If you thought Valheim couldn’t get any harder after the Swamps, the Mountains are here to prove you wrong. These towering biomes are patrolled constantly by a small but dangerous selection of enemies that want nothing more than to send you back to your base empty-handed. How do you handle these tenacious adversaries, and what structures should you keep an eye out for?
If you’re planning an expedition into the Mountains, don’t go unprepared. Here’s everything you need to know about the enemies and structures of the Mountains and how you can best survive them.
The Enemies of the Mountains
While there are only a few enemies that make the Mountains their home, they each present a unique challenge that will stress any player’s ability to deal with them all. On top of that, the low visibility and treacherous terrain only play to these creatures’ advantage. That’s why you need to know about each one ahead of time and have a plan in place to deal with them.
Wolves
Wolves are the most common enemy you’ll fight in the Mountains. These swift pack animals can spawn across the Mountains, and they rarely do so alone. When they spot a player, they’ll run up to take a bite and stay as close as they can afterward. This rush behavior makes them very dangerous in groups — two Wolves attacking you back to back is a death sentence.
Their subtle animation and off-beat timing make them hard to parry reliably, and their high attack means you’ll need a great shield to block them consistently. Your best bet is to dodge away then attack with a melee weapon or run to create more space, but be careful if you stay close. Wolves can chain attacks together quickly, so don’t try to use a slow weapon.
Wolves can be tamed and taught to fight for you.
If you’re fighting a group, which you almost always will, be patient and wait for moments when you can slip in an attack. Try to hit the Wolves as they approach or right after they miss an attack on you. Whatever you do, don’t run away. Wolves are faster than you, so they’ll chase you down and wait for your stamina to run out.
Wolves have low health compared to their damage, so ranged weapons are a great way to kill them before they get too close. This strategy only gets more effective if you can reliably sneak attack Wolves at a distance.
Drakes
Drakes are easily one of the most annoying enemies in the game. They fly above the peaks of the Mountains, looking for unwary players and launching barrages of slowing ice at them. When they attack, they’ll swoop down in a straight path, turn towards you, and launch three ranged attacks back-to-back that each deal Frost damage if they hit. The slowing debuff they apply can easily prove deadly if you happen to be fighting Wolves or a Stone Golem as well.
Drakes aren’t hard to kill as long as you have a bow. Their attacks are predictable and easy to dodge, but they will never willingly enter melee range. The biggest danger they pose is when paired with other enemies. They can be hard to kill quickly, so if one spots you while you’re dealing with a pack of Wolves, you’ll likely have to dodge its attacks the whole fight.
Since these glorified annoyances have wings, they can chase you on any type of terrain. On top of that, Drakes have a habit of finding the player before you find them, so keep an ear out for the characteristic screech and the shooting sound of their attack. If you find yourself not killing them fast enough, consider using Fire Arrows since they deal extra damage to Drakes.
Stone Golems
Stone Golems are the rocky mini-bosses of the Mountains, smashing and slicing anything that happens to get too close. That’s right: Stone Golems will attack other creatures that spawn in the Mountains and vice versa. However, it’s hardly a fair fight since the golem can’t be hurt by Frost, Fire, or Poison damage and Pierce and Slash only deal half damage to it. If you’re planning to take on a Stone Golem your only effective options are maces, hammers, and pickaxes (that’s not a joke: Pickaxes deal extra damage to Stone Golems).
Be careful though because Stone Golems can spawn in two terrifying variants. The first has a spike for their right arm. This variant can either lunge forward with this spike or do a wide-sweeping attack with it. The second variant has large flat rocks for hands and does two different slam attacks: one that uses a single arm and is fast and another that uses both arms and is slower.
Take your time against these enemies since your damage output will likely be low and the golem could kill you in one or two hits depending on your armor. The easiest method to kill them is to dodge into their attacks and attack before the next strike comes out. Ranged attacks are also a safe-but-slow option since the golems don’t handle rough terrain very well.
However, if you want to kill them quickly, you’ll need to try and parry them with a decent shield. This will let you deal extra against them and get longer openings for your attacks.
Fenrings
Fenrings are bipedal werewolves that stalk the Mountains at night. These rare enemies pack quite a punch but aren’t as intimidating as they might seem. When they spot you from a distance, they might howl to attract any nearby Wolves, but if none are around, this won’t do anything. After that, they’ll likely settle into a crouch and leap toward you in a pounce attack. Once close, they’ll unleash a quick swipe.
Fenrings scare most players the first time they see them, but there’s not much to be afraid of. Their pounce attack takes a while and is very easy to dodge, giving you plenty of time to pepper them with ranged attacks. Even if you have to get in close, there can be large gaps in between attacks which make the fight easier than you might have imagined. However, Fenrings do have a lot of health and pack quite the punch, so they’re not an enemy you can just ignore.
The Structures Of The Mountains
On top of the unique enemies, the Mountains can generate a few structures that each come with their own danger.
Frost Caves
Frost Caves are the dungeons of the Mountains, reaching deep beneath the earth in twisting rock formations and maze-like hallways. These caves contain their own bevy of enemies and even some unique loot. If you’re looking to raid these caverns, pay close attention to the rock formations in the Mountains, as all Frost Caves have to spawn with certain shapes of rocks above their entrances.
Log Cabins
Log Cabins can spawn somewhat frequently among the mountain slopes, usually containing a chest and some left-over furniture. These buildings can contain Onion Seeds among other loot, so they’re worth checking, but they might also have a Skeleton or two guarding them.
Stone Towers
One of the more interesting Mountains structures are the stone towers. These crumbling fortifications riddle the snow-capped peaks and can contain either Skeletons of Draugr as undead defenders. You should almost always check these towers out since they can contain Moder Vegisvirs and chests with all sorts of loot, including Onion Seeds.
Dragon Egg Nests
Dragon Egg Nests play a key role in the Mountains biome. You’ll need to loot at least three to collect the Dragon eggs that spawn here to summon the boss. However, each nest generates with a handful of Drake guards. Even if you don’t need any more eggs, keep an eye out for these nests since you might unintentionally draw the attention of the winged defenders.
How To Survive The Mountains
The Mountains can pose a threat to even late-game players, but there are a few ways to make your hikes through this biome a bit safer:
- Bring plenty of Frost resistance. Without Frost resistance, you’ll take constant damage in the Mountains, so you’ll need a source of resistance if you want to stay in the snow for a while. Feather, Wolf, or Lox Capes are the best sources since they’re all consistent methods that don’t affect your armor value that much, but if you can’t craft these capes yet, make more Frost Resistance Mead than you think you’ll need.
- Consider using a spear if you like melee. Spears are the only hybrid weapon in the game, working well as melee and ranged weapons. Drakes require a melee weapon, and Wolves are easier to fight with ranged weapons as well. If you want to keep a melee weapon with you, spears are an excellent choice in the Mountains since they give you a ranged option and a secondary attack that can kill Wolves in one hit.
- Turn the stone towers into bases. With a tiny bit of fixing up, the stone towers can serve as great bases in the heart of the Mountains. Renovating one and placing both a portal and a campfire in it can save you a long, cold run if you die.
- Work toward the peaks. The one advantage to the awful terrain of the Mountains is the scouting potential. If you work your way to a high point on the mountain and wait for a clear moment, you can quickly scan most of your surroundings for structures and enemies.
