Valheim Deep North: How to get the Intricate Key

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Published September 9, 2026 · Category: Games

Overview

As a mighty Viking warrior you've fought your way to the Deep North in Valheim 1.0—but now you're facing an enormous door that requires an Intricate Key to unlock. But what is an Intricate Key in Valheim, and how can you get one? Truth is, you'll eventually need more than one Intricate Key to triumph in the Deep North, so here's a quick guide that'll walk you through the steps to find them.

How to craft an Intricate Key in Valheim 1.0

Valheim Key guide

(Image credit: Coffee Stain Publishing)

As you explore the Deep North, keep an eye out for small, snow-covered villages. Look for the largest building in the village, a multi-story dwelling, seen in the image above, then head inside.

Viking holding torch over hole in floor

  • Explore the interior until you find a large hole in the floor. Jump in to enter the hidden tunnels.
  • Be prepared to fight: the hidden tunnels are filled with enemies.

Viking with glowing frost cores above

  • Look for Frostcores, they look like glowing blue ice and are typically overhead.
  • Collect any moulds you find in the tunnels, especially moulds for the Intricate Key.

Important notes:

  • Moulds look like flat black rectangles with shapes etched into them. You may need to smash piles of wooden rubble to free them.
  • You'll eventually need three Intricate Keys, and each mould can only be used once. So keep searching the tunnels until you find at least three Intricate Key moulds.
  • When you touch the first Frostcore, you'll learn the recipe for the Frost Foundry. You'll need 10 Frostcore, 15 iron, and 20 stone to build a Frost Foundry at your base.
  • You'll also need ice, which you can get by using a black metal pickaxe on ice in the Deep North. You'll know when you're standing on ice because you'll slide around. Picking up a unit of ice will give you the recipe for the Frigid Kiln. You can build the kiln with 10 Frostcore, 20 stone, and 5 ice. You'll also need more ice to fuel the kiln, so gather a few stacks.

Now for the trickier bit: you'll need bloodgold to craft a cast of the Intricate Key, and bloodgold comes from defeating and destroying Gammeltrolls.

Details

If you haven't already met a Gammeltroll, just go exploring and one will eventually find you. You'll know one when you see one: they're huge. But first, prepare an item you'll need at your base:

Viking looking at glowing monument

  • Build the Ember Monument at your base (the drop from ashlands boss Fader). Collect embers from it.
  • Kill seals in the Deep North for their pelts. Craft ember charges with embers and seal pelts.

Viking looking at approaching gammeltroll in snow

  • Defeating the Gammeltroll will petrify it. Destroy the petrified Gammeltroll with ember charges.
  • Collect petrified tissue from the Gammeltroll remains. Smelt it into bloodgold in your blast furnace.

Whew! That's a lot of work, but now you've got everything you need to craft an Intricate Key.

Viking working at black forge

  • At your black forge, use 5 bloodgold and 1 "Mould: Intricate Key" to create a "Cast: Intricate Key"
  • Add the Cast: Intricate Key to your Frost Foundry. Add ice to your Frigid Kiln to create liquid frost.

Valheim Key guide

  • Add liquid frost to the Frost Foundry. The foundry will produce an Intricate Key in about a minute.
  • Take the Intricate Key from the Frost Foundry and use it on the locked doors in the Deep North.

Source

Originally published at www.pcgamer.com.

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