Valheim 1.0 Deep North Guide: How to Craft Frost Foundry, Blood Gold, and Nord Endgame Gear

Beat Fader for the special drop, then craft the Ember Pile and Ember Charges. Hunt Gamble Trolls in the Deep North, blow up the frozen corpses with Ember Charges, and mine Petrified Tissue from the top down. Refine that in a Blast Furnace for Blood Gold. Build a Frost Kiln for Liquid Frost and a Frost Foundry (15 Iron, 20 Stone, 10 Frostcores) to cast molds into gear. Upgrade the Black Forge to level 4 with Moose Hide, Black Gold, and Timber Wood. Farm the Winding Tunnels for Frostcores, weapon molds, and Memorial Coal, then run More Hollow Halls with Intricate Keys for armor molds. Offer Memorial Coal at altars for Thunder Blood or Fire Frost, then infuse your Blood Gold weapons.

 

What I Needed Before Touching Any of This

The Deep North endgame doesn’t open up until you’ve handled a few prerequisites. If any of these are missing, the rest of the route stalls out.

• Have a Black Forge upgraded to level 4.
• Bring the Mistlands grapple hook for dungeon traversal (optional, but it saves time).

The resources I ended up tracking across this whole run: Blood Gold, Petrified Tissue, Ember Charges, Memorial Coal, Frostcores, Liquid Frost, Thunder Blood, Fire Frost, Nern Thread, Leather Straps, Moose Hide, Black Gold, Timber Wood, and Seal Pelt.

 

How I Get Blood Gold Without Wasting Hours

Blood Gold comes from Petrified Tissue, and Petrified Tissue comes from Gamble Trolls. That’s the whole chain.

1. Mine from the top down. More charges are required now than in the preview — two is not enough. I bring several recharges to maximize Petrified Tissue yield.
2. Refine Petrified Tissue in the Blast Furnace back at base to produce Blood Gold.

Ranged attacks work well here because the troll leans hard on close-range attacks. Summoning a fire troll is also a viable strategy if you want help.

How I craft Ember Charges:

1. After defeating Fader, use the special drop to craft the new Ember Pile.
2. Collect from the Ember Pile like wisps, but faster.
3. At a regular Workbench, craft Ember Charges with Ember Pile output plus Seal Pelt.
4. Each craft yields 10 Ember Charges.

Building the Frost Foundry and Frost Kiln

This is the crafting core of the whole update. No foundry, no Nord gear.

Frost Kiln:

• Requires Frostcores, Ice, and Stone.
• Load it with Ice to convert into Liquid Frost (Liquid Ice), which the foundry needs.
• Ice comes from ice lakes throughout the Deep North — break them open to harvest more.

Where I get Frostcores:

• No key required for this dungeon.
• Find settlements and search the largest buildings for the Winding Tunnels entrance.
• Inside, kill everything, collect weapon molds, and grab Frostcores.
• Dungeons are proc-gen, so yields vary — I got 33 Frostcores in one run and 20 in another.

Upgrading the Black Forge and Crafting Molds

Once you’ve got Blood Gold flowing, the next wall is the Black Forge upgrade and the mold system.

Black Forge upgrade to level 4:

• Place the new aprons at the Black Forge.
• Materials needed: Moose Hide, Black Gold, and new Timber Wood (all found in the Deep North).
• Only one additional upgrade station is added via the aprons — the rest you should already have from Mistlands or Ashlands.

Crafting molds:

• Craft molds at the Black Forge once you find them.
• Example recipe: 5 Black Gold + 1 mold for an Intricate Key.
• Craft the Intricate Key if you want Nord armor sets rather than weapons.
• Molds must be found before their corresponding weapon or armor recipes appear.
• Many weapons require large amounts of Timber Wood, so stock up.

Using the Frost Foundry:

1. Place your mold inside the Frost Foundry.
2. Add Liquid Frost.
3. Wait approximately 50 seconds to produce the item.

What I Farm in the Winding Tunnels

• Weapon molds appear as part of debris in the tunnels.
• Armor molds and harder weapon molds are in dungeons requiring Intricate Keys.
• In those harder dungeons, molds sit on weapon stands you must break, usually on the bottom two or three floors.

Enemies and hazards:

• New mole-like creatures with rip claws — dangerous in swarms.
• Break through wardrobe-like areas (a Narnia nod) to access more tunnel sections.
• Little grubs on the walls are used to craft new Hooded Lanterns, which shine light in a specific direction to help you orient and find the way out.

Loot:

• Lots of jewels and sellable items.
• Chests and enemies throughout.
• Some Ashlands jewels also show up.

Diving Into More Hollow Halls for Armor Molds

• Requires Intricate Keys to access.
• Source of armor molds, additional weapon molds, and Memorial Coal.
• Bring the Mistlands grapple hook to descend quickly, but it alerts enemies. Going slower, level by level from top to bottom, is safer until you learn the layout.

Enemies:

• Hexen witches (flying witch versions) drop Nern Thread needed for mage gear.
• Yoten drop Leather Straps.
• Some captives may be present — check before killing everything.

Loot:

• Lots of jewels sellable for large amounts of gold.
• Some Ashlands jewels also found.

Memorial Coal Altars and Elemental Infusion

Memorial Coal is scattered throughout the More Hollow Halls dungeon and also found in the Winding Tunnels.

Altar offering:

1. Find the altar near some settlements.
2. Offer Memorial Coal at the altar to summon ghostly spirits.
3. These summoned spirits are hostile and hit hard. Summoning around six at once is possible but risky without allies.
4. The spirits are named. Defeat them to receive Thunder Blood or Fire Frost — the drop is random.

Elemental infusion:

• Craft basic Nord weapons from Blood Gold.
• Infuse them with either Thunder Blood or Fire Frost to create the elemental version.
• Thunder Blood imbues heavy lightning damage.
• Fire Frost deals a mix of fire and frost damage.

That’s the loop. Blood Gold into a weapon, one elemental drop into the infusion, and you’re holding a Nord endgame piece.

More Guides:

• Valheim 1.0: How to Get More Inventory Slots Without Mods