God Of War Ragnarok: Where To Find The Flame Phantom In Vanaheim's Crater (And How To Beat It)

It might be confusing to summon the Flame Phantom in God of War Ragnarok, but it's even more complicated to defeat it.

Once Kratos and his companions reach the late chapters of their journey in God of War Ragnarok, they will have the option to travel to Vanaheim's Crater and save Birgir. Once players reach the arena, they’ll be greeted by a dragon, which they will fight later.

Vanaheim's Crater is big and filled with dangerous enemies and bosses. One boss, in particular, is difficult to find in God of War Ragnarok. Players have to initiate the Nocturnal Predator Favor and collect some ritual runes to summon the Flame Phantom for battle.

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The Nocturnal Predator Favor starts once Kratos comes across a struggling animal with a purple aura around it in the Vanaheim Crater. To complete the Nocturnal Predator Favor, players have to free all those struggling animals and fight the final boss that will be summoned after.

There are three struggling beings eaten by the Wisps, scattered around the middle metal plate. To save these animals, shoot a Sigil arrow at the animal location, then burn the Sigil mark with Kratos’ Blades of Chaos. That will cause the Wisps to flee the animal's body and move to the middle metal plate, locked inside their runes again. Once all three animals are cleansed from the Wisps, the Flame Phantom will appear and players must defeat it to finish the Nocturnal Predator Favor.

Just like the other Phantoms, the Flame Phantom requires a different strategy to be defeated in God of War Ragnarok. The boss has tons of ranged attacks, compared to a handful of melee moves. So, staying close to the boss and getting stuck to his head is the best combat approach. Since the boss is literally on fire, use the Leviathan Axe, or the Draupnir Spear that's granted in later God of War Ragnarok events.

The Flame Phantom's main HP is protected until players are able to fill its Stun Meter. The best way to fill that meter is to aggressively attack the boss's purple head until it falls down, then go berserk on it. Once the Meter is full, the boss will disappear and Kratos now must destroy five pillars that hold purple energy. The pillars can be destroyed in any order, and it's nearly impossible to destroy more than two pillars before the Flame Phantom wakes up again, so the boss should go down a couple of times until defeated.

The five pillars are scattered around the arena, and they’re extremely easy to find since they’re the only glowing structures in the area. The eastern one is on another cliff where ranged attacks are the only possible attack to destroy it.

There is another pillar to the east, right before the one on the other cliff where Kratos can easily reach and destroy with any melee attack. Note that there's an exploding poisonous plant hiding there.

The western and southern pillars are also unreachable and players must use ranged attacks to bring these springs down.

Finally, destroy the last pillar to summon the Flame Phantom back without any HP.

The boss will fall after any type of damage it receives and Kratos can now grab its head, beating the Flame Phantom in God of War Ragnarok.

God of War Ragnarok is available now for PS4 and PS5.

Nahda is an enthusiastic writer with a love for games who one day decides to put the two together. She's now professionally writing niche articles about Genshin Impact.