There are quite a few challenging boss fights in God of War, but none come close to Kratos’ battle with Sigrun, the Valkyrie Queen. This is by far the most challenging fight in the entire game, and knowing how to take down this tough enemy will be key to your success in this battle. To help you prepare, we’ve put together this guide which will show you everything you need to do to prepare for your battle with Sigrun, as well as everything you need to know to actually defeat Sigrun, the Valkyrie Queen in God of War.
How to Defeat the Valkyrie Queen
The first step to surviving this grueling battle is to make sure that you are ready for it. The most important thing here is to realize that all of the previous Valkyrie fights have just been training for this moment. The Valkyrie Queen utilizes all the previous movesets you’ve seen, so paying attention to the previous fights will put you at an advantage, whereas not really paying attention will leave you a bit unfamiliar with what you’re going up against.
You can start up the fight with Sigrun, the Valkyrie Queen over at the Council of Valkyries. Once you’ve defeated all the previous Valkyries, place their helms on the empty chairs, and then touch the Realm Tear in the center of the council area to start the fight. Before you do that, though, let’s go over the build that we used to take down the Valkyrie Queen.
Armor and Weapon Builds
Taking down this powerful enemy in God of War is all about preparation, which means you’ll want to do quite a few things before you get started. First, you’ll want to have the best gear available. We’d suggest rolling with the Ivaldi Armor—which can be unlocked by visiting Muspelheim and Niflheim. You will also need to ensure that you’re running a complete set of Epic Enchantments as well as an Epic Talisman.
On top of having the armor listed above, we’d suggest trying to hit Level 9, or at least Level 8 if you have the time to grind out the supplies and upgrade your equipment. This is by far the most difficult battle in the game, so being prepared for it will be worth every second that you spend preparing.
Here’s the setup that we used to take down the Valkyrie Queen.
Leviathan Axe:
- Hel’s Touch – Light Runic Attack
- The River of Knives – Heavy Runic Attack
- Mistbourne – Axe Pommel
Blades of Chaos:
- Rampage of the Furies – Light Runic Attack
- Hyperion Slam – Heavy Runic Attack
- Blightguard – Blades Pommel
Atreus’ Gear:
- Legendary Runic Vestment
- Wrath of the Wolves – Runic Summon
Talisman:
- Shattered Gauntlet of Ages
If you have a completely upgraded set of Ivaldi Armor, as well as the Shattered Gauntlet of Ages, you should be able to equip up to 12 Enchantments. You’ll want to stick to high-level enchantments, at least level 6, but ideally you will want to run as many level 7 enchantments as possible. Of course, you shouldn’t be afraid to swap any enchantments out for something that makes more sense for your usual play style. This fight is going to be long and grueling, so making sure you’re comfortable with the enchantments you have will be important.
Our selection of Runic Attacks focuses on damage and stun, which will give you plenty of time to grab any health gems or to reposition to a better section of the arena. Hel’s Touch is useful because it will interrupt the Valkyrie Queen, and The River of Knives can be used to push her back, giving you a chance to move around some. As far as the others, Rampage of the Furies and Hyperion Slam are all about raw, unbridled damage. If you aren’t comfortable with these or find them useless, then change them out to something else that you prefer.
While you can use a talisman that gives Kratos additional health, we found Shattered Gauntlet of Ages to be the best, as it gives a very nice increase to damage and allows you to slot in three enchantments. Something you don’t see in many talismans we’ve encountered so far in God of War.
The setup that we’ve chosen for Atreus is very important because it allows the child to find health gems that will allow you to heal, which can oftentimes be your only saving grace in a tough battle like this. As for the runic summon, while Wrath of the Wolves doesn’t deal as much damage as Murder of Crows, it increases the stun meter on the enemy, which will allow you to get in a few precious hits without taking any type of damage—a win/win in this situation.
Sigrun, The Valkyrie Queen Movesets
Now that you know how to prepare for the fight, let’s go over what you can expect to see during this battle. We’ve outlined the various moves we encountered below, as well as offered a short description of them. This fight is all about paying close attention to the boss, so make sure you’re always ready to go when things get rough.
Wing Projectile – The Valkyrie Queen slashes at Kratos with her wings, shooting out four spikes. It’s a two-hit move, so watch yourself.
Wing Spear – This lunge attack can’t be blocked, so make sure you dodge to the right. Dodging left or back will cause you to get hit and take damage.
Spinning Projectile – Sigrun spins in place, sending out a few projectiles that home in on Kratos. Dodge away from them or block them.
Winged 2-Hit – The Valkyrie Queen will slash with her right wing, followed up by a slash with her left wing. Sometimes she even follows this attack up with a right-wing attack that cannot be blocked. Can also follow this up with an over-head slam of her scythe.
Ice Blast – The boss fires out several chunks of ice, which are followed by a much larger block of ice that can’t be blocked.
Fog Attack – The Valkyrie Queen will jump into the air and send out a mist that removes your lock-on, shrouding her in fog.
Light Rings – Four homing rings of light are fired out, followed up by a larger ring of light that you cannot block. Sigrun can also fire off the larger ring of light without firing off the first four.
Lava Attack – Sigrun calls down an explosive line of fire that leaves rings on the ground. Stepping into the rings causes damage to Kratos.
Wing Shield – The Valkyrie Queen wraps her wings around her, shielding herself, before throwing them open and sending out a blast of air.
Poison Line – The boss runs her scythe along the ground, firing off a line of poison attacks at Kratos.
Scythe Attack – The Valkyrie Queen attacks with a 2-hit attack with her scythe. This attack begins with the Queen flying directly at Kratos before transitioning into a spin attack when she gets near. This attack can be parried, giving you a chance to attack or heal up.
Light Slam – The Queen flies into the air, raises her scythe into the air, and then slams into the ground. This move can cause a ton of damage to Kratos, so make sure you avoid the area of effect around her when she hits the ground.
Barrel Roll – Sigrun flies into the air and spins as she dives toward Kratos to try to grab him. Cannot be blocked and is used quite a bit throughout the fight.
Valhalla – The Valkyrie Queen jumps straight into the air and then slams down onto Kratos, kicking at his head and neck.
Light Attack – The Queen summons a lightpost from the ground and then slams it into the ground. This attack can blind Kratos if he is hit and is often followed by a scythe attack.
How to Fight The Valkyrie Queen
Practice makes perfect when it comes to taking down the Valkyrie Queen. To be honest, you should go into this fight expecting to die a few times. Make sure to bring along a Resurrection Stone—we prefer the one that gives you a full Rage Meter, as this can also give you more health as you hit the Queen.
Patience and attention are key in this fight. Learn the moves that we’ve listed above and know how to counter each one of them. Many of her attacks are not blockable, which means you’ll have to be ready to dodge out of the way. There are a few you’ll want to avoid altogether—like Valhalla—as they can cause you to lose a large chunk of health in one go.
Throwing your Leviathan Axe is a great tactic here, especially when Sigrun jumps into the air. Aim up at her and toss your axe to deal some damage. This will also knock her out of the air, stunning her and giving you several precious seconds to heal up, reposition yourself, or deal some damage using your heavy attacks. Make sure to follow up the axe throw by running up to her and pressing L2 + R2 to summon the Leviathan Axe and slam into her with a heavy attack. This will be a good way to eat away at her health.
Runic attacks are definitely key to success in this battle, which is why we’ve suggest the ones we have. Whenever the boss is stunned, try hit her as much as possible using the Leviathan Axe. Also, don’t forget you can pull out the Blades of Chaos and make use of those Runic attacks as well. They don’t deal as much damage, but any damage is good damage in a battle like this.
Make sure you don’t forget about Atreus, either. He’s key to every boss fight in God of War, and the fight with Sigrun, the Valkyrie Queen is no different. Make sure to time the arrow attacks to try to fill up the boss’ status effect, giving you a chance to stun her. If you’re using the Light Arrows, then try to time Atreus’ shots with your Runic attacks, as this will allow you to deal way more damage to the boss when she is stunned.
Finally, make sure you’re using Spartan Rage when you can. It’s a good way to get in some heavy damage and build up the stun meter on the Queen. It’s also a good way to restore your health through attacks, and as we mentioned before, you’ll want to pick up the Resurrection Stone that allows you to be revived with a full Rage Meter as this will allow you to heal and deal damage when you’re revived. If you die during the battle, you should just restart with it, so long as you load into a save file right before the fight.
Rewards for Defeating the Valkyrie Queen
When it’s finally all said and done, you’ll find yourself with quite a few rewards for your trouble. Here’s what we received from the fight, so you should expect something similar, if not the same items.
- Sigrun’s Helmet – make sure to give this to Brok after the fight.
- Asgardian Steel
- Perfect Asgardian Steel – Epic Material
- Retribution – Epic Axe Pommel
- Njord’s Temporal Stone – Epic Enchantment
Now that you’ve defeated the most powerful enemy in God of War, head back over to our God of War walkthrough to see what else you might have missed. Be sure to check out our various treasure map guides, which will show you how to find all of the previous treasures hidden in God of War’s nine realms.
