Boy, here are some tips for God of War Ragnarök. And yes, it is very good and provides a satisfying conclusion to this new era of the franchise. So, knowing this and after all the hype, chances are you’ll be excited to just jump in and get going with Kratos and your friends. But before you start playing Ragnarök, here are some tips to consider from me, someone who has played for over 40 hours. And don’t worry, there are no major spoilers below.
You can pause cuts
A simple tip, but good to know because some of the cutscenes in Ragnarök are very long. You might need a bathroom break!
Set up Swipe Up to quickly see where to go
PS5 and PS4 controllers have touchpads. While these are used by most games as giant buttons, God of War allows you to assign certain actions to swipe. Personally, setting it to point the camera in the direction of my current target was the only useful action I found in the game. Technically, you can do the same thing with a click of a button, but this is faster and easier. G/O Media may receive a commission Screenshot: Santa Monica Studio / Sony / Kotaku
Freeze your ax before battles
One of the first things you learn about is the ability to “charge” Levithan’s ax with ice, and it’s a great thing to do for the rest of the game. Whenever you get a chance to hold a triangle to “freeze” your ax, do it! You will do more damage and gain access to special attacks. Later, get the upgrade that allows you to freeze your ax while sprinting.
Save the health drops for later
During matches, an enemy will sometimes drop a health pick up. While you may be tempted to smash them right away to refill your HP, wait! Leaving them around can save you during ambushes or larger fights. Wait for them to pop when you either know the area is completely clear or you’re very, very low on health and need the boost. Early on, your HP will be low, so managing those drops effectively can help you survive tough encounters.
Try Set Dwarf Armor, Nidavellir
Not too far into the game, you’ll encounter a side quest involving mining rigs and the dwarves. Take a detour and complete this questline as it will give you the materials you need to craft the Nidavellir armor set. This armor has a big bonus, every time you execute a stunned enemy using R3, the armor provides a burst of health. Very useful in the early game!
Don’t forget to Block and Counter
It’s easy to just focus on swinging your ax blades and chains because they’re so cool and make enemies go “SPLAT” or “BOOM” when used correctly. But wait! Don’t forget to block and dodge. Later enemies and tougher bosses will require you to block and dodge attacks, so start practicing early. (And remember, you can’t block attacks marked with red circles!) Screenshot: Santa Monica Studio / Sony / Kotaku
Use Atreus to track down missing enemies
Sometimes you might kill what you think is the last enemy, but the battle music keeps playing and you can’t access any loot. This isn’t a bug, but instead, there’s probably a lone enemy hanging around somewhere. A quick way to find it is to press square and use Atreus’ bow attack to find it, as he will shoot the bow in the direction of the bad guy.
Get offensive skills for Atreus
Speaking of Atreus, when upgrading his skills, focus on ones that make him more aggressive and give him more ways to stun, damage, and deal with enemies. This will make him much more useful in matches.
Take advantage of Blades Grapple when you unlock it
Early on, you’ll be able to unlock an ability for Blades of Chaos called “Hyperion Grapple.” Once unlocked, aim your blades at an enemy and hold R1. Kratos will zip across the battlefield and slash the bad guy or monster through the chain blades. This will deal a lot of stun damage, which is useful as it often allows you to execute the enemy. You can even hit it to do more stun damage, making it a very powerful move to take out big enemies or clean up tiny ones since it has no cooldown.
Need to Stun Something? Punch it!
While your ax and blades are amazing and very powerful, don’t forget that Kratos has some heavy punches that can come in handy in a fight. This is because his punches deal more stun damage, filling the stun meter below the enemies’ HP line. In fact, some enemies, like the armored Travelers, are better to jab than slash, because once stunned you can remove their armor and make them more vulnerable to other attacks. Fast and annoying creatures can also be stunned and knocked into place with Dad of War’s fists of rage. Screenshot: Santa Monica Studio / Sony / Kotaku
Love The Spear. Worship the spear. Upgrade it too!
Fairly late in the game, you’ll gain access to a new weapon: a magic spear. I won’t spoil how you get it or why, but it’s pretty cool and useful. What makes this spear powerful is that you can cast magical copies of it forever, giving Kratos a powerful ranged weapon. And spears can impale enemies, which Kratos can later make explode when you hold triangle. This is all good and you should try to upgrade as soon as possible once you unlock it.
Those vents you see? Ignore them until you get the spear
The spear is not just a great weapon, it also helps solve puzzles later! All those little vents you see on the various spheres? These cannot be used until you get the spear. Return with him to solve these puzzles.
The same goes for the bright yellow cracks
Yes, they need the spear too.
Watch out for the chest
They can be hidden in many places and are very important. Each of these will give you more resources and hacksilver, allowing you to upgrade all your gear. Pay particular attention to the Nornir chests which are dark blue and locked behind runes. You’ll need to solve a small puzzle to open them, but they grant health upgrades and rage!
Sell unused armor and weapons
Having more hacksilver and crafting resources is useful early on as you start the game with basically nothing. So feel free to sell any armor or weapons you find you don’t want. And don’t worry, if in a few hours you feel like you made a mistake, you can always recreate it later. But trust me, you’ll quickly find some pieces of gear that you love and anything else that can and should be sold to enhance the hardware you actually use.
Oh, and sell all the artifacts, too
After finding books or other collectibles, you can sell them to blacksmiths. And you don’t get penalized for doing it. In fact, the game tells you so at one point. So sell this too! Screenshot: Santa Monica Studio / Sony / Kotaku
Be sure to use your XP to gain new skills
In all the chaos of killing and looting, you might forget to take some time to improve your skills and unlock new ones. So make it a habit to always check your skills whenever you see a blacksmith, beat a boss, or after a scene. These happen often enough that you shouldn’t be too long without upgrading Kratos.
Also, upgrade your attacks and abilities with runes
There are many things to upgrade in this game. (Actually, there’s probably too many things you can sting with, really.) Another thing to upgrade are your weapons, which can be equipped with two runes. Upgrading these runes can enhance already powerful special attacks in some great ways.
Oh also, also Level up your skills once you complete the relevant challenge
Wait, there are more things to upgrade. During the game, you will complete challenges linked to different skills. Once you’ve fully completed all levels of a challenge, you can upgrade the associated skill. For example, the fantastic Hyperion Pull ability I mentioned earlier can be modified after you’ve used it enough times to deal even more stun damage.
Pick one or two stats that interest you and focus on them
Okay, so all this upgrading and armor management and skill customization can seem messy and hard to follow. And that’s how it is! But luckily, you can also ignore them all and just pick two stats that interest you the most. So if, like me, you just want to do a lot of damage and have tons of health, just focus on gear that increases your vitality and strength. I did this and easily made it to the end game as a god killing machine. Screenshot: Santa Monica Studio / Sony / Kotaku
Use hex arrows to freeze things without the ax included
See something you need frozen? Drop your axe. Simple. But what if there are two things? Well, don’t forget that you can have the companions shoot hex arrows at something, like a large gear attached to a door, and when you freeze it, the gear will stay frozen even after you recall the axe. This will allow you to freeze two different things at once!
On PS5? Play at 120 FPS if your TV allows it
If you’re lucky enough to own a PS5, take advantage of Ragnarök’s suite of visual options. Specifically, if you have a TV setup that allows it, play the game at 120fps. Seriously. It’s amazing and makes me unable to go back to 60fps or…shudder…30fps. To enable 120 fps, go to visual settings and select “Performance Mode” and then enable “High Frame Rate Mode”. Voila! You can also slay gods at a silky smooth 120 frames per second.
You can continue playing once the credits roll (and you should)
I won’t spoil how God of War does this, what it means for the story, or how it works with the other characters in the game. But yes, you can keep playing and complete side quests that you didn’t complete before completing the main story. And you should keep playing once the game is over, because there are some fun moments and conversations to discover in there when all is said and done.
