Bolts: Complete Crossbow Ammo Guide, Stats & Crafting Recipes for Every Tier

Bolts are the most underappreciated ammunition in Valheim. Paired with a crossbow, they deliver the hardest-hitting ranged shots in the game. The tradeoff is simple: you give up fire rate for huge per-shot damage.

Valheim 1.0 has six bolt types, from the humble Bone Bolt to the new Bloodgold Bolt from the Deep North. Every one is crafted at the Black Forge, so bolts are a late-game system: you will not touch a crossbow until the Mistlands. That means each bolt competes with the best arrows you already own.

Why Bolts Matter: Crossbow Mechanics Explained

Crossbows are not reskinned bows. They follow a different combat philosophy: one slow, devastating, perfectly accurate shot.

Loading and stamina

Loading takes 3.5 seconds and costs 4 stamina. With the firing and readying animations, you get about one shot every 6 seconds. Once loaded, though, firing costs zero stamina, so you can pre-load and wait for the perfect moment.

Perfect accuracy

Bolts fly at 200 m/s in a straight line with no spread and no gravity drop. Where you aim is where the bolt goes, at any distance, which makes fast targets like Hares and Deathsquitos far easier to hit than with a bow.

Sneak attacks

Crossbows have a 3x backstab multiplier. A sneaked bolt is one of the biggest single hits in Valheim, ideal for opening on Seeker Soldiers, Lox or any other high-health target.

Quirks to know

• Jumping or sprinting resets your loading progress.
• Bolts do not stay loaded when you switch weapons.
• The Arbalest's recoil knocks you backward and can push you off ledges. Shooting while jumping cancels the recoil.

Every Bolt Type: Stats, Recipes and When to Use Them

Bone Bolt

The entry bolt deals 32 Pierce, the weakest option, but costs only 8 Bone Fragments and 2 Feathers per 20. It is the only bolt that needs no wood of any kind.

Use it as training wheels: learn crossbow timing while you gather Carapace. You have probably been dumping Bone Fragments for the whole game, and now they finally have a purpose beyond the occasional Bone Tower Shield.

Iron Bolt

At 42 Pierce, the Iron Bolt is 31% stronger than the Bone Bolt, for 8 Wood, 2 Feathers and 1 Iron per 20. That single Iron bar is what makes it controversial. Iron cannot be teleported, and by the time you own a Black Forge you have spent mountains of it on tools, armor and building. Spending it on ammo that vanishes with every shot feels wasteful.

The community consensus: skip Iron Bolts. The gain over Bone Bolts does not justify the Iron when Carapace Bolts are within reach.

Black Metal Bolt

62 Pierce for 8 Wood, 2 Feathers and 2 Black Metal per 20, and it needs a level 2 Black Forge. Black Metal is not teleportable either.

It sits in an awkward middle ground. The damage is respectable, but if you have a Black Forge you are already in the Mistlands, where Carapace Bolts hit harder with easier materials. Most players treat both Iron and Black Metal Bolts as stepping stones they never need to step on.

Carapace Bolt

The sweet spot. 72 Pierce for 8 Wood, 2 Feathers and 2 Carapace per 20.

Carapace drops from Seekers and Seeker Soldiers and is teleportable, so you can portal it straight home. This is the bolt you will craft most over a playthrough: it hits hard, the materials are easy to farm, and you never haul metal through portals to restock. For clearing Infested Mines and general Mistlands exploration, it is the gold standard.

Charred Bolt

The Ashlands bolt deals 82 Pierce for 8 Ashwood, 2 Feathers and 2 Charred Bone per 20. It can also turn up in shipwreck chests and Deep North village chests.

On a Ripper (220 Pierce at quality 1), a Charred Bolt delivers over 300 combined Pierce before skill bonuses, and a sneaked shot can exceed 900 damage. That one-shots many enemies and takes a big chunk out of the toughest Ashlands creatures, including Fader.

Bloodgold Bolt (new in 1.0)

The Deep North tier, crafted from 8 Timberwood, 1 Bloodgold and 2 Feathers per 20 at a level 1 Black Forge. Like the Charred Bolt, it swaps regular Wood for its biome's timber. It is the bolt to load once you are working with Bloodgold.

Crafting Recipes: Every Bolt at a Glance

All bolts are made at the Black Forge, which needs Black Marble, Yggdrasil Wood and Black Cores to build. Every recipe makes 20 bolts.

The Crossbows

Bolts are only as good as the crossbow firing them, and 1.0 adds a third tier of crossbows.

• Arbalest: the first crossbow, from 10 Wood, 8 Iron and 4 Root at a Black Forge. It carries you through the Mistlands.
• Ripper: the Ashlands crossbow (Black Forge level 3), with Wound, Storm and Root variants (the Storm Ripper adds Lightning, the Root Ripper Poison).
• Nord Crossbow: the Deep North crossbow (Black Forge level 4), upgradable into the Thunderblood Crossbow or Frostfire Crossbow with an essence.

How damage adds up

The crossbow's damage and the bolt's damage stack. A Ripper firing a Charred Bolt delivers 220 + 82 = 302 Pierce before skill bonuses. All crossbows share the same reload, velocity, 3x backstab and -5% movement penalty.

Durability

The Arbalest has 150 durability at quality 1, 200 at quality 2 and 300 at quality 4. Upgrade it before long trips or boss fights so it never breaks mid-fight.

Bolts vs Arrows: Which Should You Use?

Smart Vikings carry both.

Bows: sustained damage

A skilled archer with a Draugr Fang or Spinesnap keeps up a steady stream of arrows while kiting or during long boss fights. Higher Bow skill also shortens draw time, raising damage per second further.

Crossbows: burst damage

One shot, massive impact: perfect for sneak openers, killing dangerous enemies before they react, and punishing bosses in short windows. Weapon upgrades add little (3 Pierce per level on the Arbalest and Ripper, 8 on the Nord line), but the base numbers are so high it barely matters.

The ideal setup

Open with a loaded Carapace or Charred Bolt, then switch to a bow or melee weapon. The 6-second cycle makes a crossbow impractical as your only weapon in long fights.

Recommended Bolt Progression

You do not need to craft every bolt type; crafting all six wastes materials.

1. When you build your Black Forge and Arbalest, craft a stack of Bone Bolts. They cost almost nothing.
2. Use them while killing Seekers for Carapace, then switch to Carapace Bolts. Skip Iron and Black Metal Bolts.
3. In the Ashlands, craft Charred Bolts for bosses and the most dangerous fights, and keep Carapace Bolts for general use.
4. In the Deep North, move to Bloodgold Bolts once you are smelting Bloodgold.

Material Farming Tips

Feathers

Feathers are in every recipe and can bottleneck you. Sources:

• Birds: kill every one you see; Voltures drop 2 Feathers half the time.
• Hens drop 1 to 2 Feathers, and Chickens have a 50% chance to drop 1, so a poultry farm solves the problem.
• Feathers also wash up on shorelines and appear in many chests.

Bone Fragments

Skeletons drop 1 each and Rancid Remains drop 3. Burial Chambers are packed with Skeletons, and bone piles in dungeons give more.

Carapace

Seekers drop 1 Carapace per kill and Seeker Soldiers drop 2 to 3. Seekers are more common, so a single Mistlands session still nets enough for hundreds of bolts.

Charred Bone and Ashwood

Charred Warriors, Marksmen and Warlocks drop 1 to 2 Charred Bone, and Charred Twitchers drop 1. Ashwood comes from chopping the scorched Ashlands trees.