Geirdriful was pretty nasty, but after the nightmares of Kara this fight was honestly a huge relief. It was very apparently within only a handful of attempts what the strategy should be, and that I could win. However there's a lot you have to keep in mind here. The more small optimizations I tried to implement, the more I'd lose my timing on something and fall apart. Ultimately she still took a couple of days before I finally got the winning run.

Geirdriful was the first Valkyrie where I could really feel the changes made for New Game+ (she won't be the last). When she does her large unblockable sweep, she now follows it up with a blockable projectile swarm and then a flying grab. This combination is brutal. You have to make sure you're in position to dodge the first hit with a single sidestep, as a followup roll will get you killed by the projectile swarm. If you have the Golden Talisman of Protection on, parrying the projectile swarm gets you killed by the flying grab.

Whenever she does a dash to your right and then a feather throw, you have to assume she's going to follow it up with an unblockable dash. If you block the feathers, the dash will always kill you while you're in blockstun. This means you have to preemptively roll through the feathers in order to make sure Kratos is free to dodge the dash as well.

Of course, you still need to turn your back for her Blind attack (or tilt the camera down, but I find that's more awkward). But for New Game Plus, she now always follows her Blind attack up quickly, so you've got to time your dodge very sharply. I always watch for the red arrow to turn back to grey before turning back.

But the most dangerous and frustrating part of the fight is the same as it was in regular GMGOW: when she lands. She still can either do 2 blockable moves or the unblockable dash. There's almost no way to read the subtle differences in what she's doing here in time to react consistently, so the only viable strategy is to hold the shield up and walk slowly to the right. If she does the dash and you're lucky, it will miss (you can see this in effect at 2:55). But this isn't guaranteed and is a frustrating way to die. It's just a risk you have to accept. Still far less randomness involved than Kara, so I'll happily take it.

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