How to Complete the Niflheim Maze in God of War
Easily clear the entire Niflheim maze and reap the rewards of Ivaldi’s Workshop in God of War.
The Lake of Nine is home to many gateways that lead to many different realms, and one of the most challenging – and rewarding – is Niflheim. This foggy realm is covered in a cursed mist that will slowly kill Kratos, but in order to get the best rewards, players must spend time grinding through Niflheim’s mazes.
How the Niflheim Maze Works
Completing the Niflheim maze can be a bit repetitive, but it is absolutely essential if the end goal is to acquire and upgrade a full set of Ivaldi armor. This armor is the best epic armor in God of War and a boon during the Valkyrie Queen fight.
The mechanics of the maze in Niflheim are simple enough to understand. The maze will always have a certain amount of major enemy rooms, and these rooms will be connected by traps – either saw blades or blocks with spikes. Defeating a room full of enemies allows Kratos to interact with the chest in the room, rewarding a sum of Mist Echoes. Throughout the maze are smaller chests that can be opened for extra Mist Echoes, along with randomly generated Nornir chests – these do not count toward the 22 Nornir chests in God of War.
Finally, the last and most important mechanic is the bar at the top of the screen whenever Kratos is in the mist. This bar will slowly deplete and when it empties, Kratos will die and all of the Mist Echoes accumulated during a lap of the Niflheim maze will be lost. This means that in order to gain large amounts of Mist Echoes, players will need to kill enemies and then get out of the mist in order to bank the Mist Echoes for later spending. Stepping into safety immediately saves the Mist Echoes collected during a run.
There are two main safe areas that do not count as being in the cursed mist: up near Sindri and in the center of the maze. To access the center of the maze requires saving up 500 Mist Echoes and buying the Niflheim Entry Stone from Sindri. This center door grants access to Ivaldi’s Workshop, an area full of chests and realm tears. The legendary chests can only be opened by paying Mist Echoes and the realm tears can only be defeated with Mist Echoes and an Anchor of Fog, an item that is dropped from high-level enemies in the Niflheim maze.
How to Easily Finish Niflheim’s Maze
In order to actually make progress through the Niflheim maze, small steps must be taken and progress must be made in increments. This means that when first starting, players will not be able to complete a full circuit of the maze, and will likely only be able to clear the first room – this is to be expected.
Grind the first room until you either receive an Ivaldi enchantment or have enough Mist Echoes to purchase a piece of Ivaldi armor. Ivaldi enchantments are specifically designed for the maze as they increase the time Kratos can stay in the cursed mist. Similarly, the Ivaldi armor allows Kratos to stay in the maze for longer, and it also drastically raises his level.
As you amass more enchantments and armor, you will be able to go deeper into the Niflheim maze, and eventually, complete an entire lap, returning to the start. An entire lap will generally yield 10,000 Mist Echoes if all chests have been opened, including Nornir chests and other smaller ones inside the connecting rooms.
Niflheim Maze Rewards
The main purpose of completing the Niflheim maze is to collect all the rewards from Ivaldi’s Workshop as this will grant Kratos access to some incredibly powerful runes and weapon handles. Besides, it also rewards a Trophy – so it’s worth doing! There are five legendary chests that can each be unlocked for increasing amounts of Mist Echoes:
- Perfect Artifact of Blight, Legendary Enchantment – Increases resistance to the Cursed Mist of Niflheim
- Chilling Mists of Niflheim – Used to turn into a Frozen Flame to upgrade the Leviathan axe
- Eye of Niflheim, Epic Enchantment – Greatly increases resistance to the Cursed Mist of Niflheim (stacks with any other resistance to the Cursed Mist)
- Blightguard, Epic Blades Pomme – Low perk activation chance to strike with an explosive curse that inflicts weakness to enemies on any successful hit.
- Blightbringer, Epic Axe Pommel – Low perk activation chance to strike with an explosive curse that inflicts weakness to enemies on any successful hit.
After collecting everything the Niflheim maze has to offer, Kratos will have just about the best setup in the entire game. Now, the only thing that might be missing is the Shattered Gauntlet of Ages which requires dragon tears, and the Leviathan axe pommel from the Valkyrie Queen which makes collecting Eyes of Odin a breeze. Be sure to check out the Shacknews God of War guide for helpful articles on where to find everything in the game, as well as a complete campaign walkthrough.
