Mountain Creatures

1:47 The creatures of the Mountain are the wolves, Fenrings, Drakes and Stone Golems of the snow and the bats, Ulvs and Cultists of its caves, the first bestiary in Valheim organized around a single animal. Wolves hunt the snow in packs by day and in greater, starred numbers by night; the werewolf-like Fenrings prowl after dark; and the Frost Caves added in March 2022 are the lairs of a wolf cult whose Ulvs and red-hooded Cultists guard the Fenris hair used for the game's fastest armor. Around them circle Moder's male offspring, the Drakes, and the Stone Golems that lie disguised as boulders on the highest peaks. Most of the overworld creatures are weak to fire and the cave-dwellers to poison, which shapes the whole biome's combat (Mountain, Valheim wiki).

Quick facts

Wolves

3:35 The wolf is the most common daytime enemy and the reason the biome is feared. A plain wolf has only 80 health but bites for 70 slash damage on a fast cycle, outruns a Viking and howls to pull the rest of the pack onto the player. Wolves are neutral to every damage type and immune only to spirit, chop and pickaxe, so any decent one-handed weapon works; Samo's guide recommends a shield or atgeir against the pack, or sneak attacks with the quiet Huntsman Bow that kill isolated wolves in one arrow (Wolf, Valheim wiki). By day the game allows three wolves per zone; at night the limit doubles to six and one- and two-star variants appear, with 160 and 240 health and bites of 105 and 140.

Every wolf drops wolf meat and a wolf pelt, with a 40 percent chance of a wolf fang and a 10 percent chance of the Wolf Trophy; starred wolves drop more of everything. The pelts and trophy make the Wolf Fur Cape and Wolf Armor, the fangs go into the Fang Spear, the Wolf Armor legs and the Wolf Sight, and the meat is the biome's first good food (Wolf fang, Valheim wiki; Armor and Capes; Food and Cooking).

2:26 Wolves are one of the game's tameable animals. Taming needs the wolf to be fed raw meat while it is neither frightened nor out of range, and it advances one tick every three seconds until 600 ticks, or thirty minutes of uninterrupted feeding, have passed. Night-spawned starred wolves flee and despawn at dawn, so the process must begin while it is still dark (Embr's taming guide). The standard method is a pit: dig a hole two players deep, lure the wolf onto a floor tile over it, break the tile and throw in five to ten raw meat; the Bog Witch's mead of animal taming halves the time. See Farming and Taming.

14:02 A bred pack is also a boss strategy: GlensGames let twelve one-star wolves swarm Moder while he barely touched her, though her icicles kill a one-star wolf in two or three hits, so he recommends fifteen.

16:14 Once Bonemass is dead, wolves also come to the player. "You are being hunted..." is the only raid that does not target a base: it triggers while the player is out in the Mountain or Plains, sends six wolves at a time for two minutes, respawns each killed wolf within two seconds, and the player's own tamed wolves will not help (Events, Valheim wiki; Raids and Events).

Drakes

6:47 Drakes are small winged wyrms that appear from roughly 100 meters of altitude, usually in twos on the slopes and in threes around the drake nests that hold Moder's Dragon Eggs; the lore makes them all male, Moder's offspring guarding her eggs. A drake circles and spits three balls of ice for 90 frost damage each every six seconds; frost resistance halves that and armor reduces it further. With only 100 health, a fire weakness and a shriek that announces it, a drake is best answered with fire arrows from stealth; it is immune to frost, spirit and stagger (Drake, Valheim wiki).

Each drake drops a Freeze Gland, the ingredient of Frost Arrows, Frostner, the Staff of Frost and the stamina food Eyescream, and one in ten drops the Drake Trophy that crafts the Drake Helmet of the Wolf Armor set (Freeze gland, Valheim wiki). After Bonemass, the raid "A cold wind blows from the mountains." sends three drakes at a time against the player's base for 150 seconds and applies Freezing while it lasts; it stops once Moder is defeated.

Stone Golems

9:57 Stone Golems lie curled up as heaps of rock on the tallest mountains, above about 120 meters and occasionally outside abandoned cabins, and rise when the player comes close. The two variants are equally common: the sledge golem slams the ground with one fist or both, the spike golem thrusts and sweeps a blade-like arm, and every attack does 110 physical damage plus 100 chop and 100 pickaxe damage, which is why a golem flattens any structure it reaches. Samo's advice is to dodge the double slam, parry only the single strikes and the spike thrust, and hit back in the opening (Stone Golem, Valheim wiki).

With 800 health, resistance to pierce and slash and immunity to fire, frost, poison, spirit and chop, the golem has exactly one weak point: it is the only creature in the game that takes double damage from a pickaxe, with blunt and lightning as the ordinary alternatives. Golems cannot climb sheer cliffs or follow narrow paths, so a switchback trail is a reliable escape, and they fight drakes, skeletons and wolves on sight. Each drops 8 to 11 Crystal and 5 to 9 Stone with a 5 percent chance of a trophy; Crystal builds crystal walls and the Crystal Battleaxe, and a golem trapped in a pit is a safe target for training frost magic (Magic and Staves).

Fenrings

7:49 The Fenring is the reason to avoid the Mountain at night. It spawns only after dark, at most two per zone, and despawns at dawn; a black-furred werewolf that walks upright, it has 300 health, claws for 85 slash and closes distance with a leaping pounce for 95 from five to nine meters away. A runestone calls it a haunter of the night, sharp of tooth and quick to bite (Fenring, Valheim wiki). Like the wolves it howls for reinforcements, and like most of the overworld it takes half again as much damage from fire, so fire arrows or a torch are the counter; poison does half damage. It drops a wolf fang and, one time in ten, the Fenring Trophy. Sleeping through the night avoids it entirely (Rested, Comfort and Sleeping).

Frost Cave creatures

15:16 The Frost Caves are the biome's dungeon: icicle-fringed entrances leading to randomly generated complexes of up to twenty rooms on three or four floors, blocked by breakable ice walls and decorated with cave paintings of a wolf-worshipping cult. Iron Gate tuned them for a player arriving in iron gear straight from the Swamp, and three creatures live in them, all one-time spawns that do not return once cleared. See Frost Caves Update.

Bats are the nuisance. They have 10 health, bite for 20, resist all physical damage but take extra from fire and spirit, and drop leather scraps half the time; the difficulty is hitting them before they flap away (Bat, Valheim wiki). Killing one unlocks the "You stirred the cauldron." raid after Bonemass, which sends ten bats over any wall and through any open door, in any biome, for two minutes.

3:37 Ulvs are the cave wolves, four-legged werewolves that trot through the passages in groups or lie sleeping. They are glass cannons, with 50 health against a bite of 80 and a downward slash of 70, and they are very resistant to fire, which turns the overworld's standard answer against the player. Poison does half again as much damage, so the Draugr Fang's poison arrows and ooze bombs are the tools of choice, and a sneak attack usually kills one outright. They drop a wolf fang half the time and the Ulv Trophy one time in ten (Ulv, Valheim wiki).

5:22 Cultists wait behind the blood-smeared wooden doors deeper in the caves. Werewolves in tattered red hoods, they have 200 health and fight with fire: a burning claw for 35 slash plus 40 fire, a double claw, and a four-meter cone of flame for 50 that cannot be blocked and passes through walls, all of which set the player burning. They are immune to fire and weak to poison, so Barley Wine's fire resistance and the same poison weapons used on Ulvs are the answer (Cultist, Valheim wiki). A dead Cultist drops one or two Red Jute and has a 10 percent chance of dropping the Cultist Trophy, the one ingredient of the Fenris Hood that cannot be picked up from an altar; the rest of the Fenris armor comes from the Fenris hair and claws on pedestals and wall frames in the same rooms (GamesRadar).

Geirrhafa and the Howling Cavern

9:35 The Hildir's Request update of Aug 22, 2023 placed a harder variant of the Frost Cave in the Mountain, the Howling Cavern, recognizable from outside by two small blue braziers at its mouth and marked on the map from Hildir's table (Patch 0.217.14, Steam). Everything inside is elite: the bats and Ulvs are all one-star, and there are Cultists too. NickRawcliffe calls it the hardest of the three mini-boss dungeons for the number of enemies that can pile on at once and recommends clearing every room with stealth arrows before opening the boss door.

10:16 Behind that door is Geirrhafa, an ice counterpart of the Cultist with white fur and a black-and-red cloak and 3,700 health. Its claws do 40 slash and 60 frost, or 60 and 70 in a double swing; a channeled frost blast in a straight cone does 100, and an ice nova of three expanding shockwaves does 90 each and cannot be blocked. GlensGames' pattern is to back off from the nova, circle around the channeled blast, and parry the single-handed swings for one or two hits at a time, since a parry only staggers Geirrhafa for a moment (Geirrhafa, Valheim wiki). The wiki lists a fire weakness and frost immunity; NickRawcliffe instead recommends a high-spirit weapon such as the Silver Sword.

6:49 Geirrhafa always drops its trophy and Hildir's silver chest. Returning the chest to Hildir unlocks shawl dresses, cape tunics and headscarves for 250 to 450 coins each, and adds a new raid to the world: "You get the chills..." brings Geirrhafa itself, a Cultist and three Fenrings to the player's base for 90 seconds, in any biome (Hildir, Valheim wiki; Hildir's Request Update).

Quick reference

All figures are from the Valheim wiki pages linked above; the damage-type system is explained on Combat.

History

Wolves, drakes, Stone Golems and Fenrings have inhabited the Mountain since the early-access launch of February 2021 (Development History). The cave-dwellers came later: a "Cult of the Wolf" update stood on Iron Gate's 2021 roadmap until it was canceled that May, and its surviving idea returned as the Frost Caves in patch 0.207.20 of Mar 1, 2022, which added the caves, the Ulv, the Cultist and the bat, the Fenris armor and the bat raid (PCGamesN roadmap; GamesRadar). Geirrhafa and the Howling Cavern followed with Hildir's Request in August 2023. The Valheim 1.0 Release of Sep 9, 2026 put its new creatures in the Deep North; the Mountain's own 1.0 novelty is the Forge of Potential. The neighboring tiers are on Swamp Creatures and Plains Creatures.

Frequently asked questions

How do you tame a wolf in Valheim? Feed it raw meat while it is neither frightened nor out of range; taming advances one tick every three seconds and needs 600 ticks, or thirty uninterrupted minutes. The usual method is a pit, and the Bog Witch's mead of animal taming halves the time.

How do you kill a Stone Golem? With a pickaxe, the only weapon it takes double damage from, or with blunt or lightning. It is immune to fire, frost, poison, spirit and chop, resists pierce and slash, and cannot climb sheer cliffs, so a switchback trail is a reliable escape.

What comes out in the Mountain at night? Fenrings, which spawn only after dark, at most two per zone, and despawn at dawn, and more wolves: the daytime limit of three per zone doubles to six, and one- and two-star variants appear.

Why does fire not work in the Frost Caves? The cave-dwellers are built to resist it. Ulvs are very resistant to fire and Cultists are immune, so poison is the answer there, from the Draugr Fang's poison arrows or ooze bombs.

Where does Fenris armor come from? The Frost Caves: Fenris hair and claws sit on pedestals and in wall frames in the Cultists' rooms, and the Fenris Hood also needs the Cultist Trophy, which drops one time in ten.

Sources

• Mountain, Valheim Wiki (weirdgloop)
• Wolf and Wolf fang, Valheim Wiki
• Drake and Freeze gland, Valheim Wiki
• Stone Golem and Fenring, Valheim Wiki
• Bat, Ulv and Cultist, Valheim Wiki
• Geirrhafa, Howling Cavern and Hildir, Valheim Wiki
• Events, Valheim Wiki
• Valheim Frost Caves guide and what was added in the Mountain Biome update, GamesRadar
• Valheim updates and roadmap, PCGamesN
• Patch 0.217.14 - Hildir's Request, Iron Gate Studio on Steam, Aug 22, 2023
• Valheim Hildir's Request patch notes, PCGamesN
• For Press & Creators, Iron Gate Studio (Frost Caves press kit, February 2022)
• 30+ Need to Know Valheim Tips for the Mountains!, Samo (video)
• Complete Guide to Valheims Mountains Biome!, SnazzyGames (video)
• NEW! Complete Guide to FROST CAVES & FENRIS Armor, Jiroc the Viking (video)
• Valheim: Hildir's Request Patch - New Features and New Dungeons, GlensGames (video)
• Ultimate Hildir's Request Valheim Guide, NickRawcliffe (video)
• Valheim - The Complete Taming & Breeding Guide!, Embr (video)
• Everything About RAIDS in Valheim!, Embr (video)
• Valheim: 5 Ways to Kill Moder, GlensGames (video)