God of War Ragnarok Guide: 9 Tips for New Players

1. Start Right: Difficulty, Favors and Exploration

Tip 1: Play on Give Me Balance first. It is the intended God of War Ragnarok walkthrough experience — fights stay fair while you learn the axe, the blades and the spear. You can change difficulty anytime in Settings, so there is no shame in dropping down for a tough boss.

Tip 2: Do Favors (side quests) as they appear. Ragnarok hides its best armor, Runic Attacks and resources in optional Favors across Svartalfheim, Alfheim and Vanaheim — mainlining the story leaves you under-geared. That explore-first habit pays off in every big RPG, like our Skyrim beginner guide.

Tip 3: Open every Nornir chest you can. The rune-seal puzzles (ring the three bells, light the braziers, break the seals) permanently raise your Health and Rage — free power that stacks for the whole game.

2. Combat Basics: Blocks, Rings and the Recall Trick

Tip 4: Learn the ring language. Yellow rings can be blocked or parried, red rings are unblockable — dodge them, and double-blue rings must be interrupted with a shield bash or a thrown weapon. Reading rings is half of every God of War Ragnarok boss fight.

Tip 5: Throw and recall the Leviathan Axe constantly. Freezing an enemy, smashing the recall, and catching the axe mid-flight builds Frost fast and staggers tough Draugr. Frost versus Burn is the game's core status dance — Frost slows and shatters, Burn from the Blades of Chaos ticks damage, and the Draupnir Spear's Wind detonates spears for burst. For another game where spell roles decide fights, see our Hogwarts Legacy beginner guide.

3. Your Three Weapons: When to Swap

Tip 6: Match the weapon to the moment — each one earns XP and unlocks Weapon Skills independently, so rotate them instead of maining one.

Weapon	Strength	Reach For It When…
Leviathan Axe	Frost, recall throws, single-target control	A Wulver is rushing you, or you need to freeze a rune bell from range
Blades of Chaos	Burn, wide sweeps, crowd clearing	Draugr swarm the arena — whip-sweep them all at once
Draupnir Spear	Wind detonation, mid-range pokes	An Einherjar turtles behind a shield — pin spears in, then detonate

Upgrade priority: take all three to level 3–4 with Hacksilver and common mats before chasing max level on one. Brock and Sindri's Huldra Brothers shops in every realm hub keep you stocked.

4. Spartan Rage, Companions and Runic Attacks

Tip 7: Spend Rage on purpose. Spartan Rage has three paths — Fury for raw damage, Valor for a healing burst, Wrath for a shockwave slam. New players survive longest on Valor: popping it mid-fight is a free heal when potions do not exist.

Tip 8: Command Atreus (and later Freya) with Square constantly. Sonic arrows shatter soundstone, Runic arrows detonate status, and companion Runic Summons like the murder of crows add free damage. They also revive you with a Resurrection Stone if you fall — always keep one equipped, bought cheap from any Huldra Brothers shop.

Slot one Light and one Heavy Runic Attack per weapon and actually use them — they recharge on cooldown, not on pickups, so holding them "for later" wastes damage. If buildcrafting clicks for you, our Diablo IV beginner guide scratches the same itch.

5. Gear, Stats and the Amulet of Yggdrasil

Tip 9: Build around two stats, not six. Armor comes in chest, waist and wrist pieces, each with Strength, Defense, Runic, Vitality, Cooldown or Luck. Pick Strength + one more (Defense for beginners, Runic for ability spam) and upgrade that set — spread stats help nobody.

• Socket the Amulet of Yggdrasil early — its enchantment slots take the gems you find in Legendary chests, and set bonuses (like Niflheim's healing mist) are build-defining.
• Do not hoard Hacksilver. Upgrading mid-tier armor now beats saving for a late-game set you cannot afford for ten hours.
• Sell Artifacts and ship heads to the Huldra Brothers — they are pure Hacksilver with no other use.

The Berserker Gravestones and the Valkyrie Queen Gna are optional post-game skill checks — skip them until the credits roll, then come back over-leveled for the real test.

Your First-Week Ragnarok Checklist

• Set Give Me Balance; lower it freely for any wall boss.
• Clear Favors in each new realm before pushing the story.
• Open Nornir chests — Health and Rage upgrades are permanent.
• Rotate axe, blades and spear; upgrade all three evenly.
• Keep a Resurrection Stone equipped at all times.
• Pick two stats, socket the Amulet of Yggdrasil, sell Artifacts.

Which fight humbled you first — a troll, a Berserker, or one very angry god?

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