God of War Ragnarök: Valhalla Story Explained

God of War Ragnarök: Valhalla is a free epilogue to God of War Ragnarök, released by Santa Monica Studio in December 2023. It is set soon after Ragnarök and the fall of Asgard, which makes it the latest point in the series' story so far. Almost all of it looks backwards: Kratos goes into Valhalla and has to face his years in Greece before he can decide what he is going to be now. This page has full spoilers for Valhalla and for the end of Ragnarök. (God of War Ragnarök: Valhalla)

Before the story begins#

Ragnarök ended with Odin dead, Thor killed by his own father, and Asgard destroyed. The real Tyr, whom Odin had been impersonating, was found alive in a piece of Asgard that had fallen into Niflheim. Atreus left to find the scattered giants on his own. In a hidden shrine, Kratos saw a mural of himself as a leader loved by the people of the realms, and he asked Freya and Mimir to help him rebuild. (God of War Ragnarök)

Freya wanted more than help. With the old order gone, she asked Kratos to sit on her council as its God of War. He kept putting off an answer. The title meant everything he had tried to leave behind in Greece. That is the state of things when Valhalla begins. (God of War Ragnarök: Valhalla)

The letter and the first attempt#

An unsigned letter told Kratos where to find Valhalla and challenged him to face his past there. After days of avoiding Freya, he and Mimir set out for its shore. Freya could not follow. Valhalla only admits those who have died at least once, and she never had. Kratos had died more than once in Greece, and Mimir had lost his head. (God of War Ragnarök: Valhalla)

Kratos forced his way in. Valhalla stripped him of most of his gear and powers, threw enemies at him, and beat him. He woke on the shore, where Freya and the Valkyrie Sigrun confronted him. Sigrun warned that forcing his way through was pointless, and the Valkyries performed a rite that let him enter properly, with more of his strength. (God of War Ragnarök: Valhalla)

Tyr and the door#

Valhalla builds its trials from the memories of whoever enters, and Kratos's memories kept dragging him back to Greece. At its summit, a copy of the peak of Mount Olympus, he found Tyr meditating. Tyr admitted he had sent the letter without signing it, so that Kratos would come for his own reasons. He had faced the same doubts about being a God of War once, under Odin, and only got past them by stepping through a great door that stood behind him at the summit. (God of War Ragnarök: Valhalla)

Tyr offered to help Kratos get ready for that door, and they fought. Tyr yielded, pleased with what he'd seen, and let Kratos open the door. What Kratos saw behind it was too much. He backed away and admitted he wasn't ready. Tyr sent him back to the shore and promised to help him get there. (God of War Ragnarök: Valhalla)

The runs and the past#

From then on Kratos went back into Valhalla again and again, and each run ended in another sparring match with Tyr, who fought with a different weapon each time. Valhalla filled the runs with old Greek enemies and places, along with manifestations of Thor's sons Magni and Modi. At times the illusory head of Helios, the sun god Kratos had decapitated, hung where Mimir should have been and mocked him. (God of War Ragnarök: Valhalla; God of War III)

Between fights Tyr questioned him: about the deal with Ares that saved him from the Barbarian horde, about Helios and why he killed him, and finally about Pandora, Pandora's Box and the way he had given his own life after killing Zeus. Tyr didn't want Kratos to push those memories away. He wanted him to own them. (God of War Ragnarök: Valhalla; God of War (2005); God of War III)

Valhalla also rebuilt the Chamber of Sacrifice from Pandora's Temple, where Kratos had once locked a living soldier in a cage and burned him to open the way forward. (God of War Ragnarök: Valhalla; God of War (2005))

One run went badly wrong. Sigrun broke Valhalla's rules to save Kratos and Mimir from a death they would not have come back from, and it weakened her own bond with the place. (God of War Ragnarök: Valhalla)

Kratos also admitted things he had never said aloud. Finding the key he took from the ship's Captain during the Hydra fight, he told Mimir he could have saved the man and chose not to, and that he had been more of a monster to him than the Hydra was. (God of War Ragnarök: Valhalla; God of War (2005))

The ending explained#

After their last sparring match, Tyr told Kratos that fear, hate and love live in everyone, god or mortal, and that hope still lived in him. Kratos said he was ready. Behind the door he was back in Olympus, facing his younger self, the pale, furious Ghost of Sparta sitting on the throne of the God of War. (God of War Ragnarök: Valhalla)

This was the man Kratos had spent his whole life in the north trying not to be. He did not destroy him or run. He told his younger self what he had done wrong, the selfishness and the cruelty, but he also owned the sacrifice that younger man made to give the world hope. The vision faded, and Kratos took the throne himself. He chose to take up the title again on his own terms, as a God of War who could also be a god of hope, and agreed to join Freya's council. (God of War Ragnarök: Valhalla)

What it means. The whole Norse saga is about Kratos trying to bury the God of War. In God of War (2018) he hid his past from his son. In Ragnarök he learned to be a father. Valhalla is where he stops hiding it at all. He keeps the name but changes what it stands for, which is why the word hope matters. It ties back to the end of God of War III, where he gave Hope away to the people of Greece and tried to die. (God of War Ragnarök: Valhalla; God of War III)

What came after. Kratos kept going back into Valhalla. Mimir admitted his feelings for Sigrun, and Kratos shared stories from Greece prompted by things he found there. Sigrun had lost her bond with Valhalla for saving him, and in the end she chose to leave and find her own path, promising Mimir she would come back. (God of War Ragnarök: Valhalla)

What it leaves open. Valhalla does not say what Kratos's council will do, where Atreus is, or whether the giants' mural of Kratos as a beloved leader will come true. It ends with him ready to find out. (God of War Ragnarök: Valhalla; God of War Ragnarök)

Where it fits#

Valhalla is the last chapter in story order so far. It follows directly on from the ending of God of War Ragnarök, and the start of the Norse story is covered in God of War (2018) story explained. For the whole saga in order, see the God of War story explained or the God of War timeline. (God of War Ragnarök: Valhalla)