God of War Niflheim - Quests, Labyrinths and Items Guide (2023)

The kingdom ofNiflheimis an optional area inGod of Warwhich can only be accessed after getting the 4Ciphers of the Niflheim language. Once collected, you can travel to the realm. The realm is shrouded in a poisonous mist that depletes the pink bar that appears above you. If the bar empties completely, you quickly lose health to the point of death. From the entrance, avoid the fog by sticking to higher ground and look for chests that contain fog echoes.

Sindri will appear in front of you and give you the facts about the realm. The area in front of him is part of a maze that will kill anyone who lingers there too long. Happily,Sindrican craft your armor to deplete your pink gauge more slowly, allowing you to stay in the maze longer. But Sindri wants you to get 500 Mist Echoes first so he can make the keystone needed to get to Ivaldi's workshop in the middle of the maze.

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Use the list below to jump to a specific section:

• How the Niflheim maze works
• Niflheim Ivaldi preferred
  • First Favor - Ivaldi's workshop
  • Second Favor - Ivaldi's Protection
  • Third Favor - Ivaldi's Curse
• How to grind in Niflheim
• How to defeat Valkyrie Hildr

How the Niflheim maze works

The Niflheim Maze is a very unique area in God of War and as such requires some explanation to explain how it works. Here's everything you need to know about Ivaldi's workshop maze!

• Niflheim Maze Rules:
  • The goal of the maze is to defeat enemies to unlock chests that contain Mist Echoes and Hacksilver. The maze can be attempted and completed an unlimited number of times. A full run through the maze earns you about 6-9,000 fog echoes.
  • Your time in the maze is limited, represented by a pink fog meter at the top of the screen. Once it's depleted, Kratos' health will quickly drain until you either exit the maze or die. The Smoke Gauge depletes less quickly from using gear from the unlockable central chamber, and also recovers a bit from opening chests.
  • To keep your earnings, you must exit the maze, either by returning to Sindri's workshop or by climbing up to the central chamber. If you die, you'll lose everything you've gained from that attempt, including XP and Hacksilver.
  • You can check the amount of Fog Echoes you have by pausing the game, going to the Resources tab and going to the bottom of the list where the general rank resources are.
• Labyrinth-Layout:
  • The layout of the maze is the same each time: there are four main areas laid out like a baseball diamond. In between there are smaller sections. The middle chamber is accessed via the first area, Area D, while Areas X and Y are more difficult zones branching off from Sub-areas A-B and B-C. All of these connect drop corridors with either crushing walls or saw blades.
  • While the layout of the maze is the same, enemy and chest placement are randomly chosen each time you enter it:
  • Each run of the maze has a "theme" of enemies that appear in each of the main areas. This will be a small and medium enemy for all areas and a large enemy that only appears in X and Y areas. For example, a run may have Nightmares (Minor), Revenants (Moderate), and Trolls (Major).
• Labyrinth Chests:
  • Each main area will have chests including a Legendary Chest, Coffins and Hacksilver Chests. You can't open them until you've defeated all the enemies in the area.
  • Opening a chest or coffin restores a small portion of the smoke meter.
  • The three types of chests can also be found in the trap passages that connect all areas. These can be picked up at any time.
    • It is unusual for a trap passage not to have a chest or coffin. When you go through an empty trap passage, turn around to make sure there isn't a chest hidden behind you on the other side.
  • One of the four sub-areas can contain a Nornir Chest: you need to find all three bells and hit them with the Leviathan Ax to unlock them. The bells are always reachable from the sub-area where the chest is located.
  • After completing your first run in the maze, a Nornir chest will appear in area D (where you start the maze). To unlock it you have to flip three switches on the walls of areas A, B and C up.
    • The switches are in a set order: the first rune's switch is always in area A, the second rune in area B, and the third in area C. Because of this, most of the maze's runs go clockwise around it.
    • Taking a screenshot is a very good way to quickly remember what the runes of this Nornir chest are. If you are on PS5, you can then go to the Create menu and see the screenshot in the lower left corner of the screen!
  • In New Game +, no chests or coffins will contain Skap Slag, even in the middle chamber. The only one that can is the coffin found on the bridge of the Temple of Tyr.

Niflheim Ivaldi preferred

First Favor - Ivaldi's workshop

Just before the entrance to the maze you will find Sindri. Speak to him to learn about a workshop in the central chamber - in the middle of the maze just past area D, the first real meeting room. Sindri will craft a Keystone to enter this room, but only after you have received 500 Mist Echoes.

Nebula Echoes can be earned from all chests you can find in the maze, including some on the bridge of Tyr's Temple (one is behind a pillar on the right after exiting the shop, two are next to the lore marker, and a chest and a coffin are at the end of the bridge). The safest way to start this task is to run to the first area, kill the enemies and loot all the chests in the area and run back to the entrance when you are low on the meter.

If you have enough meters left, you should also check both trap passages from the first chamber - they're often filled with traps, but if you're careful you can run through them to find chests and coffins tucked away on the side are, and then turn back before entering the next large chamber. Note that opening a chest returns a small amount of Poison Gauge, so you can move around as long as you find enough chests to keep going.

Once you have 500 Mist Echoes, return to Sindri's workshop at the entrance to the maze. Go to the purchase menu and craft the Niflheim Entry Stone. When the Keystone is crafted, return to Area D, defeat the enemies that appear, then use the Keystone on the central altar and enter the central chamber.

Second Favor - Ivaldi's Protection

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The second favor picks up right where the first left off. Climb up to the central chamber to find a relatively safe area in front of the mist that can serve as a new spot to rest between runs. It also houses several chests and Realm Tears, which become a main objective here in Niflheim.

The Coffins and Hacksilver Chests here are unlocked and contain around 1,500 Mist Echoes in total - as well as Ivaldi's Rusty Armor. There are also lockedLegendary chestsand Realm Tears, which can only be opened if you have enough resources, and opening them gives you materials needed to craft and upgrade Ivaldi's Armor - which can help slow down the effects of Poison Mist, and becomes crucial to surviving and grinding in his empire.

Also here is Ivaldi's rusted armor (pictured above). Pick up the item at his feet to retrieve the armor, then return toSindrito learn what's needed to craft the armor - and you'll find more ingredients randomly in the coffins and chests as you explore the maze.

The remaining locked chests in the central chamber can be opened with enough Mist Echoes to earn some pretty rewarding items ranging from enchantments to weapon pommels.

Third Favor - Ivaldi's Curse

After completing Ivaldi's protection by giving Sindri the Ivaldi materials, this is where you'll unlock the final boon: Ivaldi's curse. At the top of the central chamber are 3 Realm Tears containing very high level enemies that hold great rewards for those brave enough to face them. However, they also need to be unlocked, and the price of Nebula Echoes is far higher.

In addition to a massive amount of Fog Echoes, each Realm Tear requires an Anchor of Fog to open. You can only find these in legendary chests hidden in the two furthest chambers of the maze, Area X and Area Y. Still, the chance of getting one is random, so you might not find a Mist Anchor during a run in Maze, even if you open all Legendary Chests.

Be careful entering Area X as there is a Valkyrie waiting for you if you haven't killed her already.

How to grind in Niflheim

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A large part of your time in Niflheim will be grinding - either to collect more Mist Echoes to open the treasure chests in the central chamber, to grind materials to craft and upgrade the Ivaldi armor sets, or to grind Hacksilver to spend it on upgrades or upgrade materials.

To grind in the Niflheim maze, you need to know what your abilities are: when to continue exploring the areas and when to turn back and store your nebula echoes. Since the enemy levels are between 6 and 8, you should already be strong when you go in.

• Maze runner for beginners:
  • Early runs should consist of staying in area D, the very first room of the maze.
  • After surviving the battle, look for chests in the area and then explore sub-areas A-D and C-D (the trap corridors leading to Area A and Area C). If you're not sure if you can survive multiple fights, these corridors are just filled with traps, and you can shoot through them to get extra chests.
  • You may also find the Nornir Chest with the Bells in the sub-areas, which will give you more resources.
  • Taking on the fights in the main areas is actually entirely optional: you can zoom past them to the next set of trap corridors if you wish.
• Level 6-7:
  • Once you reach level 6-7 you should be able to take on more fights without fear of death.
  • This should expand your exploration from Area D to Area A or Area C - but you should always keep an eye on the pink meter.
  • Chests fill up the fog meter a bit, but it's up to your judgment whether you can pick up another fight or dive back to the entrance.
  • Remember: battle length can vary wildly, so don't hesitate to go all out with rune attacks. Of course, loadouts that favor cooldowns help a lot.
• Experienced Maze Runners:
  • If exploration is limited only by your ability to stay in the Poison Mist, you should start actually crafting some of Ivaldi's Armor.
  • Which armor you craft first largely depends on your playstyle - but that's where you'll eventually want to take that outValkyrie, we recommend either the Strength or Rune-focused armor to maximize your offense.
  • With good armor (and extra enchantments or talismans) you should be able to survive in the fog much longer and fully traverse all the main areas: A, B, C and D (if you're playing on an easier difficulty, of course). , you may be able to do this much sooner).
• Endgame Maze Runner:
  • Endgame exploration will take you to the outer chambers of Area X and Y. Area X will contain the Valkyrie Hildr until you defeat her, and Area Y will contain some seriously formidable enemies.
  • Since these areas contain tougher enemies, you'll find better rewards in their chests, including resources to upgrade Ivaldi's armor pieces.
  • Legendary chests in areas X and Y can also contain an Anchor of the Mist, which can spawn in a random chest in those areas and is needed to open the Realm Tears in the Central Chamber.

Once you get the hang of running through the maze and have done everything else (including upgrading the Ivaldia Armor and other Mist-related gear), you should use your Mist-based resources to get Hacksilver. You can then buy resources like Svartalfheim Steel to upgrade your gear. This is how this process works:

1. Complete a full run of the maze, including both Nornir chests. For maximum speed, set the difficulty to Give Me A Story.
2. Return to Sindri's shop and sell all your Aesirbane, Hazeweave, and Niflheim Alloy, which convert them into Nebula Echoes.
3. Go to the Buy tab and under Enchantments, buy as many Perfect Plague Artifacts as you can. This will take a while due to the length of the object popup animation.
4. Return to the Sell tab and sell all of your Perfect Plague Artifacts. Together with your earnings in the maze, you should have won around 40-60,000 Hacksilver.
   • New Game+ Only: Sell your Free XP under the Purchase tab.

How to defeat Valkyrie Hildr

Hildr Fight Video Guide

Hildr tips and strategies

• Recommended level:Level 6 for a fair fight (plus gear effects that reduce Poison Mist lethality!)

Hildr is actually pretty weakValkyriewith relatively easily blocked and countered movements and a (relatively) small life bar. The catch, of course, is that she's in the Labyrinth of Niflheim, which means you'll need to defeat her before you succumb to the Deadly Mist.

Luckily, there's a positive catch: once you bring them down, the fog meter will appearwill be completely restored!This then gives you ample time to either retreat to the beginning of the maze or continue exploring it for more loot and treats. Another blessing (sort of) is that Kratos doesn't die immediately when the fog meter runs out: his health will drain quickly at first, giving you a small window to finish off Hildr and refill the fog meter.

Hildr is unique among the Valkyries as she has by far the largest single arena giving you plenty of room to engage with her. One thing to keep in mind, however, is the trap walk: this will be randomized every time you enter the arena, and if it has saw blades (like in the image below), you'll need to be careful not to accidentally step into it they withdraw and come in cut open! Unguarded breakers are even worse:THESE WILL KILL KRATOS INSTANTLY!

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The main new attack to watch out for is her Ice Attack: Here, Hildr fires a barrage of Ice Chunks at Kratos before pausing and firing an extra large chunk as a Heavy Attack (indicated by a red ring). To survive this, block the initial barrage with the shield, then roll sideways when she stops to avoid the larger chunk of ice. To give you the best shot, back Kratos away from Hildr while blocking the Ice Barrage: the last chunk will take longer to get to you, giving you a bigger window to dodge.

The rest of her moveset is similar to other Valkyries you've fought before her. She has Geirdiful's green scythe waves and also likes to charge at you with a scythe like Gunnr did. She also uses the glide charge across the arena, but unlike Rota, she only does so once before stopping like Geirdiful did. Finally, she's one of the few Valkyries to use Eir's Winged Shields: Use the Block Break ability by double-tapping L1 to knock her off balance and open up for a combo.