Brynn’s Hellblade 2 Dark Rot Mode Notes – Borgarvirki
[0. General | 1. Reykjanestá | 2. Freyslaug | 3. Rauðhólar | 4. Huldufólk | 5. Bárðarvík | 6. Borgarvirki | dark rot mode progress report archive tag | regular tag for mobile]
What a journey. This is the final chapter and I anticipate it being the final Dark Rot Mode post I'll make for awhile.
That said, I would absolutely love to hear from anyone who reads these notes and/or uses them while playing through the difficulty! Please know that I am cheering on anyone and everyone who plays this game, regardless of difficulty. But to my fellow trophy hunters, I genuinely hope these notes are helpful to you and that you can beat this difficulty in far less time than it took me. I also hope you have as much fun as I did because it was!!! It was fun for me!!!
As always, if you have questions or if anything in these notes isn't quite clear, please feel free to leave a comment or drop me an ask!
Into the Forest
There is nothing to fear in Járnviðr! Even if you take a path that is clearly backtracking, you'll just go in a circle instead of getting killed by Zynbel/the Shadow like in the Birch Forest in the Rauðhólar chapter. Also, fuck the darkness, you can save everyone. <3
Borgarvirki
This sub-chapter is everything from the cut scene revealing the captives on the poles outside of the fortress to entering the hall of Borgarvirki.
Heart of Darkness
This sub-chapter starts with the cut scene of meeting the Goði and goes through the Hiddenfolk's story of how Áleifr rules the Icelanders through fear and a tyrant's greed.
Before the Hiddenfolk talk to you, though, there are a couple of combat sequences that you'll have to deal with.
Encounter 1:
There are two enemies in this first encounter. 1) a Bjarg Swordsman, 2) a Bjarg Dane Axe wielder.
All of Áleifr's guards are pretty easy to handle as long as you're paying attention and have a little bit of familiarity with the attack patterns (which you can probably get in Hard Mode, if you're nervous). I don't think they're even as tough as the mirror vikings, tbh! They actually really do remind me of the slavers in the Reykjanestá chapter, despite the Dane Axes!
For the Swordsmen, they typically have a 2 quick, 1 heavy attack combo that isn't too bad to go up against. Just take your time. If they start blocking quick attacks, try to throw a heavy attack in there if you're feeling ambitious.
Things to watch out for with the Dane Axe wielders are 1) a move of three heavy swings in a row, and 2) sometimes they'll counter you by grabbing Senua's arm and pushing her back and then shoulder-checking her to the ground. Just make sure you dodge any attacks at that point.
I've got a clip of one of the Dane Axe guys here (from my first time being here in Dark Rot!) to help show how easy it is to dodge his attacks. Another thing you can see in the clip is that a heavy attack against the haft of his axe can break his guard fairly easily, too. I think as long as you don't get too greedy about quick attacks, you shouldn't get countered much at all.
Here is another clip that features both a Dane Axe guy and a Swordsman (this one is from today!).
Encounter 2 happens after you meet up with Fargrímr and Ástríðr and walk around along the path to what I like to call The Arena.
For this one you have to fight six of the Björg warriors in a row. 1) Dane Axe, 2) Swordsman, 3) Swordsman, 4) Dane Axe, 5) Swordsman, and 6) one final Dane Axe.
There is a final mid-fight checkpoint during this Arena Encounter right after the 3rd combatant / the 2nd Swordsman. But at this point, you might not need to Quit to Main Menu to utilize this checkpoint. None of these guys are as swift as the draugar you fought previously and, crucially, you don't need Focus charges to defeat anyone.
Once the Goði finally steps in to grab Senua, you're done with the combat and into the very endgame. There's the cut scene of Thórgestr confronting his father and then Senua's vision with the Hiddenfolk.
The Last Lie
And then at last, we're in the final sub-chapter. This starts with the cut scene where Áleifr has a beaten Thórgestr on his knees. After A CERTAIN EVENT HAPPENS THAT I CHOOSE TO IGNORE (coughs), we go to the very sweet scene of Senua and Thórgestr holding hands while he gives her the name of the Giant of Borgarvirki.
Now you get to kick Áleifr's ass. :D
This fight is, allegedly, exactly the same as the base game. Áleifr's attacks are all pretty well telegraphed and dodging them isn't much of a problem (except for his punches, imo, I can't tell you how frustrating it was to me to continually get hit in the face by this fucker, lmao).
Periodically, he'll start blocking your quick attacks and you can break his guard with 2-3 heavy attacks.
With this fight, though, essentially what you're trying to do is chip away at him until he slams his sword into the ground and knocks Senua back. Focus will build until you can use the charge, SPRINT toward him, and then hit him with 3-4 heavy attacks. You need to do this Focus sequence 2-3 times depending on how many of your hits landed. Then you'll get to when Senua throws his name in his face and the setting shifts from that dreamspace back to The Arena.
Great news: when you get past Áleifr's giant phase and are in The Arena with the rest of the Björg, holmgang style, you cannot die. Kick his ass in front of everyone and then let the final cut scenes play out!
The Dark Rot completion trophy should pop up for you after the credits roll! YOU DID IT!!!!!
Congrats on beating this beautiful game on a really ridiculously high difficulty challenge!!!!! A dear friend baked me a cake to celebrate which made me laugh and feel very loved.
If you've read through all of these notes, I hope you enjoyed them and they were helpful to you! Thanks for reading!!!
Brynn's Hellblade 2 Dark Rot Mode Notes -- Freyslaug
[0. General | 1. Reykjanestá | 2. Freyslaug | 3. Rauðhólar | 4. Huldufólk | 5. Bárðarvík | 6. Borgarvirki | dark rot mode progress report archive tag | regular tag for mobile]
Onward to when things start to get really tricky!!!! For being the second chapter, this is actually a REALLY important one when it comes to learning enemy attack combinations and figuring out your preferred combat strategies.
As always, if you have questions or my notes aren't quite clear, please feel free to leave a comment or drop me an ask! Also if anyone would like to be tagged in these posts, let me know and I'm happy to do that as well.
Freyslaug Sighted
Not much to say about this one, it's walking and deciding whether you want to watch cut scenes about the settlement up ahead and listening to Thórgestr snarl at Senua (deeply affectionate). I always played Dark Rot with the Others Narration so I'd get even more of Thórgestr's voice, including this frequently skipped over bit.
Settlement Entrance
This sub-chapter begins with the cut scene of Senua looking at the entrance of Freyslaug, listening to memories or hallucinations of what the draugar raid on it might have been like, and then tying Thórgestr to a stake outside of the walls. When I was deep in repeated runs, I ended up skipping this cut scene all the time.
There is also the puzzle once you get inside the wrecked settlement! A visual to look out for in helping speed run through the puzzle: the house that has the back path to it is the only one with a tarp / fabric flapping in a window (this is that nursery part where, if you haven't triggered the puzzle section yet, you can sometimes hear a baby crying and a woman weeping over her child "Halla" -- I think this foreshadows Ingunn).
Return Home
NOW the fun begins. This sub-chapter starts after you solve the puzzle in Freyslaug, when the screen goes dark and Senua is suddenly in a memory of her old village in Orkney. I think Galena's home is very beautiful. Picking up the mirror on the table inside triggers the first combat section of the chapter: the mirror vikings.
This combat section is in two parts: 1) three sword wielders, and then 2) a guy I took to calling "the Dane Axe Motherfucker" because he killed me so many times.
Let me break this down into pieces.
First things first, all of these adversaries have to be killed by attacks during a Focus moment. Typically, I try to make three heavy attacks after triggering the slow-down-time Focus ability. The timing of this is VERY important, ESPECIALLY with the Dane Axe Motherfucker. If you mistime your attacks against him, you'll have to build your Focus charge up from zero. And Focus charges very. slowly. in Dark Rot Mode. You get more points for perfect parries, but they are not easy to come by and, imo, not worth trying to make against adversaries with heavy weapons (Dane Axes, clubs). Land quick attacks when you get the opportunities and bide your time. Patience is key.
As for attack strategies, let's talk about sword mirror vikings first! I feel the need to preface this by saying that other people will have other advice -- what I say here works for me. I bully the shit out of these guys. I don't bother trying for a perfect parry except for their initial quick attack swings (sometimes I land that and I feel very good about myself) and then I dodge the rest of their quick attacks. When I get the opportunity, I do as many quick attacks as I can before they dodge one and thus signal their counter attacks (2-3 swings). You can block the ones that don't have the red spark to them, but again, I don't bother. I got a clip of how I take care of these guys in this particular sub-chapter here. Also, I like dodging backwards for these guys sometimes! I think it helps! Just don't back yourself into a corner.
Once you kill the three sword mirror vikings, you have reached a mid-fight checkpoint. I have fantastic news: if the next enemy starts landing too many hits against you, you can Quit to Main Menu and NOT have to go back to kill those sword guys again.
The bad news is that this final mirror viking is the Dane Axe Motherfucker. Some people advise that you hold the RB block button down through the entire fight. That is too much for my brain to remember, as silly as that might sound. Sometimes I slam down on the block button if I think an underhand swing is going to hit me, but more often than not, I try to stay calm and be steady with the dodge button.
I have a video clip from December (with an additional note from February) when I was first figuring out my strategies and I posted a more recent one of this fight this week.
A few bits of advice:
when I first started going up against this guy, it was REALLY tempting to try to bully him with quick attacks like the sword guys. The problem with that is that he does these incredibly fast underhanded swings and they are very difficult to dodge or block. The trick is to maintain a little bit of distance so that you can see them coming.
if you have the opportunity to land quick attacks against him, don't do more than 3-4 quick attacks at a time. Again, keep a little distance and be patient.
If you're far away from him, the chances of him swinging his axe down into the ground and sending spikes toward you increase. That is an attack that is pretty easy to dodge left or right on and if you rush him afterward, I think you can get a few hits in. I am a dumbass, however, and stick fairly close to him, so his other spike attacks are what I see more often.
There are two other spike attacks that this guy does. Both of them involve him stamping his foot and making Senua stagger. DO NOT START SPAMMING DODGE WHEN THIS HAPPENS. Don't panic! Pay attention to what he does after the stamp when Senua is staggering. Sometimes he'll swing the axe and you can single-tap dodge his first swing and then single-tap dodge the second swing that comes from the other side. Other times, he'll duck down into a ball, encasing himself in spikes, and at THAT point, you can start either spamming dodge or figuring out the exact time to dodge in order to avoid him popping back up and throwing so many mirror shards out at you.
One of the nice things about that last tuck/duck/what do we even call that attack is that if you are close enough to him and you hit the quick attack button immediately after you dodge, Senua will dart forward and you can start that 3-4 quick attack strat again.
When you get a Focus charge on this Dane Axe guy, I think it's best if you hit him once, trigger the Focus, then start in on heavy attacks. Make sure he's not about to hit you or throw any spikes at you. The timing on Focus for these specific Dane Axe guys (yeah, there are more later, sorry) is very small. There were more than a few runs where I mistimed the Focus and then had to start charging up from zero. Thankfully, again, if this particular guy knocks you down, you can Quit to Menu and start over with just him.
If you have to do more than one Focus charge, keep calm. You can do this!
The rest of this sub-chapter is seeing Dillion (RIP), listening to Zynbel continue to be the worst voice in Senua's head, and then getting out of Freyslaug and into the Ritual Draugar Camp.
Draugar Ceremony
This sub-chapter kicks in at the cut scene when Senua looks down the main path of the Ritual Draugar and then hides from the bearded axe draugar who beheads a prisoner, etc. I always skip that cut scene since it's gnarly and I'm trying to get to the ritual gauntlet fight as quickly as I can.
Draugar Battle
I almost want to make this into its own separate post because it is, imo, CRUCIAL to master this fight for your Dark Rot Completion chances. This is a gauntlet fight where you have to beat 9 draugar, one right after the other. You cannot Quit to Main Menu and hope it loads in the middle of the fight; that will ALWAYS put you back at the beginning with Senua trying to sneakily cut Fargrímr down from the pole.
There is no shame in losing one of your lives here during this gauntlet. I, personally, worked and worked and worked until I could consistently get through this without dying. (I wanted a clean arm by the time I reached Bárðarvík.)
Anyway, we'll take this one enemy type at a time:
Sword Draugr - these guys are fairly straightforward and have attack patterns that are usually two quick attacks (which you can dodge or try to parry) and then a heavy attack (always dodge). They do sometimes break out a very quick sequence of slashes (telegraphed by the guy pulling his sword up to his throat), do NOT try to parry these, hold RB/block through the entire sequence of quick slashes and then dodge the final (red flash!) heavy attack. Countering with quick attacks works and imo, these guys can kinda get bullied fairly easily. Keep an eye out for some (silver flash) retaliatory quick counters, but if you're paying attention and fast on a dodge, you'll get 'im.
Bearded Axe Draugr - the worst thing about these guys is that if you're too far away from them or if they move back, they'll throw axes at you. You CAN dodge left, but it is much easier to dodge right. Typically, he'll throw two axes. If you are close enough to him after the second axe, you can hit the quick attack button and Senua will dart forward and you can bully him to death. There are a few other attack patterns to look out for beyond axe-throwing though, like sometimes when you're in range of him, this guy'll do a slash followed quickly by a backhand -- I always find it easier to dodge both of those than to try to block. All in all, these guys aren't too difficult once you get their attack patterns and the dodge timing down.
Heavy Club Draugr - this guy is very intimidating, but I PROMISE, he's not too bad. Don't bother parrying anything, get used to dodging (you do NOT want to get hit by that club). But let me tell you a secret: you can sort of bully him a bit with quick attacks. Just watch out for him backhanding you (telegraphed by the sight of his elbow) -- if you dodge that, you can actually get a couple more quick attacks in and trigger his second round. Senua will either slash downward and he'll block her with the haft of his club or she'll literally stab him and he'll kick her off. Then he'll usually roar and start a sequence of heavy attacks. You'll know the ones I mean, they are always in the same rhythm. Breathe! Press dodge once for each! Count them! There are four heavy attacks! After you dodge the last one, you can get back to bullying him until he ACTUALLY dies.
Firebreather Draugr - better if I just show you my personal strategy for these ones, I think. Constantly move left. The timing on the quick attack+dodge combo is literally as soon as you hit the quick attack button, don't wait, hit that dodge IMMEDIATELY at least twice. The game will take the input and Senua will do THE fastest sword swipe and then stagger-roll. Always dodge left! If you want to try to parry the torch swings, be my guest. I am set in my ways. :)
Sword Draugr
Bearded Axe Draugr
Firebreather Draugr (important note: if you die from this guy or afterward, you'll reload back in with this Firebreather swapped out for the Heavy Club Draugr, followed by two Bearded Axe Draugar) - hopefully by this point you have a Focus charge saved up! If you are that lucky, use it now and get this guy over with!!!!
Heavy Club Draugr
Bearded Axe Draugr - you'll know you beat this guy when Senua stabs into his chest and then when yanking her sword out, she falls backward onto the ground. (Let's not talk about how this guy killed me in THE most BULLSHIT way once.)
Here's a video clip and some notes from December of the first part of the gauntlet. Best of luck. If you can get through this gauntlet, you seriously have half the mode on lock. Enemies later in the game get a little more aggressive and the firebreathers gain an explosion/firecracker attack (not to mention you'll have to deal with shield/spear draugar, my beloathed), but for the most part, this 9 Draugar Gauntlet teaches you what to do and is the second hardest fight sequence in the entire game.
Meeting the Stranger
You've successfully saved Fargrímr! Catch your breath, pat yourself on the back, and follow him back down to fetch Thórgestr.
Brynn's Hellblade 2 Dark Rot Mode Notes -- General
[0. General | 1. Reykjanestá | 2. Freyslaug | 3. Rauðhólar | 4. Huldufólk | 5. Bárðarvík | 6. Borgarvirki | dark rot mode progress report archive tag | regular tag for mobile]
Hey hi hello! This is going to be post 1 of at least 7, so heads up there. :)
So I played through Hellblade 2's Dark Rot Mode somewhat consistently from 13 August 2025 to 16 March 2026 and I came out of it with MANY thoughts and I figured I would share them for anyone who is interested. There are several YouTube videos and achievement guides already out there with a lot of advice and strategies, but I think one of the key things about playing in this mode is to figure out what works for you. It took a lot of patience and building up of muscle memory on my part, until eventually I was able to complete it with two deaths total. There are things that I do that other people don't do. Sometimes the game will fuck you and you'll want to rage-quit. This is a stupidly difficult challenge and you WILL die over and over and over and over again. But it IS achievable and you do NOT have to save scum in order to get the trophy!
(That said, if you want to do the cloud save / save scum method that is talked about in other guides to beat this mode, I'm not judging you. Seriously. I was tempted to do it myself when I was having trouble with the draugar raid in Bárðarvík, but I decided not to because I'm a stubborn bitch and I got a sick sense of enjoyment out of glacially improving against every single enemy type. Do whatever you wanna do, fellow trophy hunter!)
This post is going to act as an introductory post and have some general tips / things to keep in mind. I will be talking about this game with Spoilers fully on display because I am working under the assumption that you've played through it at least once before in order to unlock Dark Rot Mode itself. I'm planning on going chapter by chapter with sub-chapters marked out just in case you want to pop into the original game and set the difficulty to Hard to train up for certain sections (this isn't perfect, but does help with learning attack patterns!). If you have questions or things aren't quite clear, please feel free to leave a comment or drop me an ask!
I have video clips up on here that show a little bit of my personal strategies and also some of my frustrating moments! I have other clips that I'm planning on posting that I hope will be helpful as we go through chapters.
Okay, some general notes now:
It's unfortunately true -- you have four lives for the entire run of the game. The dark rot starts at Senua's wrist and then climbs 1) to her elbow, 2) to her shoulder, 3) to the right side of her face, and then 4) it's lights out, baby, and you are kicked back to the beginning.
The difficulty spike is NOT A JOKE. It is harder than Hard. Enemies swing faster, they are more aggressive in coming at you, if you take 4+ hits you risk losing a life, and Focus builds glacially slowly only when you land a hit or a perfect parry. Focus also only has one charge, instead of the build up of three charges. Additionally, when you land a perfect parry, you don't automatically go into a finisher move -- in fact, I think I can count the times I was able to have Senua do a post-parry finisher on one hand.
The parry timing is the thinnest it has ever been. Some people will flat out tell you not to bother trying for it. Ymmv there. My strategy was to essentially try once when an enemy first swung at me (and sometimes I managed it!) and then to rely on dodging or blocking more liberally. Sometimes it is best to literally hold down the block button (RB for consoles) through an entire flurry of attacks instead of trying to dodge or get that parry in.
Directional dodging is more important than it has ever been. I was a dumbass for a lot of my muscle memory build up and dodged left consistently -- and that worked for awhile! But it is honestly a lot easier to dodge attacks if you, you know, don't dodge directly into the swing of someone's weapon-hand. Most adversaries are right handed, if it helps to think of things that way. Dodge away from that right hand unless they swing into your right side. Also don't overlook dodging backwards. When you get to firebreathers, always dodge left if you haven't been backed into a wall or a corner.
If an axe or a spear is being thrown at you, it is easier to dodge right. If that axe or spear hits you, more often than not it is lights out. Learn the timing. Be patient with yourself. Figure out if you have an easier time running at an enemy after their first throw or if you want to wait for their second projectile.
Break yourself of any button mashing habits very, very quickly. A lot of this playstyle is about timing things very precisely. I relied primarily on dodging and landing quick attacks throughout most of my runs and if you button mash, you'll either roll and miss attack opportunities or you'll get too close to an enemy and get knocked down for your efforts.
The only way I got through this was to quit to main menu and restart checkpoints OFTEN. (I do not consider this the same as the Save Scumming Method, fyi) If Senua got knocked down, more often than not, I would restart a fight rather than risk losing a life. That said, there are times when there are (thankfully) mid-fight checkpoints. I have a list of those and I'll talk about them as they come up in each chapter. Also for two of the larger fights (Freyslaug ritual draugar and the Bárðarvík raid draugar), they are gauntlets where you CANNOT quit to main menu and you have to either get through it all in one shot without dying or you have to accept that you will die and still carry on.
I'm sure I'll think of other general notes, but for now I'll end this list here. Pay attention, be patient, wipe the sweat from your hands and your brow! You can do this. I believe in you. <3
