Valheim Mistlands Biome Guide (Mistlands Update) – The Magical Age

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The fifth age of the hit Viking survival game, Valheim, is set in the magical Mistland biome. While a placeholder for this biome existed in the initial game, the major Mistlands update filled it with a huge number of new creatures and structures, and even new game mechanics. This is the Magical Age.

Advancing to the Magical Age

The magical age of the game is found in the Mistlands. A new type of mob, the Dvergr, is to be found, and is (normally) friendly to the Vikings. These dwarven people appear to be relics of a bygone age, attempting to continue mining and defending themselves from the more dangerous creatures of the Mistlands. Some of these people are Dvergr Mages, and their principal weapons are fire-blasting magical staffs. You can acquire these staffs and others with a little work.

As well as the magical weapons, you will need magical energy with which to use them. This is a new game mechanic, and works in a similar way to stamina. It is called Eitr and is granted in various quantities by new types of foods derived from ingredients found in the Mistlands.

However, in order to have any chance of survival in the Mistlands, you will need to find a way to handle it’s main difficulty, and the reason for its name, the Mist. For this you will need to defeat Yagluth and build a Wisp Fountain. This is built near a Stonecutter using the Torn Spirits that you get from Yagluth.

The Mistlands Biome

The Mistlands biome is a dangerous place, particularly at night. It is a craggy place, with large physical barriers to walking which will sap your stamina and cause you pain if you fall. The mist covers the majority of the biome reducing visibility to the distance of your hand in front of your face. This is overcome by using wisp lights to push the mist away for a short distance around you. This still means that you can easily be surprised by creatures attacking you. There is also a lot of water around Mistlands, which can be dangerous to swim in.

Finding the Mistlands biomes can involve long journeys on boat to reach a circle approximately three quarters of the way from the centre of the map to the edge. In that ring there are many Mistlands biomes so just head outwards until you find one. You will want to set up a portal in a safe adjacent biome when you get there.

There are a number of dangerous creatures in the Mistlands. Firstly the Dvergr dwarves, who are friendly to begin with, but who will defend themselves with massive force if you attack either them or their structures. However, they are a useful force to retreat to if you find yourself faced with a creature stronger than yourself and you need help in destroying it! There are Dvergr Mages, who carry either the Staff of Embers or the Staff of Frost, and also the Dvergr Rogues, who carry arbalests (large crossbows). They are both weak in armour, but very strong in attack.

In the sky above, like massive blimps, are huge fire-blasting Gjalls. These pack a punch and will set you on fire. They take a lot of damage before being destroyed and are best being hit by ranged weapons in their sensitive underbelly. In addition to their own weapon, they also drop Ticks who will roll towards you and attach on to your back while they drain your HP. They aren’t difficult to kill – one or two sword strikes will take each one out, but if they cling on to your back you will have difficulty in hitting them without assistance.

The most numerous mobs are Seekers. These are large insects which can fly and bite you. They will follow you for a large distance before giving up, so you really need to turn and fight, or draw them back to a Dvergr settlement. While a single standard Seeker is fairly easy to kill, a one or two-star can become very dangerous. They tend to travel in at least pairs, and sometimes more.

One of the most difficult creatures in the game to defeat is the Seeker Soldier. This heavily armoured variant of the Seeker cannot fly, but it can destroy stone structures in an attempt to reach you and can kill in one hit until you upgrade your armour. The back end of these is weaker than the front – our advice here is to get up high where they cannot reach you and try to shoot the back with an arbalest or bow. Two Vikings attacking from different positions work well.

You will find Seekers, Seeker Soldiers, and Ticks in Infested Mines, and also Seeker Broods who are hatched from eggs. They grow in time to be Seekers, so it is best to destroy them while young.

Other creatures in the Mistlands are Hares. These are an essential source of high-HP food, and are easily killed for their meat (if you can catch them!).

Structures in the Mistlands

The Dvergr appear to have been building for a long time in the Mistlands. A lot of the structures are theirs and are now over-run by Seekers.

The Dvergr Guard Tower is a home created from black marble and protected by a Ward. It is usually home to half a dozen Mages and Rogues. Occasionally they are abandoned and they can be home to an Infested Mine entrance. If you are willing to destroy the Dvergr occupants and their Ward, you can find a Dvergr Extractor here in the component crate.

Dvergr Excavations are where a small number of Dvergr are attempting to extract soft tissue from a petrified bone. There will be a fence around the perimeter protecting a rudimentary crane in the centre. These are valuable for the soft tissue if the Vikings wish to mine it themselves.

Infested Mines are found at the bottom of staircases which are sometimes within a Dvergr House. These are an important destination for the player, and contain Black Cores which are a vital component to many devices you will need to build. Unfortunately they also contain many Seekers, Seeker Soldiers, and Ticks. There is a large chance that a number of these will be one or two star Seekers or Soldiers, which means that it can be a very dangerous place indeed.

The Infested Citadel is where the Queen can be found, a massive insect-based boss. This is a unique boss location in that it is the only one which is self-contained in a ‘dungeon’. When you first enter the Infested Citadel the Queen will spawn immediately, so beware! You will need to craft the Dvergr Sealbreaker item before you can open up the Infested Citadel, so first you will need to explore a few Infested Mines.

Progressing through the Mistlands

When you first enter the Mistlands, with your newly acquired Wisplight, you will likely begin to die in numerous ways. From Ticks lying in wait in the water wait to suck your health from you, to Gjalls hurling fireballs at you, to giant insects dealing massive amounts of damage, you’ll struggle to stay alive. You will want to increase your armour first of all, which means moving up to Carapace Armour.

Carapace is dropped by Seekers when they die, so this is a bit of a catch-22 situation. Fortunately, Seekers aren’t that difficult to deal with one-on-one. Their big brothers, the Seeker Soldiers, are best kept away from (you can see the damage they make through the mist, so easy to spot coming). Carapace is also used to craft more powerful arrows and bolts, but it is worth more as armour to begin with.

While collecting the Carapace, you’ll need to find a large number of Black Cores to progress further. These are found in Infested Mines and are used to build the three types of crafting station needed to progress. Each station needs five of these, so you will need 15 cores to maintain one of each station.

The Black Forge is needed to craft the Carapace Armour, among other items, and is also needed to build the other two stations, so this is your first target. You need x5 Black Cores, x10 Black Marble (found all over either as structures or mined from the ground) and x10 Yggdrasil Wood (cut from Yggdrasil Shoots using a Black Metal Axe).

Once you’ve got yourself a better set of armour and possibly some bigger weapons (I use the Arbalest, which is the Dvergr Rogue’s weapon of choice) you will be in a better position to progress further. The Mistlands contains magical items, derived from the Yggdrasil Root which is found throughout the biome. Sap from this large root is refined into Eitr which can be used to build magical items and structures. The Eitr also permeates its way into the food growing in the biome. Both Jotun Puffs and Magecap contain traces of Eitr which when eaten gives a Viking the ability to use the magical weapons. Magecap can be eaten raw or either item can be incorporated into stronger foods.

To extract the sap from the Yggdrasil Root you will need to find a Dvergr Extractor. These are easy to find, as they lie locked away in component crates in most Dvergr settlements. Obtaining them is hazardous though, as you will need to kill all the Dvergr inhabitants of that settlement. It may be wise to wait until they have fought off an attack from other creatures and are in a weakened state. You will also need Yggdrasil Wood and Black Metal (which will need importing from elsewhere). Once you’ve got these ingredients you can build a workbench on a root and then build a Sap Extractor which will gather Sap from the Ancient Root until you have the max of 10. The Sap will slow down once 20-30 Sap have been collected, but the roots recover over time so you can continue to use that root or move the extractor to a fresh one to maintain speed.

Refining the Sap into Eitr requires the use of an Eitr Refinery. This can be constructed at your home base and will need x20 Black Marble, x5 Black Metal, x10 Yggdrasil Wood, x5 Black Cores and x3 Sap. Beware that the act of refining Sap into Eitre is a dangerous one which send damaging particles in all directions during operation. Enclosing your Eitr Refinery within a stone or metal enclosure will prevent damage to other structures and animals around. To use your new Refinery you will need to put Sap into the front of it, and also Soft Tissue into the top.

Soft Tissue is mined by the Dvergr, and can therefore be found crated up inside their mining camps and other settlements. It is also found in large quantities inside the petrified bone that their crane is mounted over. You can also find these bones in other locations, although it is only the larger skull-shaped bones which still contain the soft tissue. You will need one Soft Tissue for each Sap to produce one Refined Eitr.

The next progression to make is the Galdr Table. This is a magical table at which you can craft your magical weapons and some lighter Eitr-rich armour. You will also need it to craft the Sealbreaker which is needed to summon the Mistlands boss, the Queen.

Five more Black Cores are needed for the Galdr Table, although you could also dismantle your Eitr Refinery and re-use the Black Cores from there if needed. You also need x10 Black Metal, x20 Yggdrasil Wood and x5 Refined Eitr. When you have this table you can craft Staffs of Embers, Frost and Protection, as well as the Dead Raiser. Experiment with these and build up your skills, and you may be in a position to use them against the final boss. You will need to eat some food containing Eitr, which may be raw Magecap, or more complex foods such as Stuffed Mushroom or Yggdrasil Porridge. Part of the Eitr-weave armour set is the Feather Cape, which is incredibly useful in the Mistlands for its ability to soften your fall to remove any fall damage, as well as slow you down so you can glide to the ground at a place of your choosing. This can also be crafted at the Galdr Table.

Magical Age Food

To use magical weapons you will need magical food. This is food infused with Eitr which provides you with a third bar called Eitr. This works in the same manner as the Stamina bar, and is used up when using magical items, refilling slowly over time.

Eitr is derived primarily from Jotun Puffs and Magecap. Magecap can be eaten alone for +25 Eitr, but cooking Seeker Aspic (+85 Eitr), Yggdrasil Porridge (+80 Eitr) or Stuffed Mushroom (+75 Eitr) is far more effective. Jotun Puffs and Magecap can be farmed using the cultivator, although this is only possible within the Mistlands biome. Take care when farming not to be caught by surprise by any of the dangerous creatures which can kill you.

Other foods you can cook with Mistlands ingredients are Misthare Supreme, Meat Platter and Salad. If you are not using magic then you should focus on these three foods for a relatively easy to acquire HP-heavy balanced food combo. This provides 191 max HP 134 max Stamina. Salad is easy to make, using farmable Jotun Puffs and Onions, and readily-available Cloudberries. Meat Platter and Misthare Supreme both require Hare meat, which makes these foods difficult to cook in bulk. An alternative is Honey-glazed Chicken, which requires the farming of Chickens, but then becomes a renewable resource.

The final item you need is the Sealbreaker. This is crafted at the Galdr Table from x9 Sealbreaker Fragments which are found rarely in Infested Mines alongside Black Cores. When you have this in your inventory you can unlock the door to the Queen’s Infested Citadel, the location of which you should have found by now on a Vegvisir within an Infested Mine. When you kill the Queen you will be rewarded by a placeholder item for now, but this will change on the release of the next biome.