On a Valheim server, a boss trophy has to be hung at the sacrificial stones only once, and from then on every player can walk up and choose that power for their own character. Each character holds one power at a time, activates it themselves (the default key is F), and the buff lasts five minutes with a twenty-minute cooldown. The part most groups miss is that activation is not purely personal: everyone standing close to the player who uses a power gets the buff too. Plan who uses what, and when, and a group of four can keep a power running almost all evening.
This post covers how the stones work on a shared world, what is per world and what is per character, how sharing works in practice, the current effect of each power after the 2025 rebalance, and which one to bring for which job.
How Forsaken powers work on a server#
The sacrificial stones are the ring of standing stones at the world's starting point in the Meadows - where every new character first appears. Each boss has a spot on the stones where its trophy goes.
- Someone hangs the trophy. Hold the trophy on your hotbar, look at that boss's spot and press the hotbar key. The trophy stays mounted there for the life of the world.
- Each player chooses the power. Interact with the mounted trophy. Your character now holds that power; any power held before is replaced.
- Each player activates it with the Forsaken power key,
Fby default, whenever they want the buff. A short animation plays, during which you are vulnerable.
What is shared and what is personal is the usual source of confusion:
| Thing | Belongs to | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Trophy hung at the stones | The world | Once, by anyone, permanent |
| Which power a character holds | The character | Chosen at the stones, one at a time |
| Cooldown | The character | Starts on activation |
| The buff when activated | Everyone close by | Including the activator |
| The trophy items themselves | Whoever picked them up | One drops per kill |
Because the trophy is mounted in the world, a player who was not at the fight - or who joins the server a month later with a new character - can claim the power on their first evening. Nobody needs a trophy of their own. The world's progress side of this is in Valheim boss progression on a shared server; the important thing here is that the trophy should go up the same night as the kill. If someone pockets it and logs off for a fortnight, nobody gets the power.
The character side
The power you hold and its cooldown are part of your character, not the world. They are saved on your machine with the rest of the character, which is why a character carries its current selection between servers. What a server admin can see and do about a character's power is therefore limited; the trophies are the world's, the selection is not. Character files and cheating covers why the line falls there.
Duration, cooldown and swapping#
Every Forsaken power lasts 300 seconds - five minutes - and then goes on a 1,200-second cooldown, twenty minutes from activation. Hover over the power in your inventory screen to see the remaining time; the status effect icon in the corner of the screen shows how long the buff has left.
Three practical points:
- The cooldown is the character's. It belongs to you, not to the power, so swapping at the stones is not a way around it. Choose before you activate; if you want to be certain how your version handles a swap, watch the timer in the inventory screen after switching once.
- The buff ends early on death. Status effects do not survive dying, so a power used at the start of a boss fight is gone for anyone who dies.
- The cooldown is saved with the character. It is still there when you log back in, on this server or another one. Check the tooltip rather than guessing how much is left.
The duration and cooldown have been stable for a long time, but the effects have not, and Iron Gate could change either. The in-game tooltip on the power is the authority for your version.
Sharing powers with the group#
When a player activates a Forsaken power, everyone within a short radius gets the same buff for the same duration. Community guides put that radius at about 10 metres, which in practice means "standing together", not "somewhere in the same base". Players further away get nothing, and nobody has to hold the same power to receive it.
Two rules decide what happens when several people activate powers:
- The same power does not stack. If two players both use Eikthyr's power, nearby players get one Eikthyr buff, not two. The second activation is wasted unless the first is about to run out.
- Different powers can run together. A player can have Bonemass's buff from one friend and Moder's from another at the same time.
That makes the cooldown a group resource. One power used by one player covers the group for five minutes out of every twenty-five. Four players holding the same power and taking turns cover it continuously:
| Time | Who activates | Group buff |
|---|---|---|
| 0:00 | Player A | 0:00-5:00 |
| 5:00 | Player B | 5:00-10:00 |
| 10:00 | Player C | 10:00-15:00 |
| 15:00 | Player D | 15:00-20:00 |
| 20:00 | Player A (cooldown ended) | 20:00-25:00 |
The other way to use it is to spread powers across the group: one player holds Bonemass for fights, one holds the Elder for gathering, one holds Moder for sailing and carrying. Whoever is needed activates when the moment comes, with everyone standing close.
A worked example: a Swamp iron run
Four players sail to the Swamp for scrap iron. Player A holds Moder, B holds Bonemass, C holds the Elder, D holds the Queen.
- Leaving port, A takes the rudder and activates Moder. The tailwind and the carry weight last the crossing, if it is under five minutes.
- At the crypt door, D activates the Queen with everyone close, for the poison resistance against blobs on the walk in.
- Inside the crypt, B activates Bonemass when the first draugr group appears. C saves the Elder for the muddy scrap piles, where mining damage counts.
- Loading the boat, everyone is heavy. A's Moder cooldown is still running, so the group waits by the ship or walks the last stretch overweight - which is why a second Moder holder is worth having on long hauls.
Four powers in one trip, each used once, and nobody wasted a cooldown on the same thing.
What each power does now#
Patch 0.221.4, the Call to Arms update released in September 2025, rebalanced every power. Older guides and videos describe the previous effects, so treat anything from before then with suspicion.
| Boss | Biome | Effects after the 2025 rebalance |
|---|---|---|
| Eikthyr | Meadows | 60% less stamina for running, jumping and swimming |
| The Elder | Black Forest | 60% more chopping and mining damage, 30% more health regeneration |
| Bonemass | Swamp | 25% resistance to pierce, slash and blunt, blocking costs no stamina, 5 stamina back per block |
| Moder | Mountains | Always a tailwind, +300 carry weight, 10% faster movement, 50% frost resistance |
| Yagluth | Plains | 50% lightning resistance, +25 Farming skill, 10% more damage |
| The Queen | Mistlands | 100% more eitr regeneration, sneaking costs no stamina, 50% poison resistance |
| Fader | Ashlands | 100% more adrenaline, 50% lower stagger build-up, 50% fire resistance |
The biggest change for groups is that the old "late powers are always better" order is gone. Each power now suits a job, and several early ones are worth holding at the end of the game: the Elder for ore runs, Bonemass for any fight where you block, Moder for every long trip.
Which power for which job#
Gathering and building
The Elder is the gathering power. Sixty per cent more chopping and mining damage means fewer swings per tree and per ore vein, which shortens copper, iron and silver runs and saves stamina. The health regeneration helps on long trips through hostile biomes. Pair it with Moder's carry weight when the group is mining: one player activates the Elder at the vein, another activates Moder when everyone has loaded up.
Sailing and hauling
Moder is the power for any trip by sea. "Always tailwind" removes the waiting for the wind to turn; the +300 carry weight lets everyone haul a full load of ore without being overweight; and the movement speed helps on foot at the other end. The wind is the one part that is not about standing close: it matters to whoever is steering, so the player at the rudder should hold and use Moder. Ore logistics with ships and carts and sailing and ships in multiplayer go through planning those runs.
Fighting
Bonemass for most fights. Physical resistance to all three weapon types and free blocking make shield players very hard to kill, and stamina back on block helps them keep attacking. Yagluth's 10% damage is useful for the damage dealers, and Fader's lower stagger build-up and faster adrenaline suit players who use trinkets, the Call to Arms equipment that spends adrenaline. Use powers at the start of a fight, with everyone together - summoning bosses as a group covers the rest of a boss night.
By biome
| Where you are going | Power to bring | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Meadows and Black Forest runs | Eikthyr or the Elder | Long distances, trees and copper |
| Swamp | The Queen or Bonemass | Poison resistance, or physical resistance in crypts |
| Mountains | Moder | Frost resistance, carrying silver home |
| Plains | Bonemass or Yagluth | Fulings hit hard; farming flax and barley |
| Mistlands | The Queen | Eitr for mages, sneaking past seekers |
| Ashlands | Fader | Fire resistance, staggering less |
| Long sea crossings | Moder | Tailwind and carry weight |
Resistances in Valheim are a strong effect, and 50% frost or fire resistance from a power can cover a gap in gear for its five minutes. How a power's resistance combines with a mead or a cape has changed between versions, so do not plan a trip around stacking them; bring the mead anyway and treat the power as the margin.
Farming
Yagluth's +25 Farming skill is a niche that a group with a big farm should use. One player holds Yagluth and activates it when the group replants a field together. Shared farming and food covers running a group farm.
Powers for late joiners and admins#
A new character joining a late-game world can claim any power whose trophy is already on the stones. The usual problem is distance: the stones are at the world's spawn, and the group's base may be far away. Two things help.
- A portal at the stones. Build one beside the sacrificial stones, connected to the main base, so anyone can change power in a minute. Mark the tag clearly; Valheim portal hub design has naming schemes that avoid tag clashes.
- A rule about trophies. Trophies go to the stones the night they drop. If a trophy is lost, the boss can usually be fought again for another one; the stones only need it once.
Admins sometimes ask whether they can give a player a power directly. The selection is stored on the character, which the server does not own, so there is no list file or launch argument for it. With devcommands, an admin can spawn a trophy for a world where one was lost, and the player can then hang it - but the world's boss key is a separate thing and is not set by spawning a trophy. Valheim devcommands explained covers what admins can do on a vanilla server.
Troubleshooting#
Pressing F does nothing. No power is selected, the power is on cooldown, or the key has been rebound. Open the inventory screen and look at the power slot; it shows the selected power and any remaining cooldown. Controller players have a different default binding.
The power is not available at the stones. Its trophy has not been hung. Check the spot on the stones; an empty spot means somebody still has the trophy.
My friend did not get the buff. They were out of range. The radius is short; stand together and say when you activate.
Two of us used the same power and it made no difference. The same power does not stack. Take turns instead, as in the schedule above.
The buff disappeared mid-fight. Either the five minutes ran out or the player died; status effects do not survive death.
The powers do not match an older guide. The Call to Arms update rebalanced them in 2025. Trust the in-game tooltip.
FAQ#
Do all players get a Forsaken power after one boss kill?
The power becomes available to everyone once the trophy is hung at the sacrificial stones, but each player has to go there and choose it for their own character. One trophy hung once is enough for the whole server.
Can two players use the same power at the same time?
They can, but it does not stack. Players nearby get one copy of the buff. It is better to stagger activations so the buff runs back to back.
Does a Forsaken power affect players who are not nearby?
No. Only players within a short radius of the person activating it receive the buff - roughly ten metres according to community guides. Friends at the base while you fight elsewhere get nothing.
Does changing power reset the cooldown?
It is not a way to get a second activation. The cooldown belongs to the character, not to the power, so pick the power you want before you use it rather than planning to swap halfway through an evening.
Can a player keep a power from another world?
The selected power is saved with the character, so it travels with them between worlds, as gear and skills do. A server cannot prevent it, which is one of the reasons admins treat characters as the player's own property.
Which power is best for a group?
There is no single answer since the 2025 rebalance. Most groups find Moder the most useful overall for its carry weight and tailwind, Bonemass the best for fights, and the Elder the best for gathering. Spread them across the group and use each where it fits.
