The 1,000-hour journey to kill God of War's hardest boss in 13 seconds

Update - November 4: It turns out speedrunning Sigrun in God of War is serious business. 

I reached out to AhmedRoasko to learn more about their grind to utterly flatten the famously difficult Valkyrie boss, and they said they've spent hours practicing the fight after putting hundreds of hours into the game itself. 

"The biggest problem, what made me do it again and again, is when you start the fight you need to make sure Sigrun flies back," they explained. "She needs to go back close to the wall and that's kinda random. Sometimes she charges towards you and kills you immediately."  

AhmedRoasko also referred me to Kaown, who demonstrated this method of killing Sigrun with their own 13-second run which comes in just ahead of AhmedRoasko's. Kaown says they've put around 1,000 hours into God of War, and the frankly absurd stats in their video seem to back up that claim. This being the PC version of God of War, I was initially skeptical that there's a trainer or mod at play here, but Kaown's long history of obliterating bosses and farming stat-boosting Yggdrasil's Dew supports their impressive claim. Similar records have also been showing up for years, Kaown's just gotten it down to a science that saves him precious milliseconds. 

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Mods can speed up the grinding process to help Kratos reach peak potential, but they don't actually break the limits of the game because, as Kaown says, over-inflated stats don't make much of a difference due to the way God of War caps power. "I always wanted to be the best God of War player and explore the game and find and learn everything, but melting Sigrun is not that hard to me and you can do it on lower status as you see in AhmedRoasko's video," they explained. "There are status caps for how much damage you can get in the game." 

These Sigrun attempts rely on a specific setup of armor, runes, and enchantments, as well as a little RNG. On top of Sigrun's AI, Kaown notes you also have to contend with possible frame rate variance, Atreus' summons (the Wrath of the Wolf, specifically), and a few buffs with varying values. But when the planets align, you get a storm of ability and melee damage which can stunlock and shred anything, even on the highest difficulty possible. 

Original story follows... 

The world might be waiting (im)patiently for God of War Ragnarok to be released next week but some people are still hard at work grinding their way through 2018's God of War. And one of them just destroyed the game's infamous Sigrun in just 13 seconds.

To say that Sigrun has driven plenty of gamers to distraction is an understatement, but it was no trouble for Reddit user AhmedRoasko, who posted to their feat to Reddit yesterday. In that video we get to see them take on the Valkyrie Queen in a way that few could muster — and it's such a good watch that it's almost a shame that it's all over so quickly.

sigrun_in_13_seconds_world_record from r/GodofWar

AhmedRoasko even outlined what you can do to try and mimic this feat, although it's likely a little more complicated than just equipping a few items.

The full list of gear features the full set of Zeus armor, which features the Glass Ballista skill, "massively increasing" the damage that Kratos deals with his standard attack, as well as the damage he takes. The strategy also leans heavily on the Talisman of the Realms, which temporarily slows surrounding enemies. Kratos' stats get boosted further by the Heart of Vanaheim and Bestla's Frozen Shard enchantments, the latter of which offers even more Strength when paired with the Mists of Helheim runic attack. Rounding out the effort are the Grips of the Forgotten Flame, which offer a chance to boost Kratos' Strength stat even more with any successful hit.

Essentially, it's a glass cannon approach. Slam into Sigrun at the start of the fight, freeze her in place with Talisman of the Realms, and hope you can dish out enough damage before she breaks out of her temporal prison.

Beating God of War Valkyries isn't an easy job no matter what, but destroying Sigrun like this is going to take plenty of practice, even with all the right stuff equipped. Still, you've got a week to kill before God of War Ragnarok — what are you waiting for?

Looking to get better at the game without earning yourself a potential world record? Check out our God of War guide and we'll show you tips, tricks, and walkthroughs of all the best bits.