God of War Ragnarök is finally here and it’s time to dive back into the Norse world. Whether you played the 2018 game or not, it’s likely been a while since you last wielded the Leviathan Axe, so you may need some refresher tips to get you back into the swing of things. Even if not, this sequel adds a lot of new wrinkles to the combat system that will take some getting used to.
We’ll give you some tips and tricks to help you along while remaining completely spoiler-free, as this guide will just focus on the gameplay.
No spoilers
While a tip like this could apply to most games, it holds especially true for God of War Ragnarök.
The 2018 game had a heavy narrative focus too, but it wasn’t quite as complex. Great though it was, you could usually guess where it was heading pretty easily, not much in the way of surprises. Ragnarök is the complete opposite in this regard. Santa Monica Studio pulled no punches with this one, the characters you’ll meet and the events that unfold are full of twists and turns that need to be experienced firsthand.
Explore whenever possible
The 2018 game, as linear as it was, had plenty of secrets and goodies in store for those who explored off the beaten path. Ragnarök pushes that even further, with huge sections between the main portions of the narrative where you’re free to inspect any nook and cranny you want. It’s worth going out of your way to investigate these areas, as you’re bound to find something useful.
Remember your partner
It’s not just the mechanics that have grown since the last game, but the characters have too. You’ll need to be using your partner as much as possible in this game, and their contributions to combat are a lot more complex than last time. More arrows, effects, and abilities have been included this time, which means you’ll need to put in more care than occasionally tapping the button to tell Atreus to fire.
Spartan Rage(s)
The Spartan Rage ability is back in Ragnarök, but it has far more flexibility this time around.
To avoid creeping into spoiler territory, we’ll simply say that there are multiple types of Spartan Rage, and Kratos can do far more than just recover a bit of health while using it this time. You’ll need to keep on top of it to adapt to each type of enemy, giving it a lot more strategic depth than before.
Parry, parry, parry
Dodging is a perfectly valid defensive strategy, and as long as you’re good at it, it will keep you alive while you slowly chip away at your enemies. However, things will go a lot quicker if you get good at parrying incoming attacks. It’s especially good when dealing with large groups of enemies, as dodging one attack will often throw you into the path of another.
Runic attack upgrades
This was a feature in the 2018 game too, and it’s likely most players underutilized it then too. Runic attacks can be really useful for getting you out of a tight spot or setting up a destructive combo, but you can spend your XP on upgrading them. In the first game, they were often more expensive than what they were worth, and it was more worthwhile to spend XP on the skill tree, but you should definitely pay attention to them in Ragnarök, as they’re much more useful.
Written by Paolo Sirio and Ryan Woodrow on behalf of GLHF.
