Valheim Death Penalty

The death penalty in Valheim is basically the punishment that you have to suffer upon dying in the game. It boils down to a significant loss of skill levels and loss of inventory. It’s a pretty hefty punishment, but nothing that can’t be undone. The game even lets you get back your stuff. In our Valheim Death Penalty guide, we’ll explain in detail how the system works, what you lose, and how to get it back.

What is the Death Penalty in Valheim

The death penalty in Valheim is that you lose everything from your inventory, and you lose 5% of your total skill levels in each skill. It’s quite a brutal punishment, but there is an upside to this. For one, you’ll get the No Skill Drain buff. It prevents you from losing any further skill levels for the duration, which is about ten real-time minutes. The other good thing is that you can find your tombstone, from which you can get all your stuff back. Here’s how that works.

When you die, a marker with a skull and crossbones will appear on the map. That is, if you had anything in your inventory; if you die empty-handed, no gravestone will appear. The gear and materials that are in the tombstone are available for everyone to pick up, so pray that your friends don’t rob you blind. When you find your Valheim headstone, simply interact with it and you’ll automatically get all your stuff back, if you have room in your inventory. If you don’t, you’ll have to rearrange stuff manually.

One important thing about the whole Valheim death penalty thing – manually mark your tombstone location. If you die again before getting to your first tombstone, the marker will disappear and be replaced with the most current one. However, the tombstone won’t disappear; it stays there until somebody picks it up. It’s not like in Dark Souls, where you lose everything if you die twice without retrieving your stuff. So, make good use of map markers to keep track of all your death spots. As for the skill loss, well, you have to build those up over again.