God of War Ragnarök has several side quests peppered throughout your run in the nine war-torn realms during the cataclysmic events of Ragnarök. These side quests are known as favors and they weave into the narrative seamlessly, never seeming like a chore or out of place.
While some of them can be more difficult to complete than others, there’s no doubt that each of them is fun to complete in its own way.
One favor is “Born From Fire”. This favor involves slaying The Hateful, a group of powerful enemies that spawn in areas called Draugr Holes. “Born From Fire” is a relatively simple quest as it involves killing all of The Hateful, of which there are six.
The most difficult part of this quest lies in finding each Draugr Hole since they are spread out across four of the nine realms in the game.
Draugr Holes can be found in these realms.
- Alfheim: The realm of the Light Elves and Dark Elves, left in turmoil.
- Midgard: The starting realm where Kratos initially arrives during his Norse journey.
- Svartalfheim: The realm of the Dwarves which is now embroiled in the midst of Ragnarök.
- Vanaheim: The realm of the Vanir gods that are at odds with the Aesir.
Each time you find one of these Draugr Holes, one of The Hateful will spawn and battle you. Defeating them will close the Draugr Hole, allowing you to move on to the next one till you close all six of them and complete “Born From Fire”.
These locations are where you can find the Draugr Holes.
Draugr Hole locations in God of War Ragnarök
Since favors are woven into the main narrative of the game, it is entirely possible to come across most of these locations on your main questline, so they are not too hard to find. They can be identified by distinct markings on the ground which resemble craters. They light up when The Hateful start to spawn on the Draugr Hole.
The favor “Born From Fire” triggers as soon as you find one of these Draugr Holes. Alfheim and Midgard contain one Draugr Hole each while Svartalfheim and Vanaheim hold two Draugr Holes each.
Alfheim Draugr Hole
The first Draugr Hole is located in The Barrens in Alfheim. After completing the main story quest in Alfheim, head to the top of the plateau in The Barrens. This spot is located to the north of the nearby canyons. Head to the top of the plateau to find the Draugr Hole there.
Midgard Draugr Hole
The second Draugr Hole is located in the Lake of Nine in Midgard. This one is relatively easy to find if you head to the King’s Grave area. Explore the area towards the west of this spot to find the Draugr Hole on the ground under an archway.
Svartalfheim Draugr Hole (first location)
The third Draugr Hole is located near The Watchtower in Svartalfheim. To find this Draugr Hole, first, go straight to The Watchtower itself. Entirely skip the mining rig to the side of Sindri’s Workshop and beeline it for the location shown above. Once you get here, access The Watchtower through the nearby staircase.
You will notice the Draugr Hole located directly behind The Watchtower.
Svartalfheim Draugr Hole (second location)
The fourth Draugr Hole is located in The Applecore in Svartalfheim. To gain access to this area, you have to first progress through the story enough till you get to the Svartalfheim mines during your search for Tyr. This is a part of the main questline so if you follow it up to this point, you should run into the Draugr Hole on your own.
Vanaheim Draugr Hole (first location)
The fifth Draugr Hole is located in the Abandoned Village in Vanaheim. This Draugr Hole can be accessed pretty easily. Proceed through the story till you get to “The Reckoning” main story quest. Playing through this quest will inevitably lead you to this Draugr Hole.
Vanaheim Draugr Hole (second location)
The sixth and final Draugr Hole is located in the Plains in Vanaheim. This Draugr Hole is by far the trickiest to access because it has a specific prerequisite to do so. You have to first complete the favor “Return of the River”. Once you do this, you can gain access to the location where this Draugr Hole lies. Since the water level has been restored, use your boat to get to this location.
Now that you know where to find each Draugr Hole, what’s left is the important matter of actually defeating The Hateful themselves. While they are all quite powerful, there are a few general tips that you can follow to defeat them relatively easily.
Defeating The Hateful
The Hateful is a miniboss that you will encounter six times in the game since they are the strongest spawn of each Draugr Hole. Depending on your gear and levels, these fights can either be tough or manageable at best.
Defeating The Hateful in each Draugr Hole will close the hole for good.
First things first, when you trigger the Draugr Hole, one of The Hateful will spawn along with a group of hostile Draugr minions as well. Your first priority in these battles is to defeat each Draugr minion while dodging The Hateful’s attacks. Use every tool at your disposal to do so, including asking your companion for help whenever possible.
After taking down all of the minions, it’s time to focus on The Hateful itself. They have high movement and attack speed, so dodging them can be difficult.
They will also fire flaming projectiles at you constantly, which can be deadly at higher difficulty levels. Dodging these can be difficult, so it’s best to deflect them back to maintain an offensive.
Keep an eye out for The Hateful’s red flaming attacks. These are unblockable and will deal high damage to you if you don’t manage to dodge them in time. Once you learn the pattern of these attacks, you can counterattack The Hateful as soon as you pull off a close dodge.
This is where you can rely on your Spartan Rage to deal as much damage as possible to bring the fight to a close.
Completing all six of these locations also marks the end of the “Born From Fire” side quest, which will provide you additional rewards.
Not only will Kratos and Freya both get experience points each, but defeating one of The Hateful each time will yield a Chaos Spark, which is part of an important upgrade material that you will need for your Blades of Chaos.
After you defeat all The Hateful, you can combine the six Chaos Sparks to gain a Chaos Flame you can then use to upgrade Kratos’ Blades of Chaos, making them stronger.
