Secure an Ashlands foothold and build a stone portal
Quick answer
Clear enough shore to place a workbench, a fueled shield generator and the tagged home portal. Defend this small camp before pushing inland. Explore Putrid Holes for two molten cores and gather grausten; use a stonecutter to build a stone portal and test the connection. Entering stone permits metal even when the exit is wood.
Iron Gate’s 1.0 notes reduce several Ashlands enemy spawn chances but shorten the interval between Charred spawns. Patch 1.0.16 also fixes excessive enemy counts, especially in raids. These statements do not promise a quiet landing. Keep the protected return route and a short retreat path.
The current portal recipe, stone-to-wood metal transport, shield behavior and missing-iron recovery sequence still need gameplay checks. The notes through 1.0.20 do not validate those older instructions. Record portal modifiers and mods; test a separate tagged connection with a small cargo before replacing the only working return pair. Kingy has not tested this route on the current build.
Clear immediate enemies, place the workbench and build the generator on suitable ground or stone. Fuel it with bone fragments and check the dome.
Place the tagged portal inside the protected area, return through it, and verify that you can come back. Add a reserve chest and defensive separation from the shore fighting area.
Keep enemies away from the structures: the shield blocks projectiles and weather, not creatures walking through it. Refill bones, repair damage and bring home recovered supplies after short trips. If the location remains overrun, use the portal and choose a better position.
Mark the shore camp and each explored ruin. Stay on solid ground with an escape path; noise and pursuing enemies can turn a resource stop into a long fight. Gather grausten from rocks or unoccupied ruins and ashwood from scorched trees after the surroundings are calm. Avoid damaging friendly dvergr or their structures as a casual source of materials.
Charred enemies supply bones, but killing every visible group is unnecessary. Keep delayed melee attacks, ranged pressure and nearby lava in view. When a large threat joins, stop gathering and retreat along the known path. Fire resistance does not solve physical attacks or lava contact.
Look for a dark cave entrance, often with skeletal remains nearby, and mark it. Restore food, Rested and durability before entering.
A Morgen inhabits the cave and may emerge after you advance. Keep the exit in view, avoid its forward lunge and sideways rolls, and take short openings rather than exhausting stamina on a combo. Mistwalker’s frost component or practiced frost magic can help; pure physical attacks meet resistance.
Search the cleared chamber and chests for molten cores. A cave is not guaranteed to supply the two you need. Take useful soft tissue and other loot only while leaving room for the cores and a safe return. Withdraw to resupply if the fight is beyond the kit.
Walk into the dark stone cave mouth with skeletal remains in front of it, past the bones inside, and look for the glowing item whose prompt reads “Molten Core [E] Pickup”.
Stuck? Where do I find molten cores for a stone portal?
Hint 1
They wait inside a particular kind of Ashlands cave, and something lives in it.
Hint 2
Find a dark cave entrance, often with skeletal remains nearby: a Putrid Hole. Keep the exit in view while a Morgen comes out, then search the chamber and its chests. One cave may not give you both cores.
At a stonecutter, place a stone portal from 30 grausten, 10 greydwarf eyes and 2 molten cores. Use a temporary unique tag and test it before replacing the working return endpoint. The structure is larger than a wood portal; provide space and protected access.
The entrance determines cargo permission: stone → wood carries metal; wood → stone does not. Use stone at both ends for two-way metal freight. Until then, label the restricted direction plainly.
On screen: The player walks into a lit stone portal beside a Meadows path, the teleport screen plays, and they step out of the matching stone portal on dark Ashlands ground.
Check the guide’s version notes before following older footage.
“VALHEIM Just Added New Portals! How To Craft Stone Portals! Teleport Metals!! Ashlands Update!” by Jade PG · Apr 22, 2024 · Ashlands public test era (uploaded Apr 22, 2024); predates 1.0
This route needs portal materials before it can move forgotten iron. World portal settings or mods can change cargo restrictions; confirm your own rules and tags before changing a working connection.
Keep the working return pair intact. If you have a spare wood portal, place it at the remote camp with a distinct tag and test the original pair again. If you cannot make a spare endpoint, use the physical cargo route; do not retag your only return connection to move iron.
Gather 30 grausten, 10 greydwarf eyes and 2 molten cores for a stone portal, then take those materials home through the original wood connection. If the cores are missing, use the protected camp to prepare another Putrid Hole trip.
At a home stonecutter, build a stone portal and match it to the spare remote wood endpoint. Test the connection, then enter the home stone portal carrying the remote stonecutter kit: 10 wood, 2 iron and 4 stone. Under the retained default-survival rules, the stone entrance permits iron outward even though the exit is wood.
Build the remote stonecutter, gather a second stone-portal recipe for the remote end, and test restricted cargo in both directions after both ends are stone. Keep the original return pair until the replacement works.
Stonecutter10 Wood + 2 Iron + 4 StoneHammer; within workbench range
Stone portal10 Greydwarf eye + 30 Grausten + 2 Molten coreHammer; within stonecutter range
The dome is not a wall. Defeat or divert attackers, repair the structures and improve physical separation; relocate if repeated attacks prevent recovery.
I forgot iron for the remote stonecutter.
Keep your return portal working. Use the missing-iron route to make a stone entrance at home, or carry the iron physically if you cannot establish a spare tagged endpoint.
Metal still blocks the trip through a mixed portal pair.
Check which portal you are entering. It must be stone for restricted cargo. Upgrade the other end for the return direction.
A Morgen overwhelms me in the cave.
Exit, restore the kit and change the approach. Do not assume every Morgen has the same strength or that ordinary blocking will stop a starred enemy.
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Sources · 9official · community · checked 19 Oct 2026 · Research-based
Iron Gate: official Steam announcements through Patch 1.0.20 ↗Published 1.0 launch and subsequent patch changes through 1.0.20: trophy drops, Ashlands spawns, player-base pieces and world-save fixes. No current recipe, breeding, portal or summon test.official ·
Shield Generator reference ↗Bone-fueled shield protects from cinders and external projectiles; it does not stop creatures walking inside.community ·
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5:50–6:02 · 12 s1.0: from a Putrid Hole entrance to a Molten Core inside
2:26–2:55 · 29 sStepping through a stone portal in the Meadows and arriving at its pair in the Ashlands