Porcupine: Crafting, Stats & How Its Blunt-Pierce Split Handles the Plains

Why the Porcupine Deserves a Spot in Your Hotbar

The Porcupine is polarizing: some veterans swear by it, others call it overrated. The truth leans toward "seriously good." It is the fifth one-handed club in the progression, and its blend of Blunt and Pierce gives it a consistency no other weapon in its tier matches.

It does not care what you fight

Most weapons excel against some enemies and flounder against others. The Plains throws four very different enemies at you, and the Porcupine handles all of them without a swap. That versatility is worth more than raw numbers on a spreadsheet.

It saves your Black Metal

It is the only Black Metal tier weapon that needs no Black Metal. When you first reach the Plains, Black Metal Scrap is precious and earmarked for your shield, axe and pickaxe. The Porcupine gives you a top weapon from Iron and Needles instead.

How to Get Every Crafting Material

Needle (5)

The signature ingredient. Every Deathsquito in the Plains drops exactly 1 Needle. They have only 10 HP and die to any hit; the trick is landing it, since they are fast and erratic. Time a swing as they dive at you. Plains chests in Fuling villages and ruins are a safer early source.

Linen Thread (10)

Spun from Flax at a Spinning Wheel, which needs an Artisan Table (unlocked after defeating Moder). Flax grows in Fuling villages and can be farmed once you have seeds. Each thread takes about 30 seconds, so queue 10 Flax and do something else.

Iron (20) and Finewood (5)

• Iron: smelted from Scrap Iron in Swamp Sunken Crypts. You need 20 to craft and 32 in total to max it, which most players have stockpiled by the Plains.
• Finewood: chopped from Birch and Oak in the Meadows and Plains. Never a bottleneck.

Combat Stats and Attack Patterns

Primary combo

A 3-hit combo lasting 2.46 seconds (0.86s, 0.80s and 0.90s), the same as other one-handed clubs like Frostner. The final strike deals double damage with 20% extra knockback. A full combo costs 42 stamina.

Secondary slam

This is where the Porcupine shines. The slam deals 2.5x damage with a huge stagger value, enough at max quality to stagger nearly anything in the Plains in one hit. It is slower and costs double the stamina, but it is worth it against tougher enemies like Fuling Berserkers.

Defense and extras

• 3x backstab multiplier
• Parry block armor reaches 117 at 100 Clubs skill, with a 2x parry bonus, so it can parry in a pinch
• A subtle glow that gives a little light even when holstered, handy in caves and at night

The Plains All-Rounder: Enemy Matchups

Here is how the Porcupine handles all four Plains enemies:

• Deathsquitos: 10 HP, die to anything. The wide 90-degree, 2.4-range swing makes them easier to swat than with a narrow sword.
• Fulings: immune to Spirit but neutral to Blunt and Pierce, so the Porcupine lands full damage, and the secondary stagger is great crowd control when a patrol finds your camp.
• Growths: weak to Blunt (1.5x) and resistant to Pierce, Slash and Frost. The Blunt half carries the damage while pure Slash weapons like a Black Metal Sword struggle.
• Lox: resistant to Blunt, Slash and Frost. Here the Pierce half saves it, landing in full. Frostner is nearly useless against Lox, which resist Blunt and Frost and are immune to Spirit.

Porcupine vs Frostner

Both are one-handed clubs with the same combo, and if you used Frostner through the Mountain your Clubs skill is already leveled. So which do you take forward?

Plains: Porcupine wins

Frostner's Frost is wasted on Lox and gives no edge against Fulings or Growths big enough to offset the Porcupine's versatility. The Porcupine also has much more physical damage, which means better stagger.

Mistlands and Yagluth: Frostner pulls ahead

Seekers resist Blunt, Slash and Pierce, halving the Porcupine's damage. Frostner's Frost lands in full, and its slow controls Seeker swarms and keeps Seeker Soldiers from turning to face you. Yagluth is very resistant to Pierce, so Frostner is better there too.

Recommendation

Craft both. The Porcupine is cheap because it upgrades with Iron instead of Silver. Use it as your Plains workhorse and swap to Frostner for the Mistlands and Yagluth.

Combat Techniques and Advanced Tips

Parry into the secondary

The bread-and-butter combo. A successful parry opens a stagger window with bonus damage; follow it immediately with the secondary slam. Against Fulings this often kills in one hit.

Use slopes

Mace attacks connect more reliably on uneven terrain than sword slashes. On the rolling Plains hills or jagged Mistlands terrain, the overhead swings land where a sword would whiff, and the vertical secondary slam is especially good on slopes.

Manage knockback

The heavy knockback (doubled on the secondary) keeps groups at range, but it can push a single target out of follow-up range. Against lone enemies like Lox, fight with your back to a rock or cliff so they stay in reach.

Stagger is physical only

Frost damage does not count toward stagger, so the Porcupine staggers faster than Frostner. When you need to stagger-lock a Fuling Berserker, take the Porcupine.

Where the Porcupine Fits in the Progression

The Club line runs Club, Bronze Mace, Iron Mace, Frostner, then Porcupine. Most Porcupine users started with maces in the Swamp, where Blunt shines against Skeletons and especially Bonemass, both weak to it.

By the Plains your Clubs skill is probably well above 50, a damage and stamina bonus that would take ages to rebuild in Swords. The Porcupine carries that investment into a weapon built for the Plains.

After the Plains

Its usefulness drops in the Mistlands, where enemies resist both its damage types. Frostner becomes the better club there, and you will eventually move to Mistlands weapons like the Demolisher or Mistwalker. In the Ashlands the Flametal Mace continues the club line, and Valheim 1.0 adds the Nord Mace and Thunderblood Mace in the Deep North.

From Moder to Yagluth, though (Frostner is better for Yagluth himself), the Porcupine is arguably the best single weapon you can carry.