Valheim Ashlands Guide: Survive, Loot & Fortresses (1.0)

🎯 The core idea

The Ashlands is Valheim's seventh biome and the hardest place to survive before the Deep North. Reach it on a Drakkar, land on a rock with a portal, and push inland one safe spot at a time. Get Flametal armour and a Nidhögg sword early, bring spirit or lightning damage for the Charred and Morgen, and clear three Charred Fortresses for the 9 Bell fragments that summon Fader.

• free costs nothing
• cheap small cost
• setup needs preparation
• grind pays off slowly
• skip the thing to stop doing

Reaching the Ashlands: the Drakkar boat

setup The water around the Ashlands is boiling. The Valheim wiki says every boat except the Drakkar takes 1 to 30 blunt damage per second there, rising to the maximum 300 m in, so a Longship won't make the trip. The Drakkar is the only Ashlands boat that is immune. It's a 3000-durability ship with 32 storage slots, built at the Workbench.

If you haven't beaten the Queen yet, our Valheim Queen boss guide covers that fight. The Valheim progression guide shows where the Ashlands sits in the full boss order.

Don't swim. On the wiki's numbers, a swimming player builds up heat and starts taking 50 damage per second after about 28 seconds in boiling water. Flametal armour's heat resistance slows that down.

Ashlands landing and first base: portal on a rock

free The video's best tip for your Ashlands landing is to find a rock on the beach or just off the coast and put your first portal on top of it, away from the enemies on the shore. If you step straight onto the mainland you'll be met by a crowd. Arrive in daylight. The wiki's spawn tables back this up: two-star Asksvin and extra Charred spawn at night and only leave at dawn.

The wiki adds two tips for keeping the landing quiet:

• Follow the coast. Most Ashlands enemies only spawn on the ground, so sailing along the shore meets fewer of them than walking inland.
• Every base piece blocks spawns within 20 m. A Workbench shows that radius, but a Campfire is the cheapest way to claim ground. The video calls dropping campfires everywhere a bit cheesy. It works.

Your first Valheim Ashlands base needs more than walls. The wiki says cinder rain damages structures, and fire spreads between wooden pieces here. A Shield generator (5 Iron, 5 Copper, 1 Shield core) makes a 30 m dome that stops cinder rain, enemy projectiles and the lava balls that fly out of lava lakes. It runs on bones of any kind, Charred bone included.

Build from Grausten (stone) where you can, and keep the base small. For most players the Ashlands base is a portal hub, a Workbench for the ram and a bed, not a home.

Once you have Flametal, the Stone portal (added with the Ashlands update) carries metal, so you can send ore home without sailing back.

Ashlands enemies and how to fight them

setup Ashlands enemies punish the wrong damage type more than any earlier biome. The key fact from the wiki: every Charred is weak to spirit, very resistant to fire, resistant to pierce and immune to poison. Fire arrows and poison weapons from the Plains and Mistlands are close to useless here.

Valheim Charred come in waves and spawn from spawners, so killing them never ends on its own. Charred bone goes into Flametal armour, the Nidhögg sword and most Ashlands staves, so you'll collect plenty anyway.

The Valheim Morgen is the one the video warns about most. The wiki lists it as very rare in the open: you mostly meet it burrowed inside Ashlands ruins and Putrid Holes, waiting to burst out. Its sinew goes into the Asksvin cloak and its heart into the Flametal breastplate. It is weak to lightning, which is one more reason the video's pick of the Thundering sword works.

Voltures fly behind you to attack, and the wiki calls them among the fastest enemies in the game. Kill them for meat and eggs instead of running.

The wiki also notes that Ashlands enemies hurt each other. Morgen, Fallen Valkyrie, Lava Blob explosions and Skugg bolts all have friendly fire. Drawing a Morgen into a group of Charred is a real tactic.

Valheim Ashlands lava and how to cross it

cheap Lava fills most of the inland Ashlands, and the best ore sits in it. You have three ways across:

• Grappling hook. The video uses it for most crossings and calls it a 1.0 addition. The 1.0 patch notes do list "Traverse across heights easier with a grappling hook", but the Fandom wiki has no page for it yet, so the recipe isn't covered here.
• Basalt bomb. Crafted at the Workbench, 5 bombs from 1 Asksvin hide, 1 Asksvin bladder and 3 Proustite powder. Thrown into lava it raises a basalt platform that floats for 30 seconds before it sinks slowly.
• A tamed Asksvin. The wiki confirms Asksvin take no lava damage, and a player riding one with an Asksvin saddle crosses lava without damage too. You can't attack while riding. Tame them with Smoke puffs, Vineberry clusters or Fiddleheads. The video calls taming "a bit of a process", which is fair.

Cinder rain also falls in the Ashlands and sets wooden builds on fire, and the fire spreads. The landing section above covers the Shield generator that stops it.

Valheim Flametal: mining the ore on the lava

grind Valheim Flametal is the Ashlands metal. Flametal ore comes from glowing veins that rise out of the lava, which the video describes as big shiny spires. You need at least a Black metal pickaxe. The wiki calls these deposits Lavaiathans and says they sink back into the lava, like a Leviathan at sea. The video gives you a couple of minutes per deposit.

• Clear every enemy near the vein first. A knockback while you mine can drop you into lava, and your gravestone with it.
• The video's tip: grapple to the top and mine down, so the parts that sink first are the ones you already took.
• Flametal ore weighs 10 per piece. Smelt it with coal in a Blast furnace.

You don't have to mine it all. The wiki lists Flametal ore in Charred chests inside fortresses, in Dvergr crates at Dvergr Charred tower ruins, and from fishing up Magmafish.

Ashlands resources worth farming early

grind Most Ashlands recipes come from a handful of drops. The video says to pick them up from the first day.

The video says to shoot the orange unstable rocks with a bone arrow. The wiki explains why range matters: any hit of 50 damage or more makes the rock explode for 75 pure damage that ignores armour and can't be blocked.

The video thinks Fiddleheads and Smoke puffs can't be planted. The wiki agrees in practice: it only lists them as pickups that respawn (Fiddleheads every 5 hours, Smoke puffs every 4). Vineberry is the Ashlands crop you can grow from Vineberry seeds.

Flametal armour and the Nidhögg sword

setup The video's advice: build Flametal gear as soon as you can, and carry a shield because you'll need to block and parry a lot. Both are crafted at the Black forge.

The breastplate and greaves together give 40% heat resistance. On the wiki's numbers, that adds about two-thirds more time before boiling water starts to burn and cuts the damage to 30 per second.

Gem upgrades. Charred Fortress chests give Iolite, Jade and Bloodstone. Each one turns a Nidhögg into a magic version at Black forge level 4 for 6 more Flametal:

• Nidhögg the Thundering (Iolite) adds lightning damage. This is the video's pick. The video says the lightning spreads and stuns, which the wiki page doesn't describe, so treat that as the video's own observation. Morgen are weak to lightning.
• Nidhögg the Primal (Jade) adds poison. skip for clearing the Ashlands: every Charred is immune to poison.
• Nidhögg the Bleeding (Bloodstone) is the blood-magic variant.

1.0 also raised the durability of Ashlands gear, according to the 1.0 patch notes.

Putrid Holes: Ashlands caves and safe rest stops

free The caves the video points out are Putrid Holes. The video says they usually hold no enemies. The wiki disagrees: each Putrid Hole has one Morgen inside. It doesn't respawn, so the cave is safe once you kill it, but go in ready for a fight.

What you get for it:

• Soft tissue, which you need for more eitr production, from mounds of flesh.
• Molten cores (3.5 on average), coins, Charred bone and Ashwood from the stone chests.
• A 25% chance at a Vegvisir that points to the first Mysterious Location.

The wiki's tip matches the video: once cleared, a Putrid Hole is a safe place to break line of sight, heal and regain stamina. Mark them on your map.

Valheim Fallen Valkyrie: fight it under cover

skip Don't fight a Valheim Fallen Valkyrie in the open with other enemies around. It has 1500 health, resists fire and is immune to poison, and its attacks hit other creatures too. The wiki lists three attacks:

Only one spawns at a time and they're uncommon, so you can usually wait for one to fly off. When you do kill one, its Celestial feathers go into the Staff of the Wild.

Valheim Ashlands fortress: siege, warlocks and loot

setup A Valheim Ashlands fortress (the wiki calls it a Charred Fortress) is marked by a green beam of light. Each world has 20, all inland between the lava fields. Their gates have 6000 health and only take tool-tier-5 pickaxe damage, so you need a siege engine.

Battering ram. The ram costs 10 Flametal, 2 Surtling cores and 20 Ashwood. As the video suggests, put down a Workbench next to the fortress and build it there. Load it with up to 25 wood (Ashwood works), stand between its front arms and use it like a cart. Each punch deals 600 pickaxe damage. The wiki says the outer walls (3 layers of 1500) actually break faster than the gate (6000).

What's inside, per the wiki:

The video counts about two warlocks per fortress; the wiki says up to three spawn at the start, and the Effigies can add more. The safest order, which the wiki and the video both suggest: draw the warlocks outside and kill them where a death isn't a disaster, then break the two Effigies of Malice, then the Skuggs on the walls. The wiki adds a ranged option once you have one Bloodstone: summon trolls with the Trollstav from outside and let them clear the court.

Loot. The video says the chest is outside. The wiki puts up to three Charred chests along the central tower's walls and one inside it. Ram the inner tower gate to reach:

• the Bell altar, which drops 2 to 4 Bell fragments
• Charred chests with Flametal ore, Iolite, Jade and Bloodstone
• a Fader Vegvisir (50% chance), the red rune the video mentions, which shows Fader's arena
• 2 Molten cores, plus 78 bronze spike strips outside worth about 273 scrap bronze in total

The video says two or three fortresses give enough Bell fragments. The maths says three or more: Fader needs 3 Bells at 3 fragments each, so 9 fragments, and two fortresses give at most 8.

Monuments of Torment are a different spawner, the red slabs the video tells you to destroy on sight. They spawn Charred Twitchers and Warriors every 10 seconds within 60 m, are immune to fire, and are often hidden inside large rock formations.

Ashlands magic build: Trollstav and new staves

setup Mages get three new staves at the Galdr table:

The video's warning about the Trollstav is right: the troll aggros on everything, so cast it away from yourself. The video also says only two trolls can be up at once. The wiki doesn't list a cap, so treat that number as the video's. Against the Charred, remember that the Staff of the Wild's poison does nothing.

For armour, the video recommends the Embla set (hood, robes and trousers) for eitr regeneration. The wiki lists +30% eitr regen on the Hood of Embla.

Ashlands food and fire resistance meads

cheap Ashlands food is a big step up. The video highlights these, and the wiki confirms the numbers:

The video says the pie gives 105 health but doesn't mention its 35 stamina. Piquant pie needs Vineberry clusters, Asksvin tails and Barley flour; most of the rest need Fiddleheads, Smoke puffs or Vineberries.

Meads. The video's "fire resistant meat" is Fire resistance barley wine: Barley and Cloudberries, lasting 10 minutes. Note that most Charred deal physical damage. The wiki counts only four Ashlands enemies that do fire damage (Bonemaw, Lava Blob, Fallen Valkyrie and Charred Warlock), so Valheim fire resistance matters most against warlocks, lava and Fader. Lingering stamina mead (+25% stamina regen for 5 minutes) is the video's other pick.

Fader, the Ashlands boss

grind The Bells from your fortress runs summon Fader, the seventh boss, at the Emerald Flame arena that the Vegvisir reveals. Our full Valheim Fader boss guide covers every attack. The short version from this video:

• Build your portal well back from the arena. The video saw Fader's big area attacks reach further than expected.
• Clear Monuments of Torment and stray Fallen Valkyries near the arena before you ring the bells.
• The video's solo plan is a mage: Embla set, Asksvin cloak for speed, Staff of Protection always up, and Trollstav trolls to hold aggro. In the minion phase the creator switched to spamming the Staff of the Wild because the trolls died too fast.
• Watch for the wall of green fire. The video saw it around 60 to 70% health. The wiki says it can come any time between 90% and 15%, and that minion summons start below 55%.

The Asksvin cloak (Galdr table, 6 Asksvin hide, 2 Morgen sinew) is worth making for the whole biome, not just Fader. The wiki gives it up to +25% run speed and up to 100% less run stamina with the wind behind you, plus 15% cheaper dodges.

What changed in Valheim Ashlands 1.0

free This video is from 20 September 2026, after the 1.0 launch on 9 September. The 1.0.00 patch notes list three Ashlands changes:

• Reduced chance of multiple enemies spawning together in the Ashlands, which is why old videos look busier.
• Reduced time between Charred spawns. Spawners and open-ground Charred come back sooner, so don't stand around near a cleared area.
• Increased durability for Mistlands and Ashlands gear.

Guides from before 1.0 show bigger groups and older gear numbers. The live patch is now 1.0.20. If a later patch changes Ashlands spawns again, the wiki's Version history page will list it.

How this guide was fact-checked

• Source video: "Valheim 1.0 EVERYTHING You NEED To Know About The Ashlands" by Spyro ZA (20 September 2026, after 1.0). All images are frames from it.
• Valheim wiki (Fandom) pages checked: Ashlands, Drakkar, Ceramic plate, Artisan table, Flametal ore, Charred Fortress, Battering ram, Bell fragment, Fader, Monument of Torment, Effigy of Malice, all Charred, Morgen, Fallen Valkyrie, Asksvin, Volture, Skugg, Putrid Hole, Unstable lava rock, Proustite powder, Charcoal resin, Fiddlehead, Smoke puff, Ashwood, Charred bone, Flametal Armor, Nidhögg and its three variants, Embla Set, Asksvin cloak, Trollstav, Staff of the Wild, Staff of Fracturing, Basalt bomb, Shield generator, the five foods, Fire resistance barley wine, Lingering stamina mead and Version history (1.0.00 notes).
• Corrections to the video: Putrid Holes each hold one Morgen (the video says they're usually empty). Fortress chests are along and inside the central tower, not outside. Up to three warlocks spawn at the start, not about two. Two fortresses can't give the 9 Bell fragments; you need three or more. Primal (Jade) Nidhögg's poison does nothing to the Charred. Piquant pie also gives 35 stamina.
• Names fixed from the captions: Draar/Dakar → Drakkar, Artisian press → Artisan press, Morgan Sneu → Morgen sinew, Asphins/Asan → Asksvin, prostite → Proustite, Nighthog → Nidhögg, lolite → Iolite, troll stav → Trollstav, pen pie → Piquant pie, Imbala → Embla, fire resistant meat → Fire resistance barley wine.
• Video only, not on the wiki: the grappling hook (no Fandom page yet, though the 1.0 notes list it), how long a Flametal vein stays up, the two-troll cap, and the Thundering sword's spreading stun.

What this guide doesn't answer

• Every Fader attack and his drops. That's the Valheim Fader boss guide.
• Lord Reto and the Dyrnwyn quest. The Ashlands miniboss sits in his own tomb and needs a separate guide.
• The Deep North. It comes after Fader and has different survival rules.
• Stone portal recipe and portal networks. Those are planned for a dedicated portals guide.
• Catapult sieges. The Catapult is another way to breach a fortress, but the video doesn't show it.
• Full upgrade costs for quality 2 to 4. The wiki has every level, and the tables here only show the first craft.