God of War Ragnarok Defend Your Valor Favor Walkthrough

Defend Your Valour is a Favor (Side Quest) for Kratos in God of War Ragnarok. This walkthrough will guide you through all objectives of the Defend Your Valour Side Quest. For an overview of all quests in the game see God of War Ragnarok All Favors.

Requirement: Completed the Story
Reward: 4000 Kratos XP, 4000 Freya XP, The Queen’s Armour, The Queen’s Roar, Rond of Obliteration, The True Queen

Objectives:

• Defeat the Valkyrie Queen

Starting Location: Defend Your Valour

Defend Your Valour can be started in The Crucible in Muspelheim after completing the main story. There will a Remnant of Asgard to the east of the central area that you can swing across to, then pick up an item in the middle to start the favor.

Defeat the Valkyrie Queen

Gna will arrive in the arena, but you can prepare your setup before attacking her.

Recommended Gear: Stone Wall Shield, Rond of Expedition, Berserker Armour Set, 3x Niflheim Enchantments, 3x Muspelheim Enchantments, Celestial Panacea, Greater Regenerating Essence, Emblem of Elusion, Weapon Attachment of the Nine Realms on your preferred weapon

Recommended Abilities: Njord’s Tempest, Ivaldi’s Anvil, Hades Retribution, Tame the Beast, Thrust of a Thousand Soldiers, Honour the Fallen, Hilt of Skofnung, Spartan Wrath

Strategy: Gna can only be fought after completing the game. She will be found at The Crucible in Muspelheim, at a remnant of Asgard. Gna is the hardest fight in the game, her attacks will have very small windows for dodging/blocking/parrying, and she can attack very quickly without down time. While she is harder than King Hrolf, she also has less health, which at least makes the fight less a battle of attrition and more a matter of mastering how to deal with each of her attacks.

The above listed gear and abilities are what I found to work the best on No Mercy difficulty. Do note that this setup utilises the Hilt of Skofnung that you get from defeated King Hrolf, so if you do this first the strategy will change. This setup allows for faster ability regeneration, further dodges and heavy damage distribution.

Gna will have a lot of attacks, but the most important ones to take note of are the attacks that are indicated by a particular quote. Having subtitles on will benefit during the fight so you can quickly recognise one of these attacks even if you can’t hear her:

• “For Asgard!” – Gna will jump high into the air and slam down on your location, dealing heavy damage if it hits you. This is very rapid and will be done up to three times in succession, so the moment you hear her say “For Asgard!” you will want to dodge, and be prepared to do it three times. When Gna is below half health, this attack may be delayed, where she will stay in the air for a longer time before slamming down. Typically when this happens you can dodge twice on the first one to avoid it, then if there are follow up attacks you can wait a second before dodging to avoid it.
• “Kneel!” – Gna will hop into the air and heel kick where you are standing, dealing heavy damage and frosting you if it connects. This is unblockable, so wait a moment then dodge. If you dodge the moment you hear “Kneel!”, you risk getting hit. She will usually follow this up with multiple block break attacks where she slams the ground and launches rocks in a line in front of her.
• “Submit!” – Gna will charge at you with an unblockable attack, and if it connects it will deal heavy damage. She will usually do several of these in a row, but she may feint into a flurry of regular attacks. When she initiates this attack, you will want to dodge to the side and then block in case she feints into the regular attack, and then dodge again if she does another “Submit!” attack. Usually after two she will be open to attack, but occasionally she’ll initiate another attack immediately so it can be risky to punish her here.
• “Bathe in fire!” – Gna will build up fire above her, and you must shoot her with Runic Arrows (purple) to stop the attack. If you don’t stop it with the arrows, you will be hit for heavy damage and burned. Hitting her with Runic Arrows will burn and stun her, allowing for follow up attacks.
• “Rise, rise!” – Gna will summon a boulder to throw at you, and you must shoot her with Sonic Arrows (light blue) to stop the attack. If you don’t stop it with the arrows, you will be hit for heavy damage. Hitting her with Sonic Arrows will stun her, allowing for follow up attacks.
• “Asgard’s blood is on you!” – One of Gna’s shield strike attacks, where she will charge up a lightning attack that will hit a large portion of the arena. If you are close to her you can shield strike her ( twice) and punish her, and if you’re not close you can dodge backwards out of the danger zone, then throw charged Draupnir Spears at her while she is busy.

Her other attacks will include a rain of Bifrost in a line in front of her, that you will want to dodge. This will usually be followed up with her dodging to the side and then dashing in to you to perform one of three attacks: a flurry attack where she swings her wings at you, a feint attack followed up with an unblockable slam attack, or a very fast unblockable stab attack. With this it is best to block in preparation for the attack, and if you see the unblockable attack coming quickly dodge to the right to avoid it. This attack can be hard to dodge as the red ring indicating the attack appears at the very last moment before it hits, so you will need to dodge fast to avoid it. You can try dodging to the right for all of these attacks, but sometimes even with the longer dodge you won’t get out of range of the wing flurry and get hit by that. One of these attacks will occur any time she dodges to the side, so when you see her do that be prepared for it.

She will also throw Bifrost feathers at you, either regular ones horizontally that you will want to block, or unblockable ones vertically that you will want to dodge. These will happen twice in a row and can be any combination of the two. These attacks are typically followed up with either “Submit!”, the dodge attack mentioned above, or she’ll rush in with a block break attack where she swings her weapon at you twice. This is where the Stone Wall Shield comes in handy, as you can block both these strikes without it breaking your shield if you are unable to effectively parry them. This attack will allow for a follow up immediately after.

At the start of the fight, the best way to initiate the fight is to charge in with a Spartan Wrath attack, using Freya’s companion attacks as you charge. Immediately use your Hilt of Skofnung, then 3-4 of your runic attacks while she is stunned. You may not get the fourth attack out depending on how early she breaks out, but if you manage to get them all you will immediately remove 2 bars of health on No Mercy. After this initial flurry, you will want to play cautiously, only attack her when she is vulnerable after an attack, and never rush her. The only time to go aggressive is when you have an activation for Hilt of Skofnung at the ready, at which point you can unload your abilities again. Whenever your Permafrost/Immolation/Maelstrom is charged up, if you have the Weapon Attachment of the Nine Realms on your preferred weapon you can use the + attack to temporarily slow down time and get a few swings on her at a higher damage, and chain it into a runic attack.

Gna will regularly drop health crystals throughout the fight, plus with Greater Regenerating Essence you will restore health throughout the fight. That said certain attacks from her will effectively kill you outright on No Mercy difficulty, so you will want to avoid her stronger attacks as best you can. Once her health is depleted, finish her with .

This finishes Defend Your Valour Side Quest in God of War Ragnarok.

For all other quests refer to God of War Ragnarok Walkthrough.