Valheim Events and Raids Guide: Triggers, Waves, and Jotun Invasions

Raids are Valheim’s tower-defense layer — the game periodically sends a wave of enemies at your base after you beat bosses. They’re not random; they’re armed by progression, and knowing which raid your last kill armed is half of surviving it.

How do raid events work?

Each boss kill swaps the raid table; the game rolls a 20% event check roughly every 46 minutes while you’re near your base. A raid starts with a message — “the forest is moving,” “a foul smell from the swamp,” that kind of thing — then spawns waves at a distance and walks them toward you. Waiting out the short timer (90–150 seconds) ends it; the timer pauses if you leave the zone, so a raid simply waits for you. Raids need three-plus base structures nearby to trigger — the base defense guide covers the moat-and-wall answers.

Which raids does each boss unlock?

The raid ladder mirrors the boss ladder — here’s the arming order:

After beating	Raids armed (and what retires)
World start	“Eikthyr rallies the creatures of the forest” — boar and neck packs
Eikthyr	“The forest is moving” — greydwarf packs (ends at the Elder)
The Elder	“A foul smell from the swamp” — draugr + skeletons; “the ground is shaking” — trolls, once a troll has died
Bonemass	Foul smell becomes blobs + oozers; “a skeleton surprise”; bat swarms once a bat dies; surtling raids once a surtling dies; “you are being hunted” wolves; “a cold wind blows” drakes while Moder lives
Moder	“The horde is attacking!” — fuling war parties (ends at Yagluth); the cold-wind drakes retire
Yagluth	“What’s up, Gjall?!” — gjall + ticks; “they sought you out” — seekers, broods, soldiers
The Queen	“The undead army marches” — charred raids; “the dead have been summoned” — Monument of Torment spawners (both end at Fader)
Fader	The Deep North’s Jotun invasion tier — see below

What are the seasonal events?

Yule, the fishing festival, and the smaller holiday spawns. Valheim’s calendar events — the Yule festival, the fishing-focused seasonal — drop limited-time items and decorations. They don’t gate progression; they’re the cosmetic layer on top of the raid system.

What’s the Jotun invasion in 1.0?

The Deep North’s event line — giants invading Valheim, and the source of your boss-summon material. 1.0’s Jotun invasion events are the Deep North’s raid tier: the giants’ attacks land on the biome’s structures, and destroying the Malicious Ice at the heart of each invasion drops the Malicious Blood that opens the Aesir Passage to the final boss. They sit at the top of the raid ladder — the Deep North guide covers the full invasion mechanics.

How do you handle a raid you can’t fight?

Break line of sight, fight the wave, or let the timer run — but don’t log out. Raid timers pause the moment no player stands in the event zone, so logging out just leaves the wave waiting for you; surviving one just means surviving it again later. If the composition is over your head, the terrain layer in the base defense guide matters more than your DPS — and if you want fewer raids overall, the world modifiers page has the frequency slider.