What to bring, where to find Bloodgold, how to open the dungeons, and the item-stand warning you should not ignore.
Alexandrosse
The Deep North has been live for three days and it has already done two things: amazed people, and killed a great many of them.
This guide gathers what you need to know before setting foot there, in the order you will need it. Our 1.0 review is here if you want an opinion first.
Start with the most urgent thing, because this is the kind of information that costs dearly when learned too late.
Iron Gate flagged a problem with item stands and armour stands: under certain conditions, items placed on them lost their durability and upgrade level. A fix has shipped, but the studio says it plainly itself: do not remove high-value items from your stands without a backup, record fish, weapons and armour included, if you have already played 1.0.
Copy your worlds folder before your first session. Five seconds against four years of progress is an easy calculation.
A second useful warning: if you used developer commands in the past, your achievements are blocked. Version 1.0 adds an option to re-enable them deliberately, and the studio leaves its use to your judgement.
That is the question everybody asks, and the official answer is nuanced.
Iron Gate recommends a new playthrough to get the best out of the finished version, while acknowledging that many will want to reach the Deep North from their existing world, and has published an FAQ for exactly that case.
My practical advice: keep your world and go and see the North with your equipped character, then start a fresh world alongside if the urge takes you. The two experiences have nothing in common and you do not have to choose.
Advertisement
The Deep North occupies the northern extremities of the map. It is the game's final progression tier, it comes after the Mistlands, and it was not designed to be visited in meadow clothing.
You will find, among others, Barka, Elaking, Eyeless Ones, Gammeltroll, Hexen, Krigen, Writhan, Fallen Warriors, and a family of gelatinous creatures in three sizes.
Two pieces of good news in the middle of that. There are moose, which can be tamed and ridden, and seals, which provide pelt and blubber.
And one recent detail from the patch notes: the greydwarf shamans encountered in the North were dealing and healing incorrect amounts, and that is fixed. If you found a fight oddly unbalanced on day one, it was not you.
Three categories, in order of importance.
Cold resistance. It is not negotiable, the North is a frozen biome and thermal protection conditions everything else.
Higher-tier food. The North adds around twenty dishes, but you arrive with what you have. Fill your three slots with the best you own before leaving, not once you are there.
A way back. A portal on the edge, a bed in a temporary shelter, and above all a route you can retrace in the dark. The North does not forgive improvised expeditions.
One detail that changed and matters in the field: snow behaves differently now. Punching the ground no longer removes it, but landing on it after a jump does. It is trivia, and it will help you clear a building spot.
This is the heart of the progression and you need to take it by the right end.
Petrified Tissue is your raw material. You process it at the Black Forge to obtain Bloodgold, the ingot the new armours and weapons depend on.
Frostcore, moulds and Luminous Larvae come from the Winding Tunnels, the first of the biome's two dungeons.
The rest of the basket is wide: moose hide, moose sinew, seal pelt, seal blubber, Elaking hair bundles, frozen branches, Nornathread, Writhan roots, plus the Frostfire and Thunderblood essences that give their names to the two weapon families.
On stations, the North adds the Frost Foundry and the Frigid Kiln, plus three extensions worth knowing: the smith's apron for the Black Forge, the smoker for the cauldron, and the standing loom for the galdr table.
They do not open the same way and this is a frequent sticking point.
The Winding Tunnels are reached through openings located inside large village houses. In other words you will not find them wandering the surface: you have to go into the buildings and look for the way down.
The Gates of Mörkhalla sit behind fortress-like structures and require an Intricate Key. Do not waste time hunting for a side passage, hunt for the key.
Four armour sets arrive with the biome, including a Protector set, a Vanguard set and a Caller set, covering heavy combat, balance and magic respectively.
On weapons, the range is complete, in three families: Nord, Frostfire and Thunderblood. Each family covers roughly every category in the game, from sword to crossbow by way of atgeir, mace, greataxe, spear, dagger and fists. Add new shields and four magic staves.
Crafting goes through the Black Forge with its upgrades, or the Frost Foundry with Bloodgold and moulds.
One practical point reported and fixed: the Deep North heavy armour could not be repaired on day one. It works now, but if you read elsewhere that it was unrepairable, that information is out of date.
This is the easiest system to miss, because it does not concern the North alone.
Sixteen idols, Protection and Battle, are hidden throughout Valheim. You bring them to the new Forge of Potential, where they connect to a further layer of item progression.
In practice that gives you a reason to return to biomes you had filed away. If you have a world several years old, this is probably the content that will occupy you longest after the boss.
One caution though: a recent fix corrected the Forge of Potential unlocking recipes that it should not have. Update the game before investing your idols in it.
The game's final boss is a Jotun, a frost giant, holed up in a lair at the heart of the frozen lands.
To summon him you need three Malicious Blood.
Three pieces of common sense before going, because this is the end of the game's difficulty curve.
Arrive with the biome's equipment, not the Mistlands'. The North has its own tier and it exists for a reason.
Prepare the arena as you did for previous bosses. Valheim has never forbidden shaping the ground, and a final boss is not the moment to turn purist.
And eat just before, not ten minutes before. Your three food slots are your real health bar.
Version 1.0 brings full crossplay between PC, Mac, Linux, Xbox, PlayStation 5 and Switch 2, with up to ten players on a dedicated server.
One caveat as I write: because of an update problem, the patch could not be deployed to Switch 2, which temporarily breaks compatibility between that machine and the others. There is a workaround on the Steam side, rolling back to the previous build from Steam properties, the versions and betas tab, choosing default_old. You will then be playing without the fixes, which is a trade-off to make depending on your group.
Another useful fix for hosts: ban lists and whitelists once again accept old identifiers, not only the new ones.
Back up your world. Update the game. Max out your food and your cold protection with whatever you know how to make. Put a portal on the edge of the North.
Then look for the large village houses to descend into the Winding Tunnels, bring back Frostcore and moulds, and turn your Petrified Tissue into Bloodgold at the Black Forge.
Equip yourself in Nord gear, step up to Frostfire or Thunderblood depending on your style, find an Intricate Key for Mörkhalla, then gather your three Malicious Blood.
And save the idols for afterwards. They will give you a reason to reopen a world you thought was finished.
How many attempts did the Jotun take? Tales of defeat are especially welcome on the InsertCoins Discord.
Community
Your rating
Advertisement
No comments yet. Be the first.
You might also like
459,000 reviews, 94 per cent positive, and one last biome finally arriving. Version 1.0 is here, and it is the one we were waiting for.
Ten thousand dollars to start, a bank that follows you, three sides on the zone. Here is how not to go broke by your third match.
Which mode to pick, how to keep a timetable, what to do about the wheel that cuts the throttle, and how to build a profitable route.
Understand the defensive ladder, land your first Issen, know when to absorb a soul, and stop dying stupidly in duels.