The Deep North runs on a crafting loop that looks nothing like the rest of Valheim. Instead of mining ore and throwing it in a smelter, you blow apart frozen troll corpses for metal, find physical molds in dungeons, fill those molds with Bloodgold, and then harden them with liquid ice in a dedicated station. Every Nord weapon, shield, and armor piece in the 1.0 update comes out the other end of that chain.
Quick answer: Kill a Gammeltroll, blast its petrified corpse with Ember Charges to collect Petrified Tissue, smelt that into Bloodgold in a Blast Furnace, combine Bloodgold with a mold found in Winding Tunnels or the Gates of Mörkhalla to make a cast, then place the cast in a Frost Foundry and add Liquid Frost from a Frigid Kiln.
What you need before crafting Nord gear
You cannot start this chain straight off the boat. Fader, the Ashlands boss, has to be dead, because the Fader Relic it drops is what builds the structure that produces Embers. Without Embers there are no Ember Charges, and without Ember Charges you can never harvest a single unit of Bloodgold ore.
Pack for a long stay. Bring 15 Iron and portal materials so you can set up a forward base inside an Abandoned Village, and stock up on Ice by smashing the frozen creature husks scattered along the coast. Ice is the fuel for Liquid Frost later, and running back to the shore for more is a waste of a trip.
How to get Bloodgold from Gammeltrolls
Gammeltrolls are the largest creatures in the game, ancient trolls that drifted north and hardened in the cold. They throw whole tree trunks, so treat them as a ranged problem until you learn the arc. The important part is what happens after the fight: the body does not drop loot. It freezes solid where it stands and becomes a petrified statue.
Building the Frigid Kiln and Frost Foundry
Two new stations do the actual manufacturing, and both need Frostcores, the blue snowflake-shaped growths on Winding Tunnels walls. Ten of each covers both builds, so gather at least 20 before you commit to a trip home.
| Station | Build materials | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Frigid Kiln | Frostcores, Ice, Stone | Converts Ice into Liquid Frost |
| Frost Foundry | Frostcores, Iron, Stone | Hardens a seated cast into the finished item using Liquid Frost |
| Blast Furnace | Existing Mistlands-tier station | Smelts Petrified Tissue into Bloodgold |
Place them side by side. Liquid Frost has to be carried from the kiln to the foundry every time you pour a cast, and the two stations get used constantly once the Nord tier opens up.
Where to find molds: Winding Tunnels and the Gates of Mörkhalla
Molds are physical loot, not recipes you unlock by gathering materials. Each one corresponds to a specific item, and you cannot craft a Nord weapon or armor piece until the matching mold is in your inventory.
Winding Tunnels sit under the largest buildings in Abandoned Villages, usually reached through a hole in the floor of a longhouse. They hold Frostcores, basic weapon molds, and the Mould: Intricate Key. Elakings burrow and ambush in the corridors, and Eyeless Ones react to sound, so walk rather than sprint through tight sections.
Luminous Larva also spawn down here, and they are the material for the Hooded Lantern, a placeable light source built for exactly this kind of pitch-black maze. Craft a few before you go deep.
The Gates of Mörkhalla are the harder tier. They look like towering stone fortresses with no ground-level entrance, so you get in over the top with a Grappling Hook and then work down to a chained door. An Intricate Key opens it. Armor molds and the advanced weapon molds are inside, along with Krigen, Hexen, and the Hexahedric Pulp blocking corridors.
Note: the Intricate Key itself goes through the same casting process as everything else. Combine 5 Bloodgold with the Mould: Intricate Key to get a Cast: Intricate Key, then harden it in the Frost Foundry.
Upgrading the Black Forge with Smith’s Aprons
Your Black Forge needs to reach level 4 before it will handle Nord molds. The upgrade is the Smith’s Aprons extension, built from Moose Hide, Bloodgold, and Timberwood. Moose Hide comes from hunting moose on the snowfields, and Timberwood is harvested from Deep North trees.
Once the aprons are placed, molds you have collected turn into usable recipes at the forge, and you will see the new crafting notifications pop up as each one registers.
How the mold, cast, and Frost Foundry process works
Every Nord item follows the same three-stage sequence. Learn it once and the rest of the tier is repetition.
Nord versions exist for every weapon class in the game, so nothing you already use gets left behind.
| Category | Nord items |
|---|---|
| Melee | Sword, Greatsword, Axe, Greataxe, Mace, Sledge, Atgeir, Spear, Dagger, Knucklechains |
| Ranged | Bow, Crossbow, plus Bloodgold arrows, bolts, missiles, and payloads |
| Shields | Nord Buckler, Nord Shield, Nord Greatshield |
Nord armor sets and the materials they need
Armor molds only appear in the Gates of Mörkhalla, and the fights inside supply the fabric side of the recipes. Hexen drop Nornthread, and Krigen drop Leather Straps. Both are needed alongside Bloodgold, so plan on clearing a dungeon rather than sneaking to the bottom and leaving.
| Set | Pieces | Built for |
|---|---|---|
| Protector | Breastplate, Trousers, Helmet | Heavy defense and melee tanking |
| Vanguard | Chestpiece, Trousers, Hood | Reduced stamina drain for agile and ranged builds |
| Caller | Robes, Trousers, Headdress | Eitr regeneration for staff and summon builds |
The Moose Hide Cape pairs with any of them and covers frost protection, and the Cape of the Caller matches the magic set.
Thunderblood and Frostfire weapon infusions
A base Nord weapon is only the halfway point. Each one can be pushed down one of two elemental paths, and the essence that does it comes from a ritual rather than a drop table.
Because each weapon takes one path, decide before you burn an essence. Thunderblood and Frostfire versions exist for all twelve Nord weapon types.
How to confirm each stage worked
Every stage gives a visible signal. Petrified Tissue lands in your inventory as chunks fall off the troll statue. Bloodgold appears as ingots in the Blast Furnace output. A mold turning into a “Cast:” item at the Black Forge means the forge is at the right level and you have enough Bloodgold. The Frost Foundry visibly seats the cast when you place it, and pouring Liquid Frost produces the finished item.
When something stalls, it is almost always one of a short list of causes.
- The Black Forge is below level 4, so Nord molds do not appear as recipes.
- You are holding a mold but not the Bloodgold needed to convert it into a cast.
- The Frigid Kiln has no Ice loaded, so there is no Liquid Frost to pour.
- You tried to mine a Gammeltroll corpse with a pickaxe instead of using Ember Charges.
- Fader is still alive, which means no Fader Relic, no Ember Pile, and no Embers.
Once the Ember Pile, Blast Furnace, Frigid Kiln, upgraded Black Forge, and Frost Foundry are all standing in one base, the rest of the Deep North becomes a supply run. Kill trolls for metal, raid tunnels for molds, clear fortresses for armor patterns and Memorial Coal, and pour everything into the foundry until your loadout is finished.
