Defend Your Valor – How to Defeat Valkyrie Queen Gna – God of War Ragnarok Wiki Guide

An important thing to know is that Valkyrie Queen Gna’s difficulty stems in large part that you will not have the benefit of gradually learning her different moves unlike the progression of Berserker fights leading to King Hrolf Kraki. If you remember fighting Valkyrie Queen Sigrun in the previous game, you might be a little better prepared, but it will be an incredibly challenge regardless.

More than any other fight, Gna is wildly unpredictable, and is able to utilize several different openings and follow-ups to a lot of her moves. What might be a standard wide attack the first time can easily become an unblockable jab the next, and you’ll need to watch her movement carefully to react the instant you can spot different movements or warnings. Any attack she lands can deal a ton of damage, and also has not one but two unblockable grabs that can quickly kill you.

While she will gain Runic Armor often, rendering her immune to staggering from Runic Attacks, she is quite susceptible be getting staggered from other hits, and sometimes you may find that being aggressive in pressing your attack can keep her from setting up her next move – as she is much more deadly and unpredictable after backing off than you might think. If timed well, you can often power through spots where she begins to charge an unblockable hit, or prepares a blue-ring area of effect strike by chaining together moves and Runic Attacks, or keeping her locked in place with Realm Shifts.

As soon as you begin the fight (You may as well toss a charged Leviathan Axe or Draupnir Spear), she’ll always begin with the same mixup of opening ranged moves:

She’ll often begin by laying down a straight line of Bifrost shards from above. The projectiles are decently sized and easily dodged to the sides – but more importantly, they’ll leave behind smoldering craters that emanate more Bifrost if you get close.

This may not seem like a big deal, but after a bit of fighting she can often end up backing off through the hazards, goading you into pursuing and taking more and more Bifrost damage that she can explode your health bar with. Try to keep your back to the Bifrost so she can’t dart past it, and if she does, hold off on pursuing and let her come back to you.

She’ll also tend to fight at range with a multitude of different wing projectiles that come in two distinct forms that can be hard to differentiate at first. The first will comes out at a very wide arc to try and hit you from the sides – and you can spot it as she dodges slightly to the side to emit each attack. The good news is the attack is easily blocked – but the projectiles are infused with Bifrost, meaning you’re health bar will be slightly impacted, but it can usually be quickly cleansed.

The second variation comes out straight ahead instead of at a wide angle (to which she’ll crouch down instead of pivoting to the side), and this one is unblockable. It moves much faster, though a single side step is enough to get out of the way. The real problem is figuring out in that split second if you need to dodge to the side or block, as dodging into the wide sweeping projectiles will often hit you before you can correct your mistake. They regular wings can be dodged by an inwards roll, but it may be risky if you’re not sure if the faster unblockable variant comes out instead.

Following these comes one of Gna’s more painful and annoying attacks – she’ll swoop to one side before charging forth to strike in one of two different but equally annoying methods: A straight unblockable jab with her wing tip, or a series of wing attacks followed by a deadly spin. Because the charge looks pretty identical, it’s easy to panic and try to block the jab or sidestep the wing strike and get caught in a combo. However, there is one key trick to figuring out which move is coming:

If Gna dashes to your left, she will always charge in for a two-hit (but blockable) wing sweep ending in a rapid spin attack that you need to also block. If she dashes to your right, she will always end her charge in a jab with her right wing, which you can always sidestep and punish by evading to your right (never left). As long as you keep this in mind, you can routinely avoid the headache of one of her more annoying moves. Be wary, as she may sometimes opt to follow up her two-wing strike with the unblockable right wing jab anyway, but you’ll at least have a bit more time to react, and strafing to you right while blocking can help too.

While not as often, there is a chance Gna will forego the usual dodge to the side before a dash and simply charge at you head on, and will often follow up by conjuring a giant flaming mace for an overhead unblockable strike. The wind up is slow, allowing you to dodge behind her to counter the attack after she misses.

There still is one caveat to remember, as Gna will often immediately chain from her wing spin attack into any number of other moves she has at her disposal – from unblockable glaives to jumping staggering slams. Because of this, you should only try to fight back against the unblockable jab as there will be a long opening for you, but rarely for her regular wing sweep attacks (which are also difficult to parry).

Watch our for when Gna pulls out her glaives, as she can use them in a variety ways. After summoning them in each hand, she’ll usually attack with a quick two hits, ending in a either a third overhead attack, or a jumping unblockable throw at close range. You can sometimes stop the combo with a well timed parry, but should otherwise dodge to the side and counter with a quick Runic Attack if possible.

She can also imbue the glaives with random elemental energy and throw them out to spin around her in a move that cannot be blocked. This is one of her main methods of using status effects, as they can hit you with fire, frost, poison, or bifrost, and in all the fighting it can be hard to remember where they are spinning.

Luckily, if she does this at range, you usually have a few moments before her next attack to quickly destroy the spinning glaives with ranged attacks, as they don’t move all that fast – a well timed Draupnir Spear or axe toss can get rid of them, letting you dive back into the fight without worry.

Valkryie Queen Gna also has two extremely annoying grab attacks that can come with little warning, and can sometimes try to lull into getting caught. The moment you hear her cry “For Asgard!” and fly up into the air, immediately stop and dodge backwards. She’ll land very fast with wings spread before her trying to slam you into the ground – and if caught will do a ton of damage before Freya can help shake her off.

Even worse, Gna will often try to chain this move together up to three times! Until she drops down three times, (yelling each time), do not try to punish the attack, or you’ll risk running right into her trap – even if she ends chain early, it’s better to play it safe. The only time you can safely get a hit in is if you have the Armor of Radiance – at which point a successful Realm Shift should let you charge in for a strike, but then you should back off to wait and see if she leaps again.

Another grab can happen if she charges at you yelling “Submit!”. It’s a straight dash grab, and will knock you into the air and send you flying back for significant damage if caught. Like the other grab, it’s entirely possible she’ll double back for a second dash if she misses the first, so avoid trying to punish the first attempt just to be safe! Still, stay somewhat close to be ready for whichever move comes next.

The reason for this is due to a blue ring move she can perform at range – often when you are at mid-distance away. She’ll leap up and call out “Asgard’s blood is on you!” as a giant electrical area of effect builds across most of the arena. You won’t have long to dash in and shield bash her out of it, and if she’s cornered you, running out of the circle won’t be an option. The good news is that if you’re worried you may not close the distance in time, certain Runic Attacks – especially the Huldra Charge, can not only close the distance but interrupt the attack in the process.

Another Blue Ring attack is actually Gna’s defensive wing shield, which you may recognize from the previous game. She’ll block all incoming standard blows and fan out her wings in a devastating attack unless you switch tactics and bash with your shield – or use a Runic Attack that can pierce her guard.

A unique attack used only by Gna comes in two forms, and one that can deal a ton of damage if you aren’t ready to immediately counter it – with Freya’s arrows. She’ll summon either a giant flaming sigil or huge sound stone and hurl it at you, giving you only moments to spot which magic it is and have Freya take the shot. If you hear Gna yell “Rise, rise!” while flying up into the air, prep a sonic arrow to fire. If she yells “Bathe in fire!”, swap to a sigil arrow and have Freya take aim at the hex.

If you have the right arrow lined up, be sure to charge forth to follow up right as Freya stuns them, as it’s a great chance to unload some major damage and continue to stagger her with several attacks. If you’ve unlocked Freya’s skills, you should be able to press square to have Freya dash in for a follow up strike while Gna is stunned!

At mid-range, watch for Gna to swoop into the air and perform a dive kick in your direction, often yelling “Kneel!”. The first one can often be parried to stagger her, but if not, be wary of a single or direct follow-up dive kick that’s unblockable and imbued with a frost splash. Dodging backwards will still freeze you, so go to the sides and retaliate.

Beyond these moves, she can also mix things up with a jumping staggering slam attack (its shockwave will do a ton of damage if you don’t parry it as she lands), or a staggering charge attack with her halberd that can strike three times (including a jumping bi-frost finisher) that all have yellow rings and need to be timed perfectly to parry, but wait until her final slam to fire back with your own moves.

Prepare to spend many attempts just learning her moves – which ones you can avoid and how, and which ones you can punish. She gains Runic Armor a lot, and knowing when to unload your Runic Attacks and when to save them can be a big help, as can pressing your attack when you’ve got her cornered and staggered. Moves like Hades Retribution can be great to ensure she gets constantly staggered, and attacks like Leviathan’s Roar are essential for dealing damage without worry of getting hit.

If you have several types of gear that can activate Realm Shifting, we highly recommend chaining them together to keep the slowdown going to deal a ton of uninterruptible damage over a short period. For example, you can try dodging the final hit in a combo attack to gain Realm Shift from the Armor of Radiance, then unleash a Runic Attack and trigger the Hilt of Hofud to gain even more time, unleash a combo of hits with a weapon that has a weapon attachment of the Nine Realms, and trigger it once you’ve built up Permafrost/Maelstrom from your combo, and deal even more damage while still slowed down.

With enough practice and maybe a bit of luck that she won’t constantly surprise you with unblockable moves when you least expect them, you’ll eventually be able to get her health down all the way. Don’t get overconfident, as she can always unleash a deadly move when you least expect, so wait until that final stun indicator appears over her before moving in to defeat her.

After the cutscene ends, the Valkyrie Queen Gna will be no more, and Freya will earn both The Queen’s Armor and The Queen’s Roar, a fantastic Summon. You’ll also get a neat item, the Rond of Obliteration, which can charge up projectiles to shoot out at your enemies. You can also pick up the journal Kratos originally tried to take when you first arrived here.

Congratulations, you’ve defeated the toughest enemy that God of War Ragnarok has to offer!