# Valheim Deep North Weapons & Armor: Endgame Gear
> How Valheim 1.0's Deep North gear is made: Bloodgold from petrified Gammeltrolls, moulds and Frostcores from the Winding Tunnels, then casting at the Frost Foundry. It compares Nord, Frostfire and Thunderblood tooltip stats and explains how to farm the Protector, Vanguard and Caller armor moulds.
- **Game:** Valheim
- **Category:** Gear & Combat
- **Author:** ItzMaze (https://guides-factory.com/authors/itzmaze)
- **Difficulty:** Advanced
- **Reading time:** 15 min
- **Published:** 2026-10-26
- **Updated:** 2026-10-26
- **Tags:** Endgame, armor, deep-north, weapons
- **Adapted from:** [How to Get the BEST Weapons & Armor in Valheim 1.0 - Deep North Gear Guide!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpEnwO6vw6g)
- **Canonical URL:** https://guides-factory.com/guides/valheim-deep-north-gear-guide
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## 🎯 The core idea
> Every Deep North weapon starts as a **Nord** weapon: Bloodgold, a mould and Timberwood at the Black Forge, then hardened with Liquid Frost at the Frost Foundry. One essence turns it into a **Frostfire** or **Thunderblood** version. The three armor sets (Protector, Vanguard, Caller) come from moulds that rare Jotun drops give you. Farm Bloodgold and Frostcores first. Everything else depends on them.
- free costs nothing
- cheap small cost
- setup needs preparation
- grind pays off slowly
- skip the thing to stop doing
## What Valheim 1.0 added for the endgame
free The 1.0 patch notes (9 September 2026) list three weapon lines with the same twelve weapon types each: sword, greatsword, atgeir, mace, sledge, axe, greataxe, spear, dagger, knucklechains, bow and crossbow. They also list three Nord shields, four new staffs, Bloodgold ammunition and four new armor sets. One of those sets, Lox Fur, is a Plains set and is covered in the [best armor by biome guide](/guides/valheim-armor-guide). This frame shows how the lines connect: casting your first Nord Bow unlocks the Thunderblood Bow and Frostfire Bow recipes.
| Gear | What it is | Where it's made |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Nord weapons (12 types) | Base Deep North line, physical damage plus a little spirit | Black Forge (cast) then Frost Foundry |
| Frostfire weapons (12 types) | Nord weapon + Bloodgold + Frostfire Essence: adds frost and fire | Black Forge |
| Thunderblood weapons (12 types) | Nord weapon + Bloodgold + Thunderblood Essence: adds lightning and a low-health bonus | Black Forge |
| Nord Buckler, Nord Shield, Nord Greatshield | Deep North shields | Black Forge |
| Echo Spike, Spirit Caller, Northern Vengeance, Lightning Strike | The four new 1.0 staffs | Not shown in the video |
| Protector, Vanguard, Caller sets | Heavy, medium and robe armor sets, crafted from moulds | Black Forge |
| Neckstabber, Witch Crown | Two new trinkets | Black Forge level 6 |
| Bloodgold Arrow, Bolt, Missile, Payload | New ammunition | Black Forge |
Fandom has almost nothing on this gear yet. There are no pages for the Frost Foundry, Frigid Kiln, Frostcore, Bloodgold or any Nord, Frostfire or Thunderblood weapon. The item names above come from the wiki's copy of the 1.0 patch notes. The stats and recipes below come from tooltips shown in the 04AM video and are credited to it.
## Bloodgold from petrified Gammeltrolls
setup Bloodgold is the metal behind all of this. It doesn't come from ore. The wiki's Gammeltroll page explains: the giant Deep North troll (3,000 health) turns to stone when it dies, and you break the remains with **Ember Charges** to get **Petrified Tissue**, the raw form of Bloodgold. In the video, Ember Charges are made from Embers (produced over time by an **Eternal Pyre**) plus Seal Blubber from the passive seals along the coast.
How to fight one: the creator gets right under its legs, hits a few times and rolls away, because thrown trees are its most dangerous attack. The wiki backs this up: the throw does 150 blunt, the punch 220. Check the wiki's resistances before choosing a weapon. A Gammeltroll is **immune to fire and spirit** and resists frost, pierce, slash and blunt. Lightning and poison do normal damage, and pickaxe damage does 1.5x. A Frostfire weapon is a poor choice against it, and so is a Nord bow.
According to the video, each petrified troll gives about 40 to 50 Petrified Tissue and smelts into the same number of Bloodgold bars. One Nord weapon costs 20, so one troll covers roughly two weapons. Place a portal and a chest between the remains to haul it all home in one trip.
## Frostcores and moulds in the Winding Tunnels
grind In 1.0 you can't craft Deep North weapons as soon as you have the metal. Each one needs a **mould**, and building the Frigid Kiln needs **Frostcores**. The video says both come from the **Winding Tunnels**, the underground maze under the great halls of the Deep North's abandoned villages. The wiki's Deep North page confirms that the halls have a hole down into this labyrinth, with Elakings and the Eyeless One inside.
What the video shows:
- **Repair a village hall and put your portal in it.** It's a safe base right above the tunnels.
- **Break every rubble pile** in the tunnels. The creator says they almost always contain weapon, tool or shield moulds. His chest (above) shows moulds stacking to 10.
- **Frostcores** are the main thing to look for down there.
- **Elakings** are easy with slash damage. One- and two-star ones are much harder. The video says the starred tunnel creatures drop **Long Claws**, which the Neckstabber trinket needs.
- The Eyeless One shows up at random. The creator says a normal sword combo staggers the unstarred one quickly.
If you don't find the mould for the weapon you want, keep clearing tunnels. Mould drops are random.
## Frigid Kiln, ice and Liquid Frost
setup The **Frigid Kiln** is built with Frostcores. Its in-game description says it produces "a most potent fuel": it turns **Ice** into **Liquid Frost**. It's very large, and you feed ice in at the back, so leave room to walk around it.
You need a lot of ice. The wiki says icebergs and ice sheets drop ice when you hit them with a pickaxe. The video's faster method is to find a frozen **Ice Pond** (a 1.0 location) and blow it up with Ember Charges. The creator gets about 200 ice per pond, which is his number, not the wiki's.
## The Frost Foundry hardens every cast
cheap The **Frost Foundry** is the trough where a cast becomes a weapon. The on-screen prompt shows it holds **20 Liquid Frost** ("Liquid Frost 15/20"). According to the video, casting one item uses 5 Liquid Frost, so the drop in the tank shows you when the item is done. One mistake to avoid: interact with the **stone on top**, not with the trough. The creator says using the trough doesn't start the cast.
## Nord weapons: the base line
cheap At the Black Forge (level 6 in the video), each Nord weapon starts as a **Cast**. The Cast: Nord Bow tooltip shows the recipe: **20 Bloodgold, 1 Mould: Nord Bow and 10 Timberwood**. Its description says "this weapon needs to be hardened with frost". Take the cast to the Frost Foundry and you get the finished Nord Bow. The wiki's Timberwood page also lists casts for the Nord Atgeir, Axe, Greataxe and Sword, plus the Nord Greatshield, as Timberwood recipes.
| Nord Bow (quality 1, from tooltip) | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Pierce | 100 |
| Spirit | 10 |
| Durability | 400 |
| Draw stamina | 14/s |
| Movement speed | -5% |
On its own a Nord weapon is a solid physical upgrade. Its main job is to be the base for the two elemental versions. Each upgrade uses up a Nord weapon, so cast an extra if you want both.
## Frostfire weapons: frost and fire on top
setup A **Frostfire** weapon costs **the Nord weapon, 20 Bloodgold and 1 Frostfire Essence** at the Black Forge. Both the bow and sword recipes on screen show this. The creator thinks Frostfire is the best choice for most players.
| Tooltip (quality 1) | Nord Bow | Frostfire Bow | Frostfire Sword |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Physical | 100 pierce | 68 pierce | 138 slash |
| Frost | 0 | 88 | 88 |
| Fire | 0 | 12 | 12 |
| Spirit | 10 | 10 | none shown |
| Total on tooltip | 110 | 178 | 238 |
The video says Frostfire adds spirit, frost and fire. In fact the Nord Bow already has the same 10 spirit, so the upgrade only adds frost and fire, and it lowers pierce from 100 to 68. That's a good trade against most enemies, but not all. Gammeltrolls resist frost and are immune to fire (see above), and the [Kall boss guide](/guides/valheim-kall-boss-guide) reports the creator's warning that Kall shrugs off most Frostfire damage. Keep a second weapon type for those fights.
## Thunderblood weapons: lightning and the low-health bonus
setup A **Thunderblood** weapon uses the same recipe with **Thunderblood Essence** instead. The Thunderblood Bow tooltip shows **110 pierce, 45 lightning and 10 spirit**, plus "Damage increased per health missing: 0.2%" and a 25% chance to apply a lightning effect. It keeps more of its physical damage than Frostfire and does normal damage to Gammeltrolls, which take lightning at 1x according to the wiki.
The creator calls Thunderblood a niche pick because it gets stronger as your health drops. But it's the line he uses himself against Kall (a Thunderblood dagger in the [Kall guide](/guides/valheim-kall-boss-guide)). The best plan is to own one of each: Frostfire for everyday Deep North fights, Thunderblood for frost-themed enemies.
## Essences: Memorial Coal and the Viking spirit
grind Both essences come from the same place. You need **Memorial Coal**, a 1.0 item the wiki lists but has no page for. The video says you get it by breaking the braziers on the bottom floor of the dungeons you open with **Intricate Keys**. Those keys are crafted from moulds that drop in the Winding Tunnels and sometimes from Hexen. Offer **3 Memorial Coal** at a **Memorial site** (the 1.0 patch notes list it as a location) and a Viking spirit appears. Beat it and it drops one essence. This frame shows the fight. In the video, the spirit dropped Thunderblood Essence, then Frostfire Essence, which unlocked the Frostfire recipes.
Which essence you get is random, so expect to repeat this if you need one type. The creator summons several spirits at once to farm faster, but only do that if your gear can handle it. He also points out weapon racks on the bottom floor of these dungeons that can hold more weapon moulds.
## The three armor sets: Protector, Vanguard and Caller
grind The armor sets are the slowest part of the Deep North gear. The patch notes name **Breastplace, Trousers and Helmet of the Protector**, **Chestpiece, Trousers and Hood of the Vanguard**, and **Robes, Trousers and Headdress of the Caller**, plus a **Cape of the Caller**. In the video, the heavy armor is Protector, the robes are Caller (made for mages), and Vanguard sits in between.
The wiki has only one of these pieces, the **Hood of the Vanguard**:
| Hood of the Vanguard (wiki) | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Armor (quality 1/2/3) | 34 / 36 / 38 |
| Recipe | Mould: Hood of the Vanguard 1, Seal pelt 5, Moose hide 5, Moose sinew 1 |
| Station | Black Forge 4 / 5 / 6 |
| Vanguard set bonus | Run stamina -10%, health regen +10%, stamina regen +10%, dodge stamina -20%, pierce +10% |
**How to get armor moulds:** the video says to break the crystal in the center of a dungeon's bottom floor. That starts a Jotun raid somewhere in the world (this frame shows one ending), and the Jotun drop armor moulds at around 3% (the creator's estimate). The video also links each mould to one enemy: Jotun casters for Caller, dual-axe warriors for heavy armor, two-handed warriors for Vanguard. **The wiki corrects that last part:** patch 1.0.15 (18 September, six days after the video) made both Jotun Warrior types drop both medium and heavy armor moulds, which raised the drop chance. Patch 1.0.20 also made rare-drop luck carry over between play sessions. The creator has also seen moulds in barrels in the Winding Tunnels' wardrobe and attic rooms.
Two fixes worth knowing: 1.0.10 made the Deep North heavy armor repairable, and 1.0.14 removed a bug that let you craft the Helmet of the Protector without its mould.
## Trinkets: Neckstabber and Witch Crown
cheap Both new trinkets are crafted at the bottom of the Black Forge list (level 6 in the video). They activate on Adrenaline, last 30 seconds and need Bloodgold:
| Trinket (tooltip) | Adrenaline | Effect | Ingredients shown |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Neckstabber | 65 | +100 health, +20 armor, +20% health regen, -10% run and attack stamina | Bloodgold, Long Claws, Moose Trophy |
| Witch Crown | 60 | +50 stamina, +50 eitr, +10% health, stamina and eitr regen | Bloodgold, Nornathread, Hexen Trophy |
Neckstabber is the melee and archer pick. Witch Crown is for staff users wearing the Caller set. The video says Nornathread is also needed for the **Standing Loom**, the 1.0 Galdr Table extension that unlocks the magic side of the Deep North crafting list.
## Best weapon and best armor for a 1.0 endgame build
setup The tooltips point to a simple plan:
- **Main weapon:** a Frostfire version of your favorite weapon type. The Frostfire Sword shows 138 slash, 88 frost and 12 fire, with 66 block armor. It's the best general-purpose weapon in 1.0 for most enemies.
- **Backup weapon:** a Thunderblood weapon (or a plain Nord one) for Gammeltrolls and Kall, which resist frost and fire.
- **Armor:** whichever Deep North set your moulds allow. Vanguard if you dodge a lot (-20% dodge stamina), Protector for tanking, Caller with a staff. Until your moulds drop, use the Ashlands sets from the [armor guide](/guides/valheim-armor-guide).
- **Trinket:** Neckstabber for melee, Witch Crown for magic.
- **Upgrades:** keep putting Bloodgold into quality levels. The wiki's Forge of Potential page adds Bloodgold Battle and Protection Idols that can push gear past its normal max quality. Each attempt has a 65% chance to succeed and a 35% chance to **destroy** the item. Only try it on gear you can afford to lose.
If you're still working up to this, the [best weapons by biome guide](/guides/valheim-best-weapons-guide) covers what to use from the Meadows to the Ashlands.
## How this guide was fact-checked
- **From the Fandom wiki:** the full list of Nord, Frostfire and Thunderblood weapons, shields, staffs, armor pieces, trinkets and ammo (1.0 patch notes in Version history), Gammeltroll health, damage and resistances and how Petrified Tissue becomes Bloodgold, Timberwood recipes, the Hood of the Vanguard stats and set bonus, ice from icebergs, the Winding Tunnels under the village halls, the Forge of Potential idol odds, and patches 1.0.10, 1.0.14, 1.0.15 and 1.0.20 (current version).
- **From tooltips in the video:** the Cast: Nord Bow recipe and stats, the Frostfire and Thunderblood upgrade recipes and stats, the Frostfire Sword stats, the Frost Foundry's 20 Liquid Frost tank, the Frigid Kiln description, and both trinkets.
- **Credited to the video only (no wiki page):** 40 to 50 Petrified Tissue per troll, about 200 ice per pond, 5 Liquid Frost per cast, the Memorial Coal source and the 3-coal cost, the Viking spirit fight, Long Claws drops, the ~3% armor mould chance and the crystal-triggered Jotun raid.
- **Corrections to the video:** each Jotun warrior type no longer drops only one kind of armor mould (1.0.15). Frostfire doesn't add spirit, because the Nord base already has it. "Frost forge" is the Frost Foundry. "Golder table" is the Galdr Table. "Next stabber" is the Neckstabber. "Vexans" are Hexen.
## What this guide doesn't answer
- **Every weapon's stats.** The video only shows the bow line and the Frostfire Sword and Crossbow, and the wiki has no Deep North weapon pages yet.
- **Protector and Caller stats.** Neither the wiki nor the video shows them. Only the Vanguard hood is documented.
- **The four new staffs.** Echo Spike, Spirit Caller, Northern Vengeance and Lightning Strike are named in the patch notes but not shown in the video.
- **Kall Fimbulbringer's fight.** See the [Kall boss guide](/guides/valheim-kall-boss-guide).
- **The grappling hook.** The creator recommends it for the vertical dungeons but covers it in a separate video.
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## FAQ
### How do you get Bloodgold in Valheim?
Kill a Gammeltroll in the Deep North. When it dies it turns to stone, and you blow the remains apart with Ember Charges (Embers from an Eternal Pyre plus Seal Blubber) to get Petrified Tissue, which smelts into Bloodgold. The 04AM video gets about 40 to 50 per troll, enough for roughly two Nord weapons at 20 Bloodgold each.
### How do you craft Deep North weapons in Valheim 1.0?
At the Black Forge (level 6 in the video), craft a cast from 20 Bloodgold, the weapon's mould and Timberwood (the Nord Bow cast uses 10). Then harden the cast at the Frost Foundry by using the stone on top. The foundry runs on Liquid Frost, which the Frigid Kiln makes from ice. The result is a Nord weapon.
### Is Frostfire or Thunderblood better in Valheim?
Frostfire is the better everyday pick. The Frostfire Bow tooltip shows 68 pierce, 88 frost, 12 fire and 10 spirit, against 110 for the plain Nord Bow. Thunderblood keeps 110 pierce, adds 45 lightning and does 0.2% more damage per missing health. Use it on frost-resistant enemies like Gammeltrolls and Kall. Each upgrade costs the Nord weapon, 20 Bloodgold and one essence.
### Where do you get Deep North armor moulds in Valheim?
Protector, Vanguard and Caller moulds drop from Jotun enemies in the raids you start by breaking the crystal on a dungeon's bottom floor. The video estimates the chance at about 3%. Since patch 1.0.15, both Jotun Warrior types drop both medium and heavy armor moulds, which makes them easier to get. Moulds can also turn up in barrels in the Winding Tunnels.
### How do you get Frostfire and Thunderblood Essence?
Collect Memorial Coal from the braziers on the bottom floor of the dungeons you open with Intricate Keys. Offer 3 Memorial Coal at a Memorial site to summon a Viking spirit. Beat it and it drops one essence, either Frostfire or Thunderblood at random, so you may need several runs to get the type you want.