buckler. 50 Slash at Blood Magic 0, 150 at 100.
• Ranged (20%): Bow. 40 Pierce at Blood Magic 0, 120 at 100.
• Health: always 400 HP regardless of skill, so shield them with the Staff of Protection.

Skelett quirks

Skeletts count as tamed, so players can only hurt them with the Butcher Knife. They can't swim but walk along the seafloor, ignore neutral Dvergr and can be bubbled like players. The Dead Raiser glows faintly purple-pink, giving a little light but raising your sneak visibility by about 10%.

Trollstav: Controlled Chaos

The Trollstav, added in the Ashlands update, summons a fire-infused Troll that rampages through everything: enemies, structures, trees, rocks and you. Summoned Trolls attack their own summoner. It is not a pet but a natural disaster you point in a direction.

The meteor slam

The cast spawns a fiery meteorite with a 10-meter impact zone dealing 300 Fire, 100 Chop, 100 Pickaxe and 50 Pure damage. It wipes groups, flattens trees and shatters rock. Then the Summoned Troll appears with 2,000 HP (a Black Forest Troll has 600), Fire resistance, Frost weakness and a very bad attitude.

Cost and limits

• 120 Eitr and 60% of current health per cast, the priciest of the original three staffs.
• Up to 2 Summoned Trolls at once; upgrading doesn't raise the cap.
• Can't be cast inside dungeons (you get a "Blocked" message).

The render-distance exploit

Summoned Trolls outside your entity render distance don't count toward the cap. Move far enough from earlier summons and you can keep casting. Intentional or not, it is devastating for clearing large outdoor areas.

The Deep North Staffs (New in 1.0)

The Deep North update added three more Blood Magic staffs. All are crafted at a level 3 Galdr Table, all need Nornathread, and each has 400 durability at quality 1, more than any of the original three. We are still testing their effects in depth, but their costs are verified for 1.0:

• Echo Spike: the cheapest staff to cast at 25 Eitr. Crafted from 10 Bloodgold, 4 Nornathread and 1 Frostfire Essence.
• Spirit Caller: 100 Eitr per cast. Crafted from 8 Frozen Branch, 5 Nornathread and 1 Moose Trophy.
• Northern Vengeance: 100 Eitr per cast. Crafted from 10 Ice, 5 Nornathread and 1 Hexen Trophy.

Full upgrade totals

Upgrade costs escalate with each quality level. Crafting plus all upgrades to quality 4 takes:

• Echo Spike: 40 Bloodgold, 16 Nornathread, 7 Frostfire Essence.
• Spirit Caller: 32 Frozen Branch, 17 Nornathread, 1 Moose Trophy.
• Northern Vengeance: 40 Ice, 17 Nornathread, 1 Hexen Trophy.

How to Level Blood Magic Efficiently

Blood Magic is one of the slowest skills to level unless you know the tricks. Start with how XP is awarded:

• Dead Raiser: 0.75 XP per Skelett melee hit, 0.5 per ranged hit.
• Staff of Protection: 1 XP per barrier break, but only when the barrier on you breaks. Casting with nothing hitting it gives zero.

Leveling methods, best first

1. Swamp Draugr spawners. Bury them with the Hoe so they can't be destroyed, then let Skeletts farm the endless Draugr. Draugr take several hits (more XP each) and respawn fast. Bubble your Skeletts and go AFK.
2. The Bonemass fight. Build a small hut on the skull and let Skeletts fight Bonemass and the endless Blobs. Skeletts are immune to poison, so with bubbles they hold up well. Blood Magic 50 before Bonemass dies is realistic, plus Ooze and other skills.
3. Black Forest Greydwarf spawners. Easiest and safest, but slowest: Greydwarves die in one hit and spawn slower. You get piles of Wood, Stone and Resin, but Greydwarves throw stones at their own spawner, so protect it.
4. Surtling fire geysers (Staff of Protection only). Bubble up, let the fire break it, recast. It works, but it is painfully slow.

Blood Magic Build Strategies

There are two ways to build around Blood Magic, and picking the wrong one is miserable.

The melee hybrid

Wear heavy armor (Carapace or Flametal), fight with a melee weapon and keep the Staff of Protection on your hotbar. Eat one Eitr food alongside two health and stamina foods. The bubble gives guaranteed parry openers and soaks burst damage. You are a warrior who occasionally deploys a magic shield, not a caster.

A proven Ashlands loadout:

• Armor: Ashlands armor plus a Mistlands cape.
• Food: one Eitr food (Marinated Greens or similar) with two feast foods, such as Mushrooms Galore á la Mistlands or Plains Pie Picnic.
• Hotbar: your main melee weapon, the Staff of Protection and the Staff of Frost. Slow enemies with frost, switch to melee, parry the big hits with your bubble and dodge the rest.

The dedicated summoner

Wear Eitr-weave armor for Eitr regeneration, eat two or three Eitr foods and let Skeletts plus the bubble do the fighting. With low health and stamina, you play support, keeping everything alive.

Which to pick

The melee hybrid is stronger and more practical for most players. The summoner has a high skill floor: at low levels you run out of Eitr, your Skeletts die and you are too fragile to fight without them. It only comes together around Blood Magic 50, and even then heavy armor plus the bubble is often better. The bubble is the real star of Blood Magic.

The Galdr Table: Your Blood Magic Workbench

Every Blood Magic staff is crafted at the Galdr Table, which you build at a Workbench. Like other stations, it needs a roof and 70% cover. Repairing staffs there costs nothing.

Upgrading the Galdr Table

Higher table levels unlock higher staff qualities. Build these nearby:

1. Rune Table (level 2)
2. Unfading Candles (level 3)
3. Feathery Wreath (level 4)

The Trollstav needs a level 2 table just for its base craft, so build the Rune Table first, and its quality 4 upgrade needs level 5. The three Deep North staffs need a level 3 table for the base craft.