How to mine the petrified Gammeltroll in Valheim
The Deep North's big brute doesn't fall down when he dies. Here's what to do about it.
Have you met Valheim 1.0's mountainous menace, the Gammeltroll? If you've made your way to Valheim's final biome, the Deep North, you've probably seen and fought it already: the Gammeltroll is a 30-foot tall rock monster who pelts you with tree trunks from range and stomps you into paste if you get too close.
Most interestingly, when you defeat the Gammeltroll, it doesn't fall down. Instead, it turns into a statue called a "Petrified Gammeltroll." You can chip away at its legs all you want, but even the toughest pickaxe in the game won't make a dent. And as you might have guessed, inside the Gammeltroll awaits a critical new resource you'll need to conquer the frozen biome. So, how do you mine it?
Valheim: How to mine the petrified Gammeltroll
The key to destroying the petrified Gammeltroll lies in the previous biome, the Ashlands, plus a new resource found in the Deep North.
Build the Eternal Pyre
- Defeat the Ashlands boss, Fader. Build the Eternal Pyre at your base using the Fader Relic and 10 stone.
- The Eternal Pyre will slowly generate embers. Grab some while they fly around the monument.
Craft Ember Charges
- Kill seals in the Deep North. (Not baby seals! Adults, with whiskers!) Collect seal pelts.
- Use 1 ember and 2 seal pelts to create ember charges (10) at your workbench.
Once you have ember charges, equip them and throw them at the petrified Gammeltroll. I find it best to throw them at its ankles from point blank range, then run away before they explode. With this method, it only takes two ember charges, one for each ankle, to destroy the statue.
(I wouldn't advise using ember charges as weapons against a living Gammeltroll. It'll damage the troll, but not enough to be worth it.)
When the troll collapses into a pile of rubble, collect your new resource, Petrified Tissue! Be warned, it's very heavy so you can't carry much, and it won't pass through wooden portals, only stone ones. Back at your base, throw it into your blast furnace and see what you get!
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Chris started playing PC games in the 1980s, started writing about them in the early 2000s, and (finally) started getting paid to write about them in the late 2000s. Following a few years as a regular freelancer, PC Gamer hired him in 2014, probably so he'd stop emailing them asking for more work. Chris has a love-hate relationship with survival games and an unhealthy fascination with the inner lives of NPCs. He's also a fan of offbeat simulation games, mods, and ignoring storylines in RPGs so he can make up his own.
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