God of War Ragnarök tips and tricks: How to master your Spartan Rage

These God of War Ragnarök tips will make your journey much more enjoyable

With God of War Ragnarök finally releasing, here’s some useful tips to make your journey through Kratos and Atreus’ second Norse journey a bit more comfortable. The long wait is now almost over and, once you read our God of War Ragnarök review, we can look a bit deeper in some of the content you should focus more throughout your playthrough.

Of course, these God of War Ragnarök tips and tricks don’t feature any narrative spoilers, as our only purpose here is to remind you about what you should focus on when it comes to story and exploration - and a few key features from the combat system, which is now deeper than ever.

No spoilers

This one could easily be good for any plot-based game, but it’s even more precious when it comes to God of War Ragnarök.

Unlike God of War (2018), which was widely a linear experience up until the explosive ending, the new game from Santa Monica Studio is ripe with twists and turns - some of which are so fast and unexpected that you won’t even notice them at first - and you won’t want this to be wasted by some careless friend or the typical internet troll. This is true from the beginning to the end, for the places you’ll see, the characters you’ll meet, and for the fates of the characters. What’s even better is that you’ll have food for thought even after the main story ends.

Be curious

This was definitely true for 2018's God of War, too. Exploration is key in God of War Ragnarök, and you’re free to move around and wander, whether it’s with your sled or boat, between major narrative sections. You’ll have plenty of side missions to find, as well as other secrets and surprises.

The game’s Metroidvania structure makes it so that at any given moment you’ll find a secondary path leading you to an unexpected location, one that you may have seen in the distance and didn’t know how to access. On top of that, all the areas are filled with secrets and environmental puzzles that’ll take you away from your main tasks for hours and hours. Each location is so charming you’ll want to get back to them once the main story ends… and you probably should.

Don’t forget about your partner

More than in the previous game, Ragnarök’s combat heavily relies on your partner. This makes it so that every encounter is vibrant and basically with zero downtime, getting over the tired R1/R2 dichotomy we’ve been used to since the souls-like sub-genre exploded years ago.

This time, the dev team made sure they were adding several types of arrows, with an array of effects, one of which amplifies the amount of damage and their range. This might be a bit confusing in puzzles, at times, but you’ll love them during combat as they’ll make it faster and definitely easier.

Spartan rage(s)

Ragnarök introduces several types of Spartan Rage. Kratos was previously able to only jump on this state of fury and execute stronger attacks while recovering health, but now things are a bit different - and for the best, introducing a bit more tactical element to your combat.

We won’t delve too deep into how this works, as you’ll want to find out yourselves, but know that there’s more than a single Spartan Rage now, and that you’ll quickly learn how useful it is to switch between them. Also, don’t forget that you can level Spartan Rage up from the pause menu! This allows you to react to the type of enemy you’re going to face, with some requiring a more offensive approach, while others…

Parrying is key

Whenever you have a bunch of enemies in front of you, or even just a tough foe to beat, you’ll easily be tempted into dodging their attacks. While this is a decent strategy most of the time, you should be brave enough and sharpen your reflexes, as there’s a better one - especially if you want your encounters to be over much faster.

Parrying is a great solution for you to briefly stun your enemies and have a free hand for a few free attacks. Of course, they’ll be incapacitated only for a few seconds, but it’s also true that the game does a great job in highlighting which attacks you can actually parry, and which you can’t. Also, whenever you see them circled in blue, that means you can use the new shield strike ability to interrupt their attacks..

You can upgrade runic attacks

This one’s pretty easy to miss - you can actually upgrade your runic attacks, so make sure you check them out every now and then to see if you have what it takes to do so. Upgrades are key as they not only make your attacks stronger, but also add abilities to them.

In order to upgrade your runic attack, press the DualSense’s touchpad, and that’ll open your menu. Once there, select the weapon you want to upgrade a runic attack for, and you’ll see different types of runic attacks available. You can upgrade their level by tapping R2 so you can check the next one and press Square. All you need to do is have enough experience points for that character: Level 2 takes 3,250 XP for the Light Runic Attacks and 4,250 XP for the Heavy Runic Attack, Level 3 ranges from 9,000 to 10,500 XP. 

Need more God of War Ragnarök guides? Check out our full God of War Ragnarök walkthrough.