God of War Ragnarok: How to defeat the final berserker - King Hrolf Kraki? God of War Ragnarok guide

King Hrolf Kraki is the most powerful berserk - optional bosses of the game God of War Ragnarok. This page of the guide contains a description of the confrontation with King Hrolf in the region of the King's Grave in Midgard. You will learn how to prepare for the clash with the boss and how to react to the berserk's attacks.

Last update: 29 November 2022

On this page of our guide you can find a walkthrough for the battle against the final berserker - King Hrolf Kraki (Fit for a King Favour). Here we show how to unlock the encounter, which takes place in Midgard, what preparations to make before the battle, and what attacks the boss has at his disposal.

• Unlocking the final berserker fight and preparing for the clash
• Walkthrough for the battle against King Hrolf

Unlocking the final berserker fight and preparing for the clash

King Hrolf Kraki is the final berserker encounter - a series of optional battles against powerful bosses. Defeating them is a part of Fit for a King Favour, which involves defeating the berserker souls.

You can fight King Hrolf only after you've defeated all other berserkers - you can find the walkthroughs for previous battles on dedicated pages of our guide. After the journal is updated, travel to King's Grave region in Midgard (eastern part of the map). The final berserker gravestone is found there and interacting with it starts the encounter.

Wait with fighting King Hrolf until the end of the game, as he is one of the 2 most demanding boss battles. Preparations should include developing Kratos to level 9 (weapons and armor) so you have higher survivability and can deal more damage.

Here are some additional tips:

1. To upgrade Kratos' equipment you need various rare and unique reagents. Many of them are acquired by eliminating various bosses. This is one of the reasons to postpone the fight with the berserker king until the end of the game.
2. Consider getting and developing Lunda's armor from Vanaheim - once equipped, it adds 40% to damage dealt. However, you should also invest in health and protection, so as not to lose huge amounts of health from the boss's attacks.
3. Train perfect parrying and search your equipment for any upgrades that can e.g. increase the perfect parry window.
4. If you only want to fight the boss to obtain the platinum trophy, you can lower the difficulty level. Even then, however, Kratos should be at maximum, level 9.

Walkthrough for the battle against King Hrolf

The final berserker has one very long health bar. Remember to:

1. use the runic attacks of Kratos' weapons - optimally you should use all six (2 attacks for each weapon);
2. use Spartan Rage (depending on the type you've equipped, activate it immediately or, for example, only after taking more damage);
3. use companion powers - they can perform normal or stronger attacks (hold Square);
4. stay on the move and always be turned towards the boss - moreover, use dodges when you're not sure that you'll manage to block or parry the given attack.
5. heal Kratos by picking up green medicine items or and using Spartan Rage (if you've chosen this variant of the ability).

King Hrolf Kraki uses a variety of attacks, and some of them were used by previous berserkers. Here is a summary of the most important ones:

Melee combinations - the individual strikes can be normal or of yellow variety. A combination is most of the time concluded by a red attack and you need to be ready to dodge.

Green area around the boss - this is a red attack and you quickly need to escape the green area before the boss finishes his attack. Either sprint or perform a double dodge.

Charge and hitting the ground after a jump - these are red attacks and in both cases, you need to perform dodges.

Weapon charging (blue rings) - you need to quickly approach the boss and hit him with your shield (2xL1) Onslaught Shield is especially useful here, as a charge is its special attack.

Aerial spin attack - this is a problematic yellow attack that some of the other berserkers also used. The approach here is to perform a dodge or a parry with a slight delay (right before the attack reaches Kratos). Dodging or parrying too early will end with you being struck by the attack.

Red circles on the ground - a red attack. After the boss activates it, run across the arena until it ends.

Explosion in melee combat - a yellow attack that is hard to evade as most of the time, there isn't much time to escape (run or dodge outside its range). Try to make a perfect parry right before the explosion.

Launching missiles when airborne - a red attack. You can interrupt the spell by throwing a weapon at the boss or focus on dodging right before the projectiles hit Kratos.

Bifrost explosion when airborne - this is a similar attack, but in this case, it applies bifrost status when struck. Try to interrupt the casting by throwing one of your weapons.

The boss can equip additional armor, and in this case, you need to switch weapons accordingly:

1. Orange armor - use the Leviathan Axe;
2. Blue armor - use Blades of Chaos;
3. Grey armor - use the Draupnir Spear.

Landing with a shockwave - this is a red attack. Once this attack comes into play, a green circle will appear around Kratos. You have to jump away with a certain delay i.e. right before the boss hits the ground. Hrolf can perform a few of these attacks in a combination.

Same as with all other berserker encounters, deprive the boss of all his health and then execute him (R3).