First Boss Fight With Surtr¶

Once you’ve killed the initial groups of attacking Muspels, continue to follow Frigg through the ruins of the settlement. You’ll need to avoid the pools of lava in the area, since this can inflict a lot of damage if you’re pushed into it, or even if you just walk over it. You’ll eventually reach the doors of the throne room, and upon entering another cutscene will begin, leading to a boss fight with Surtr.

This can be a reasonably challenging fight on the higher difficulties, so you’ll need to be prepared. The fight will begin with Surtr slamming the ground with his fist, causing a fire fissure to erupt beneath you. You’ll need to dodge or run out of the way as soon as you can move to avoid this. So long as you’re at a distance from Surtr, he’ll keep spamming this attack along with another, where he creates a wall of fire from himself which is aimed directly at Havi. This attack will sometimes be enhanced, allowing Surtr to erupt walls of fire in different directions, so you’ll need to pay attention to where the walls of fire are beginning to erupt and try to stay in an area between them to avoid the damage.

So long as you’re at a distance from Surtr, he will keep spamming his devastating fire attacks. To make the fight easier, you should actually try to stay as close to him as possible. So long as you have the Brush with Death skill, you’ll be able to dodge most of his attacks with relative ease, and time will slow (for at least 1 second on the hardest difficulty) enough for you to get a few attacks in as you flank the boss. However, when you’re in melee range you’ll need to avoid a number of his swift attacks with the greatsword. These mostly consist of uppercuts and overhead strikes, as shown in the gifs below. Keep in mind that most of these cannot be blocked, so dodging out of the way is the only option, other than interrupting them with your own special abilities.

As with most enemies in Valhalla, Surtr has specific weak points which you can hit to lower his defences. In this case, you’ll find them on both of Surtr’s elbows, and one on his right foot. The easiest way to hit these is with your bow, but you can also hit them by chance with melee attacks, or with special abilities which target weak points such as Precision Axe Throw. Once you’ve hit all three weak points, you can execute a stun attack which will inflict massive damage in one hit to Surtr. Alternatively, the weak points which represent the stamina of Surtr will gradually deplete as you inflict more damage, eventually opening him up for a stun attack later in the fight if you can’t force one by hitting the weak points.

Surtr’s Attacks¶

Melee Swipe, Fire Wall Stomp, Fist Slam Fissure¶

The below gif shows three attacks that Surtr will use frequently - a melee swipe with his greatsword, a stomp which creates a wall of fire, and a fist slam which causes a fissure to erupt beneath Havi.

Uppercut and Overhead Strike¶

The below gif shows the uppercut strike and overhead strike which Surtr will perform when you’re in melee range.

Fire Boulder Roll¶

There’s one other less frequent attack which Surtr will use when you’re on the boundaries of the arena, which consists of him rolling a fire boulder towards you. This can knock you back and cast you into the fire, making it particularly deadly if you’re caught off guard with low health.

So long as you’re aware of these attacks and know how to counter them with effective dodges, rolls, or special ability counters, you should be fine. The easiest strategy by far is to remain close to Surtr as you slash through his health. This may take a while on the harder difficulties, but you can easily avoid most of his attacks so long as you dodge in time, making you essentially invulnerable. If you maintain this strategy throughout the fight, interspersed with special ability attacks, you should bring this version of Surtr down fairly easily.

Second Boss Fight With Surtr - The Reckoning¶

Boss Fight: Surtr Phase 1¶

This final boss fight with Surtr comes in two phases: the first is rather easy, especially after the arguably more difficult fight with Sinmara. You will experience all the same attacks that you did in the first fight with Surtr, near the beginning of this story. However, he will have more health and he inflicts more damage, especially with his special attacks.

Surtr’s Weak Points¶

Surtr has three weak points located on his right ankle, left upper arm, and right upper arm. You should aim to hit this as soon as possible in the fight, since you can then initiate a stun attack which will inflict massive damage. It may prove difficult to hit the arm weak points at times, but you can make this easier by waiting to dodge an attack incoming from Surtr, then make use of the slowed time granted by the Brush with Death skill. This should give you a good opportunity to hit the weak point while he’s relatively stationary, especially if you flank him properly.

Power of Muspelheim¶

As during the fight with Sinmara, the Power of Muspelheim Hugr-Rip ability will be extremely valuable in this fight. It will make you immune to all of Surtur’s fire damage attacks, and allow you to run over the lava pits without being hurt. You may only be able to use this once during the fight, as you won’t find many sources to replenish the Hugr-Rip. However, if you’ve upgraded the bracelet to have two bars of Hugr, you should be able to use the ability twice, but you’ll need to time your uses carefully to make the most out of them. You won’t need to worry too much about positioning while the power is active, since the main reason to keep moving normally throughout this fight is to avoid the fire damage. Just focus on dodging the melee attacks from Surtr’s sword as you inflict damage with your own.

Although powerful, this part of the fight should be fairly easy once you know how to avoid each of the attacks (see the below gifs for demonstrations of what to look out for). Once you’ve depleted all of Surtr’s health, a cutscene will begin.

Reach the Tower¶

After the cutscene, you’ll need to run towards the tower to the southwest. You’ll be chased by numerous Muspel enemies during this, but so long as you keep moving and use dodge / roll appropriately, you should be fine. If you really need to, you can stop to fight the Muspels before you move on, but you may quickly find yourself overwhelmed and you won’t gain much from defeating them, so it’s best to keep moving until you get to the tower. Don’t worry about using too many rations or arrows along the way: all of these should be replenished when you reach the tower, ready for the second phase of the fight with Surtr.

Boss Fight: Surtr Phase 2¶

This second phase of the fight will play out in a similar way to the last one, only this time you have slightly more space to work with. Surtr will continue to spam his special attacks, and you’ll need to gradually whittle his health down as you did the first time. You can hit all three of his weak points again to initiate a stun attack, and be sure to use the Power of Muspelheim if you need some time to recover, as this will at least keep you safe from fire damage for a while.

There is one new attack here which comes in the form of a meteor shower. Surtur will often use it when he moves into the lava pits on the edge of the room. You can actually dodge most of the fireballs cast at you just by moving as far back as possible, on the opposite side of the room from Surtr. This is essentially the same meteor shower attack that Sinmara used, so you should be somewhat familiar with its pattern.

In addition to this new special attack, Surtr will begin to chain his melee sword attacks more, making it more difficult to dodge multiple strikes in a row. If you need to use dodge 3-4 times in a row, be sure to hit Surtr soon after so that you can regain some stamina. The last thing you want is to find yourself without stamina as Surtr is charging you, or as he’s beginning to use a devastating special attack, as you often won’t be able to get out of the way in time without the use of a dodge.

Surtr’s Attacks¶

Raised Hand Explosion¶

This attack is one of the most difficult to avoid, since it hits you less than a second after the warning sign. Surtr will raise his hand before a fire explosion occurs beneath your feet. The best way to avoid it is to look out for the moment when his hand is raised, then immediately dodge out of the way.

Stomp Fire Arc¶

This attack is fairly easy to avoid, since Surtr will almost always cast it around you. A triangular arc will be cast outward from him, and if you make contact with the ground where the flames erupt, you’ll take fire damage. What makes this attack more deadly is that Surtr will often follow it up with a few melee hits, forcing you to move out of the way and towards the direction of the fire lines.

Rolling Fireball¶

This attack is almost exclusively used from the lava pits on the edge of the room. You’ll see the warning sign for this attack as Surtr places his hand in the lava pit, pulling a large fire rock from it which he then casts towards you. It will roll in your direction slowly, even tracking you, so don’t bother dodging until the last second. If you dodge too early you will most likely be caught by it.

Fire Meteor Shower¶

This attack occurs during the second phase of the fight, at the tower. Surtr will stand near the edge of the room before smashing his sword on the ground to initiate the meteor shower. You’ll need to avoid numerous fireballs at this point by moving as far to the other side of the room as possible. This is the same attack that Sinmara used during your fight with her, so you should be reasonably familiar with it.

Sword Combos¶

One of the most deadly forms of attack that Surtr can use is actually a string of sword attacks. Once he gets going, he can be relentless in continuing to hit you with melee attacks. You’ll be forced to dodge most of these, as running away from them will often get you caught in the back, since Surtr has a lot of range. If you can perform a perfect dodge to initiate Brush with Death, you’ll save some stamina, so try to time your dodges well rather than spam them repeatedly in a panic.