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God of War guide: Valkyrie Sigrun (Council of Valkyries)

How to beat God of War’s final Valkyrie

SIE Santa Monica Studio/Sony Interactive Entertainment via Polygon

God of War Valkyrie Sigrun isn’t just the toughest Valkyrie in God of War: She’s the hardest enemy in the game. In this God of War Valkyrie guide, we’ll show you how to defeat Sigrun in the Council of Valkyries.

The guide below was originally written for the 2018 release on PS4. The advice is still good for 2022’s PC release on Steam, but we’ll update the guide with any changes as needed.

Table of contents

To win, you need to learn Sigrun’s myriad attack patterns — a compilation of nearly every other Valkyrie attack — and unleash Kratos’ might when she’s vulnerable, recovering or distracted. We’re here to save you loads of frustration, and we’ll demystify her attacks with short videos showing you how to identify, defend against and overcome her deadly combos.

Sigrun boss fight strategies

A few things to keep in mind as you fight Sigrun.

Sigrun’s attacks

A rundown of every attack she has, including what they look like and how you should react to them.

Using Spartan Rage

A strategy for getting you twice as much Spartan Rage.

Collect Sigrun’s loot

The rewards you get for winning.

Sigrun boss fight strategies

Before you learn her attacks, you need to learn how to approach the fight. In this section, we’ll give you a few general tips.

Pull your punches

Every Valkyrie in God of War is tough, but Sigrun makes the others look like child’s play. If you’re anything like us, your instinct will be to attack at every available opportunity. That would be a mistake. Knowing when not to attack is just as important as knowing when to attack.

If you learn her moves, then you’ll know when she’s vulnerable — and therefore when you should switch from defense to offense. Count your attacks if you’re not sure how many you can land when she’s staggered — we sure did. Don’t try to get that one last hit in. Back up, block, read her next move and respond accordingly.

And if there’s a green health gem around, stomp on it while she’s staggered.

Be prepared

Before you begin your fight with Sigrun, do three things:

  • Fill your runic attack meters. Unlike every other Valkyrie fight, you shouldn’t begin with back-to-back Runic attacks (L1 + R1 and L1 + R2). But you should still enter the fight with your Runic attack meters filled because you’ll be using them a lot. (If your meters aren’t full, you can just stand around before the fight and wait for them to fill up.)
  • Fill your Spartan Rage meters. Spartan Rage does two things. The obvious one is inflict massive amounts of damage. The less obvious one is restore your health as you attack. You can use it to finish off a Valkyrie or restore your low health — or both! (If your meters aren’t full, go find some enemies to kill. You can warp right back to the Mystic Gateway inside of the arena.)
  • Bring a Resurrection Stone. If you die while you’re holding a Resurrection Stone, press Square and Atreus will bring him back to life. Any Resurrection Stone will do, and you can buy them at Brok or Sindri’s shop. Just remember that you can only hold one at a time. (We used the Berserker’s Resurrection Stone. At 10,000 hacksilver, it’s the most expensive option, but it revives Kratos with a full Spartan Rage meter. Use it, and the damage you can inflict makes up for your paltry health.)

Plan your Spartan Rage usage

If you took our advice above in the previous section, you entered this fight with a full meter and the Berserker’s Resurrection Stone. Combined, you’ll have two opportunities to use your Spartan Rage: once before you die and once after Atreus brings you back to life. Weird as it may sound, dying is actually an advantage with this strategy, but you’ll rejoin the battlefield with the potential to do a lot of damage.

Manage your health

There are good times and bad times to stomp on the green gems that refill your health. The bad times are when Sigrun can attack. The good times are when she can’t attack.

We died too many times and took too much damage while running to pick up health. Don’t be like us. You’ll probably just get attacked and hurt. Instead, pick up health when Sigrun isn’t attacking.

In the video above (which we’ll explain from a different angle below), we declined to continue our attack in favor of an opportunity to refill our health. Sigrun was far enough away and still recovering. We could’ve rushed her and caused more damage. Instead, we backed up because we wanted health instead. You should, too.

Keep your camera on Sigrun

Much of the time, God of War’s camera will turn to follow Sigrun, even if you don’t lock on. But not all of the time. If you don’t see her on your screen (and she’s not doing the one attack where she explicitly leaves the screen), you’re putting yourself in danger. Turn the camera, and make sure you can see her at every possible opportunity.

Identify, react, attack

The trick to defeating any Valkyrie is identifying and responding to her attacks. That tends to be fairly easy in other fights. It’s very hard in this one, because Sigrun mixes and matches nearly every other attack from every other Valkyrie.

Sigrun may be difficult, but your goal is the same as any Valkyrie: Identify her possible attacks, and know how to respond. At that point, the fight becomes an if-then statement: If she does this, then I do this. In this section, we’ll show you Sigrun’s attacks (the “if” part) and how to respond (the “then” part).

Sigrun’s attacks

If you’re exceptionally good at avoiding damage, you can disrupt many of Sigrun’s attacks. But for everyone else — ourselves included — the risk of taking damage is far greater than the reward you’ll get for disrupting at just the right moment. This guide teaches you how to beat Sigrun by identifying her attacks and responding to them. It’s a much safer strategy in God of War’s most brutal fight.

The toughest part about Sigrun isn’t that she has so many attacks — it’s that she can chain them together into combos. We’ll break Sigrun’s attacks into broad categories — the beginning of the fight, air-based attacks, projectile attacks, ground-based attacks and combos — and show you how to react to each.

Beginning the fight (wing attacks)

With every other Valkyrie, we’d suggest unleashing back-to-back Runic attacks as soon as you can, but doing that with Sigrun will also damage Kratos. He can’t avoid taking damage, and your health is supremely important in this fight, so it’s not worth the trade-off.

The fight always starts the same way. Sigrun is on the offense. Here’s what you need to do:

  1. Approach her and hold up your shield.
  2. Sigrun attacks with her wings. It could be one wing at a time, several times. It could be that, plus a twirling wing attack. It could just be a twirling attack.
  3. Block her attacks.
  4. Figure out what she’s going to do next (she has several options) and react accordingly.

In the video above, you can see that play out — and the randomness of what happens next.

Next, she might block, using her wings as a shield. She might run away. She might jump up into the air and out of frame to land on Kratos. Don't assume anything. Watch what she does and then make a decision, based on what you see. Play it defensively, and attack only when you’re sure it’s safe.

Air-based attacks

After Sigrun jumps into the air, she can unleash several attacks. In this section, we’ll explain them all (except for her magic disc attacks, which we’ll cover in the next section on projectile attacks).

Train yourself to hit Square and fire an arrow at her every time she jumps. If she was about to do either of the first two attacks in this section, she’ll fall back to the ground, which prevents her from attacking.

Hovering to blind Kratos

Sigrun jumps into the air and stays put, hovering above the ground. From there, she can unleash multiple attacks.

In the video above, you’ll see her jump into the air three times in a row. We shoot her down every time, nuking her ability to attack.

If you miss the window, her blinding attack makes the arena foggy. The fog isn’t dangerous, but your inability to see her and anticipate her attacks is. If that happens, keep shooting her.

As you can see in the video above, she’s a little easier to see through the fog when she’s shrouded in Shock damage. Stay on the move. There are few things more annoying than getting stabbed or jumped on with attacks you could’ve prevented but couldn’t see coming.

Hovering to pound the ground

In Sigrun’s other hovering attack, she pounds the ground with her staff, creating an explosion that encompasses nearly the entire arena. It can eat half of your health bar — unless you’re so far away from her (which is super far away from her) that it mitigates the effects.

Your only defense is offense. Shoot her down. Make shooting her with arrows when she jumps up a habit, and you’ll (almost) never have to deal with these attacks.

Jumping on Kratos

Sigrun can jump straight up into the air, disappear from view, land wherever Kratos is standing and kick him in the face repeatedly.

Look for the red circle as she jumps. This is the giveaway. Double-tap X to roll away. Any direction will do, but straight back worked well for us.

She may jump once. She may jump twice. She might jump three times in a row. Assume the latter. It’s better to dodge and miss an attack opportunity than it is to get stomped.

She’s vulnerable when she lands, and that’s your opportunity to attack.

If you don’t evade it, hammer on Circle to break her attack. The one silver lining in getting caught is that she’s staggered and vulnerable after you push her off, which gives you a good opportunity to attack her.

Flying grab and face pound

Sigrun jumps, flies across the arena and dives toward Kratos. If she catches him, she grabs him and pounds his head into the ground (like at the very beginning of the fight). Could happen once, twice or three times. Assume the latter and keep dodging.

Just move your left analog stick to the left or right, and keep holding it there while she dives. Double-tap X to dodge when she turns and screams. Get the cadence right for this, and you can dodge it nearly every time. You’ll actually be happy that she’s doing this move because it’s among the most reliable to evade.

You can see our favorite response to this attack in the video above. We run at her and hit L2 with the axe. It’s one powerful, safe move that does a good bit of damage. And it allows us to back away while she regroups.

Yes, you could keep attacking. We sometimes used this opportunity to use a quick Runic attack, for example. But don’t push it. The last thing you want is for her to transition directly into a jump and kick. Your health is more important than another attack. Play it safe.

Projectile attacks

Sigrun has a few projectile attacks that she can deploy from the ground and the air. In this section, we’ll show you how to avoid them all.

Hovering with magic yellow discs

Sigrun jumps into the air and stays put, hovering above the ground. Then she fires yellow discs at Kratos. There are two flavors of this attack, and she sometimes chains them together:

  • She fires several projectiles. Block them all.
  • She fires a single projectile. Dodge this.

Watch her hovering to discover what she’s going to do. If you see the telltale red circle, you need to dodge. If you don’t, you need to block.

Ice shard attacks

Sigrun fires a volley of blue ice shards at Kratos. Block them while walking to the left or right. After a slight pause, she’ll fire a giant ice ball. Dodge it in whatever direction you’re already walking to avoid the big chunk, which you can’t block.

Scythe sweep

While on the ground, Sigrun sweeps her scythe, causing a wave of energy to run across the arena toward Kratos. Dodge to the side as it nears.

Fire attack

This attack begins with the telltale red circle, which means it’s unblockable. Sigrun raises her hands and ignites the ground from some sky magic. Your response has two phases:

  1. Avoid the red circles. Look for the fiery red circles on the ground and roll to get out of them. If you stay inside, you’ll ignite.
  2. Avoid Sigrun. After the ground catches fire, Sigrun will strafe (dashing to the side, not toward Kratos) and then slide to attack. The first part isn’t dangerous. It’s just a reminder that she’s about to attack. Her slide-stab is unblockable, so dodge (away from the fiery ground) after she strafes. She may twirl and attack with her wings. She may twirl and attack with her scythe. She may just fire some projectiles. Assume the worst and dodge. Taking a single hit from a twirl and blocking the rest is far better than taking a stab.

You have to remember both parts to avoid or at least minimize damage.

Smoky knife projectiles

Sigrun can shoot smoky knife-like projectiles from her wings. Block them.

Ground-based attacks

When she’s on the ground, Sigrun has several attacks. In this section, we’ll describe them all and show you how to respond.

Dash and stab

Sigrun dashes across the arena, closing the gap between her and Kratos. This move ends with a stab. Look for the telltale red circle, and dodge to the side as she approaches.

That makes it sound simple. The problem is that she can follow the dash with a wing attack, which you can block. If you expect a twirl and block, you’ll take more damage than a single wing attack. To avoid damage, you have to identify the red circle and react accordingly (or just assume a stab and dodge, accepting a minor hit).

Wing shield

Sigrun uses her wings as a shield. This lasts for a few seconds.

If you’re not close when she raises her shield, back away. When she ends her defense (instead of you), she’ll damage you with a shockwave.

If you’re close to her, double-tap L1 to break through her defenses and attack. (You could use a strong or Runic attack to break through, but we prefer the predictable stagger of the shield break. You know what you’re going to get, and that makes your attacks easier to plan.)

After you break through her wing shield, attack. Any attack will do, but Sigrun recovers quickly, so you don’t have much time. We like to use the the Talisman of the Realms to slow down time and give us the opportunity to chain together more Runic attacks.

Here’s what happens in the video above:

  1. We double-tap L1 to break her shield.
  2. We use our axe’s heavy Runic attack (L1 + R2).
  3. We switch to our Blades of Chaos (left on the D-pad).
  4. We use our blades’ light Runic attack (L1 + R1).
  5. During the light Runic attack, Sigrun drops a green health restoration item.
  6. Sigrun backs away, staggered.
  7. We know she can’t attack, so we back away and pick up the health she dropped.

This is how you have to fight Sigrun. Pick the right opportunities to defend and attack, and sacrifice attacks to gain health.

Scythe twirl

Sigrun twirls, attacking with her scythe as she does. She can begin this attack from the land or the air. Either way, you’ll see the telltale yellow circle, indicating that you can parry this attack.

You have two options: Dodge away, or block at the last moment to parry her attack. The reward for the risk of the latter is that you stagger her, opening her up for attack. In the video above, you’ll see that we missed the parry on the first twirling swing, but we parried the second twirl. You’ll also notice that she went directly into her wing shield. Such is life.

If you have a comfortable amount of health and are confident in your timing, try parrying. Otherwise, get out of the way.

Staff attacks

Sigrun spins twice while holding a staff, and her attacks can damage and blind Kratos. Dodge roll with X to get away from the first attack, which has an area of effect (AOE) radius around her when she smashes her staff into the ground. Keep dodging to avoid her second spinning attack.

Combos

Combos are the most difficult part of managing Sigrun’s attacks. You can’t know what she’s going to do next — and she has many options — so you have to prepare for several outcomes. In this section, we’ll show you some examples of how she chains the attacks above into combos.

Slide into winged attacks into a stab

This is a combination of attacks that Sigrun likes to use. She’ll:

  1. Slide across the arena
  2. Attack with her wings when she gets close to Kratos
  3. End with an unbreakable stab

Block the wing-based attacks and dodge when you see the red circle. Then you’re usually free to attack. (We say usually, because in the example above, she followed these attacks with a shield. So we had to break the shield and then attack.)

Smoky knife projectiles into a stab

Sigrun likes to follow her projectile attacks with an unbreakable stab. As always, block the projectiles and dodge the stab.

Using Spartan Rage

Sigrun is a frustratingly difficult Spartan Rage target because she can escape and even attack while you’re using Spartan Rage, but there are things you can do to make the most of your Rage. Our advice takes a few forms:

  • Maximize your Spartan Rage. If you took our advice up top, you entered this fight with a full meter and the Berserker’s Resurrection Stone. Combined, you’ll have two opportunities to use your Spartan Rage: once before you die and once after Atreus brings you back to life. Dying is actually an advantage with this strategy, because you’ll rejoin the battlefield with the potential to do a lot of damage.
  • Focus on simple attacks. Don’t worry about anything other than standard R1 attack unless she moves while you’re attacking. Look: It’d be great if you could just pick up boulders and throw them at her. She’s too fast to make that reliable. It’s not worth the effort or the amount of meter you’ll lose with big attacks that are likely to miss.
  • Interrupt her attacks. Use R2 sparingly to stun her and (try to) prevent her from attacking.
  • Get her back against a wall. Sigrun has no problem moving to avoid your attacks, but it’s much harder for her to escape when you’ve got her back up against a wall. Save your Spartan Rage until she’s in a corner or you have a reasonable expectation that you can punch her into one.

In short, concentrate on doing simple damage and raising your health meter.

Collect Sigrun’s loot

Defeat the Sigrun, and you’ll receive the Epic enchantment Njord’s Temporal Stone, the Epic axe pommel Retribution, as well as Asgardian steel and perfect Asgardian steel. See the gallery above for the details.

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