Of all the biomes inValheim, the Ocean is one of the emptiest and most vast of them. The Ocean can only be traversed by one of the three boats available toValheimplayers to sail, and it is populated by fish, Sea Serpents, and Leviathans.
What is a Leviathan
Leviathans are massive ocean-dwelling creatures that look a lot like small islands. Usually covered in moss, a few trees, and small round barnacles, Leviathans only appear randomly deep in the Ocean biome. Players must therefore make aValheimraft, Karve, or a Longship to find these mysterious creatures. Unlike every other creature inValheim, players cannot kill a Leviathan, but they can still gather loot from its back.
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The Myth
The Leviathan appears to be based on the Norse mythical creature called the Hafgufa. This massive creature wears islands as a shell with the bulk of the creature living under the water. Unlike the myths, however,Valheim’s Leviathan does not want to eat player’s boats or feed on player’s bodies; these creatures are passive and will not attack either boats or anything else that happens by.
Mining for Chitin
The backs of Leviathans are riddled with white barnacles called Abyssal barnacles. Using a pickaxe, players can mine these barnacles to get a building material called Chitin. This bone-white “stone” is used to make weapons like the Abyssal harpoon and high-damage knife called the Abyssal razor. The harpoon can be used to dragValheim’s viscous Sea Serpentsto shore in order to make defeating them easier.
While Chitin’s uses are limited, players will still want to at least get enough to make that harpoon; 30 Chitin are needed to craft this spear. At the time of this writing, players can’t upgrade the harpoon, so only those 30 will be needed. The harpoon itself doesn’t do much damage, but its usefulness makes it one of thebest weapons inValheim.
But mining for Chitin is not as easy as it sounds. Once players find a Leviathan, they need to mine as quickly as possible. Each hit of their pickaxe has a 10% chance to startle the Leviathan. If players hear an eerie sound from the water, they have about 20 seconds to escape before the Leviathan submerges itself and leaves the area, possibly pushing away their boat and leaving them stranded in the middle of the ocean. If that happens, players might need help fromValheim’s Body Recovery Squadto get their inventory back.
Finding a Leviathan
Since Leviathans are random spawns in the massive, empty Oceans ofValheim, there’s no guaranteed way of finding them. Players will most likely find one sailing to find something else entirely, like theDeep North biomeor the Ashlands. But the best way to scan for a Leviathan is to travel during the day in good weather, avoiding fog or rain that might make spotting one of these living islands much more difficult.
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