Updated November 11, 2026. Applies to Valheim 1.0, patch 1.0.21. Creature stats, taming and breeding numbers come from the community Valheim Wiki Lox page and its taming page. The new armor set is listed in Iron Gate's own Valheim 1.0 release notes on Steam. Nothing in the 1.0.21 patch notes changes Lox.
The Lox is the big shaggy lizard-ox of the Plains. It is the first mount you can ride, its meat makes one of the strongest Plains foods, and since 1.0 its pelt also makes a full armor set.
It also hits for 130 damage, which surprises a lot of players on their first Plains trip. This guide covers both sides: how to survive a wild Lox, and how to turn a herd of them into a ranch.
Quick answer: To tame a Lox, drop Barley, Cloudberries or Flax near it and stay within about 64 meters without alerting it. Taming takes 30 minutes of fed, calm time (600 ticks of 3 seconds), which is usually 3 pieces of food. To ride it, craft a Lox Saddle at a level 1 Workbench from 10 Leather Scraps, 20 Linen Thread and 15 Black Metal, then use the saddle from your hotbar on the tamed Lox. A ridden Lox has 240 stamina, ignores your carry weight and steers with the camera. Two Lox breed when they are fed and within 8 meters of each other, but only while there are fewer than 4 Lox within 20 meters, calves included.
What is a Lox in Valheim?
A Lox is a Plains creature with 1,000 health at zero stars. The wiki describes it as "an enlarged fusion of both a lizard and an ox", which is where the name comes from. Lox spawn anywhere in the Plains, up to 3 at a time in a normal zone. Some Plains areas are "Lox Plains", where the spawn limit is 15, so you will see big herds there.
Wild Lox are aggressive once you get close. The wiki notes that "approaching a wild Lox will always frighten it", so you can't walk up to one and stay friendly.
| Lox stat (0 stars) | Value |
|---|---|
| Health | 1,000 |
| Bite | 130 Slash, every 4 seconds, 5.5 m reach in a 45° arc |
| Stomp | 120 Blunt plus 100 Chop and 100 Pickaxe, every 12 seconds, 2.5 m radius |
| Weak to | Fire (1.5x) |
| Resistant to | Blunt, Frost, Slash (0.5x) |
| Neutral to | Pierce, Lightning, Poison |
| Immune to | Spirit, Chop, Pickaxe |
| Stagger limit | 30% |
| Drops | 4 to 5 Lox Meat, 2 Lox Pelt, 10% Lox Trophy |
That Chop and Pickaxe damage on the Stomp is why a Lox can flatten a wooden wall in seconds. It's also why a pen needs more thought than a fence.
How do you kill a Lox safely?
Lox resist Slash and Blunt, so swords and most maces barely hurt them. Pierce does full damage, and Lox are weak to Fire. That makes bows with fire arrows, spears and polearms the right tools. The wiki's creature strategy page also says Lox have "terrible vision and hearing", so you can often land a sneak attack bow shot without crouching.
The classic trick is a ditch. Lox are huge and struggle with narrow terrain, so a trench between you and the Lox lets you shoot it while it can't reach you. Watch the Stomp though: a Lox starts it from up to 6 meters away and throws its damage well forward, so the wiki warns it can still smash structures on the far side of a narrow ditch. Make the trench wide.
Three more things to know before you fight one:
- The first attack is usually the Stomp. Expect it and roll out of the 2.5 m circle.
- Lox can attack while swimming, so a river isn't a safe zone.
- Blocking is risky. A 130 Slash bite goes through a weak shield. Our Valheim shields guide has the block math if you want to tank one.
If you're still gearing up for the Plains, the Yagluth and Plains prep guide covers the Fulings and Deathsquitos you'll meet next to every Lox herd.
What do Lox eat for taming?
Lox eat Barley, Cloudberries or Flax, and they eat it from up to 4 meters away. That's much further than a Boar's 1 meter, which makes Lox one of the easier animals to feed.
| Lox food | Where you get it |
|---|---|
| Cloudberries | Grow wild on the ground in the Plains, respawn after 300 minutes |
| Barley | Fuling villages, Plains chests, Deep North Abandoned Village barrels, or farm it in the Plains with a Cultivator |
| Flax | Fuling villages, Deep North Abandoned Village barrels, or farm it in the Plains with a Cultivator |
Cloudberries are the easy early option because you can pick them on the spot. If you plan to breed Lox long term, start a Barley or Flax field. Our Valheim farming guide has the grow times.
How do you tame a Lox in Valheim?
Taming in Valheim is a timer, not a feeding count. A creature gains one tick of taming every 3 seconds while three things are true: it isn't hungry, it isn't alerted (no red exclamation mark), and a player is close enough to keep the area active, about 64 meters. It needs 600 ticks, which is 30 minutes of real time. One meal keeps a Lox fed for 10 minutes, so an uninterrupted tame takes 3 pieces of food.
Step by step:
- Find a Lox away from Fuling camps. Fulings and Deathsquitos will interrupt the tame and can kill the Lox.
- Trap it, or work the herd. The safest method is a pen or a hole. The wiki says a hole dug with a pickaxe works best, because luring a Lox into a built pen usually makes it hostile. Dig it big: a Lox in a cramped pit may stand still and never eat.
- Drop the food within 4 meters. Throw 3 or more pieces nearby. Creatures only eat one item from a stack, so you can drop a whole stack at once.
- Back off and stay within 64 meters. Yellow hearts mean the tame is progressing. If the Lox sees you and turns red, progress stops until it calms down.
- Wait 30 minutes. A message pops up on screen when the Lox is tamed.
Do not put a low roof over it. Lox pathfind like Trolls, so they won't reach food under a low ceiling. The wiki suggests at least 8 meters of clearance on flat ground and 10 meters or more if you want to keep Lox indoors.
Want it faster? The Brew of Animal Whispers doubles taming speed for every animal within 60 meters for 600 seconds, so a full tame drops to 15 minutes if you drink a second one when the first runs out. Make the mead base at a Mead Ketill from 5 Onion, 10 Carrot and 1 Pungent Pebbles, then ferment it in a Fermenter.
Taming a whole herd. Lox herds wander back to the same spot, so you can tame several at once. Sprint through the herd scattering Cloudberries, or sneak in and drop them. The wiki recommends staying above 50 stamina so you can run if they notice you. Once most of a herd is tame, they start fighting the Deathsquitos and Fulings that would otherwise go for you.
For the same process on every other animal, see our Valheim taming guide.
How do you make a Lox Saddle?
The Lox Saddle is crafted at the Workbench at level 1 (wiki recipe):
| Lox Saddle | Detail |
|---|---|
| Recipe | 10 Leather Scraps, 20 Linen Thread, 15 Black Metal |
| Station | Workbench, level 1 |
| Weight | 10 |
| Portal | Yes, it can go through portals |
The station is cheap. The materials aren't. Linen Thread comes from Flax spun at a Spinning Wheel, and Black Metal is smelted in a Blast Furnace from the Black Metal Scrap that Fulings drop. Both the Spinning Wheel and the Blast Furnace are built at the Artisan Table, which you unlock by killing Moder, so the saddle is a Plains item that needs the Mountain boss dead first. Our Valheim ores guide shows where Black Metal fits in the metal ladder.
Here's how the Lox Saddle compares with the other two saddles in 1.0:
| Saddle | Station | Recipe |
|---|---|---|
| Lox Saddle | Workbench 1 | 10 Leather Scraps, 20 Linen Thread, 15 Black Metal |
| Asksvin Saddle | Black Forge 2 | 6 Flametal, 20 Linen Thread, 4 Morgen Sinew |
| Moose Saddle | Black Forge 2 | 4 Bloodgold, 5 Seal Pelt, 5 Timberwood, 15 Linen Thread |
The Lox Saddle is the only one you can make before the Ashlands. The other two have their own guides: Asksvin and Moose.
How do you ride a Lox in Valheim?
Put the saddle on your hotbar, stand next to your tamed Lox and use the hotbar slot. The saddle attaches and stays on the Lox.
- Mount: press E on the saddle, the same way you take the helm of a boat.
- Remove the saddle: Left Shift + E.
- Steer: the movement keys don't turn the Lox. It always walks straight where your camera points, so you steer with the mouse.
- Speed: walk or sprint only. A Lox can't reverse.
- Fighting: you can't swing weapons while riding. Pressing attack dismounts you. A sprinting Lox tramples most creatures it runs into, and a Lox standing still will attack enemies near it on its own.
How much stamina does a ridden Lox have?
A saddled Lox has 240 stamina, and sprinting drains it at about the same rate as a player sprints. It regenerates very slowly: about 1 point every 4 seconds when the Lox has eaten recently and 1 point every 10 seconds when it's hungry. Feed your Lox before a long ride.
The Riding skill fixes most of this. It levels by 0.2 experience per second while you sprint on a mount, and at max level it gives +25% sprint speed and -50% sprint stamina use.
Why ride a Lox at all?
Two reasons. A ridden Lox ignores your carry weight, so you can sprint while over-encumbered. It also isn't slowed by your armor. That makes it a strong way to move heavy loads across the Plains.
How do you breed Lox?
Lox breed once they're tamed and these conditions hold:
| Lox breeding rule | Value |
|---|---|
| Food | Fed with Barley, Cloudberries or Flax |
| Partner distance | Another Lox within 8 meters |
| Population cap | Fewer than 4 Lox within 20 meters, counting itself and calves |
| Love points needed | 4 |
| Pregnancy | At least 2 minutes |
| Calf grows up | 100 minutes (1 hour 40 minutes) |
| Player distance | Within about 64 meters to keep the area active |
A tamed Lox in a walled pen. Keep the feeding area open-topped and roomy: a low roof stops Lox from reaching their food.
The population cap is the rule that trips people up. A Lox only gains love points while the total in 20 meters, including itself and any calves, is under 4. Once a pen holds 4, breeding stops (a Lox that's already pregnant still gives birth). The fix is to keep 2 breeding adults per pen and move calves more than 20 meters away, or build separate pens far apart. Breeding checks run every 30 seconds with a 33% chance of a love point.
What can you make from Lox?
Lox food
| Food | How to make it | Health | Stamina | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cooked Lox Meat | 1 Lox Meat on an Iron Cooking Station (not the wooden one) | 50 | 16 | 1,200 s |
| Lox Meat Pie | 2 Lox Meat, 2 Cloudberries, 4 Barley Flour at the Food Preparation Table, then 50 s in a Stone Oven | 75 | 24 | 1,800 s |
Recipes and stats are from the wiki's Lox Meat Pie page. Take the pie out of the oven before 100 seconds or it burns into Coal. Lox Meat Pie is the second-highest health food in the Plains after Serpent Stew's 80, and you can farm it from a pen instead of hunting Serpents at sea. Our Valheim food tier list shows where it ranks next to the Mistlands and Deep North foods.
The Lox Cape
The Lox Cape costs 6 Lox Pelt and 2 Silver at a level 2 Workbench. It only has 1 armor, but it makes you Resistant to Frost, which stops the Cold and Freezing effects. The wiki notes the frost resistance doesn't stack with a Frost Resistance Mead or Moder's power.
The Lox Fur Set (new in 1.0)
Valheim 1.0 added a full set made from Lox pelt. Iron Gate's 1.0 notes list it as "Armour set: Lox Fur Jacket, Lox Fur Trousers, Lox Fur Hood."
| Piece | Recipe (quality 1) | Armor Q1 | Armor Q4 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lox Fur Hood | 4 Lox Pelt, 4 Bone Fragments, 2 Writhan Roots | 16 | 22 |
| Lox Fur Jacket | 5 Lox Pelt, 8 Bone Fragments, 2 Roots | 16 | 22 |
| Lox Fur Trousers | 5 Lox Pelt, 8 Bone Fragments, 2 Roots | 16 | 22 |
| Lox Cape | 6 Lox Pelt, 2 Silver | 1 | 4 |
Per the wiki's Lox Fur Set page, all four craft at a level 2 Workbench, and quality 4 needs a level 5 Workbench. Wearing the hood, jacket and trousers together gives the Boon of the Lox set bonus: +30 Sneak and +15 Bows. The full set with the cape totals 49 armor at quality 1 and 70 at quality 4. Maxing all four pieces takes 111 Lox Pelt, 90 Bone Fragments, 9 Writhan Roots, 18 Roots and 2 Silver, which is another good reason to breed Lox instead of hunting them.
Is it worth wearing? It's a light set for archers and stealth players. A player on r/valheim put the doubt plainly in a thread on November 10, 2026: "I'm looking at future armor sets (Lox Fur Set, Vilebone Set), and a lot of them have VERY low armor." That's fair. Padded Armor, the heavy Plains option, has 26 armor per piece at quality 1 against Lox Fur's 16, but Padded's chest and legs each cost 5% movement speed. Pick Lox Fur if you fight with a bow and want to open with sneak attacks. Pick Padded if you fight up close. Our Valheim armor tier list ranks every set by biome.
Lox Pelt also goes into the Lox Rug, the Ashwood Bed and the Ashlands "of Ask" armor pieces, so a pen keeps paying off later in the game.
FAQ
How long does it take to tame a Lox in Valheim? 30 minutes of real time. Taming needs 600 ticks and one tick happens every 3 seconds while the Lox is fed, calm and within about 64 meters of a player. With the Brew of Animal Whispers active, taming runs at double speed for 600 seconds.
Why won't my Lox eat? The most common causes are a roof that's too low (Lox need about 8 to 10 meters of clearance), food the Lox can't path to, or the Lox being alerted. A Lox also won't eat while it's still full from its last meal, which lasts 10 minutes.
Can you tame a Lox before beating Yagluth? Yes. Taming has no boss requirement. You only need to reach the Plains and bring Cloudberries, Barley or Flax. The saddle needs Moder dead (for the Artisan Table, Spinning Wheel and Blast Furnace) but not Yagluth.
Why can't I steer my Lox with WASD? The movement keys don't turn a Lox. It always runs where the camera faces, so steer with the mouse. It also can't move backwards.
Where do Lox spawn in Valheim? Anywhere in the Plains, up to 3 at a time in a normal area. Some Plains zones are Lox Plains, where up to 15 can spawn, so look for big open grassland herds. Haldor's camp also has a tamed Lox called Halstein, and Hildir keeps two, Blåbär and Hallon.
How do you kill a tamed Lox for meat? Tamed creatures are on your faction, so normal weapons don't hurt them. Use the Butcher Knife, or turn on friendly fire. Breed a few calves first so the herd keeps going.
More Valheim guides
Building a Plains ranch? These guides cover the rest of the setup.
