Deep North Locations

3:39 The Deep North locations are the dungeons, ruins and landmarks that Valheim's 1.0 release placed in its ninth and final biome, the Deep North: two dungeons, the Winding Tunnels and the Gates of Mörkhalla, and four surface sites that Iron Gate's patch notes name as the Abandoned village, Stave hall, Ice Pond and Memorial site (Valheim 1.0 Has Arrived!). The same list includes the Forge of Potential, which generates in the Mountain instead, and beyond them all stands the Aesir Passage, the gate to the last boss, Kall Fimbulbringer. As NickRawcliffe puts it, the tall stone towers hide the hard dungeon and the docile-looking ruined villages hide the other. Their creatures are on Deep North Creatures.

Quick facts

Abandoned Villages

6:53 Deep in the snowbound forests stand villages of steep-roofed timber houses whose only inhabitants are the ghosts of ancient Vikings. The ghosts wander and speak the odd line, and even when attacked they do not fight back (EmmaTpotato). Game8 calls these settlements Abandoned Homesteads. Their houses are largely intact, which makes them natural forward bases, and their chests, barrels and wardrobes hold loot (Game8; AllThings.How).

18:18 One building looks the same in every village: the pantry. Its barrels mix old crops such as turnip and flax with new seeds and sometimes a weapon mould; Kysen's first pantry held one for the Nord Spear. SnazzyGames notes that Oat seeds and Seed Potatoes, which grow the eitr-rich Poteitr, come only from these huts (Farming and Taming). Jade PG found that Gammeltrolls kept coming for him while he broke and built in villages (Gammeltroll). Full page: Abandoned Villages.

The Stave hall

6:52 Every village also has one great building, which EmmaTpotato describes as a giant stave church and AllThings.How as a longhouse. At its back, one chamber larger than the others holds a hole in the floor: the entrance to the Winding Tunnels. The patch notes list a "Stave hall" among the new locations, but no 1.0 guide or wiki had described a separate site by that name by Sep 11, 2026, so whether the term means these halls is not yet confirmed. Iron Gate's teasers did tie a large hall to the first dungeon: in June 2025 it said its heroine, attacked by an Elaking in one, had been carried below ground into the Winding Tunnels (Summer in Sight).

Winding Tunnels

19:49 The first dungeon twists, branches and descends; roots and vines block side passages until broken, and the dark calls for a light. Kysen recommends following one tunnel straight down on a first visit so that the way back is simply the way in. Picking the Luminous Larvae off the walls unlocks the Hooded Lantern, a directional light that can be pointed back towards the exit.

7:19 The tunnels exist for two resources. Frostcore, blue snowflake-like nodes in the walls, unlocks the Frost Foundry and Frigid Kiln, and moulds found there or dropped by the tunnels' creatures unlock the Nord weapons and the Intricate Key (Game8). Packs of Elaking and the brutish Eyeless One guard them (Crafting Stations and Upgrades). Full page: Winding Tunnels.

Gates of Mörkhalla

10:54 The second dungeon, called simply Mörkhalla in the patch notes, lies beneath tall, half-ruined stone towers on the tundra. The entrance is at the top, reached with the Grappling Hook, a good jump or a hole in the tower's side. Behind a wooden door waits a gate bound in golden chains that opens only with an Intricate Key cast from Bloodgold, one key per dungeon; building is blocked there, so the old chair trick for slipping past locked doors fails (AllThings.How).

27:47 Mörkhalla is the largest dungeon in the game, a shaft of stairways dropping level after level with doors off every landing, so a Feather Cape is as useful as the hook. Kysen finds captive Fulings carrying Ancient Coins and Jotun chests of valuables, Black Cores and older metals; EmmaTpotato adds caged Dvergr. The new valuables Draumyx, Grimvarn, Solryth and Veydris sell to traders (Haldor), and braziers and rubble yield Memorial Coal.

12:41 At the bottom, guarded by crowds of Krigen and floating Hexen, stands the Malicious Ice, often beside a vegvisir to the Aesir Passage. Breaking it starts a Jotun Invasion elsewhere in the world, and from then on Krigen and Hexen also roam outside. The way out is back up; EmmaTpotato found no way to break the door (Raids and Events). Full pages: Mörkhalla and the Intricate Key that opens it.

Memorial Sites

36:57 A Memorial Site is a stone circle with an altar at its center and a vegvisir to the Aesir Passage beside it; Game8 calls these Ancient Altars. An offering of Memorial Coal, three according to SnazzyGames, summons the spirit of a fallen warrior, whose death gives a chance of Frostfire or Thunderblood Essence for the elemental Nord weapons. The wiki adds a chest of moulds and a Silver Necklace buried beneath the tombstones (Memorial Place, Valheim Wiki; Weapons and Shields). The summoning and its rewards are on Fallen Warrior.

Ice Ponds

The Ice Pond is the least documented 1.0 location. The patch notes name it and warn that frozen ponds, like the sea ice, are treacherous underfoot; what else one holds had not been described by any 1.0 guide or the wiki by Sep 11, 2026 (AllThings.How).

The Aesir Passage

17:04 The Aesir Passage is a towering stone gateway, and Kysen advises marking it the moment it is found. Vegvisirs to it stand at the bottom of Mörkhalla, beside Memorial Site altars and near the passage itself (AllThings.How). Three Malicious Blood, one from each Jotun Invasion, offered in the Strange Bowl at its base, open a portal into The Prison, where Kall Fimbulbringer waits in chains.

Other sights

6:28 Wrecked ships frozen into the coastal ice can be broken up for items, like the wrecks of earlier biomes. Inland, lone woodcutters' huts with stumps and log piles stand apart from the villages, and chunks of ruined timber can be chopped for Timberwood, which unlocks its building pieces when first picked up. Naturally petrified Gammeltrolls stand half-buried in the snow, ready for Ember Charges. And wherever a Jotun Invasion lands, even far from the north, the ground freezes around a great Malicious Ice until it is broken.

Frequently asked questions

Where is the entrance to the Winding Tunnels? In the back room of the largest building in each Abandoned Village, where a hole in the floor drops into the dungeon.

How do you get into Mörkhalla? Climb a ruined stone tower, with the Grappling Hook if needed, and open the chained gate inside with an Intricate Key cast from a Winding Tunnels mould and 5 Bloodgold.

What is the Stave Hall in Valheim? A location named in the 1.0 patch notes that no guide had documented separately by launch week; the best match is the great hall at the heart of each village, which holds the Winding Tunnels entrance.

Where is the Aesir Passage? In the Deep North; vegvisirs at the bottom of Mörkhalla and at Memorial Sites reveal it. It opens with three Malicious Blood.

Why doesn't my old world have Deep North villages? New 1.0 terrain only generates in areas not yet explored, so Iron Gate recommends a fresh world (Valheim 1.0 FAQ; World Map, Generation and Seeds).

Sources

• Valheim 1.0 Has Arrived!, Iron Gate Studio on Steam, Sep 9, 2026
• Valheim 1.0 FAQ, Iron Gate Studio
• Word from the Devs: Summer in Sight, Iron Gate Studio on Steam, Jun 17, 2025
• Deep North Biome Guide, Game8
• Valheim Deep North Guide, How to Open the Aesir Passage and What the Deep North Update Adds, AllThings.How, September 2026
• Deep North, Mörkhalla and Memorial Place, Valheim Wiki
• Everything New In Valheim Deep North 1.0, NickRawcliffe (video)
• So... Valheim 1.0 Is the Most AMBITIOUS Update EVER, SnazzyGames (video)
• Ultimate Deep North Guide, EmmaTpotato (video)
• Valheim 1.0 Deep North Full Guide!, Kysen (video)