Siege Weapons: Complete Guide to the Ballista, Battering Ram & Catapult

Valheim's siege weapons are some of the most unusual and misunderstood tools in the game. The Ashlands added the Battering Ram and Catapult next to the existing Ballista, and many players expected them to change how you take fortified structures. The reality is more nuanced: each machine shines in specific situations, is optional in others, and has a few uses the developers probably never intended.

The Ballista: Your Automated Defense Turret

The Ballista is the first siege structure most players build and the most consistently useful. You place it with the Hammer, and once loaded it fires on its own at any creature within 28 meters in a 90-degree arc (45 degrees each side).

Ammo and aim

It holds up to 40 missiles of one type. It fires quickly but aims slowly and loosely, so it excels against large, slow targets and struggles with fast ones like Deathsquitos. Pair it with Sharp Stakes or traps, or it wastes expensive ammunition on thin air.

It shoots everyone

By default the Ballista is hostile to everything, including you, your friends and your tamed animals. Loading it while standing in its arc is a quick way to take a missile to the chest. Build doors or gates in front of it so you can block its line of sight when passing.

Placement

It needs a Workbench in range and has 250 durability. Rain damages it, so put it under a roof. Its wood support (stability loss 1/8 vertical, 1/5 horizontal) makes it easy to mount on walls and platforms.

New in 1.0: Bloodgold Missiles

The Deep North adds a fourth Ballista ammo, the Bloodgold Missile, crafted at the Artisan Table from Timberwood and Bloodgold (recipe above). It is the natural ammo for Ballistae defending a Deep North base.

The Battering Ram: Brute Force Demolition

The Battering Ram is the simplest siege weapon and the most satisfying. It looks like an oversized Cart with two huge punching arms at the front, and each punch deals 600 Pickaxe damage, enough to flatten most structures in a few hits.

How to drive it

1. Load fuel into the slot at the back: Wood, Finewood, Corewood or Ashwood.
2. Use the ram from the front, standing between the two smaller arms.
3. Steer it like a Cart. The hammers attack automatically every few seconds.

Fuel burns at one unit every 20 seconds whether you move or not, so a full tank lasts about 8 minutes 20 seconds.

What it can break

The ram destroys any damageable structure, including Charred Fortress doors and walls. Its area punches also make it a superb mining tool: Copper deposits, Silver veins, Giant remains and big rocks shatter in seconds. Stone Golems, weak to Pickaxe damage, die in one hit when both hammers connect for 1,200 damage.

The danger

Once you breach a fortress door, you are stuck between the ram and the army inside. Letting go works like a Cart (look down and use it, or dodge-roll), but that moment can be lethal when surrounded. Soften the interior with a Catapult first and destroy the Effigies of Malice.

The Catapult: Long-Range Siege Artillery

The Catapult hurls payloads over walls at targets you cannot see. In practice it is finicky, somewhat inaccurate and deals far less damage per shot than the Battering Ram. But it fills a role nothing else can: hitting the Effigies of Malice that keep spawning enemies inside Charred Fortresses.

Moving and loading

You move it like a Cart. Interact with the spiked corner arms to stabilize it for better accuracy (it fires either way). To load, put a payload in a hotbar slot and press that number while aiming at the bucket. It fires the moment it is loaded, so aim first.

Payloads

• Grausten Payload: cheap and accurate with a steady 55 meter range, but weak (25 Blunt plus 5 Chop and 5 Pickaxe in a 3 meter radius). Use it to calibrate.
• Explosive Payload: 100 Chop, 400 Pickaxe and 100 Pure damage in a 3 meter blast, with a 40 to 50 meter range and worse accuracy. The blast can even reshape terrain, like Lava Blobs.

Anything can fly

The Catapult launches any item in the bucket, though non-payload items usually deal no damage and may be destroyed. Never launch your best weapon by accident. You can also stand in the bucket and launch yourself over walls; bring a Feather Cape for the landing.

Obtaining the Key Materials

The Ballista uses Mistlands resources, while the Battering Ram and Catapult rely on Ashlands materials.

Mechanical Springs

Springs are the Ballista bottleneck. Each takes 1 Refined Eitr and 3 Iron at the Artisan Table, and a Ballista needs 3. Refined Eitr comes from the Eitr Refinery (Sap plus Soft Tissue), so you need a working Mistlands operation first. Springs cannot pass through regular Portals.

Charred Cogwheel

The Catapult needs one Charred Cogwheel, which you get by breaking objects inside Charred Fortresses, not from a creature. That means raiding a fortress to build the weapon that raids fortresses. For your first one, ladders and the Bonemass power are your best friends.

Flametal and Ashwood

The Battering Ram and Catapult each take 10 Flametal, smelted from Flametal Ore in a Blast Furnace. Ashwood comes from the Ashlands trees. Flametal cannot be teleported through regular Portals, but Ashwood can.

Fortress Siege Strategy: The Optimal Approach

The fastest way skips siege weapons

The community's most efficient method is a ladder: build an Ashwood ladder against the wall, activate the Bonemass power for damage resistance and clear the interior in about 90 seconds. The doors and walls stay intact, and since no Ashlands enemy can damage them, a captured fortress is the best outpost in the biome.

The siege sequence

If you want to use siege weapons (and they are great fun), follow the steps below: calibrate the Catapult, destroy the spawners, then ram the door.

Converting the fortress

Dig deep inside the walls, which extend well below ground, for a multi-floor base. The central tower makes a great lookout. Only flyers like Fallen Valkyries and Voltures can reach you, so roof your work areas.

Creative Uses Most Players Never Consider

These machines are worth building even after every fortress on the map has fallen.

The Battering Ram mines

With 600 Pickaxe damage per punch over a wide area, it shreds Copper deposits, Silver veins and rock formations faster than any pickaxe. If you still mine by hand in the late game, you are doing it the hard way.

The Catapult launches players

Stand in the bucket, load any launchable item and you fly with it. It gets you over fortress walls without ladders, but fall damage applies, so wear a Feather Cape. Some players launch from one captured tower into the next fortress.

Naval catapults

Build a platform of floors and roofs on a Drakkar, roll a Catapult on and stabilize it. Up to two fit on one ship. Impractical, but bombarding a coast from offshore is unforgettable.

The Ballista trains blocking

Load Wooden Missiles, the weakest ammo, and stand in the arc with a tower shield. Ballista shots cannot be parried, so you must block, which levels your Blocking skill. Eat well first.

Final Verdict: Which Siege Weapon Should You Build First?

1. Ballista: passive, automated defense while you do other things. Load Black Metal Missiles (or Bloodgold Missiles in the Deep North), set a trophy and forget it.
2. Battering Ram: not for sieges, since ladders are faster, but because it trivializes mining.
3. Catapult: the most situational and the most expensive to feed, but nothing else hits targets behind walls.

Are they necessary?

No. You can finish the Ashlands without building one. But a Copper deposit turning to gravel, a Catapult flight over a fortress wall and a Ballista picking off Charred while you craft are the moments that make late-game Valheim worth the grind.