The Path of the Crystal is the base route. Simply progressing through the game's standard levels.
Following this route will get you Ending C.

You can die as many times as you wish without penalty, and if you quit the game you will be able to skip through any level that you've already completed by moving left from the start and pick up where you left off.

It's the easiest route, and just requires perseverence, so don't give up!

Mjolnir A: 0:53
2nd Stage: 2:23
Mjolnir B: 2:52
Boss fight: 4:40

Mjolnir A: 0:36
2nd Stage: 2:33
Mjolnir B: 3:38
Boss fight: 4:45

Mjolnir A: 1:10
2nd Stage: 2:30
Mjolnir B: 3:00
Boss fight: 4:23

Mjolnir A: 0:33
2nd Stage: 1:35
Mjolnir B: 2:14
Boss fight: 2:53

Mjolnir A: 0:41
2nd Stage: 2:32
Mjolnir B: 3:37
Boss fight: 4:25 & 5:16

Mjolnir A: 1:20
Mjolnir B: 4:18
Mjolnir C: 6:48
Boss fight: 8:00 & 9:00

Forgot to mention that for the sake of the walkthrough I made sure to not take damage during this run, but on a normal playthrough you should absolutely not restart the world just because you lost Tyr's Flame. You can make it through all of this without having upgrades, and you respawn in the same room you died in so it's not too bad. Not to mention you getting full gear when you get to Fafnir, anyways.

After going to the center of the screen he transforms the stage, putting spike pits in between his "blast zones". After that point I believe he does another transformation if you survive for long enough, though if you just want to beat him I'd suggest killing him before the transformations begin, or you'll have a really hard time.

So, Route B is a little bit different.
To put it simply, you have to beat the Outside of Fafnir's Tower (the alternate level) that you get to by completing Sky Knight Armada with at least one Warrior Spirit collected.

You get Warrior Spirits from chests once you have Tyr's Flame (Flame Sword) and collect three more chests without losing any equipment.
So from the start of the level, you need to collect 7 chests: four to fully gear up, two following that for score rewards, and the last one will contain a Warrior Spirit.
Past that point you get another spirit every third chest you open, assuming you don't take a hit.

You can also get a Warrior Spirit if you simply defeat the boss of the world without having died in the level, regardless of whether you've taken some hits or not.


Once you complete the Alternate Fafnir's Tower, I believe you have to make sure to Down-stab (hold down whilte in the air) Fafnir before he transforms into his Dragon form. Otherwise you'll fight the same fight as Route C and get that ending, if I'm not mistaken.

The easiest way to get this ending, in my opinion, is to simply skip through all the levels up until the Armada, completing it with at least one spirit, and Goomba stomping Fafnir.

1st Stage: 1:55
Mjolnir A: 2:55
2nd Stage: 4:06
Mjolnir B: 4:11
Boss fight: 5:52

And here we are, The Path of the Valkyrie.
This is the hardest route, which requires you to complete every stage in one sitting, keeping at least one Warrior Spirit through all of them.

Once you complete World 1 with one or more Warrior Spirits; instead of walking out the bottom exit in the intermission area, you can walk up to the statue to open the path to the following Alternate level.

These levels are generally more challenging (although that is debatable), but the main difference is that you don't have infinite lives.
Those Warrior Spirits that you've been collecting up until now will serve as your 1ups, and collecting more while going through the alternate levels will give you a larger buffer for failure in the later stages.

You cannot save & quit, and if you run out of lives you get kicked right back to Route C, so stay on your toes. A full run probably takes around an hour or more for your first time through, so set some time aside before doing this.


I've structured the videos in such a way as to kill myself at the start of each alternate level.
Just to show that you aren't screwed if you die, and it's perfectly possible to claw your way back with the starting equipment.
Of course, if you can help it, you'll want to save that Tyr's Flame in between levels to have an easier time and get more Warrior Spirits.

To address any confusion: World 1: Jungle of the Claw is not shown in this route as it is the exact same as the Route C version. Simply watch that video if you need help with that level.
Similarly, World 6: Fafnir's Tower is also removed, as it's the same as the Route B version.
Once again, if you need help with that level, check its appropriate route.

This route will take a long time to master, so practice a lot and try to perfect each level in sequence. Though if you mess up, it's not the end of the world.

1st Stage: 1:24
Mjolnir A: 2:22
2nd Stage: 3:48
Mjolnir B: 4:24
Boss fight: 6:00

Mjolnir A: 1:23
2nd Stage: 3:16
Mjolnir B: 3:28
Boss fight: 5:54

Mjolnir A: 1:20
2nd Stage: 2:15
Mjolnir B: 2:22
Boss fight: 3:33

Mjolnir A: 0:17
Alternate 1st Stage: 2:17
2nd Stage: 3:32
Mjolnir B: 6:00
Boss fight: 6:28

1st Stage: 1:15
Mjolnir: 1:32
Boss fight: 3:52 & 4:48

Thank you for watching my walkthrough, old as it is. I hope that it was of some use to you.

I apologize for the terrible post-commentary. Back then I was still a bit awkward about recording myself and Youtubing, and it was my first time commentating in post. In some areas I couldn't say everything I wanted to, and in others I didn't have anything to say at all, though judging by the kind words and views I've gotten since I made it, it seems people like it quite a bit.

There are a bunch of helpful tips and tricks you can utilize in Volgarr, most notably the Rolling Double Jump, but the only tip you really need is:
Practice! Practice! Practice! Practice!

Many people have told me various things such as "Wow, you make it look so easy!", "You're so good at this game!", "I could never play like that!".
It is true, I did make a lot of that look very easy. But even after beating the game many times, recording it all took dozens of tries for each level to get a run I was satisfied showing.
You can imagine how much time that took when I ran out of attempts in the later Valkyrie levels.

It's all about Trial and Error. There's no more trick to it than that. You have to play it over and over to learn every single position of every single enemy, trap, attack and anything else the game throws at you. There are no "random" elements in this game (except the Ghouls and Wisps spawning mechanics, gosh darn those things!), so if you find a way to do a section flawlessly, it's most likely going to work every time you try it.

This is a great game, try to not get frustrated by failure. Just figure out what you did wrong and how to get around it, and my videos are here as a help.

Making this was supposed to just be a straight copy-paste of my videos, but I ended up putting a lot more work into it than I thought. I hope you enjoy, and let me know if I made any mistakes (spelling, timestamps, links not working etc.) and I'll fix it.

Thanks again!