How to beat the Dreki in God of War Ragnarok

At the mountaintop forge in Svartalfheim in God of War Ragnarok lurks a deadly crocodilian enemy capable of rustling up electrifying lightning attacks and brutally crunching Kratos up in its snapping jaws without a second thought: a Dreki.

The Dreki is the first difficult boss in God of War Ragnarok, since it can call on a few different elemental damage types and literally chew through your health bar quickly, thanks to powerful unblockable attacks.

Players getting in to Ragnarok with the game's recent PC release are likely encountering this tough boss fight for the first time. So here are a few tips for taking the creature down if it’s giving you trouble!

How to beat the Dreki in God of Ragnarok

There are a few main things to consider when taking on the Dreki:

1. Get chip damage with charged ranged attacks with your Leviathan Axe
2. Remember to use your rage attack (L3 + R3 on gamepad) for free damage - especially to get you over the line
3. Make the most of yellow attacks that you can parry, it opens the Dreki up to a long combo
4. Dodge roll backwards to get out of range of long swings and area-of-effect attacks

As well as this, familiarise yourself with the Dreki’s different attacks and how to deal with them.

First up is an ice-type spitting attack that appears when you’re very far away from the beast. Dodge roll sideways to avoid it.

Next, the other elemental attack to consider is the electrical area-of-effect field. This is unblockable, so dodge roll backwards twice to avoid it.

After it finishes, be careful about launching too many ranged attacks of your own, because the Dreki can spit out a very fast lightning attack that stuns you. Be ready to roll sideways to avoid it.

On the melee side, your focus should shift from dodging to parrying. There are three main melee attacks you need to consider.

First is a far-reaching tail swipe which has a much longer range than you might expect. To deal with this, either block with your shield (block by holding L1 rather than parrying by tapping L1) or dodge roll backwards to get away from its wide damage field.

The other two melee attacks are highly exploitable however. The first is a short-range parryable snap, and the second is a long-range parryable leap. You will know when these attacks start because of the yellow circle that appears on screen.

The parry timing in God of War Ragnarok is a little bit odd. You don’t press L1 when the circle appears, but as the attack is about to hit Kratos.

The main thing to remember is not to be scared of any attack that starts with a yellow circle. Your first impulse can be to dodge away as soon as you see the giant monster reel up, but whenever you see that circle, it should be your cue to stand your ground and get ready.

Once you parry that attack, it opens the Dreki up to a long melee combo in the aftermath. It only takes a few of these exchanges to take down the beast for good.

If you need a boost in combat, by this point in the game you can already access some of the best armor sets in God of War Ragnarok.