TalentTree
TalentTree adds a radial talent tree to Valheim — six themed sectors joined by nexus bridges — that brings more variation to the game, expands every playstyle, and lets you build into the corners no vanilla character can reach. It's made to allow and reward creative builds: stay pure in one sector, or bridge across the nexus to combine two.
Requires SkillsReworked. TalentTree spends the Level you earn in SkillsReworked — the two are built to work hand in hand. See Built on SkillsReworked.
Opening the Talent Tree
Open your in-game Skills window (the same one that shows your skills). TalentTree adds a "Talents" button there — click it to open and close the talent tree.
How it works
- The tree is radial: six sectors arranged around a center, where neighboring sectors meet.
- You spend talent points to unlock and rank up nodes. Points come from your SkillsReworked Level (see below).
- Want a focused identity? Pour everything into one sector. Want something nobody expects? Mix two sectors into a hybrid build. The tree is designed so unusual combinations are viable and rewarding, not punished.
Built on SkillsReworked
TalentTree is tightly wired to SkillsReworked and lists it as a hard dependency — TalentTree will not run without it.
- Where points come from: your talent-point budget is derived from your SkillsReworked Level. The higher your Level, the more points you have to spend.
- If your Level changes: raising your Level grants more points. If something lowers your Level (for example the death XP penalty in SkillsReworked), your already-unlocked talents stay active — you simply can't spend new points again until your Level climbs back above your current build.
- Rebirth: performing a Rebirth in SkillsReworked respecs your talents (all nodes are cleared) so you can rebuild from scratch. Since points are Level-derived, you get your whole budget back.
- Prestige — you do not lose your points: Prestige resets your SkillsReworked Level, but TalentTree treats prestiged characters as max level, so your full talent-point budget is preserved. Your talents are cleared for a fresh respec, but you keep every point and can immediately rebuild — Prestige never costs you talent power.
Sectors & Talents
Six sectors, each a distinct playstyle. The talent lists are collapsed — expand a sector to see its talents.
Shared — Minor nodes (inner ring)
| Talent |
Effect |
| Health |
Increases your health points. |
| Stamina |
Increases your maximum stamina. |
| Carry Weight |
Increases your carry capacity. |
| Adrenaline |
Reduces your maximum adrenaline. |
| Armor |
Increases your base armor. |
| Physical Damage |
Increases your physical damage. |
🛡️ Bulwark — the fortress (defensive, block-focused, easy to play)
| Talent |
Effect |
| Immovable |
Reduces incoming stagger buildup. |
| Thorns |
Reflects a portion of incoming damage back to the attacker before armor reduction. |
| Bulwark's Edge |
Your HP investment becomes your weapon. Each 25 current HP grants bonus damage. |
| Warden |
While blocking with a tower shield, taunt all nearby enemies for 5s; while active, every hit you take heals you. (30s cooldown) |
| Shield Slam |
Block 5 attacks in a row to automatically unleash a powerful counter-strike. |
| Shield Charge |
While blocking, sprint forward to charge into enemies, dealing blunt damage based on your max HP. (30s cooldown) |
| Iron Skin |
Increases your total armor. |
| Ironclad |
Your equipped armor increases your maximum HP. |
| Immolation |
Every 2s, nearby enemies within 5m are set ablaze for a portion of your armor as fire damage. |
| Pavise |
Reduces incoming ranged damage. |
⚔️ Warrior — the controlled fighter (parry & control)
| Talent |
Effect |
| Discipline |
After a perfect parry, mark your attacker; the first hit on it restores stamina over time. (10s cooldown) |
| Riposte |
After a perfect shield parry, your next melee attack gains bonus attack speed. |
| Iron Stride |
Reduces equipment movement penalty — move freely in heavy armor. |
| Hamstring |
After a perfect parry, your next hit slows the target and reduces its armor for 8s. |
| Last Bastion |
Once every 10 min, a lethal hit instead leaves you at 1 HP, heals you, cleanses Burning/Poison, and grants 3s of invulnerability. |
| Triumph |
Killing an enemy heals you and nearby allies within 20m for a portion of your armor. (15s cooldown) |
| Revenge |
Taking damage stores it; your next attack within 5s deals bonus blunt damage. |
| Master at Arms |
Sword/axe hits deal bonus damage; clubs raise your stagger multiplier; atgeir/spear hits apply a refreshing pierce DoT. |
| Reflect |
Blocked damage is partially reflected back at the attacker. |
| Focus |
Your last melee hit marks a focus target for 20s; damage from all other enemies is reduced. |
| Even Ground |
Physical damage modifiers (Blunt/Slash/Pierce) become Normal for you and your targets — no resistances, no weaknesses. |
🩸 Berserker — the aggressive risk-taker (highest damage)
| Talent |
Effect |
| Tether |
Your attacks deal reduced knockback, keeping enemies in striking range. |
| Blood Rush |
The lower your health, the faster you fight (scales up toward 30% HP and below). |
| Relentless |
After triggering your trinket effect, immediately recover a portion of your adrenaline. |
| Deferred Pain |
A portion of incoming damage is delayed and dealt over 3s instead of instantly. |
| Axe Mastery |
Axe chains bounce back instead of resetting, keeping momentum; also reduces axe stamina cost. |
| Glass Cannon |
You can't heal above a threshold of your max HP, but you deal bonus damage. |
| Execution |
Deal bonus damage to enemies below 30% HP. |
| Forged in Pain |
While below 30% HP, take reduced damage and cannot be staggered. |
| Overwhelm |
The final strike of a melee chain adds to its stagger multiplier; staggering an enemy recovers missing HP. |
| Savage |
Your attacks have a chance to instantly strike again for a portion of the hit's damage. |
| Blood Blessing |
Active healing (potions, lifesteal, abilities) restores a portion of the healed amount as stamina. |
🏹 Hunter — the ranged specialist (bows & crossbows)
| Talent |
Effect |
| Hawk Eye |
Toggle zoom while wielding a bow or crossbow (reduces field of view). |
| Trailrunner |
Reduces running stamina consumption. |
| Quiver Economy |
Projectile attacks have a chance not to consume ammo. |
| Double Shot |
Projectile attacks have a chance to fire a second projectile at reduced damage. |
| Steady Aim |
Increases projectile velocity. |
| Hit and Run |
After firing a projectile, gain movement speed for 1.5s. |
| Quickshot |
Fully drawn bow shots release automatically; reduces bow draw stamina drain. |
| Triple Shot |
When Double Shot triggers, a chance to fire a third projectile at reduced damage. |
| Heavy Draw |
Ranged attacks gain knockback. |
| Deadeye |
Longer bow draw, but attacks deal bonus damage and penetrate a portion of enemy armor. |
🗡️ Valkyrie — agile melee finesse (sneak, dodge, tempo)
| Talent |
Effect |
| Silent Stride |
Increases movement speed while sneaking (scales with Sneak skill up to 50). |
| Lethal Patience |
Sneaking empowers your next hit: +10% damage per 2s sneaking, up to 10s. |
| Battle Rhythm |
Landing the final strike of a melee chain restores stamina. |
| Evasion |
Reduces dodge stamina cost. |
| Shadow Dash |
Successfully dodging an attack grants movement speed for 2s. |
| Battle Waltz |
Attacking with an empty off-hand and no two-handed weapon grants attack speed. |
| Duel Series |
Each confirmed melee hit increases your melee damage for 2s, stacking up to 25 times. |
| Feint |
Successfully dodging empowers your next melee hit within 2s to deal bonus damage. |
| Cripple |
Every hit slows the target's attack speed for 5s. |
| Weapon Swap |
Swapping between melee and ranged weapons restores stamina for 3s. |
📯 Warcaller — the leader (auras, summons & utility)
| Talent |
Effect |
| Traveler |
Increases carry weight and ride skill effectiveness. |
| Battle March |
You and nearby allies within 30m move faster and drain less stamina while running. |
| Seafarer |
Increases ship sail speed. |
| Chain Lightning |
On the final hit of a combo, lightning chains to nearby enemies, reducing their armor for 10s. |
| Divine Favor |
Reduces your Guardian Power cooldown; at max rank, hold the Guardian Power key to cycle all unlocked powers. |
| Lifeline |
The ally within 30m with the lowest HP is healed each second. |
| Storm Lord |
Hit 8 enemies with Chain Lightning to become Overcharged; the next proc detonates all marked targets for a portion of your max HP as lightning. |
| Necromancer |
Killing enemies has a chance to raise a skeleton ally for 30s. |
| Frost Emperor |
Enemies within range are slowed. |
| Banner Bearer |
With only a shield equipped (torch allowed): bonus armor, and your Battle March, Lifeline and Frost Emperor auras are amplified. |
Combat balance changes
TalentTree doesn't just add talents — it also reworks a few of vanilla's core combat formulas. These changes apply to everyone, even at 0 talent points spent, for two reasons:
- Overall balance. Talents add a lot of raw power on top of vanilla's existing formulas (more armor, more damage, more skill-derived effects). Vanilla's formulas were tuned for a world without that extra power, so left untouched they'd quickly make the game too easy.
- Balance between playstyles. Vanilla's armor values are tuned around "normal" armor — the amount any character is expected to wear regardless of build. Without a cap, a defensive build (Bulwark) stacking armor talents on top of that vanilla formula would trend toward near-total damage immunity, leaving no room for Bulwark to actually feel tankier than a Berserker in plain gear. The curve keeps a Bulwark's tankiness roughly where it should be relative to vanilla, while someone who skips defensive talents entirely effectively gets nerfed compared to before — so investing in tankiness is what makes you tanky, not just wearing armor.
What exactly changes
Armor curve
Vanilla's armor formula (HitData.DamageTypes.ApplyArmor) is tuned around "normal" armor — roughly the amount any character is expected to be wearing for their progress, regardless of build. It has no defensive talents to account for, so it already hands out solid reduction at that normal level. If TalentTree left it untouched and just added armor-boosting talents on top (Iron Skin, Ironclad, Bulwark's Edge, Warden, etc.), a Bulwark wouldn't feel meaningfully different from anyone else in the same armor — and a fully invested one would trend toward near-total damage immunity.
So the replacement curve doesn't just cap extreme stacking — it nerfs armor right around the "normal armor" point itself (the curve's balance point, ratio 0.75: armor worth 75% of an incoming hit). At that exact point, vanilla gives 67% reduction; TalentTree only gives 50%. That gap is the point: anyone wearing the armor vanilla expects, without investing in defensive talents, is tankier in vanilla than they are here. To get back to (and past) vanilla-level tankiness, you need to climb further up the curve than "normal armor" would put you — which is what Bulwark's armor talents are for. A hard cap of 80% on top of that ensures even a maximally-invested tank still takes at least a fifth of every hit, so "fully committed to defense" stays strong without becoming literal immunity.
Example for a flat 100-damage hit (reduction shown, not remaining damage):
| Armor |
Vanilla reduction |
TalentTree reduction |
| 0 |
0% |
0% |
| 25 |
25% |
11% |
| 50 |
50% |
29% |
| 75 (curve's "normal armor" point) |
67% |
50% |
| 100 |
75% |
62% |
| 150 |
83% |
73% |
| 200 |
88% |
78% |
| 300 |
92% |
80% (cap) |
| 500 |
95% |
80% (cap) |
The ratio is what matters, not the absolute numbers — the same curve applies whether you're tanking a Greydwarf or a boss. The takeaway: TalentTree's curve sits below vanilla's at every armor value, including the "normal" amount you'd wear without any defensive investment — that's the actual nerf. Bulwark's talents are what let you climb back up (and the cap is just there so even that climb has a ceiling).
Skill damage: halved, and made constant
Vanilla rolls your weapon-skill damage factor randomly each hit, centered around 0.4 + 0.6 × skill factor — at 100 skill that's already most of the way to double your base damage, before any talent gets involved. Two changes here:
- The skill contribution is halved to
0.4 + 0.3 × skill factor, so raw skill grinding is a smaller slice of your total damage and talents/gear matter comparatively more.
- The factor is also made constant instead of randomly rolled per hit. This is mainly so the numbers are legible: with vanilla's random roll, your damage already jitters hit-to-hit, which makes it hard to tell how much of a damage increase actually came from a new talent versus just a lucky roll. With a fixed factor, the damage delta you see after unlocking a talent is the talent's contribution.
Bow draw speed scales less with Bow skill
Vanilla speeds up your bow's time-to-full-draw as Bow skill rises: the required draw duration is Lerp(drawDurationMin, drawDurationMin × 0.2, skillFactor) — at 100 Bow skill you reach a fully-charged (max-damage) shot in just 20% of the base draw time, i.e. five times faster than at skill 0. TalentTree raises that high-skill floor from ×0.2 to ×0.3: a maxed archer now reaches full draw in 30% of the base time instead of 20%. Nothing changes at low skill (both start at the full drawDurationMin) — only the top end is pulled back. Bow skill still meaningfully speeds up your draw, just not to the near-instant full-power shots vanilla allowed. This is the ranged counterpart to halving the skill-damage contribution: it keeps pure skill-grinding from letting a high-level archer fire max-charge shots almost as fast as uncharged ones.
Stagger multiplier scales with Blocking
Vanilla always doubles stagger damage on a block (2×), regardless of skill. Here it scales from 1.5× at 0 Blocking skill up to 2.0× (full vanilla) at 100 Blocking skill — investing in Blocking skill has a tangible, visible payoff for shield/stagger play instead of being a flat bonus everyone gets for free.
Weapon blocks don't benefit from Blocking skill
In vanilla, Blocking skill also strengthens parries/blocks done with a plain weapon (no shield equipped). That's removed — only shields benefit from Blocking skill scaling and the timed-block bonus. Weapon blocks use their base block power only, which keeps Bulwark's and Warrior's shield/parry identities meaningful instead of letting any weapon match a shield's blocking power.
Parrying costs stamina again
In current Valheim a successful timed block (parry) drains almost no stamina — perfect blocks are effectively free, so there's little cost to parry-spamming. TalentTree restores a real stamina cost to parrying: a timed/perfect block now pays the normal, absorption-scaled block-stamina drain instead of the near-zero perfect-block value. Parrying is still very strong — you negate the damage, stagger the attacker, and build adrenaline — but it's no longer stamina-free, so mistimed or spammed parries drain you and stamina management stays relevant in drawn-out fights.
Creature armor by biome
Most vanilla Valheim creatures have no armor stat at all — incoming damage to them isn't mitigated the way player damage is. Since the armor curve above changes how armor behaves for everyone, TalentTree also gives creatures a small, biome- and threat-tier-scaled armor value, so the new curve interacts consistently with the whole game, not just with players. Tiers are Light / Medium / Heavy / Boss; Meadows creatures are unarmored at every tier.
| Biome |
Light |
Medium |
Heavy |
Boss |
| Meadows |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Black Forest |
0 |
3 |
6 |
8 |
| Swamp |
5 |
15 |
24 |
30 |
| Mountain |
8 |
22 |
35 |
45 |
| Plains |
12 |
30 |
46 |
58 |
| Mistlands |
15 |
36 |
52 |
65 |
| AshLands |
18 |
42 |
60 |
75 |
| Deep North |
20 |
45 |
65 |
80 |
| Ocean |
12 |
30 |
46 |
58 |
A few familiar anchors: Troll (Black Forest, Heavy → 6) and The Elder (Boss → 8); Abomination (Swamp, Heavy → 24) and Bonemass (Boss → 30); Stone Golem (Mountain, Heavy → 35) and Moder (Boss → 45); Lox (Plains, Heavy → 46) and Yagluth (Boss → 58); a Seeker Soldier (Mistlands, Heavy → 52) and The Queen (Boss → 65); Morgen (AshLands, Heavy → 60) and Fader (Boss → 75).
Balancing — community-driven
There are intentionally no configuration options for balancing the talents or the combat changes above. Finding the right numbers for a system this large takes broad, long-term testing across many playstyles — something I can't cover alone as a solo modder. Rather than letting every server drift to its own values, balance is curated centrally and driven by community feedback, so everyone shares the same baseline and balance discussions actually move the mod forward.
If you have suggestions, balance ideas, bug reports or feedback, come join my Discord.
Languages
English and German localization are included.
Support my work
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The assets I build into my mods are ones I purchase commercially — your support helps me finance those assets and add new ones to my mods in the future. It's entirely optional and hugely appreciated. ❤️
