Because Valheim is still in Early Access, there are some parts of the game that are still incomplete, including several biomes like the Mistlands, Ashlands, and Deep North, and items like the Unknown Item drop from final boss Yagluth. Valheim's impressive first month and massive popularity have led to many players exploring every corner of the map and uncovering everything this Norse version of purgatory has to offer. Some items that at one time appeared to have no purpose, like Rubies and Amber, eventually became important resources for trading with the Merchant. Others, like the enigmatic Crystals dropped by stone golems in the Mountains, are part of the list of incomplete gameplay mechanics.
Players will encounter stone golems later in the game, and they will always drop a handful of Crystal. These magical monsters made of stone will stay asleep in the Mountains until they note the presence of a player or other creature, including Wolves, Drakes, and the werewolf-like Fenrings. Like Trolls, they can attack other creatures as well as the player character. Right now, Crystal have no purpose in Valheim, but fans have speculated these will eventually become useful for crafting later. Because of this, they are worth collecting and saving for future updates. Here's how to get Crystal in Valheim.
How to Defeat Stone Golems in Valheim
Stone Golems are found in the snowy Mountain biome, one of the late-game biomes currently available to players. Because of this, they can pose a more significant challenge. They have a large health pool and are resistant to most kinds of damage.
However, Stone Golems are, essentially, a pile of rocks akin to the rock giants in Disney's Frozen 2. That means they will be very weak to the same things all rocks are weak to: pickaxes. Iron pickaxes appear to have the best effect. While players cannot wield a pickaxe and a shield at the same time to defend against the Stone Golem's attacks, they can block with their pickaxe. This is the preferred weapon when dealing with these giant monsters.
There are two kinds of Stone Golem in Valheim. Both kinds are slow to move and slow to attack, which can be used to the player's advantage. Boulder-armed Stone Golems have a one-handed slam in front of themselves and a two-handed slam in front of themselves. Spike-armed Stone Golems have a shooting spike attack and a 180-degree spike swiping attack. These attacks can typically do around 110 Blunt or Piercing damage, so players will want to be sure to dodge or block to prevent the creatures from killing them in one or two hits. Attacks are usually slow and well-telegraphed, so this should not be too much of a problem for players.
Players can sneak up to a Stone Golem and use Backstab to do more damage right away. Because Stone Golems are found sleeping until they sense a creature nearby, as long as the player is alone and no Drakes or Wolves have appeared, it should be easy enough to sneak attack this creature and do massive damage on the first hit. Alternatively, players can wait to attack a Stone Golem until there are other creatures nearby to occupy it. Stone Golems tend to lose some aggression toward the player when other enemies are near.
Because fights with Stone Golems always take place in the Mountains, players will want to have crafted Wolf Armor or at the very least some Frost Resistance Mead to get through the long fight without freezing to death. Use of a good shield, particularly a fully-upgraded banded shield or a silver shield, is also a good idea for successful parries.
Once a Stone Golem has been defeated, players will earn glowing Crystals. While they can't do anything with this resource now, some fans have suggested they could be used later in a jewelry system that provides stamina buffs, or a new set of Crystal weapons or arrows.
Crystals are somewhat heavy, so players will want to be sure to get them out of inventory fairly quickly to make room for more useful items like ores. Players can build a storage unit somewhere in the world to house items they collect, like Crystals, extra Chain, or extra Serpent Scales, that will likely become more useful as Valheim evolves. Players can use the chest stacking exploit to get more storage room in their storage unit. They will just want to make a map marker to remind them where they've placed all their more valuable materials.
Valheim is in Steam Early Access and is available for PC.