Throughout the series, Kratos has traveled through more areas than can be counted. Ancient Greece was dissected in every nook and cranny before moving onto the Norse realms, taking out many enemies along the way. Now he's gotten older and the pace has slowed down, allowing for much more free-roaming exploration, traversing the World Tree and shifting through realms.
Muspelheim is one of the optional realms that players can visit, meaning a good percentage won't have even seen the realm, choosing to pursue the story strictly. For those that braved the boiling mountain, Muspelheim holds great treasures to those that can reach the summit. Free of roaming enemies and distractions, players will need all their attention if they're going to survive to see the spoils.
8 A Mountain Of Challenges
Muspelheim serves as this God Of War's challenge arena, testing players to the limits of their combat ability. The challenge is getting all the way through the 6 trials on different difficulty levels, each stage jumping in labor.
Once the 6 trials are completed through 2/3 different difficulties (depending on the confidence of the player) they will have completed the only task around in the fiery mountain range. Hopefully, the players got cozy before they attempted the challenge because it's a long journey to the end.
7 Primordial Realm
Muspelheim is one of the 2 primordial realms available on the World Tree, with Niflheim being the sister realm. This makes both the oldest of the realms as well, explaining their stark difference of fire and ice, though both have drawn closer together in temperature since the dawn of creation.
This means that the smoldering landscape is the coolest its ever been, painting a terrifying picture of the past in both realms. In the end, opposites attract, even when talking about realms, the fire giants will have to migrate eventually.
6 Getting To Muspelheim
Before players even face the trials of Muspelheim's mountain, they'll have to find 4 of the pieces to the cipher. Located around the entire map, it will take some effort before you can travel to the land of fire. The first stop will be outside Tyr's temple below the bridge, they're distinguished by purple chests.
Number two is right as you enter Alfheim, a dark elf battle and a quick right turn should land you there. Three will be at the end of a forked path when Kratos is making his way back down the mountain after discovering Mimir, the curve is a sign the right path is taken. Last but not least, it's back to the Witch's cave once the water level has dropped. Through the sap on the way up the elevator and the final piece is the players. Back to Brok's shop to reunite the cipher pieces and Kratos is on his way to Muspelheim.
5 Spoils & Rewards
The game wouldn't put you through all this agony without a lot of reward, including some of the best gear in the game and all the ingredients to level it. Only once you reach the last level of challenges will the big rewards start to flood in and on the hardest difficulties to boot.
Hacksilver as far as the eye can see, it's only here and Nilfheim's Maze are the two grinding areas where players can really level their gear to the best it can be. Only if you perform at the very tip of the spear though, being graded on the last versions of challenges with bronze, silver, and gold.
4 Valkyrie Battle
Known as one of the hardest battles in the game, many consider it to be second only to the valkyrie Sigrun, her incredibly aggressive attack style and adaptive responses make it difficult for the player to keep tabs on incoming assault.
It doesn't help that her arsenal is so varied that it will take some time to learn all the tells before she unleashes a huge damage-dealing attack. This becomes especially true at the hard and impossible level where her health will recover much faster and make the back and forth frustrating.
3 The Myth Vs. The Game
Though the game plays Muspelheim pretty close to the mythical version, the creation and destruction Norse myths give much more context than the eternal battleground we get in the game. The meeting of Niflheim and Muspelheim created sparks that made the Sun, Moon and stars, pretty impressive for the home of Fire Giants trying to bring it to an end.
It's that explanation given in the game as to why players never actually see a fire giant, hiding away until the of the apocalypse or Ragnarok. This saves the continuous high-level battles that would arise if they did show up and lets the player get right down to the challenges.
2 The Hidden Trials
While the initial 6 trials are difficult enough on their own, once players have waded through the hordes of enemies the difficulty gets ramped up yet again. The 6 challenges serve as a mere warm-up compared to Surtr's secret trials, where all the real rewards lie.
With enemies ranging from level 5 to 8, all the while being graded on Kratos' performance against the heavy hitters. The better the score, the greater the reward, making the punishing challenge all worth the while. Especially when players look at their hacksilver pouch and find it spilling over.
1 Continuing Tradition
Though the Norse mythology is a new addition to the God Of War series, leaving behind the Greek gods that featured in the first three games, the challenge aspect has appeared in every game since its debut. From The Challenge Of The Gods to the Combat Arena.
Of course, the most recent game upgrades the feature a little with some of the best rewards in the game, all of them serve as a great practice ground for combat and path to grind out currency. Wherever he travels, Kratos manages to find a great training ground to sharpen the Blades of Chaos.