God Of War Ragnarok Combat Tips: Beginner Tips

God of War Ragnarok is finally out after 4 years of waiting, and for newer players or returning players, our God of War Ragnarok Combat Tips guide will help players brush off some combat tips that might help you get started! 

Aiming The Axe 

First things first, when you are using your Leviathan Axe, you will notice a few similarities to the combat from the previous games before the God of War Ragnarok, and it will be the mechanic of aiming your axe toward enemies. 

While being at a distance, aiming your leviathan axe at enemies can help you with combat. For enemies that are on the weaker end, you can deal a heavy throw by aiming your axe at enemies and then pressing down on R2, which will help keep them frozen for a short period. 

While the enemies stay frozen, it gives you a bit of time to focus on another enemy at hand that you can take out either with your bare-handed attacks or your blades of chaos. 

Aiming For Weak Points 

Another basic thing that players might be missing out on will be that weak points are the key to success in certain fights. Typically, enemies will have weak spots that are centered at their legs, so the best way to combat and take advantage of that will be to simply aim the axe at their legs to weaken them. 

Once the axe has been aimed at their weak point, it makes them stumble or fall, which gives the player the perfect chance to swoop in and deal with lighter or heavier attacks with R1 or R2. 

Hyperion Pull Skill 

Another tip or skill rather that players could use will be the Hyperion Pull, which entails players pressing R1 on their controller, then impale the blade of chaos into the enemy, and then pulling them forward towards you. 

From there, it immediately launches them up, and then thrusts them to the ground, dealing damage. It can help players fight weaker as well as normal-level enemies and once the enemies are in the air, the player will also be able to carry out various air combos as they so, please. 

With the Hyperion pull, you can also decide to go for the Hyperion Grapple I skill, which will allow you to hold down on R1 after you have already cast Hyperion Pull, and pull yourself towards enemies which will then cause them to be stunned for a while. 

Ring Indicators 

One more thing that players will need to focus on will be ring indicators. Essentially, whenever an enemy is ready to launch an attack against you, more often than not, Atreus will shout whether there is an incoming attack from behind you or on the left or right of you. 

Rings that are green mean attacks that can be easily parried, while rings that are colored red will indicate attacks that cannot be blocked or shielded, but rather you will need to dodge away from the enemy to not take damage. 

Parries 

While we are on the topic of dodging and indicators, parries will also be crucial in the game. While you are shielding from the enemy and they can launch an attack against you, you will be able to able to perfectly time your parry, which will stagger them and push them back. 

Similarly, if a fire projectile has been shot at you and you perfectly parry it, it is launched back toward the enemy instead. 

Shielding 

This might seem extremely obvious, but shielding will also be one of the most useful features and will save you in situations where you might feel like you’ve hit a dead end. When all else fails, you can dodge and shield yourself from incoming enemy attacks to help yourself survive for a little longer. 

Whether those are projectiles or head-on attacks from enemies, shielding can help you gather your thoughts before deciding your next strategy against your opponents. 

Bare-Handed Attacks 

For players that are especially starting afresh, while you can take advantage of the axe, don’t underestimate the power of a good Bare-Handed attack. 

If you only have the axe equipped and haven’t managed to get the blade of chaos, then you can switch to your bare hands, and it is extremely useful for dealing that final blow to enemies that are already at a low HP. 

Bare-handed attacks can not deal that much damage as compared to the leviathan axe or the blade of chaos but is always an option. 

Calling Atreus 

Another thing to note is that Atreus will be your best friend. Throughout every battle, Atreus will be by you read to aid you in your battles. 

At the start of the battle, when you are dealing blows to enemies with your weapons or bare-handed, it might be easy to forget to call Atreus for extra support, but the reality is that he can help you win your battle with a lot more ease. 

You can command Atreus to fire arrows by pressing down on the square button once, and he will use up one of his arrows that will be displayed on the bottom right corner of the screen. A swift shout of “Nista” from his end and he deals damage to the opponent in front of you. 

Atreus can also become important to distract enemies away from you so taht you can launch your axe at them from behind, or he can also take care of enemies that are a bit further away from you but closer to him by shooting arrows. It makes the entire process of killing enemies a lot easier to deal with. 

R3 Murder 

During the battle, once the stun meter has been built up on an enemy, you can quite easily time out your executions on them. Once the meter has been filled, an R3 button indicator will appear on the enemy’s body, and going up to the enemy and clicking on it will cause Kratos to slice the enemy in half. 

If the R3 icon that appears on the enemy ends up being yellow, then it means that the execution won’t take place fully, but it will rather deal increased amounts of damage. However, if the R3 icon is red in the circle, then you can carry out the final execution with ease. 

If the icon remains yellow, then you should continue attacking the enemy with lighter attacks to help the icon turn red to carry out the full execution. 

Positioning 

Yet another important thing that players might be missing out on will be their positioning. 

More often than not, positioning players a crucial role in whether you win a battle or end up losing it. Knowing when to go head-on is important, and it works typically well for enemies that are on the weaker end since you can launch R1 and R2s against them. 

For enemies that are launching projectiles against you, you should stay as far away from them as possible and go for ranged throws of your axe at them as compared to attempting to deal with them head-on. 

Knowing when the enemy is approaching from behind you is also really important since you can do a dodge-roll to get out of the way and reposition yourself. If you’re in a bind, then clicking on R3 will reposition your camera position to the original one and help you decipher the position of enemies. 

Similarly, you should also know when to take note of where enemies lie. Behind you? Dodge away. In front of you? Side-step if you don’t want to attack. By your right or left? Go ham on that sucker. 

A few things such as knowing how many enemies are present, if they are in your field of view is crucial, alongside also knowing whether there are extra benefits that you can take advantage of, for example, rivers that you can throw the enemy towards, cliffs that you can launch them off of, etc. 

Skills 

One of the most important things that will help players’ enemies will be skills. Both leviathan axe skills, as well as blades of chaos and Atreus skills, are important, therefore they should not be left out at all. 

There will be technique, ranged as well as melee skills for both the leviathan axe as well as the blades of chaos. 

Leviathan Axe 

The Leviathan Axe will have three main types of skills which will include technique, range, and melee. Technique skills will simply aid the player with overpowering the axe as much as possible to take advantage of its frost effects and the skills include: 

• Frost Awaken I
• Frozen Breach
• Frozen Spike 
• Extinguish Flames
• Frozen Ascent 
• Frozen Lance
• Permafrost 
• Glacial Permafrost 
• Frost Awaken III
• Frost Awaken II
• Frost Awaken IV

As for ranged skills, they are pretty self-explanatory since they simply cater to maxing out the damage potential when you are using your axe as a ranged weapon, while melee skills will focus more on hands-on combat with enemies. 

Managing Resources 

One more thing that players do not want to miss out on will be to take note of their resources. With the game being so combat-heavy, it is crucial to take note of everything on your screen. 

From the number of arrows that Atreus has that he can launch out, to the weapons on your back, to the skills that you can cast out, as well as the attacks that you can launch out to something as simple as managing your HP bar will prove to be crucial. Your runic attacks, skills, and abilities all play a part in helping you win the battle. 

Apart from that, when it comes to resources, you will also more often than not find resources that regenerate a certain amount of HP for you, while there will also be boulders, trees, etc that you can take advantage of to either block off incoming attacks or throw at opponents. 

Frosting Up Your Axe

If you weren’t already made aware, you can easily use Frost Awaken to your advantage from the get-go. Pressing down on the triangle button will immediately imbue your axe with ice, which will inflict frost on enemies on whatever attacks you launch next. 

Frost Awaken I will simply power up your next melee or ranged attack with the highest amount of frost possible for this skill and render enemies useless. Similarly, you can also conjure p the Frozen Spike skill to quickly create a frost explosion on impact against enemies, which deems even more useful. 

If you click on R1 when Frost Awaken is enabled, then you will be able to swing your axe on a wide axis, which will immediately apply a certain amount of frost to enemies that are close by. With that, if you also happen to press on R2 during frost awaken, then you will be able to slash the axe upwards, which will launch out a wave of frost and send enemies flying upwards. 

Frozen Lance can come in handy when you aim and then press down on R2 to launch out the leviathan axe with utmost force on enemies. Make sure to also unlock Frost Awaken II, III, and IV to enhance the original skill even more. 

Breaking Shields 

One more thing that you might have missed out on will be that you can break an opponent’s shields with a little bit of force. Whenever you see the two blue circles, you can press down on the L1 button two times to break the pattern of the blue circle attacks and interrupt them. 

This can come in handy to buy you some extra time and get a few extra hits in between since most blue circle attacks would otherwise be unavoidable. 

Two Dodges 

Another thing that you will be able to quickly learn will be that there are two types of dodges that players can carry out in the game. 

Both dodges can be crucial during battle, and these dodges can be switched from one to the other with quite an ease. 

The first dodge will be a sidestep, which you can do by O or X to the side once to simply step to the side, or you can carry out a dodge roll, which you can do by double clicking either O or X depending on the console that you are on. 

Dodging deems extremely vital, especially for attacks that seem unavoidable by enemies and cannot be blocked or parried. 

Other Basic Tips 

Now, let’s move on to a few other basic tips and skills that you should invest in, and not miss out on. 

Status Effects 

Understanding status effects is quite important as the various ones that are offered in the game. 

Frost 

The frost effect will be carried out by the leviathan axe, which will be able to consistently cause frost damage to enemies, and it will also make weaker enemies that are lower in HP be frozen in their place. 

If it is not able to freeze them, then it will inevitably slow down the movement of enemies. 

Burning 

When it comes to burning, it will simply continue to deal damage over time, and enemies will continue to burn until they lost HP. 

Shock 

The shock status effect will cause enemies to be stuck in one place, and they will not be able to gain any sort of movement for a while while the status effect remains active. 

Poison 

As for the poison status effect, it simply decreases the power level of enemies by one, making them even weaker than they already will be. 

Daze 

With Daze, it will cause momentary dizziness which can hinder the thought process as well as make battling difficult. 

Blind 

Blind will be an important status effect to inflict on enemies, and once you can get your hands on it, and it is used on opponents, it will simply decrease their overall visibility. 

Sonic 

Sonic is another important effect that you should not miss out on. With it in hand, it will cause sonic concussions anytime the enemy is inflicted with it, and then you further launch an attack against them. 

Hex 

As for hex, it will simply increase or decrease certain elemental effects, and it can directly affect status effects like frost, burning, shock, and poison. 

Bifröst 

Last but not least, Bifrost will heal over time, and it is the purple damage that will appear over the health bar. 

Permafrost Skill 

As a beginner, the permafrost skill will seem like one of the most important ones in the game, since it allows you to carry out melee attacks one after the other without being able to take in ample damage. 

When you are consistently carrying out these attacks, you will continue to power up your leviathan axe and launch out frost damage on every hit. 

Immolation

As for your blades of chaos, you can unlock immolation pretty early on after unlocking the second upgrade for your blades. It will grant you the ability to consistently launch out melee attacks without taking in damage. 

As you are doing so, you will also be able to power up your blade of chaos and consistently inflict burn damage on opponents with each hit. 

Weapon Synergies 

Another thing that you might want to keep in mind is that weapon synergy are extremely important, and using your axe as well as your blades hand in hand will almost always result in an easier battle.

Once you’ve managed to freeze an enemy with your axe, go ahead and switch to your blade to deal burning damage or vice versa. While it can be quite difficult to time it, once you’ve managed to carry it out on a few enemies, it becomes quite easy. 

Absolute Beginner Tips 

For players that somehow managed to miss the tutorial lessons that were provided at the start of the game or have forgotten basic attack and combat patterns, follow these absolute beginner tips. 

Melee Combat 

• Pressing down on R1 will allow players to launch a light attack. 
• R2 will allow players to launch a heavy attack. 
• After pressing on L3 to sprint and sprinting off a cliff or ledge, you can press down on R1 to carry out death from above attack evidently attacking from the sky to the ground on enemies. 
• Stun can be applied with the help of certain attacks. 

Camera 

• Your camera will be able to automatically track certain groups of opponents while moving sideways after facing an opponent. 
• You can press down on R3 in order to activate Lock-On, and you can then use R in order to switch from opponent to opponent. 

Targeting 

• For enemies that are close to Kratos, he will be able to automatically target them and you can move the L button in order to help configure the target. 

Runic Attacks 

• Hold down on L1 and then press down on R1 in order to carry out a lighter runic attack
• Hold L1 and then press on R2 in order to carry out a heaver runic attack on opponents in the battle. 

Summary 

And there we have it! Combat tips that should help all beginners that have welcomed themselves into the world of Kratos and Atreus, and with that, we will wrap up our God of War Ragnarok Combat Tips guide! 

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