Valheim Weapons

On paper it is Frostfire Crossbow at 374 total damage once upgraded to quality 4 (332 at quality 1). Paper is the catch: that total adds every damage type together, and every creature resists some types and is weak to others, so a lower-total weapon of the right type often kills faster. The Damage column shows the split by type so you can match a weapon to what you are fighting.

Every hit is a bundle of typed damage (blunt, slash, pierce, fire, frost, lightning, poison and spirit) and each creature has its own resistances, so 50 frost against a frost-immune Drake is 0 and 50 spirit against a Draugr is a lot more than it looks. 57 of the 150 weapons here deal some elemental damage on top of their physical hit. Chop and pickaxe are listed too, but they only affect trees and rock, so they are left out of the totals.

Each quality level adds the weapon's per-level damage, which the game sets per type: a Black Metal Sword gains 6 slash per level, while a Frostfire weapon gains its physical damage and a little fire and frost together. 147 of the 150 weapons upgrade, most to quality 4, so the Max column is the weapon three upgrades on. Hover a damage figure to see the type at quality 1 and at max.

Block power is how much damage a block absorbs before the rest reaches you, and the number is scaled by your Blocking skill in play. Parry is the timed-block bonus: a perfectly timed block multiplies block power by that figure and staggers the attacker, so a buckler with a 2.5x parry can stop a hit its raw block power could not. Tower shields trade that away (0 parry) for the highest block power in the game, currently Nord Greatshield at 158.

Knockback is the game's attack force, how hard a hit shoves the target. The top figure is 210, shared by 14 weapons with the heavy sledges and every crossbow among them, which is why a sledge swing sends a pack of Greydwarfs flying. The trade-off shows in the Move speed column. Most weapons cost 5% movement speed while equipped, but two-handed sledges and greataxes cost up to 20%, so switching to a knife or fists before a long run is a real saving.

Yes. Valheim stores your character, including its inventory and skills, separately from the world, so a fully upgraded weapon travels with you between worlds and servers unless the server has forced fresh characters. Running your world on a Physgun Valheim server means it stays up whether or not the host is online, so your crew can keep farming the metal for the next upgrade any time.