Valheim: How to Get Bloodbags

Bloodbags are a Swamp-tier material in Valheim, and there is only one way to get them: pull them out of a Leech. They feed some of the most useful consumables in the game, including the mead that keeps you alive in the Mountains, so most players end up farming them in bulk before moving past the Swamp.

Quick answer: Kill Leeches in the water of any Swamp biome. Every Leech drops Bloodbags at a 100% rate, so shoot them from dry land with a bow, then step into the water to pick up the loot.

Where to find Bloodbags in Valheim

Leeches live in the water of the Swamp biome and nowhere else. They never leave it, which means you cannot bait one onto dry ground, but it also means you are safe from them the moment you are standing on solid land.

They favour deeper pools over shallow shoreline puddles. The tell is the water surface itself: circular ripples spreading out from a spot usually means a Leech is swimming just under it. They are roughly two metres long, dark, and travel in groups of up to four, so treat one sighting as a warning that three more are nearby.

Player wades through Swamp water with a glowing blue weapon drawn, scanning for Leeches — Wading through the flooded parts of the Swamp, where Leeches spawn. Image: Iron Gate Studio

Leech level and Bloodbag drop amounts

There is no luck involved. A Leech always drops Bloodbags, and the amount scales with its star level, so higher-level Leeches are worth the extra effort.

Enemy	Level	Bloodbags	Drop rate
Leech	1	1	100%
Leech	2	2	100%
Leech	3	4	100%

What to bring before farming Leeches

Leech bites deal piercing damage and apply Poison, and the poison ticks are what usually kill players rather than the bite itself. Being slowed down in deep water while poisoned, with Draugr and Skeletons closing in on the bank, is the worst-case version of this fight.

Poison Resistance Mead. Brew the mead base in a Cauldron, then ferment it. Drink one before you start and you can shrug off a bad bite.
Bronze armour or better, with upgrades. Wolf armour offers more protection, but most players hit the Swamp long before the Mountains.
A bow and plenty of arrows. The Huntsman Bow or Draugr Fang are ideal. A Finewood Bow works, just slowly.
An Abyssal Harpoon (optional). If you have sailed to a Leviathan and gathered Chitin, the harpoon drags Leeches out of the water and saves arrows.

Crafting menu open with Splitnir the Storming selected before a Swamp trip — The crafting menu, with Splitnir the Storming selected — sort out weapons and gear before heading into the Swamp. Image: Iron Gate Studio

How to kill Leeches from the shoreline

Walk the edges of any water in the Swamp and stay on solid ground. Keep an eye on the surface for ripples rather than looking for the Leech model itself, since they sit low in the murky water.

Equip your bow before the Leech notices you. Shooting from land is the whole trick here, because a Leech cannot follow you out of the water and has no ranged attack.

Hotbar slot eight selected while moving through rainy Swamp terrain — Switching hotbar slots in the rain-soaked Swamp before engaging. Image: Iron Gate Studio

Fire until the group is dead, and count the kills. Leeches travel in packs, so clearing all of them first avoids getting bitten mid-pickup.

Step into the water, grab the Bloodbags, and get straight back onto land. Loot sinks where the Leech died, so swim over the exact spot rather than the shoreline nearby.

Raised platform method for repeat farming

Build a small outpost beside a watery patch of Swamp, ideally next to a pool that already has Leeches in it.

Extend a stone or wooden platform out over the water, raised high enough that a Leech rearing up cannot reach you, but close enough that they still swim over to investigate.

Stand on the edge and shoot down at whatever gathers below. Leeches have a wide aggro radius, so this pulls them away from the Draugr, Skeletons, and Wraiths patrolling the rest of the biome.

Tip: The Abyssal Harpoon is the arrow-free alternative. Hook a Leech, drag it out of the water, and let it die on dry land. It takes longer per kill but you can do it solo and without spending ammunition.

Bloodbag item stats and how to confirm the drop

You will know a pickup registered from the notification in the corner of the screen, which reads “Added Bloodbag x2” for a two-star kill. Open your inventory and the item shows the description “The contents of a leech. Ick!” — that is the confirmation that the material is actually in your bags and not still sitting underwater.

Inventory screen showing Bloodbags collected after killing Leeches in the Swamp — The inventory after a Leech hunt, with Bloodbags stacked alongside other Swamp loot. Image: Iron Gate Studio

Property	Value
Item type	Material
Weight	0.5
Stack size	50
Source	Leeches
Teleportable	Yes
Internal ID	Bloodbag

Because Bloodbags pass through portals, you do not need to sail a boatload home. Farm as many as you can carry, portal back to base, and return for another run.

Bloodbag recipes and uses

Most of what Bloodbags make happens at a Cauldron. The two mead bases have to go into a Fermenter afterwards before they become drinkable mead.

Recipe	Station	Ingredients
Mead Base: Frost Resistance	Cauldron	10 Honey, 5 Thistle, 2 Bloodbag, 1 Greydwarf Eye
Mead Base: Medium Healing	Cauldron	10 Honey, 4 Bloodbag, 10 Raspberries, 1 Dandelion
Blood Pudding	Cauldron	2 Thistle, 2 Bloodbag, 4 Barley Flour
Black Soup	Cauldron	1 Bloodbag, 1 Honey, 1 Turnip
Swamp Dweller’s Delight	Food Preparation Table	8 Sausages, 4 Bloodbag, 2 Turnip Stew, 1 Woodland Herb Blend
Red Banner	Workbench	1 Bloodbag, 2 Finewood, 6 Leather Scraps

Frost Resistance Mead is the reason most players farm Bloodbags at all, since it stops the Mountains from freezing you to death without a Wolf armour set. Medium Healing Mead restores 75 health over 120 seconds, which is the difference-maker in boss fights. Blood Pudding gives 90 health and 50 stamina for 2400 seconds with 4 health regenerated per tick, making it one of the strongest food slots available at that stage. The Red Banner is purely decorative.

Spawn Bloodbags with the console command

If you are testing builds or playing on a private world where cheats are fine, you can skip the Swamp entirely. Open the console with F5, enable cheats, then spawn the item.

devcommands
spawn Bloodbag

The realistic bottleneck is arrows, not Leeches. Swamp water is everywhere and the spawns keep coming, so a single well-placed platform beside a decent pool will keep you supplied with mead and Blood Pudding for the rest of the run.