How to Prepare for Deep North – Valheim

Deep North is the final biome to be added to Valheim. Its release will coincide with the game leaving Early Access and finally getting its full launch. And while we still don’t have the exact date for when this will happen, it shouldn’t be long now.

Usually, each new Valheim biome comes with a notable difficulty spike. This guide will help you prepare for the challenges that await you in the Deep North. This way, when the new biome is available for exploration, you’ll be able to jump into it straight away.

Deep North Checklist

While at this point we don’t know exactly what awaits us in the Deep North biome and how Valheim’s 1.0 release will affect the current balance and meta, we can make some educated guesses. This is mainly possible thanks to a series of official development updates we’ve been getting in the form of The Voyage of Hervor Bloodtooth. That voyage has recently concluded with its tenth entry featuring a quick peek at the lair of the game’s final boss.

With that in mind, plus what we know about Valheim’s usual biome progression, here’s a quick list of things you’ll want to take care of to get ready for the Deep North:

• Defeat Fader, the Ashlands boss
• Equip the best Ashlands-tier weapons and armour
• Prepare the best Ashlands-tier foods
• Brew the best mead
• Stock up on portal materials

Defeating Fader

To advance to the next biome in Valheim you’ll need to defeat the main boss of the previous one. This usually comes in the form of a special drop that allows you to venture into a new area. This means it’s pretty much a guarantee that in order to explore the Deep North, we’ll need to defeat and loot Fader, the Ashlands boss.

Here’s what you’ll need to do to summon Fader:

• Locate Fader’s summoning altar in an Ashlands arena
• Collect 9 Bell Fragments
• Create 3 Bells
• Place the Bells on the Bell Holders around the altar
• Use the altar

Once you get your bearings and establish an outpost in the Ashlands biome, you’ll want to start working on defeating its boss – Fader. You can find the Vegvisir stones inside Charred Fortresses and Charred Ruins in the biome that will place a marker for The Emerald Flame on your map.

When you arrive there, you’ll see a circular arena with an altar in the middle and three Bell Holders around it. You’ll need to place a Bell on each Bell Holder, then use the altar to summon and defeat Fader.

Each Bell is created by combining 3 Bell Fragments at a Black Forge (Black Marble x10, Yggdrasil Wood x10, Black Core x5).

You get Bell Fragments inside the central keeps of Charred Fortresses. This means you’ll first need to break inside and deal with the enemies there. We have a dedicated guide that will help you find your way in a Charred fortress:

In short, you’ll want to clear the enemies inhabiting a fortress, and then get inside through one of the following means:

• Break the walls with a Battering Ram
• Break the walls with a pickaxe
• Break the walls or send yourself over them with a Catapult
• Build platforms to jump over the outer wall, then ram or pickaxe the tower inside

Once you manage to do crack open a tower inside a Charred Fortress, you’ll find loot inside. Among it will be an altar with a glass case around it. Hit the glass with a weapon to break it and you’ll be rewarded with several Bell Fragments.

After you get enough fragments for 3 Bells, head to Fader’s boss arena, place the bells on the Bell Holders, and summon Fader by interacting with the altar in the middle.

When you defeat the boss, make sure to loot him to get the Fader Relics he drops. You’ll combine them with 10 Stone at a Stonecutter to place down an Eternal Pyre. This piece works like the Wisp Fountain for the Mistlands. It will periodically attract Embers. Once it does, grab them to build a Snow Shovel that you’ll want for your Deep North Adventures. You’ll build it at the Black Forge using:

• Finewood x5
• Flametal x4
• Embers x2

Keep in mind that the Embers around the Eternal Pyre keep rapidly moving, and this makes grabbing or even targeting them far from reliable. If you can’t locate them right away, make sure to move your cursor around.

Equipping the Best Gear

By the time you’re fighting Fader, you should already have powerful Ashlands-tier gear. But when you’re looking to advance to the Deep North, you should also make sure that gear is fully upgraded.

This means you’ll generally want a Black Forge at level 5 and a Galdr Table at level 4 to fully upgrade your Ashlands gear.

Here are the Ashlands armour sets and their stats at quality level 3:

• Flametal Set
  • 126 Armour
  • Heat resistance: +40%
• Embla Set
  • 69 Armour
  • Eitr regen: +130%
• Ask Set
  • 96 Armour
  • Ask’s Endurance

The choice of armour is pretty self-explanatory. The Flametal set is made for heavy physical fighters, the Embla set is perfect for the Eitr-using mages, and the Ask set will work great for rangers and agile fighters.

The Ask’s Endurance effect provided by the Ask Set only works with all three pieces of the set equipped. This is what it gives you:

• Run stamina usage: -10%
• Jump stamina usage: -10%
• Attack stamina usage: -20%
• Pierce damage: +10%

When it comes to cloaks, you have two options:

• Asksvin Cloak
  • 3 Armour
  • Resistant VS Frost
  • Wind Run
  • Dodge stamina usage: -15%
• Ashen Cape
  • 16 Armour
  • Resistant VS Frost
  • Attack stamina usage: -10%
  • Block stamina cost: -20%

Both these capes provide protection against Frost damage, and as such will negate the Cold and Freezing effects likely present in the Deep North biome.

The Ashen Cape is straightforward. It gives you a nice amount of armour and makes you better at attacking and blocking.

The Asksvin Cloak provides significantly less armour and enhances your dodging. But the Wind Run effect is interesting. It makes the wind strength and direction affect your speed and stamina usage. In the absolute best conditions, it will increase your movement speed by 25% and completely negate stamina usage for sprinting.

As for weapons, your choice will depend on your preferences. Some good options include the Slayer two-handed sword, Nidhögg, Berserkir Axes, and the Ashfang Bow, and Trollstav.

Keep in mind that while exploring Ashlands, you can find various gemstones like Bloodstone, Iolite, and Jade. You can then use them at a Black Forge together with your Ashlands weapons to craft new, more powerful versions.

• Bloodstone weapons will increase your damage proportional to your lost HP
• Iolite weapons will infuse your weapons with a lightning effect that can chain to nearby foes
• Jade weapons will infuse your weapons with immobilizing poison

Preparing Food

Since we have 3 slots for food buffs, we can mix and match different food types. You can learn more about it in our dedicated Best Food guide. As a general rule, when exploring a new dangerous biome, you’ll want a lot of health and plenty of stamina. This means you’ll likely want two health-rich foods and one that mainly raises your stamina.

This means your optimal early Deep North food setup will be:

• Piquant Pie – Max Health +105, Max Stamina +35
• Mashed Meat – Max Health +100, Max Stamina +34
• Roasted Crust Pie – Max Health +34, Max Stamina +100

If you want to use magic, replace one or more of the above with the following:

• Marinated Greens – Max Health +32, Max Stamina +16, Max Eitr +95
• Sparkling Shroomshake – Max Health +30, Max Stamina +15, Max Eitr +90
• Sizzling Berry Broth – Max Health +28, Max Stamina +14, Max Eitr +85

Brewing Mead

Mead offers a variety of effects that can prove invaluable when exploring unfamiliar territory. This ranges from what are essentially healing and energy potions, to things like Frost Resistance and the ability to carry more loot without being encumbered. You can learn more about mead in our dedicated guide.

With that in mind, here are some meads you’ll likely want to have when you’re out exploring the Deep North:

• Frost Resistance Mead
• Major Healing Mead
• Medium Stamina Mead
• Lingering Eitr Mead
• Mead of Troll Endurance

Preparing Portals

Since the Deep North biome is located on the northmost edge of the map, getting there will be a challenge. To greatly cut down on this travel time, you’ll want to prepare some portals when setting out for the new biome. This will let you quickly teleport between your main base and the Deep North.

As of the Ashlands update, there are two types of portals in Valheim. The regular ones will not allow you to teleport with ores and some other precious items. And then the big stone portals remove this limitation. So, depending on the resources you have available, during your first journey to the Deep North, you’ll want to have the materials to set up at least one portal there when you arrive.

• Portal – Greydwarf Eye x10, Finewood x20, Surtling Core x2
• Stone Portal – Greydwarf Eye x10, Grausten x30, Molten Core x2

Another thing to keep in mind, and this is important, you should also have an unconnected named portal back at your base. So that once you set up your new Deep North one, you can immediately connect it to your base.

Miscellaneous Tips

Light Sources

Based on the sixth part of Hervor’s voyage, we know that the Deep North dungeon – Winding Tunnels – will plunge you into twisted dark corridors. This means you’ll want to have a light source in your inventory. These include

• Torch
• Dvergr Lantern
• Dvergr Circlet
• Wisplight
• Dyrnwyn

You can craft a Torch directly from your inventory by combining Wood with Resin. It takes up your weapon slot if equipped alone or shield slot if equipped together with a one-handed weapon. This limits how useful torches are outside of peaceful exploration. They also have durability that constantly ticks down while you have a torch out.

Found inside Dvergr buildings in the Mistlands and Ashlands biomes, or crafted at a Black Forge by combining 2 Bronze with a Surtling Core and a Crystal, Dvergr Lanterns work like Torches, but they have infinite durability.

Dvergr Circlet is a helmet you purchase from Haldor the merchant for 620 Coins. It acts as a mining helmet and is quite convenient, but it barely offers any armour and will break your armour set effects if you have any.

Wisplight is primarily used to defeat the mists of the Mistlands biome. It also can serve as a regular light source. It goes in the accessory slot. Which you’ll primarily be using for the Megingjord belt that raises your carry weight by 150.

Dyrnwyn is an Ashlands-tier sword enchanted to deal additional fire damage. Its fiery aura can illuminate your surroundings like a torch. And since it’s one of the stronger Ashlands weapons, it will likely serve you well in the Deep North. Check out our Mysterious Locations guide to learn how to obtain Dyrnwyn.

Preemptive Ship

When the Deep North update goes live, there’s a good chance it will rearrange the terrain of the northern parts of your world. This may result in you losing some buildings.

Most notably, this means that if you prepare a portal ahead of time somewhere around the Deep North biome in its current unfinished state, it may end up teleporting you into the biome’s freezing waters.

To ensure this doesn’t cause you much trouble, you can preemptively place a boat on the ground by your Deep North portals. If the terrain changes to ocean after the update releases, you’ll have a ship ready to navigate yourself to dry land. To place a boat on land, hold the Shift key when you’re constructing it.

We hope this guide will help you get ready for the exciting new challenges of Valheim’s final biome. If you have tips or suggestions for other things one can do to prepare for the Deep North, don’t hesitate to mention them in the comments.