How to craft Valheim Root Armor, defeat Abomination Bosses

(Image credit: Iron Gate)

Valheim Root Armor is pretty awesome, and as the name suggests you'll end up looking like a walking tree when you have it equipped, but its benefits go far beyond cosmetics. It should be a priority for Viking marksmen to obtain as it boosts your Bow Skill, though you'll need to keep away from fire to avoid your wooden outfit going up in smoke. This armor set also provides poison resistance, making it an excellent choice to use when you battle with Bonemass, the poisonous blob boss that you'll encounter in the Swamp.

Valheim Root Armor was added in the Swamp update in late 2021. It was introduced alongside a new enemy: Abominations. If you want to know how to find Abominations, or you want to check the set effects first, here’s everything you should know about Valheim Root Armor.

Root Armor stats and materials in Valheim

Before you start that dangerous trip into the Valheim Swamps, it’s probably useful to know the Root Armor stats and effects. Here’s the armor protection level (base to fully upgraded) and weight of each individual Root Armor piece:

Root Harnesk: body piece. Armor level 8 to 14. Weight: 10 (movement -2%).
Root Leggings: leg piece. Armor level 8 to 14. Weight: 10 (movement -2%).
Root Mask: head piece. Armor level 8 to 14. Weight: 3.

The Valheim Root Armor set also offers a few special effects:

+15 Bow Skill bonus if you wear the full set (so all three pieces mentioned above).
Damage modifier: Root Armor is weak against fire (it’s made of wood, after all). This counts for every individual piece of equipment.
Damage modifier: you’re resistant to poison (Mask only).
Damage modifier: you’re resistant to piercing damage (Harnesk only).

Is the Valheim Root Armor worth getting?

As the stats show, the Root Armor set offers medium protection and is on the heavier side. In terms of strength, this set is similar to the Bronze Armor (which, by the way, doesn’t offer special effects). That means its armor stat is quite good, but nowhere near the level of protection offered by the Padded set. In other words, don’t wear it if you’re planning to attack a Fuling Village.

That said, the poison resistance effect is very useful against Valheim Bonemass, the Swamp Boss. The same goes for minor enemies like Blobs and Leeches. In case you already explored the Mountains, you can make good use of the Bow Skill bonus as well by shooting Frost or Fire Arrows (depending on the enemies’ weaknesses). If you’re confident in your dodging abilities, the Bow Skill increase is also great against the Mountain Biome Boss, Valheim Moder.

So, if the Bow is your weapon of choice or you’re farming enemies that deal poison/pierce damage, the Root Armor set is worth getting. Do take a good look at the crafting materials needed though (it’s a lot).

How to craft Root Armor

Want that +15 Bow Skill? Then it’s time to start farming the materials needed for your Root Armor set. Here’s what you need for the base items, followed by the extra materials needed to gain the full upgrade:

Root Harnesk: 10 Root, 10 Ancient Bark, 2 Deer Hide. Full upgrade: 12 more Root and 30 Ancient Bark.
Root Leggings: 10 Root, 10 Ancient Bark, 2 Deer Hide. Full upgrade: 12 more Root and 30 Ancient Bark.
Root Mask: 10 Root, 10 Ancient Bark, 4 Leather Scraps. Full upgrade: 12 more Root and 30 Ancient Bark.

Deer Hide is dropped by (you guessed it) Deer and Leather Scraps are dropped from Boar. You’ll find plenty of both species in the Meadows. However, the Ancient Bark wood is dropped from Ancient Trees, which can only be found in the Swamp Biome.

You also need to travel the Swamps to find Abominations. They’re needed for their Root drops. The full Root Armor set needs 66 pieces of Root, and as one Abomination drops 5 Roots, you need to defeat 14 of them (just six to get the three base items though).

The Abomination is quite rare, so this can be quite an intimidating task, but we’ll take a look at Abomination locations next.

How to find the Abomination in Valheim

The Valheim Abomination is a Swamp monster, but don’t expect to find one right away. They’re definitely not as common as Skeletons, and they’re also much harder to spot. You have to look for large tree trunks in the more open water areas.

The best thing to do, is to just travel the Swamps as quickly as possible. Keep an eye on the water areas, but you don’t really have to spot a hidden Abomination yourself. Chances are it’ll spot you before you spot them, so just make sure to get close enough to the water. Any Abominations present will reveal themselves and attack you.

How to defeat the Abomination to get Roots in Valheim

Only one thing left to do… defeat the Abomination and get your hands on that first stack of Root. The Abomination deals Blunt damage and has a high Blunt damage resistance itself, so bring your Slash weapons instead. While normal Arrows won’t do much, the Abomination is also weak against fire. Leave the Frost and Poison Arrows in the longhouse though, as they’re useless against this enemy.

The Abomination has two melee attacks and one area-of-effect attack. It swipes the ground with one arm, stomps with the other, and performs a slam attack when the player gets close. A few tips to defeat the Abomination:

Bring a nice and sharp Battleaxe to the fight. You can make this weapon if you have access to Swamp materials (Iron Scraps and Ancient Bark).
It’s wise to use upgraded Bronze Armor, although you might get away with lower-tier sets if you use the fire geyser method (see below).
Use your surroundings. Abominations are very big, so if you need some respite, run through the trees. It won’t be able to keep up.
And most importantly: use the fire geysers. The Swamps are full of them, and Abominations are weak to fire. Just let it follow you as you run towards them. Luckily, Abominations aren’t smart enough to avoid the fire damage, and you’ll get your Root supply with ease.

Of course, it gets easier if you team up with friends. Axe sharpened and Bronze Armor equipped? Then good luck out there in the Swamps, and enjoy your new Valheim Root Armor set!