PLEASE NOTE: This article contains MAJOR Spoilers for God of War Ragnarok. Proceed at your own risk.Considering how challenging God of War’s boss fights were in the previous entry, it is only logical for God of War Ragnarok to reprise that challenge for players. Anyone who has played through the game’s side content fully will be able to attest to how formidable God of War’s Valkyries are, which amassed a lot of God of War’s endgame content. In what appears to be an effort not to repeat content, God of War Ragnarok forgoes Valkyrie bosses and substitutes them with Berserker Souls scattered throughout the realms. However, Valkyries do appear throughout God of War Ragnarok’s narrative.
Gna is God of War Ragnarok’s new Valkyrie Queen, introduced to players in Asgard while Atreus accompanies Odin on his errand run. This character archetype is not seen again until much later, while Freya is fought in her Valkyrie form and Hrist and Mist are fought as a pair in Muspelheim. These boss fights are great throwbacks and will be fun for anyone who has familiarized themselves deeply with how to take on a Valkyrie, but Gna is not found until after the story’s completion. It is then interesting to see how Gna matches up to the likes of Elden Ring’s Malenia, Blade of Miquella.
Elden Ring’s Malenia is Difficult Due to Health Sapping and Tight Dodge Windows
Elden Ring certainly has its fair share of fearsome foes, and Malenia is held on a pedestal as one of its crowning challenges. Malenia is an imposing figure with the blight of rot at her fingertips, and her ability to sap the player’s health poses her as a unique threat. Many of her attacks are unblockable and strike with graceful speed, for example, necessitating that players have incredible timing if they wish to dodge-roll through her Waterfowl Dance attack. Each hit that players take replenishes some of her health bar, meaning that only one or two hits can be spared if players are ever going to deal serious damage to her and keep her health low.
In her second phase, Malenia has even more long-ranged AoEs and rot plumes to worry about. Moreover, Elden Ring’s Malenia is not a challenge fit for the faint of heart, but she is also not happened upon during the player’s leisure or at a moment of happenstance. It is difficult to find Malenia in the first place, especially back at launch before the community of players had discerned how to gain entrance to Elden Ring’s Miquella’s Haligtree. This makes Malenia a challenge that only players with true dedication may want to encounter in Elden Ring.
God of War Ragnarok’s Gna is Largely Difficult Due to a Padded Health Bar
Gna is an exciting boss to come across in Muspelheim, tucked away in a nearby corner that players must grapple to. However, Gna does not have many tricks up her sleeve that players will not already be familiar with if they have fought all the previous game’s Valkyries and all of God of War Ragnarok’s Berserkers.
The main concern when fighting Gna is how tanky she is due to a health bar that seemingly takes forever to deplete. No matter how well-equipped players are, chipping away at Gna’s health bar will take an excruciatingly long time, in which players must endure a number of extremely swift unblockable attacks. There is not anything particularly unique about Gna’s fight otherwise. Gna compares to Elden Ring’s Malenia in terms of difficulty and split-second decision-making in combat, and also feels like a fight designed for players who wanted another Valkyrie opponent to test their skill and endurance in combat.
Gna’s boss fight is essentially a war of attrition, seeing how much players can endure before her health is whittled down to nothing, and makes learning it an intense grind. Gna is found near Muspelheim’s many repetitive challenge trials as well, making God of War Ragnarok’s Muspelheim a great final realm for players to explore if they need a worthy challenge.
God of War Ragnarok is available now for PS4 and PS5.