Conan Exiles Ice Shards 2026: Where They Come From and What They're For

You won't find Conan Exiles Ice Shards anywhere on the map. They are the religious resource of the frost giant god Ymir and only drop when you harvest human corpses with the Hoar-Frost Hatchet. For that you need the Ymir religion and an Altar of Ymir. Don't mix them up with Black Ice, which is a completely different material.

That mix-up is exactly why so many players spend hours in the north looking for glittering Ice Shard nodes and find nothing. This guide shows where the shards really come from, what the tool costs, what you need them for and what the Enhanced version on Unreal Engine 5 changed.

⚠️ Ice Shards vs. Black Ice: the key difference

The names sound similar, but the two materials have nothing in common. Confuse them and you farm in the wrong place.

In short: Black Ice is a building material you dig out of the ground with a pick. Ice Shards are a ritual material that only works through the religion. How to get the building material is covered in detail in our Black Ice guide, with nodes, routes and the Temple of Frost. This guide is only about the religious resource.

There is one odd link between the two: you can also craft Black Ice at the Exalted Altar of Ymir, and that recipe uses Ice Shards. One material is an optional ingredient for the other, but not a replacement.

🗺️ Where to find Ice Shards: there is no location

Most people search for an Ice Shard location, and the honest answer is that there isn't one. Ice Shards don't sit in the world as resource nodes, they don't respawn and they don't appear on any resource map. They are purely a reward for ritual harvesting.

In practice, you kill a human enemy and harvest the corpse with the Hoar-Frost Hatchet, the same way you get hide with a skinning knife. The Enhanced database lists the Ice Shard with a 100 percent drop chance for almost every humanoid NPC, from regular exiles and Khitan traders to characters such as Liu Fei or Freya.

So the best "location" is the nearest populated camp. That is handy, because you capture thralls there anyway, see the thralls guide. In the north, combine shard harvesting with the Vanir camps.

Important for new players: nothing works without the religion. You can pick Ymir at character creation, learn it from an NPC in the world or from a captured Ymir priest.

⚒️ The Hoar-Frost Hatchet: recipe, cost and the blessed version

The ritual tool of Ymir's followers is called the Hoar-Frost Hatchet. It is useless as a weapon, with 1 light and 1 heavy damage, but it carries the effects Hallowed and Ritual Harvest, and only with those does a corpse give up Ice Shards.

The Altar of Ymir itself costs 360 Stone, 160 Wood and 20 Twine and is doable early. The blessed hatchet lasts four times as long but needs the third altar tier, and that one eats 400 Hardened Brick, 240 Shaped Wood and 75 Manifestations of Zeal.

So Iron Bars come first. If you still lack the smelting chain, the steel guide covers the whole furnace logic.

📊 Yield: what one corpse really gives

Be careful here, because a lot of numbers float around. What is documented: every listed humanoid NPC gives Ice Shards with a 100 percent chance when harvested ritually, with one entry per harvest. How often you can harvest a single corpse before it disappears is not officially documented by Funcom, so you won't find a made-up number here.

What the community consistently reports: the yield per corpse is low, and Ymir's recipes ask for a lot compared to other religions. Plan around killing many enemies, not one elite.

Animals don't count: the Hoar-Frost Hatchet only works on human and humanoid corpses. Crocodiles, hyenas or Rocknoses give you no Ice Shards, no matter how often you swing.

📦 What you need Conan Exiles Ice Shards for

Ice Shards aren't a building material. They fuel the entire Ymir branch. These recipes reflect the current Enhanced data:

The most important and most overlooked entry is the first one. A single Ice Shard turns into one Ice and one Manifestation of Zeal at the altar. That makes Ice Shards the standard source of Zeal for Ymir followers, the currency you need for altar upgrades, blessings, the avatar and the blessed hatchet. If you only look at the armor, you miss half of what the resource does.

The armor pieces also need Thick Hide in larger amounts. How to get it reliably is in the Thick Leather guide. And if you want to know whether the Ymir sets hold up, check our list of the best armor.

✨ What Enhanced changed, and what it didn't

This is where most guides are out of date. Two things need to be kept apart.

Changed long ago: in the early days of the game you could reportedly also chop Ice Shards from trees. That method no longer exists; Funcom brought Ymir in line with the other religions, which all require a sacrificial material from corpses. If a guide still tells you to hit trees, it was written in 2018.

Also outdated: older sources list 20 Ice Shards per Black Ice. In the current Enhanced data it is 5 Ice Shards together with 100 Ice and one Manifestation of Zeal. If you plan with the old number, you farm four times longer than you need to.

Not changed: we went through the official patch notes for Patch 2.1.0 from August 18, 2026, Patch 2.2.0, the September hotfixes up to 2.2.2, Hotfix 2.2.3 from October 1, 2026, Patch 3.0.0 from October 6, 2026 and Hotfix 3.0.1 from October 8, 2026. None of them touches Ymir, the altar, ritual harvesting, Ice Shards or harvest amounts. The UE5 upgrade on May 5, 2026 changed visuals and tech, not the resource logic.

💡 Tips for efficient farming

• Keep a real weapon: the Hoar-Frost Hatchet is useless in a fight. Kill with your main weapon and only switch at the corpse.
• Camps over single enemies: a full exile or Vanir camp gives more in one pass than half an hour roaming the wilds.
• Followers can get in the way: a strong thrall clears camps faster but sometimes dismembers corpses before you get to them.
• Don't burn your Zeal: always keep enough Ice Shards to make more Manifestations of Zeal at the altar, or your altar upgrades stall.
• Get the blessed hatchet early: 400 instead of 100 durability is the biggest comfort upgrade in the whole Ymir branch.

❓ FAQ about Conan Exiles Ice Shards

Where are Ice Shards on the map in Conan Exiles?

Nowhere. Ice Shards are not a world resource and have no map location. You only get them by harvesting human corpses with the Hoar-Frost Hatchet.

Are Ice Shards the same as Black Ice?

No. Black Ice is a building material from nodes in the north that you mine with a pick. Ice Shards are Ymir's religious resource. They only meet in one recipe, where Ice Shards are an ingredient for Black Ice.

Which enemies drop Ice Shards?

Human and humanoid NPCs. Animals and creatures such as Rocknoses give none, whatever tool you use.

How do I craft the Hoar-Frost Hatchet?

At the Altar of Ymir from 15 Iron Bars and 1 Branch. The Blessed Hoar-Frost Hatchet is made at the Exalted Altar from a regular hatchet and 13 Manifestations of Zeal.

How many Ice Shards do I need for one Black Ice?

Five, together with 100 Ice and one Manifestation of Zeal, at the Exalted Altar of Ymir. Older guides still say 20, which is not the current value.

Is Ymir worth it just for the Ice Shards?

The branch depends on them. Ice Shards give you Zeal, ammo, the Ymir armor pieces, the Glacier-Crack and access to crafted Black Ice. Without regular shard harvesting, the whole altar grinds to a halt.

🔗 Related guides

For the whole resource chain, see the resources overview. And since Black Ice ends up in Star Metal, the Star Metal guide is worth a read too.

Checked against the Enhanced item database conanexiles.gaming.tools and the Funcom patch notes up to Hotfix 3.0.1 (October 8, 2026), as of October 2026. Item names, recipes, stations and the hatchet stats come from the database; durability values and altar costs follow the same database as cited in our original research. The community wiki at conanexiles.gamepedia.com is written by players. The low yield per corpse is a community report; Funcom publishes no official number for how many Ice Shards a single corpse can give.