Frostner: Crafting, Stats & How It Performs From Mountains to Ashlands

Why Frostner Is the Weapon Many Players Never Replace

Frostner is one of the most versatile weapons in Valheim. It is not the highest DPS option or the flashiest, but few weapons stay useful from the Mountain all the way into the Ashlands. Many veterans try dozens of weapons and keep coming back to this frost-enchanted mace.

Three damage types

Frostner is the fourth one-handed club in the progression, after the Club, Bronze Mace and Iron Mace. It deals Blunt, Frost and Spirit damage. Most enemies resist one or two damage types, so spreading damage across three means Frostner usually finds a gap where purely physical weapons bounce off.

Crowd control

The real strength is control. Big knockback on every swing (doubled on the secondary attack) combined with the Frost slow sends enemies sliding back and moving at a crawl. Against a pack, you can keep everything at arm's length and pick them off one at a time, with a shield in your other hand.

How to Get Every Crafting Material

Frostner needs trips to three biomes and one visit to the trader.

Silver (30)

Silver is the bottleneck. The ore is buried in the Mountain and you need the Wishbone, dropped by Bonemass, to find it. Equip it, follow the pulsing signal to the vein, dig it up and smelt the ore in a Smelter with Coal. Silver cannot be teleported, so plan a cart route or build a smelting outpost near your mines.

Ancient Bark (10)

Chop Ancient Trees in the Swamp with at least a Bronze Axe. Ancient Bark also turns up in Sunken Crypt and Swamp chests, so Iron runs usually leave you with a stockpile.

Ymir Flesh (5)

Buy it from Haldor, the trader in the Black Forest, for 120 Coins each (600 in total). He only stocks it after you defeat The Elder. If you have not found him, explore Black Forest areas until his marker appears on the map.

Freeze Gland (5)

Drakes, the flying frost-breathing lizards of the Mountain, drop 1 Freeze Gland each. They patrol the higher slopes and are not tough, but their breath is dangerous without cold protection. Bring Frost Resistance Mead or wear a Wolf Fur Cape. Five kills cover the recipe, and they come to you constantly while you mine.

Upgrade Costs: Max It Out

Upgrades need only Silver, which makes Frostner one of the cheapest weapons to max. Each level adds Frost damage and 50 durability, while Blunt and Spirit stay flat. Quality 4 adds 18 damage over the base craft, all of it Frost.

The durability matters as much as the damage: the extra 150 at quality 4 makes a real difference in long Mistlands and Ashlands fights. Costs escalate, so the full climb is 30 Silver to craft plus 15, 30 and 45 for the upgrades, 120 in total. Once you have the Wishbone, Silver is easy to farm in bulk.

Combat Mechanics and Attack Breakdown

Primary combo

The primary attack is a 3-hit combo lasting 2.46 seconds (0.86s, 0.80s and 0.90s per swing). The final hit deals double damage with 20% extra knockback. At quality 4 that last swing delivers 70 Blunt, 116 Frost and 40 Spirit, 226 in total.

Secondary slam

The overhead slam deals 2.5x damage with double stagger and double knockback, for twice the stamina of a primary swing. Its hitbox is narrow (30 degrees against 90) and vertical, so treat it as a precision strike for finishing targets or making emergency space.

Stagger is Blunt only

Only Blunt damage builds stagger; Frost and Spirit do not. At quality 4 only 35 of its 113 damage counts, so enemies stagger less often than with an Iron Mace. You trade stagger for knockback and slow.

Wet enemies take more Frost damage

Rain only makes players Wet, not enemies. Enemies standing in water do count as Wet, so Frostner hits extra hard in Swamp and coastal fights.

Why Frostner Stays Relevant in Every Biome

Most weapons go obsolete when the next crafting station unlocks. Frostner breaks that pattern.

Plains

It is a solid sidegrade to the Porcupine. The Porcupine hits as hard on paper at quality 4, but its Blunt and Pierce mix rarely exploits weaknesses. Frostner's slow is a lifesaver against fast, aggressive Fulings, and the knockback keeps Fuling Berserkers at bay. Fulings are immune to Spirit, though, so that part of each hit is wasted on them.

Yagluth

Frostner is one of the best melee options for the fifth boss. Yagluth takes normal Frost and Spirit damage but is very resistant to Pierce, so Frostner's 78 Frost and Spirit at quality 4 land in full while much of the Porcupine's Pierce is wasted.

Mistlands

Seekers and Seeker Soldiers resist Slash, Blunt and Pierce and are immune to Spirit, but take full Frost damage. That keeps Frostner viable against Mistlands weapons that rely on physical damage. The Mistwalker still hits harder overall, with the same Frost at quality 4, but has well under half of Frostner's knockback.

Ashlands

Ashlands enemies are aggressive and attack in groups. Knocking them back and slowing their approach buys breathing room that pure DPS weapons cannot. Many veterans keep Frostner for crowd control while carrying an Ashlands weapon for bosses.

Best Shield Pairings and Combat Tips

Because Frostner is one-handed, your shield matters. Good pairings by biome:

• Mountain: Silver Shield, with strong parry values
• Plains: Black Metal Shield
• Mistlands: Carapace Shield

Frostner's own parry bonus is 2x, so a well-timed parry followed by the secondary slam hits very hard.

Combat loop against groups

1. Parry the first attacker.
2. Land a full primary combo; the third swing sends them flying.
3. Turn to the next closest enemy while the ones you hit crawl back, slowed.

Against tough single targets like Trolls or Fuling Berserkers, follow a parry with the secondary slam, and get behind them for the backstab bonus when you can.

Stay in the Clubs line

Frostner uses the Clubs skill, so levels from the Bronze Mace and Iron Mace carry straight over. The Porcupine, Flametal Mace and, in 1.0, the Deep North Thunderblood Mace keep that investment paying off.

Lore and Design

Frostner's description reads: "The dead fear silver. Remind them why." The Spirit damage backs that up, making it genuinely effective against undead. The frost aura around the hammer is cosmetic, but it makes Frostner one of the most striking weapons in the game.

The design is loosely inspired by depictions of Mjolnir, Thor's hammer. Ymir Flesh is another Norse nod: in the Poetic Edda, the world was made from the body of the giant Ymir, his flesh forming the earth. Frostner is, in a real sense, a weapon forged from creation itself.