How to Beat Forest Ancient: Boss Fight Guide

The Forest Ancient is a main story boss in God of War Ragnarok (GoW Ragnarok). Read on to learn about its attack patterns, rewards, and the best tips and strategies for how to beat the Forest Ancient!

Forest Ancient Overview

Information

Forest Ancient
Recommended Level	Level 3 (All Difficulties)
XP Rewards	500 Kratos XP (Give Me Balance)
Bestiary Entry
The jungles of Vanaheim are brimming with Vanir magic, and their cup overfloweth in the case of the Forest Ancients. A bit of a misnomer here... though they resemble the Fire and Forest Ancients of Midgard, these woodland brutes coalesce and disassemble all in th span of a single season. The Vanir tried to leave them be, but a certain pair of legendary blacksmiths value their hearts, which a certain self-exiled war god is all too happy to acquire in exchange for better gear.

Rewarded Resources

Resource	Type
Hacksilver	Currency
Bonded Leather x5	Resource
Chaos Flame x1	Weapon Upgrade
Shattered Rune x25	Resource

Forest Ancient Location

Location Summary

Location Summary
The Forest Ancient is encountered at the riverside area past Freyr's Camp in Vanaheim during The Reckoning.

The Reckoning Quest Walkthrough

How to Beat Forest Ancient

Forest Ancient Tips and Strategies
Throw Your Axe at the Exposed Core Attack Before Grappling the Core Take Cover Behind the Tree Use Blades of Chaos Against Legion

Throw Your Axe at the Exposed Core

The Forest Ancient is immune to regular attacks, only damaged by strikes toward its glowing red core. While the boss uses its ranged attacks, throw your Leviathan Axe into its exposed core to quickly fill up its stun meter and leave it open for massive damage.

Utilize the Dropped Explosive Rocks

Throwing your Leviathan Axe toward the Forest Ancient's core also makes it drop explosive rocks, which you can pick up and throw at the boss to deal even more damage and stun build-up.

Attack Before Grappling the Core

After filling up the Forest Ancient's stun meter, it falls to the ground and leaves its core exposed for an extended period. We recommend dealing as much damage as possible with Kratos' regular attacks before grappling the core to maximize your damage output during the fight.

Take Cover Behind the Tree

When the Forest Ancient uses its Flaming Laser and Fireball Barrage attacks, you can take cover behind the tree near the middle of the arena to avoid getting hit.

This tree also acts as an excellent way of splitting up the Forest Ancient and the Legion in the latter half of the fight.

Use Blades of Chaos Against Legion

Halfway through the fight, Legion enemies will spawn to support the Forest Ancient. Quickly take these foes out with the Blades of Chaos' sweeping and wide-reaching attacks.

Forest Ancient Attack Patterns

Fireball Barrage

The Forest Ancient crosses its arms before releasing a barrage of fireballs toward Kratos, inflicting the Burn debuff and dealing moderate damage on contact.

To effectively deal with this attack, block and evade each fireball and throw the Leviathan Axe toward its core between barrages to stagger the Forest Ancient.

Flaming Laser

The Forest Ancient takes a sturdy stance before opening its core to shoot a flaming laser toward Kratos, hitting multiple times and inflicting the Burn debuff on hit. Block the laser while retreating toward cover to avoid getting hurt by this attack.

Later in the fight, the Forest Ancient gains a sweeping variant of this attack that comes out much faster. Stay alert for this version of the attack and prepare to evade or block it when it comes out.

Fiery Shockwave

The Forest Ancient gets on all fours before releasing a massive unblockable shockwave that deals moderate damage and inflicts the Burn debuff.

React to the attack's red ring indicator and quickly roll backward out of the shockwave's radius to avoid getting hurt.

God of War Ragnarok Related Guides

List of All Bosses

Main Bosses

All Story Bosses
Bjorn	Thor
The Huntress	Dreki
Alva	Gryla
Vanadis (Freya)	Forest Ancient
Fiske	Nidhogg
Frost Phantom	Garm
Gulltoppr	Heimdall
Frost Ancient	Flame Phantom
Soul Eater	Hrist and Mist
Odin

Optional Bosses

All Optional Bosses
The Hateful	Slag Horn
Crag Jaw	Ash Tyrant
The Corpse Eater