Key Takeaway
Speed and efficiency are the keys to beating the F-Sword trials in Muspelheim. Precise weapon switching, evasiveness, and a sensible build will help you succeed.
In the northmost arena in God of War Ragnarök’s Muspelheim, there is a Surtr sword marked with an “F” rune. Here’s where your combat trials in the realm of fire will begin. Cut your teeth on these tough challenges.
Table Of Contents
F-Sword Trial #1 – Weapon Mastery
This is the first of the F-Sword trials. As the name implies, you will need to master all of Kratos’ main weapons to succeed. This means using the Leviathan Axe, Blades of Chaos, and the Draupnir Spear interchangeably. Every enemy in this combat trial has a health bar shield that is color coded to the type of damage that you need to use to dissipate them.
To get rid of blue health bar shields, you need to use the Blades of Chaos. Next, to destroy the white health bar shields, you need to use the Draupnir Spear. Finally, to dissipate the orange health bar shields, you need to use the Leviathan Axe. Thankfully, after the health bar shields are gone, the enemies will take normal damage from all sources.
When this trial begins, you have 160 seconds to take out 16 enemies. As such, you need to kill at least one for every 10 seconds. Since this is the first of the combat trials in Muspelheim, every enemy will be between levels three and five, so they should be easy to take down. That is as long as you’re at gear level five or higher.
Here are the rewards for completing the first of the F-Sword trials (repeatable):
- Asgardian Ingot (4-8)
- Smoldering Embers (1)
- Divine Ashes (250)
- Kratos XP (100)
- Atreus XP (100)
- Hacksilver (2500)
F-Sword Trial #2 – Flawless
Despite being conceptually simple, this trial can arguably be the hardest. Not only will multiple melee enemies swarm you at once, but you also have to deal with ranged foes on ledges and an elite enemy. Focus on taking out the ranged foes before dealing with the melee ones.
Dealing With Ranged Threats
The most numerous ranged enemy here is the Nightmares. They will fly around and shoot poison at you with surprising accuracy. Thankfully, your dear son can outdo them in this regard. Press the square button to get Atreus to shoot arrows at ranged foes to weaken or outright kill them.
The other type of ranged foe you have to take out in this trial are Draugr Scouts, who will hurl fireballs at you from ledges. Since you can’t reach them for melee attacks, making use of Atreus’ bow attacks can also be helpful here.
Don’t forget that you can hurl the Leviathan Axe and Draupnir Spear at distant foes as well—albeit more slowly than you can get Atreus to attack them.
Dealing With Melee Threats
In regard to melee enemies, you must fend off various Hel and Draugr units in addition to this challenge’s biggest threat: a Graðungr. This beastly enemy has a lot of health, so, even if you out-level it, it can take a while to kill the fiend. For an efficient takedown, it would be best to use high stun damage attacks to cripple this foe before you finish it off with an execution.
On a related note, it’s a great idea to use stun grabs to finish off foes as much as possible. Not only will this let you kill enemies quicker, but you are also invulnerable during a stun grab, which means that you can’t get hit. The short span of invulnerability plus a couple of seconds to take a breather can help a lot in this intense trial.
As if all that wasn’t enough to keep you on your toes, some foes also explode when they die. For this reason, do not stick around the bodies of defeated monsters, as taking a hit from their death knell will cause you to fail this trial.
If you make it to the end of the second of the F-Sword trials, you will be rewarded with the following (repeatable):
- Asgardian Ingot (4-8)
- Smoldering Embers (1)
- Divine Ashes (250)
- Kratos XP (100)
- Atreus XP (100)
- Hacksilver (2500)
F-Sword Trial #3 – Rampage
Here’s where a poison and stun build can truly begin to shine. [Marshall, please link the Muspelheim tips, breakdown, and best build article in the underlined text] There are no pesky health bar shields or need to worry about getting hit; you can go all-out!
Using Wisps Against Other Enemies
However, there as Wisps in this trial, which means that you need Atreus’ help to take them down. Get your son to launch an arrow at a Wisp to make it vulnerable and then follow up with any attack to dispatch it.
It’s worth noting that when a Wisp dies, it lets out an energy explosion that greatly hurts nearby foes (but not you). Use this to your advantage by slamming a Wisp into groups of enemies.
Using the Ogre Against Other Enemies
Most of the foes here are basic Draugr, Hel, and Grim ones, however, an Ogre shows up about halfway through this trial.
This is actually more of an asset than a hindrance. Use your best stunning moves to cripple the Ogre and then use R3 when the prompt appears to ride the monster.
When you’re on an Ogre’s back, you can use R1 and R2 to deliver powerful strikes at other enemies. Ogres hit very hard, so you can take down a lot of adversaries this way. Once you’ve used the Ogre to its full potential, put it down and then continue clearing out enemies as you please.
What to Do When the Bergsra Shows Up
When you get close to the kill count of this trial, a Bergsra will show up to start burping toxic clouds at you. This elite enemy is more trouble than it’s worth, so ignore it and its chunky health bar in favor of taking out the smaller surrounding enemies.
After you take down enough enemies in the last of the F-Sword trials, you gain access to similar rewards as before (repeatable):
- Asgardian Ingot (4-8)
- Smoldering Embers (1)
- Divine Ashes (250)
- Kratos XP (100)
- Atreus XP (100)
- Hacksilver (2500)
