God of War Ragnarok: Valhalla gets difficulty and balance updates in latest patch

God of War Ragnarok: Valhalla
(Image credit: Sony Santa Monica)

The latest God of War Ragnarok: Valhalla patch is now live, addressing ongoing bugs while balancing difficulty and combat in the DLC.

With patch 05.03, Sony Santa Monica has increased the difficulty of some arena challenges while also tuning The Forum "to make difficulty more appropriate," a small balancing change but a welcome one considering Valhalla's roguelike elements. 

The difficulty of the first Týr battle while playing on the 'Show Me Will' setting has also been reduced, while balance updates have been rolled out across the rest of the DLC more widely.

Several issues revolving around specific fights have also been addressed, as well as the crashing problems that would occur when opening certain chests or rifts, and thankfully, Kratos should no longer fall through the world including when walking through a Mystic Gateway.

The studio has noted that players should ensure that both the main game and Valhalla have been updated before accessing the game and has added a 'Download in Progress' screen so players are aware if they attempt to launch the DLC before the base game has fully finished installing. You can read the full patch notes below.

God of War Ragnarok: Valhalla version 05.03 patch notes

PS5 USERS

Please ensure that both God of War Ragnarok and God of War Ragnarok: Valhalla have been updated before accessing the game again. 

Cinematics

  • Fixed an issue where audio would not play and characters would be out of sync during the first cinematic after death
  • Cleared lingering Draupnir Spear particles when cinematic starts

Gameplay

  • Reduced difficulty of first Týr fight on the 'Show Me Will' difficulty setting
  • Increased difficulty of some arena challenges
  • Tuning adjustment to 'The Forum' to make difficulty more appropriate
  • Slightly reduced health gain and chance of proc on Spear kill perk while in Valhalla
  • Various combat tuning and balance updates
  • Fixed an issue where Greek Labyrinth Mastery would not increase in the "Open Greek Chests" value if Kratos forfeited a reward selection after spending Fleeting Echoes to open a chest
  • Fixed an exploit when using the Spear against Ormstunga
  • Fixed an issue with the encounter not ending when kicking Einherjar outside of the arena
  • Fixed an issue where Týr would teleport away and not come back
  • Fixed an issue where not all Hunter armor pieces were available
  • Fixed an issue where encounter would not end if Nightmare was ejected from a creature near the arena boundary
  • Fixed an issue where Kratos could erroneously stay in Spartan Rage when interacting with Shield Maidens

General Stability

  • Resolved multiple crashes including when opening certain chests or rifts, non-English language specific crashes, and memory leak on PlayStation 4
  • Fixed an issue where Kratos would be falling through the world 
  • Fixed an issue where Kratos would fall out of the arena when interacting with a rift on the Aegean Ship
  • Fixed an issue with Kratos falling through the world after walking through a Mystic Gateway
  • Fixed some issues with textures not streaming in properly when entering arenas

UI/UX

  • Fixed an issue with the "Time Extended" message displaying in timed challenge trials when it should not
  • Fixed an issue with subtitles overlapping UI when in vendor menus
  • Fixed some instances of the navigation assist pointing to incorrect locations 
  • Fixed an issue where the timer would overlap the Warrior Soul health bar
  • Fixed instances where the "Elites Killed" counter would remain after timer expired
  • Corrected the "Costly Damage" burden to show appropriate duration in description
  • Fixed the King of the Hill challenge timer overlapping progress bar
  • Fixed an instance when the timer would never reach zero on the Aegean Ship encounter
  • Fixed an issue which would cause a screen reader to read the Tablet of Reflection prompt twice in a row
  • Fixed instances where subtitles were not formatted properly
  • Fixed an issue where "Flawless Kills" and "Flawless Parries" Challenge UI updated any time Kratos was hit
  • Added a 'Download in Progress' screen if attempting to launch God of War Ragnarok: Valhalla before God of War Ragnarok is fully installed
  • Fixed an issue with the options menu displaying when opening the glyph tutorial for the first time

God of War Ragnarok: Valhalla is available for free on PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 for those who already own God of War Ragnarok.

For more, check out our list of the best story games, along with our list of the best PS5 games you can play in 2023.