- "A great beast guards Helheim. Garm is it's name. And his knows you are here, Senua. It can smell your stink!"
- Shadow to Senua
Garm is monstrous rotting boar-like creature that acts as the guardian of Helheim's halls. Using the darkness to stalk Senua, she finally confronts it just before entering Hela's sanctum.
Appearance[]
Unlike how it is originally described in Norse lore, Garm appears as large boar, decaying away on various parts of its flesh. Its head and jaws are skeletal on one side and its skin in a pale colour, covered in wounds and rot. It towers over Senua, being at least twice her height.
Gameplay[]
Garm first appears when Senua steps into the darkness of Helheim's halls. Whenever she traverses an area that is not well lit by natural light or a torch, the environment darkens and distorted flashes of red begin to grow more intense as Garm closes in on her. If Senua remains in the dark too long, she will be killed.
When Senua manages to corner the beast, she has a chance to slay it. With a lot of health and attacks that a combination of both fast and powerful, Garm is one of harder challenges in the game. Garm also makes things a little trickier, as normal attacks when not Focusing will simply bounce off its body. Only by using Focus will Senua damage it normally
Lore[]
Garm (or Garmr) is a wolf or hellhound associated with both Hel and Ragnarök, and described as a blood-stained guardian of Hel's gate.
Powers[]
- Immortality: Garm, as a guardian of helheim's gate, is immortal, having lived for many millennia. Only a sufficiently powerful weapon or an extremely powerful being like Senua can kill him.
- Mental Hallucination: Garm was able to induce hallucinations from the darkness for those trying to pass through the helheim's gate.
- Enhanced Leap: Garm was able to leap to supernatural heights and distances while facing off against Senua.
- Darkness Manipulation: Garm was able to create and manipulate the darkness to his advantage. Garm was able to imbue his entire body with darkness.
- Darkness Expulsion: Garm was able to vomiting darkness towards Senua. This causes her vision to go black and act in a similar way to the hallucinations of when she was being chased earlier. During this time, Senua will only get brief glimpses of what Garm, who is still attacking, will do. The only way to break out of the darkness is attacking it, either way with Focus, or running towards it blindly and attack.
- Invulnerability: In this form, Garm became immune to all of Senua's physical attacks.
Trivia[]
- Despite being referred to as a giant wolf in the original lore from which Garm is based, it appears in Hellblade as a large boar-like creature. It is speculated that the reason for this is that Senua was only told the story of Garm by Druth where he referred to it only as a 'beast'. This causes her to imprint one of the more common beasts she knew from her home onto its form: a boar.