Odd occurrence so far. I have almost cleared out a huge Black Forrest area with half a dozen Troll caves, those purple spawners and a bunch of old stone destroyed buildings with skeletons guarding but ZERO underground Skeleton areas so I can't get any of these cores.

I know I could use the cheat or go find another Black Forrest but this black Forrest I'm in is massive.

Get the ones to make the smelter. You can burn food on a campfire and get a bit of coal. It's not as efficient and you know it's food... so it sucks to lose out on food... but it can work in a pinch until you get the other cores for a smelter. It didn't take long to get two of each going though.

Good stuff, thanks everyone.

I've found through a lot of trial and error and death, that the minimum armor you should have before going into a crypt is 10, which can be achieved with upgraded deer armor, but troll will get you there faster.

Early on, you may have only a few and have to make coal, destroy the kiln, smelt, destroy the smelter, make coal again.... until you have found 10 of the darn things.

you can also burn food for coal, which is *great* if you have a deer or lizard farm (this is pretty much just having your home where these spawn in quantity and the bad guys kill them for you) and its even better once you can do 5 on a rack (youll get there). The firey guys drop coal too (also swamp). I don't use the kiln much anymore, usually have enough horded coal to do a boatload of ore.

good luck!

Originally posted by km_md60:

Use troll to cut wood and mine copper, kill for hide once you got enough stuff.

randomly spawned deforestation agents

Use troll to cut wood and mine copper, kill for hide once you got enough stuff.

dive into crypt. Get a torch.

Originally posted by Dr. Snorbulizer:

Whats the easiest way to get a surtling core thingy?
Do I need just one to set up a smelter?

You need 5 for 1 smelter and 5 for 1 coal kiln. Be aware there are other uses for cores too such as portals, warding stones, and later game crafting stations too (plains level).

Surtling cores are found in crypts in the black forest (skeletons and ghosts are in them.. beware the poison skels as they can be hard to handle for your level of play).

However, crypts to not always have alot or cores. It is random how many are there but usually it averages to 2-4 but can be more or less. Its RNG.

Later after you defeat the second boss and enter the swamp, surtlings spawn at fire spouts in the swamp. Digging around fire and making it water only means that when surtlings spawn, they almost instantly die. When they die they leave surtling cores, coal and sometimes surtling trophies. The surtling spawns will eventually be the easiest method to get cores.

So the easiest is relative to your game play situation. At the moment it just means delving into the crypts carefully for your level. Good hunting.

Trollarmor is the way to go. I've got the complete set on lvl 4 and I still got a bunch of hides in my chest. Kiting them and killing them with arrows once you start to enter the Black Forest is the best way.

I actually had no problems killing trolls with a lvl 1 crude bow and wood arrows on my second char, wearing nothing but rags. I skipped leather armor mostly on this char and directly went to trollarmor.

no spoilers here..be prepared!..explore the black forests underground entrances ..maybe troll caves not so much

I've never found a surtling core in a Troll cave.

You need 5 cores each for a Charcoal kiln and smelter. But you can make a lot of charcoal then beakdown the kiln to make the smelter so once you get your first 5 cores you can get smelting.

at your curret tech tier only the Crypts and Buirial Chambers in the Forest will provide cores. There are other sources beyond the Dark Forest but you'll need better gear.

Also a small tip. The Troll hide armor has the same armor values as bronze armor but is easier and cheaper to upgrade so save your bronze for crafting stations, weapons, and a couple boats

Good luck

EDIT: disregard what I said about the Troll armor, aparetly its been changed to be lower than the broze gear since I last really checked,

Originally posted by Yakumo_2020:

I've never found a surtling core in a Troll cave.

Only the Crypts and Buirial Chambers in the Forest.

Other source would be a spawner in the swamp but unless your geared for it do't even try.

Also a small tip. The Troll hide armor has the same armor values as bronze armor but is easier and cheaper to upgrade so save your metal for crafting stations and upgrades and a couple Karves.

Good luck

Here is your answer, and a great one at that.

Troll armour is not identical to bronze (base for the bronze chest is 8, the troll chest base is 6, for example). However, once you get reasonable at dodging (or have a decent bow and good stamina), trolls are relatively easy to kill for materials.

Originally posted by Glorious Moose:

Troll armour is not identical to bronze (base for the bronze chest is 8, the troll chest base is 6, for example). However, once you get reasonable at dodging (or have a decent bow and good stamina), trolls are relatively easy to kill for materials.

It was the same last I played but I have't played much at all since the H&H update. IG probably nerfed the Troll armor in that time.

Thanks for the update.

Originally posted by Yakumo_2020:

It was the same last I played but I have't played much at all since the H&H update. IG probably nerfed the Troll armor in that time.

Thanks for the update.

Even with the slightly reduced armor value, troll armor is still the better option so it's a good tip anyway. Bronze is just too expensive and labor intensive to make and upgrade, whereas it's absolutely no problem finding enough trolls to max out the troll set.