Games
Defeat every single one of these tough bosses with our guide of the Valkyries.
It’s time to unleash your Spartan rage. God of War has finally punched and kicked its way onto the PlayStation 4, giving players the opportunity to once again step into the well-worn shoes of Kratos.
Though technically the fourth mainline entry, in many ways the game feels more like a reinvention of the series, giving us a much more nuanced portrayal of Kratos and ditching the Greek pantheon in favour of Norse mythology. Gone are the endless swarms of minotaurs and undead, replaced with draugrs, nightmares, and towering ogres.
On your travels you will encounter a lot of different obstacles, but among some of the toughest to overcome are the Valkyrie, the optional bosses that are spread throughout the game’s different realms. You can defeat these for better gear and additional experience points but be prepared for a challenge. Below we’ve put together a guide to taking on each Valkyrie and what methods you’ll need to come out victorious.
Gunnr
Location: Thamur’s Corpse
You will probably encounter Gunnr before any of the other Valkyries. She can be found near Thamur’s Corpse after getting the chisel and is located behind a magical hidden chamber door near the start of the area.
Gunnr shouldn’t pose too much of a threat. She telegraphs most of her attacks pretty clearly. Just watch for her blade to flash yellow and then prepare to block at the last moment. If performed correctly, you should parry her next move and temporarily stun her, opening her up for some attacks. The idea is to wait for an opportunity to attack, then unleash a steady stream of hits and arrows shots, before eventually backing off and doing it all again. Patience is key.
Geirdriful
Geirdriful uses a few new attacks that you need to worry about. The first is her flying grab attack. Before she does this, she will trace a small circle in the air with her body and flash red. Dodge to the left or right out of her way and then make sure to quickly reposition the camera on her after you’re done and go in for some attacks while she’s stationary.
She can also fire projectiles at the player, too. Most of these moves can be parried, but there are two to look out for. One is where she throws her golden rings directly towards the player and the second is where she digs into the ground and shoots lightning along the floor. Again, you will need to dodge left or right to get out of the way of these.
Also, try to keep moving to your right at all times while locked on to her. This is because she will sometimes do a charge attack, where she lunges towards the player and hits them with her right wing and you need to be prepared to roll to the side or sidestep.
Eir
Location: The Mountain
You can employ a few techniques to make fighting Eir a lot easier (this works for other Valkyrie too, but Eir is a particular problem). For instance, you can go into the fight with your Spartan Rage meter filled all the way up, buy a resurrection stone to allow Atreus to revive you in battle, or equip a summon to the Talon Bow to give you a better chance of stunning her and staying alive long enough to put her down.
As for the fight itself, you will need to pay attention to a couple of moves. When she flies up in the air and flashes red, for instance, you will need to throw your axe at her to temporarily stun her and keep the battle grounded. This will prevent her from finishing the attack and will give you a small opening to get in a few hits.
The next move to watch out for is her close-range attack. She will slam her weapon into the ground and electrify the area around her. Dodge backwards, and then sideways to avoid her follow up attack. Now swing at her. If she puts up her shield, double tap the shield button to break her defence and capitalise on this with a few light attacks.
Kara
Location: Witch’s Basement
Kara is a nuisance, primarily because of her ability to summon draugrs to help her fight. What you need to do is keep spamming Atreus’s arrows to stun the surrounding enemies and focus your attention entirely on her, only dodging the other enemies’ attacks when you absolutely have to (indicated by the red arrow at the side of the screen). You can handle her attacks pretty easily – just watch for the yellow flash and pull up your shield at the last possible moment to parry them. Then land a few hits whenever she is stun-locked. The key to this fight is keeping track of all the moving parts, to avoid being overwhelmed.
Rota
Location: Helheim
Rota can be challenging, as she has a lot of grappling attacks that do an incredible amount of damage. Whenever she goes up in the air and off screen, dodge to your right to avoid her landing on you. Then repeat this again two more times, as she will follow it up with multiple attempts. When she finishes the attack, here is your chance to attack.
She tries the same flying grab attack as Geidriful but will do this in quick succession three times as opposed to just the once. Keep dodging to the side and whenever she’s done, go in and grab a few hits, before backing off and starting the process again.
Olrun
Location: Muspelheim Trial VI
Probably the trickiest part of beating Gondul is actually getting to her in the first place. She is located at the very top of Muspelheim, past five other difficult trials, each composed of normal and hard tasks.
Her speciality is her ability to summon fire. So, to avoid being damaged, dodge away from the circles that appear on the ground whenever she starts casting this attack. Then, run over to her when she is recovering from the cooldown and land some hits on her.
Also, when she jumps up in the air and shouts Valhalla, wait a couple of seconds and then dodge to the side. Her attack seems slightly delayed in comparison to other Valkyrie in this regard.
Other than that, make sure you use Atreus’s wolves summon to stun her every so often and try to build up your Spartan rage to allow you to regenerate health while attacking.
Hildr
Location: Niflheim
Another difficult boss to get to, Hildr is hidden in the Niflheim realm, in a randomly assembled dungeon filled with poisonous mist. To get to her, stick to the left wall from the entrance to Ivaldi’s Workshop and you should happen across the Valkyrie resting in the middle of an opening. The most challenging part of this fight is to beat her before the poisonous mist ends up killing you.
Hildr shares many attacks with other Valkyrie, but also introduces a new frost attack into the mix, firing multiple icicles at you, before launching an ice boulder your way. A good way to handle this is to block the smaller icicles and then dodge sideways when she flashes red to avoid the larger chunk of ice. That way you will receive far less damage and will be able to capitalise on her cooldown period afterwards, where she’s particularly vulnerable.
Sigrun
Location: Council of the Valkyries
To initiate the fight with Sigrun, you need to place all the Valkyrie helmets you’ve collected from each battle on the individual thrones and interact with the realm tear in the centre of the circle. It’s recommended you don’t attempt to fight Sigrun, until you have at least level 6 and above equipment. This is because she’s incredibly powerful and can inflict a lot of damage in a short amount of time.
To beat Sigrun, it is all about quick reflexes and knowing how to react to each of her attacks. She has no moves of her own, borrowing from every Valkyrie you’ve fought so far, so you need to remember each attack and how to respond appropriately. The only real change is that she sometimes does two flying grab attempts and mixes it up with a lunging wing attack. If you keep dodging to your right side, however, you should be able to avoid this anyway.
There are some items you can unlock that may make this fight easier. These include the Valkyrie armour you get from defeating the other bosses, and pommels like the Wing of the Fallen and Grips of the Valkyrie. Other than that, just keep a close eye on her movements. Good luck!
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