Haklangr the bearded is one of the very last berserkers of God of War Ragnarok, it's a much more difficult and intense fight than the average, but it is balanced. At least he's alone, that makes it much easier.
The objective of this guide, as well as all those dedicated to bosses, is to help you beat them on maximum difficulty, "Only God of War", so that they are relevant for all levels.
The 12 Berserkers and their king
For the record, you cannot kill the 12 berserkers before completing the main story, since the last one is in an inaccessible area before the "post game" content, after the death of the final boss.
Once the 12th berserker is dead, you can return to where you found the sword hilt, at the Tomb of the King, in Midgard, to face what could be considered one of the game's two ultimate bosses.
What equipment to use?
- The boss's elemental protection shields encourage you to use the Leviathan Ax and Draupnir Spear, in order to take them down faster. However, we advise you to make good use of all your weapons, you will have to use your runic attacks to break one of Haklangr's abilities more effectively.
- You are strongly advised to make use of a shield capable of parrying, such as the Dauntless Shield. This boss has almost no normal attacks to block, everything is red or yellow. The shield loop, which extends the parry window is very interesting here.
- As usual, we advise you to use the enchantment that improves your rolls.
- This boss is very high level, use level 7 to 8+ gear to face him. If its life bar is red, you have no chance of winning. Come back later after upgrading your gear. Since you're in the area, make good use of the Wishing Well.
Strategy
This boss is not particularly difficult at this point in the game, if you have killed all of its predecessors. But his immense amount of life, reinforced by elemental shields, makes him particularly tenacious. The fight is rather long, which gives you all the more chances to take hits on silly mistakes. We therefore advise you to play it safe, and to adopt reliable responses to Haklangr the Bearded's attacks, such as dodging, rather than risky parries.
Haklangr the bearded man uses and abuses 3 abilities common to many berserkers, i.e. jumping back to avoid a blow, followed by one of these two attacks: aerial dive (yellow attack) very easy to parry with a little practice, and that opens a window of attack. And the combat jump (red attack) forward, which you must quickly dodge to the sides or laterally, before counter-attacking. He chains them together very quickly, so expect to take this combo loop in the face.
List of attacks and how to counter them
Apart from the attacks listed above, this boss's repertoire is really limited, which makes it quite predictable. Everything therefore depends on a clean and reliable response to these attacks.
Thrust (Yellow Attack) : Bearded Haklangr's favorite melee attack, oddly, he uses his hammer like a spear. You can have fun parrying it, but it's not going to make it flinch, making it a pretty risky strategy on your part. It is all the more dangerous as he will often chain this attack twice in a row . It's better to dodge if you're not confident in your timing, since a red attack comes immediately after.
Violent hammer blow (red attack) : After one or two thrusting blows, the boss delivers a large vertical blow that produces a small explosion. It's easy to dodge laterally, but not if the previous attack broke your guard.
Mega Green Blast (Red Attack) : Haklangr the Bearded will periodically spawn a large green area in the area, while preparing to bring down his hammer. It's intimidating, but it's actually an opportunity to attack him. A powerful attack, or better, a runic attack, will interrupt its rather slow animation . If you're a bit too far away, or your runic attack has a slow animation, it's best to back up to get out of the area. It is nevertheless dangerous, since if you manage your positioning badly, you will get stuck in a wall.
Elemental Armor : The boss will regularly use this buff which will cover his life bar. You have to use the right weapon, otherwise you'll lose a lot of time. The stun gauge does not additionally fill up when active. The principle should be familiar to you, use the weapon whose element is opposite to the color: Red > Axe, Silver > Spear, Blue > Chaos Blades.
Ax Whirlwind (Yellow/Normal/Red Attack) : Once past a certain life threshold, the boss will start using this fearsome attack. It starts with a yellow attack, then continues with several normal attacks, before ending with a red attack. Having tried, it is impossible to interrupt this sequence with parries, whether on the yellow attack or the normals. It's probably best to dodge the former to keep your distance.
Like its elder, God of War Ragnarök offers an RPG-style progression, with statistics, equipment level and a good shovelful of resources and important items to support it all. In this guide, we will see the main axes of the progression of the game to start well.
