Stealth, and how to sneak in Valheim

This guide will
1: Teach you the mechanics of stealth and detection
2: How to become a better sneaker

Fore-Word / Current Guide Date

This guide is updated to-date as of:
4/15/2025

This guide is pretty extensive, so grab a bottle of water or a soda.
I hope you learn something!
If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments!

The 2 methods of detection

There are currently 2 methods that mobs can use to detect you:
Sight
Sound
Smell (for a few, very specific mobs)

Let's get started

Sight for creatures is around a 150-180 degree cone in front of the mob, this is obviously the direction they are facing in game. ALL creatures have a "detection-cone" for sight in front of them.

Sound is related to how much noise you make. Whenever you move, you have a "circle of sound" around you. This means that any mob in the area of your sound "foot-print" will be able to detect you.

Ok I'm sneaki- OH GOSH OH HECK WHAT ARE ALL THESE ICONS

OK, obviously you've learned to crouch/sneak using the Ctrl button.

Now, on to what all the icons mean.

The first thing you will notice is a little white bar.
This bar is how visible you are to mobs. Obviously, the lower the better. This bar does NOT affect how much sound you make (at least at the time of the making of this guide), and you do not make sound while sneaking.

Next, you will notice that there seems to be a ... cross-hair ... thing? ... maybe an eye?
This is your "status", or how "alert" a mob/mobs is/are to your presence.

Mobs are alerted to your presence in "stages".

• 1: un-detected; This is usually a flat line that looks like a closed eye. This means you are ... well ... I shouldn't need to explain this.
  
• 2: on-alert/cautious; This is usually a half-opened eye. You can see what mob is alerted or cautious against you by seeing the little sonar/wi-fi like icon when you look-at/hover-over the mob.
  
• 3: !!!; You are fully detected; This is a full-blown, big-eye. I shouldn't need to tell you what this does.

Certain mobs have only 2 alerts. For example, deer cannot be on-alert or cautious. They will simply go "NNNNHHH" and run away like they do in real life. Some mobs, like bosses, don't have alerts at all, they just KNOW where you are.

How stealth works with the methods of detection

So, now that we have the basics out of the way ... how does this all work together?

Remember; Eyes and Ears

Sight:
Sight works on a cone from creatures. Your visibility / sneak-bar when crouching determines how visible you are to mobs in their cone.
When you are in front of a mob or in it's cone, and you sneak forwards toward it, you will first get a "suspicious", or "alert-2" as we'll call it, and they'll act accordingly.
If you are close enough, you will get into the "detection-range" and be fully detected.

Sound:
Sound works like a "ping" emitted from your character whenever you move. You make no sound when not moving at all, regardless of whether you are crouched or standing. Whenever a creature hears your "ping", they will be alerted to your presence, and act as such for level-2 detection/detected. You cannot be fully detected through sound currently in Valheim, but creatures DO turn towards you, putting their sight towards / near you.
Running will emit a VERY large "ping" from your character. This is how you get ambushed by mosquitoes and 1-shot hit in the back because your back is to them and they get sneak-attack damage on you.
Walking will emit a ... eh ... half-decent ranged "ping" from your character.
Sneaking will emit NO SOUND.
If you want to learn hard-mechanics of detection, go here[valheim.fandom.com]

Stealth/Sneak Skill

(UPDATED)

This one is a little different from farming up shielding or weapon skills.

You ALWAYS gain sneak skill while sneaking, HOWEVER, there are a few modifications:

• 1: is the player currently sneaking?
  
• 2: is the player currently detected?
  
• 3: is the player currently moving?
  
• 4: if the player was moving with the intent of walking at this moment in time, would they be detected?

Every time the game answers "yes" to one of these questions, you gain more sneak skill than normal when you sneak.

Currently, the sneaking skill improves/lowers your visibility the more ranks you have in it.
It also improves speed and stamina-drain while sneaking. With higher speed, and lower stamina-drain.

A good way to "farm" sneak-skill points is to sneak around a boar-pen while the boar is being tamed, since tamed boar do not get scared by the player (but non-tamed / currently taming do), this is a perfect opportunity to farm your sneak skill while having your hammer out to repair your fence / fortifications.

Equipment and Weapons

Obviously when you do an attack and you are not detected you get a sneak-attack bonus.

One thing many people don't know / forget is that once you get a sneak-attack off:
Creatures that are sneak-attacked are immune to sneak-attacks for 5 minutes.

It's not a surprise that full set of troll-armor gives you a Sneak buff equivalent of 14 skill ranks in sneak. Which is actually a ... pretty significant buff especially if you have a particularly high sneak skill.

But here's the thing:
That sneak buff also applies to Sight and Sound while walking, not just sneaking. Perfect for someone who wants to go somewhere without attracting attention ... or perhaps sneakily steal a goblin village's flax and barley without attracting pesky mosquitoes or goblins . hehehehehe

Obviously if you're going for sneak-attack, the knife is going to be your best bet.
Not only does it have a great middle-mouse button that causes you to lunge forward an absurd distance and deal 2-3x normal alpha damage, you also have the 6x damage multiplier on sneak-attack damage, the highest in the game for any weapon.
It also has the lowest miss and hit sound profile of any weapon in the game, meaning you can very easily chain-assassinate creatures, as attacking doesn't cancel crouching/sneaking, just temporarily puts you a little higher
The knife also does not impose any penalty to movement, making it a perfect asset to pull out while sneaking, or even while traveling, even though you can hit a number to pull out your primary weapon.
The knife also has one of the lowest stamina-usage per-swing in the game. It also has a VERY short swing-delay
The knife does half-slashing, half-piercing. This makes it good against trolls to get your armor upgraded, and actually half-decent at dealing with skeletons and other mobs should you get caught without a proper blunt-weapon. Piercing damage and slashing make it versatile. The knife, also because of the reason above, makes an absolutely fantastic secondary weapon not only for situational purposes, but for if your primary weapon breaks.
If you see a bunch of grey-dwarfs with their backs turned against you and haven't detected you, and you need to get into that building, take out your knife and sneak up behind them, do a normal attack, then go to the next one until they're all dead. It's actually a LOT easier than it sounds.
Primary weapon breaks? No problem, you've got a knife to go back to your base with ... which you'll be sneaking around with, or trying not to get detected in order to get back.

Almost without a doubt, the abyssal razor (knife) is probably the best knife in the early game. You can get it immediately after defeating Eikthyr by sailing and getting chitin off of leviathans, and you can upgrade it to nearly level 3/4, giving you an amazing start/boost. Especially since it's literally better than a copper knife by a long shot.

For late game, the Skoll & Hati is absolutely amazing for rogues and rogue-like characters. It's a two-handed dagger with a good parry bonus of x4 for 96-144 damage worth of blocking if you parry an attack.

External / Environment effects that affect your sneak

Alright, so you've probably noticed by now but.

Sneaking while in shadows makes you less visible / lowers the total "capacity" of your sneak / detect-ability bar
Sneaking in light, even moon-light, makes you more visible.
It's important to know where to go, and how you'll get there to do what you need to do.

Also, thunderstorms and rain lower your sound "ping" ... pretty drastically. I dare say around half de-buff to all sounds made by players.
Use this opportunity to mine in peace in the Dark Forest. There is literally no feeling like mining 30-40 feet away from greydwarves slamming your pickaxe loudly into the ground and they don't hear a thing.

Mining in peace?!? IT'S A DREAM COME TRUE!!!

Stealth, Bows, and You

Bows have the unique of ability of, of course, attacking from range.

However, when you strike, or even miss a target, the impact of the arrow will not only make noise, but all mobs within a certain radius will immediately become full alert and act as such, knowing exactly where you are.

See the wiki for sounds players make[valheim.fandom.com]

Stealth on the sea

Not many people know this, but the faster you go while sailing, the more "noise" you make, almost equivalent to, if not more than, the radius of "running".

The reason I added this section is because more and more people have been asking me in DM's about what they can do to "sneak past" sea serpents.

First, our enemy is a sea-serpent, which means they ONLY spawn at night OR during a storm, and only in the ocean
If you're planning to sail, set out in the morning so you can get maximum time out on the sea worry-free, or during a storm.

Another thing to note is that during a storm, not only will extending the sails make you too fast coming over the waves, you will be emitting a much larger "ping" of sound.

What you will want to do, though painstakingly slow, is PADDLE through a storm in order to be "stealthy" because storms mask your sound ping.

Your boat emits the sound "ping" whenever it "breaks the wake" which means whenever you see a white cone in the water being your boat ... you're going too fast.

I personally have not mastered this, as it is very difficult to do so because of the rarity of sea serpents. Especially when combined with storms.

To be honest, the best way to deal with a sea serpent is to run away, or kill it, NOT to "sneak" around it.
By the time you see the sea serpent, it likely has already:

1: spotted you
or
2: is moving towards you because it "heard" you

Tips and Tricks

Tips and Tricks: (can be added onto by users if I deem it's a good tip)

• Periodically crouching every 15-20 seconds, for a split-second, is a FANTASTIC way to know if a mob has detected, or is chasing you.
  
• Troll-armor is good for getting around un-detected, and doesn't slow you down at all. Not to mention, fully upgraded troll armor gives you 40 total armor.
  
• If you need more armor but still want to be light and fast, you can wear the helmet from a different set (like bronze or iron) without affecting your speed, but keep in mind that you will not get the sneak bonus
  
• You can 8-9/10, or even insta-kill a troll with a middle-mouse sneak attack with an abyssal razor
  
• Even though it may not be the most "pleasant" thing to do; traveling in a thunderstorm, especially while walking and in stealth-gear, is a great way to get where you want to go undisturbed.

[mizolo]

Updates: 11/6/2024
Completely gutted sneak from article (apparently it never was a thing? Or was? I dunno, anyway it's out)
Updated sneak skill from troll gear from 15 to 14 (Why they changed it, i'll never know)
Updated to include Valheim wiki on detection and sound-profiles

[Gruntman]

Where are you getting smell from? From a quick look at the game mechanics wind only effects Sails, Windmills, and the asksvin cape. Nowhere could I find evidence of deer being able to detect using the wind and smell. I have tested this in game a well. While standing directly behind a deer, with wind blowing from me to the deer, nothing changed about it's detection. I also tested this on a Troll and came to the same result. Where was this info obtained on smell?

[mizolo]

Updates: 6/17/2024
Updated to include Skoll & Hati

[GreenDragonGo]

I don't actually sneak at all I don't really see a reason to do it

[theSpiritoftheForest]

Awesome guide thank you!

[mizolo]

Updates: 7/15/2022
Updated relevance of troll stealth gear to sneak skill
Updated relevance of sneaking skill in general to match current update, primarily due to the noticeable impact it has on sneaking.

[Tyrax Lightning]

This is a rockin Guide... many thanks!

I was especially unaware before of the post-successful Sneak Attack temporary immunity to further Sneak Attacks, cause 99.9% of the time I Sneak Attacked a foe, they didn't live much longer after that, if they even survived the Sneak Attack to start with. :P

Lastly, a minor fact correction: There is no such thing as being caught without a Blunt Weapon... Fists & Kick Attacks say "Hi!"... (Especially fun to beat down Skellies...)

[✨Darkeasterbunny]

Excellent guide. I only seem to be missing Lox. While their smell is not great, it is something to take in to consideration when you want to see how far taming them is done.

[mizolo]

Updates: 11/15/21
Added the sections:
Stealth, Bows, and You
Stealth on the sea

[mizolo]

Updates: 10/28/21
Fixed some grammatical errors and inconsistencies / confusion in sentence & subject relevance.