8 God of War Niflheim tips to help you earn more Mist Echoes

God of War Niflheim tips will help you to survive the mist, as you battle your way through the cryptic maze tucked deep within the fog. This area delivers a particularly brutal challenge to players in God of War, as the toxic labyrinth you're ensnared in is constantly sapping away at your health, so why in Odin's name would you want to go in there? The answer is simple, because inside it you'll discover some epic rewards for beating this late-game challenge, and once you've successfully cleared it a few times you'll have unlocked the equipment that can help you best any other area.

That's definitely easier said than done, though. Niflheim's poison is a constant drain on Kratos' health, effectively setting up a time limit and forcing you to be careful about how far into the maze you'll go. You need to exercise both restraint and courage, because when you cut your way through a batch of monsters only to choke to death and come away with nothing, it's a demoralising experience. That's why we've put together this list of the best God of War Niflheim tips, to help you make it through with all the Mist Echoes you'll ever need.

1. What resources do you get from the God of War Niflheim realm?

For all the fun you can have in the God of War Niflheim realm, it is all about grinding the heck out of its maze for very specific resources. Not only do you need them to buy and upgrade Niflheim mist armour sets, but the Valkyrie and Muspelheim armour also uses what you find here. And that is, in order of common to rare: Mist Echoes, Niflheim Alloy, Haze Weave, and Aerisbane. The rarer the resource the further into the maze you’ll have to go.

2. How to get into Ivaldi’s Workshop in God of War

This is easy: you just need 500 mist echoes to buy the key. You can’t start improving your resistance to the killer mist until you do this, so just concentrate on grinding the first opening area here. You should be able to get 150-250 Mist Echoes per run so it shouldn’t take long. When you’ve got the 500, buy the key and then you can get in the workshop.

3. Here’s what’s in the chests in Ivaldi’s Workshop in God of War

When you first enter Ivalidi’s workshop you’ll find a load of chests you can open filled with Hacksilver and Mist Echos. You also find the nine pieces of Ivaldi's Rusted Armour you can use to make the three different sets of Chest, Gauntlet and Waist Mist armour you can craft. There’ll also be several locked chests you have to buy with Mist Echos costing 1000, 2500, 5000 and two at 7500. Most of them will contain rarer resources as well as enchantments to improve your mist resistance, but it might be worth skipping straight to the 5000 one where you’ll get a Chilling Mist of Niflheim which will upgrade your axe.

4. Don’t worry about the God of War Niflheim Realm Tears too much

The entire objective of Niflheim as far, as the game is concerned, is to seal the three Realm Tears in the workshop. These will count to the game’s overall total but you don't actually get anything that special for doing it, just the same resources you get elsewhere in the maze. So don’t worry too much about them - they cost up to 20,000 Mist Echoes and a hard to find Anchor of Fog to open, and involve a massive boss fight. You’re better spending the echoes on improving your gear.

5. Start slow and reset the maze if you don’t like the monsters

When you first start, Mifleheim's maze mist kills you quickly and there can be some high level monsters until you upgrade your gear. So don’t stray too from the start area to begin with. Clear that out, collect the chests and check the two corridors into the maze for any easy to grab chests. It’ll be a slow but a much safer way to earn the echoes by repeating that until improve your equipment and, as a result, your chances when venturing deeper into the maze. While doing this, if you don’t like the enemies that appears (revenant's are a time-draining pain) just re-enter the workshop to leave the maze and reset it.

6. Bank your mist Echoes in the workshop or with Sindri and don’t get greedy

One of Niflheim’s big things is that you if you die in the maze you lose everything you’ve collected. That can be excruciating if you’re carrying ten thousand echoes and some rare resources. Basically don’t get greedy and bank them when things are looking dicey. Check the map if you get lost and and retrace your steps to avoid further fights. You can also bank them in the workshop to save revisiting Sindri each time.

7. Buy some of Mist Armour as soon as possible

The God of War Niflheim Maze only really exists so you can buy its armour, or collect resources to upgrade other gear. The mist armour you can buy here is some of the best in the game and will make it easier to survive the maze, so get some as soon as you can. It has a healing effect that stacks when you match a set so don’t mix and match. The Deadly Mist set is best for a good overall stat boost, while the The Endless Mist and Cursed Mist sets have a narrower improvement, favouring vitality and extra runic power respectively.

8. Save time in Niflheim by using brutal kills and Atreus’ blue arrows

Here’s the thing: the whole time you’re in the maze, you are dying. It’s a constant race against time to get in and get out before the mist overcomes you. To save time put away your weapons completely and use your fists and Atreus to stun enemies. A few of Atreus’ few blue arrows will nearly, or completely stun most enemies for you. Then you just pile in and finish stunning them with your fists before hitting R3 to trigger a brutal kill. In most cases this is an instant death and saves value time compared to chasing and hacking down something’s health down in chips.