Valheim’s Deep North update brings exactly two enchantments to endgame gear: Frostfire and Thunderblood. The gemstone flavors from the Ashlands, such as Thundering, Bleeding, and Primal, do not carry over here, so these two are your only options once you start forging Nordic weapons for the final stretch of the game.
Quick answer: Craft a Nord weapon from Bloodgold, then use the Black Forge to make a Frostfire or Thunderblood cast. Complete the cast in the Frozen Foundry. Both require essences that drop from the ghost you summon at an Ancient Altar using 3 Memorial Coals each.
What Frostfire and Thunderblood do
Both enchantments stack two familiar status effects onto a single weapon. Frostfire adds Fire and Frost damage, so it slows enemies and burns them over time. The trade is that a Frostfire weapon deals less physical damage than the plain, non-enchanted version of the same weapon.
Thunderblood combines Lightning and Bleeding. You get the usual 25% chance to proc Lightning, a bonus chunk of Lightning damage on top of the weapon’s base output, and an extra 0.2% damage for every point of health you are missing. On a high-HP build, that missing-health scaling turns into a serious spike.
The Nord Greataxe makes the difference easy to see at base, unupgraded values.
| Variant | Damage breakdown | Total |
|---|---|---|
| Nord Greataxe (plain) | 170 slash | 170 |
| Frostfire Greataxe | 140 slash, 10 fire, 80 frost | 230 |
| Thunderblood Greataxe | 170 slash, 70 lightning | 240 |
Thunderblood keeps the physical damage intact and simply piles Lightning on top, while Frostfire sacrifices raw slash to spread its two elemental effects. In practice, Thunderblood out-damages Frostfire, especially once you stack health to 300 with the new food and lean into the missing-health bonus. A Thunderblood Dagger on that kind of build can keep pace with maxed Thundering Berserker Axes from the Ashlands, even though there is no dual-wielding option in the Deep North.
Frostfire still earns its place. The slow plus fire damage-over-time is strong utility, and the Frostfire Nordic Crossbow works well as a control tool, complete with a permanent blue flame effect on your back.
Which weapons accept these enchantments
Frostfire and Thunderblood only work on the Nord weapon tier, the set crafted from Bloodgold in the Deep North. Bloodgold comes from Petrified Tissue harvested off a defeated Gammeltroll, processed at the Black Forge into ingots. If a weapon is not a Nord weapon, you cannot apply either enchantment to it.
Note: The Deep North also drops four new gem types called Solryth, Grimvarn, Draumyx, and Veydris. None of them are used to make any enchanted weapon in 1.0, so do not save them expecting a third enchantment path.
How to unlock Frostfire and Thunderblood
The crafting flow is the same idea as the Ashlands, with one extra step. You build the base Nord weapon, then create an enchanted cast at the Black Forge, and finish that cast in the Frozen Foundry to get the actual weapon. The gating material is the essence, and each enchantment needs its own: Frostfire Essence or Thunderblood Essence.
Drop rate and which essence you get
Essences do not drop every fight. Expect roughly one essence for every two ghosts you defeat, so budget plenty of Memorial Coal for repeat summons. The type of essence follows the type of ghost. Melee ancestors tend to give Thunderblood Essence, while the magic-casting ancestors give Frostfire Essence.
You will know the process worked when the completed Nord weapon leaves the Frozen Foundry carrying its element values, matching the split shown for the Greataxe above. If nothing drops after a fight, the cause is simply the drop chance, not a broken step. Keep summoning until the essence you want appears.
