Valheim Padded Armor Guide - How To Make Linen Thread To Get The Best Armor

The final tier of armor available in Valheim right now is Padded Armor, and like the other tiers before it, you're going to have to work hard to make it. You can only create Padded Armor with materials from the Plains biome, but unlike other armor sets, it doesn't require you to find new metals, but rather new plants. Here's everything you need to know to create Padded Armor in the Plains so you can prepare to take down the fifth Valheim boss, Yagluth.

We've got lots more Valheim coverage, check out our complete Valheim armor guide, as well as our guide for finding Iron and crafting Iron gear and for finding Silver and crafting Wolf armor, for venturing through the Swamp biome, and for taking down the Elder boss in the Black Forest and Moder, the dragon boss of the mountains. And if you really want to bend Valheim to your will, check out our cheats guide using the game's console codes.

What To Do First

You can't really deal with the Plains biome until you've made significant strides through the other biomes, and particularly the Mountains. You'll want a good set of Wolf Armor before venturing into the Plains, unless you don't mind doing a lot of corpse runs to recover your stuff, so be prepared to construct a Silver mining operation to get yourself geared up. You may even want to put in the time to gather extra resources and upgrade your Wolf armor as much as you can.

As for weapons, a solid bow like the Draugr Fang is a good get, as is a Silver Shield for fighting enemies at close-range. You should also craft as many high-level arrows as you can. Poison arrows are a pretty solid choice, especially if you can tag enemies with them without being spotted.

The bounties of the Plains will be closed to you, however, until you kill Moder, the boss of the Mountain biome.

Defeat Moder

With a good set of Wolf Armor, a strong bow, and a Silver Shield, you should have everything you need to find and destroy Moder, the boss of the Mountain biome. Check out our complete Moder guide for a rundown of how to beat the frost dragon, either alone or with a team.

Moder drops Dragon Tears when defeated, which are a specific item you'll need to make new crafting stations when you get to the Plains. The Dragon Tear powers the Artisan Table, which opens up the ability to make the Blast Furnace, Windmill, and Spinning Wheel crafting stations. You'll need all three to make use of the materials you'll find in the Plains, with the Spinning Wheel being the most essential for upgrading your armor.

Once Moder is down, you can prepare for venturing into the Plains to make a permanent base. You'll want such a location, because in order to make Padded Armor, you're probably going to need to set up a farm. More on that later.

How To Survive The Plains

The Plains are full of tough, high-level enemies that will make short work of you in just about any gear, so it's best to exercise serious caution when exploring there. You might want to get into the settings and turn down Valheim's music when entering the Plains, which will allow you to hear the telltale buzzing of some of its worst enemies: the Deathsquitos. These flying insects are tough to hit, tough to dodge, and tough to block--and they do serious damage when they attack you. Deathsquitos are best dealt with at great distances with your bow, or as they come straight in to attack you (as opposed to strafing sideways between their attacks).

Ranged fighting is how you'll probably deal with most enemies on the Plains when you first start out--you'll want to be as stealthy as possible so you don't get rushed by multiple foes at once. Poison arrows are pretty effective here, and as you start killing Deathsquitos, crafting Needle Arrows out of their stingers will allow you to do more damage from afar.

In general, it's a good idea to have an exit strategy when you enter the Plains biome. Bring the gear to make portals with you, so you can set up small outposts and escape in an emergency. In order to really advance in the area, you're going to need to raid the outposts created by the goblin-like Fulings, which can be tough because they're usually very populous, so you'll need a lot of ammo and a lot of high-level food. Sausages and Serpent Stew are recommended, as is Cooked Lox Meat if you can get it. In fact, you might want to dedicate your first few Plains excursions to killing Loxes to harvest their meat, which is some of the best food in the game. Be careful, though--Loxes are very tough to bring down and very deadly if they get close enough to attack you.

Eventually, try to set up a base where you can portal in and out of the Plains. If you can clear all the goblins in one of their outposts, you can just steal it; slap a Workbench inside one of their buildings and either build walls or cut ditches around the group of buildings, and you're good to go.

What You Need For Padded Armor

While Wolf Armor requires you to find new pelts and a new metal (namely Silver) in order to craft it in the Mountain biome, you won't have to hunt quite so much material for Padded Armor. It uses a new crafting material called Linen Thread as its primary component--each piece of armor requires 20 Linen Threads, so you'll be making a lot of it. Linen Thread comes from Flax, a resource you can find on the Plains, which you'll refine with the Spinning Wheel.

You'll find Black Metal in the Plains biome, but Black Metal is only used for certain new weapons. To make Padded Armor, you'll mostly need Iron, as well as a little bit of Silver, as well as lots of Linen Thread.

Before you can make Padded Armor, you'll need several crafting tables. The armor is made at a Forge, and you'll need to upgrade your Forge to at least Level 2, which means building an add-on for the crafting station. You'll also need the Spinning Wheel, which requires 10 Iron Nails, 20 Fine Wood, and 10 Leather Scraps to make.

While it's not technically part of the Padded Armor set, you can also make the Lox Cape from resources found in the Plains--namely, Lox Hides. Like the Wolf Fur Cape, the Lox Cape gives you Frost Resistance when you wear it, making it useful if you're traversing between the Plains and the Mountains. The Linen Cape has higher durability when upgraded (and you can choose its color), but it won't protect you from the cold, so keep that in mind.

Here's the rundown of the resources each piece of Padded Armor requires:

• Padded Cuirass
  • 20 Linen Thread
  • 10 Iron

• Padded Grieves
  • 20 Linen Thread
  • 10 Iron
• Padded Helmet
  • 15 Linen Thread
  • 10 Iron
• Linen Cape
  • 20 Linen Thread
  • 1 Silver
  • Level 2 Workbench
• Lox Cape
  • 6 Lox Hides
  • 2 Silver
  • Level 2 Workbench

Where To Find Flax

The toughest element in crafting Padded Armor is locating Flax, because you won't just come across it growing out of the ground in the Plains biome. Look for Flax either in the treasure chests in Fuling structures and ruined stone buildings, or growing in small cultivated patches inside Fuling outposts.

Finding Flax in the Plains is actually a bit rare, and you might have to clear out multiple Fuling outposts in order to get some. That can be tough, so take your time, snipe as many enemies as you can with your bow, and do your best to engage Fulings one at a time so you're not overwhelmed and killed. Once you find Flax, do not immediately spin it into Linen Thread. Instead, you'll want to craft a Cultivator at a Forge (out of 5 Core Wood and 5 Bronze) so you can farm your own Flax.

With the Cultivator, you can make any patch of dirt Cultivated, which plants require to grow. Once you've done that, use the Cultivator menu like you would the Hammer, select your Flax, and plant it. It's going to take some time, but it's really worth it to plant as much Flax as you can early on--every Flax you plant yields two Flax when it fully matures, which takes two to three in-game days. It's a while to wait, but you'll run out of Flax long before you complete your armor if you only use what you find in Fuling outposts.

After a few planting rounds, you should have enough Flax to start making your Padded Armor. It's worth it to take the time to upgrade your armor a few times--it'll make it a lot tougher for random encounters with Loxes, Fulings, or Deathsquitos to end in your death. You'll also want all the protection you can get before going after the king of the goblins, Yagluth.