During the worker placement phase, players take turns placing their workers on board locations and executing their effects. Most locations only have space for a single worker.

Beginning with the player holding the First Player Marker and proceeding clockwise, players take turns assigning 1 worker at a time to an available space on the board and carrying out the associated action. This process is repeated until no player has workers remaining. Then, all players proceed to assigning Viking Warriors.

Board locations are color-coded in order to enable faster understanding of how to resolve each space:

Brown locations are resolved immediately. As soon as a player places a worker meeple on a brown location, they follow the instructions for that location.

Blue locations are also resolved immediately. These locations are colored differently because they will receive special attention during each round setup phase of the game.

Red locations are combat locations. These locations have no instant effect. When a player places a worker on a combat location, they are reserving this space to do combat with the associated monster in the next phase Assign Viking Warriors and Resolve Combat.