God of War Ragnarök Weapons Guide: Best Weapons and Attachments#
In God of War Ragnarök, Kratos wields three main weapons: the Leviathan Axe, the Blades of Chaos, and the Draupnir Spear. All three share the same upgrade system, but their materials are completely different — weapons level up with exclusive Flame collectibles, while armor and attachments use metal and leather materials. This page first sets out the rules that decide what upgrades what, then gives a real acquisition table for every upgrade material; the fictional materials and stats from the older version of this guide are corrected item by item in the Revision Notes at the end.
The Role of Each of the Three Weapons#
| Weapon | Elemental leaning | Combat role | How you get it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leviathan Axe | Frost | Mid-range control; thrown and recalled, covering both ranged chip damage and battlefield control | Held from the start |
| Blades of Chaos | Fire | Wide sweeps and grabs, the most efficient crowd clearer | Recovered early in the story in Svartalfheim |
| Draupnir Spear | Wind | Plant at range and detonate; breaks shields and piles on damage against airborne enemies | Forged at the dwarven smithy in the mid-to-late story |
How to read the roles: the Axe’s recall damage and freezing effect make it ideal for pressuring scattered ranged enemies; the Blades’ sweeping coverage makes them the mainstay for crowds and aerial combos; and once the Spear joins in the mid-to-late game, its plant-and-detonate mechanic delivers both ranged burst and shield breaking. The three weapons can be swapped mid-combo at any time without breaking your string, so invest upgrade resources in whichever one you use most.
How the Upgrade System Works#
The upgrade system has only three rules; memorize them and you can separate real information from the errors circulating online:
Rule 1: Weapon upgrades consume exclusive Flames#
Each weapon level costs exactly one of that weapon’s exclusive Flames, confirmed through the shop menu at any dwarven blacksmith. There is no such thing as a “universal upgrade material” for weapons.
| Weapon | Upgrade cost | Level cap |
|---|---|---|
| Leviathan Axe | Frozen Flame | Level 9 |
| Blades of Chaos | Chaos Flames | Level 9 |
| Draupnir Spear | Gale Flames | Level 9 |
Flames come mainly from key story beats, boss loot, and favor rewards, and the supply matches the number of available upgrades: playing through the campaign normally maxes every weapon out, with no grinding required. If a guide says weapons are upgraded with “smithing stones and soft iron,” you can dismiss it as fiction.
Rule 2: Armor and attachments run on metal and leather materials#
Metal and leather materials are used to craft and upgrade armor, attachments, and amulets, and have nothing to do with weapon upgrades. Armor materials are tiered by progress:
| Progress | Material | Main use |
|---|---|---|
| Early game | Forged Iron | Early and mid-game armor upgrades |
| Mid game | Dwarven Steel | Mid-to-late-game armor upgrades |
| Late game | Asgardian Ingot | High-tier armor and endgame gear upgrades |
Reaching level 9 also requires three crystals: Purified Crystalline, Sparkling Crystal, and Gleaming Crystal. Select any piece of equipment in a shop and the upgrade menu lists exactly what the next level needs along with your current stock — always treat the in-game list as the source of truth.
Rule 3: Level 9 is the cap; New Game+ extends it#
In a first playthrough, both weapons and gear cap at level 9. In New Game+, gear first climbs from level 9 to 9.1-9.3 with New Game+ materials such as Skap Slag, and finally reaches level 10 with Mountain Root. New Game+ materials come from endgame content — see the endgame content page.
Real Upgrade Material Acquisition Table#
Weapon Flames#
| Material | Upgrades | How to get it |
|---|---|---|
| Frozen Flame | Leviathan Axe | Key story beats, boss loot, and favor rewards |
| Chaos Flames | Blades of Chaos | Story progression and favor rewards, pacing parallel to the Axe’s Flames |
| Gale Flames | Draupnir Spear | Story and favors after obtaining the Spear, with supply matching the remaining upgrades |
None of the three Flames can be bought or farmed repeatedly; once you have one, head to a dwarven blacksmith to upgrade, and treat the cost and material requirements shown in the shop as the final word.
Armor, Attachment, and General Materials#
| Material | Main use | How to get it |
|---|---|---|
| Forged Iron | Early and mid-game armor upgrades | Enemy drops, chests, and shops |
| Dwarven Steel | Mid-to-late-game armor upgrades | Enemy drops, chests, and shops |
| Asgardian Ingot | High-tier armor upgrades | Late-story and Asgard-related content |
| Rawhide | Early armor and attachments | Low-tier enemy drops |
| Bonded Leather | Armor and attachment crafting | Enemy drops and gear dismantling |
| Honed Metal | Mid-game equipment crafting | Enemy drops and chests |
| Shattered Rune | Rune and Enchantment crafting | Elite enemies and chests |
| Whispering Slab | Specific attachment crafting | Realm exploration pickups |
| Stonewood | Specific attachment crafting | Realm exploration pickups |
| Petrified Bone | Specific attachment crafting | Realm exploration pickups |
| Dust of Realms | High-tier crafting | Yggdrasil Rifts challenges |
| Beast Bones and Beast Scraps | Shield and other gear crafting | Drops from beast-type enemies |
| Hacksilver | Universal cost for all upgrades | Kills, chests, and selling gear |
Amulet and Enchantments#
The Amulet of Yggdrasil gains extra slots as you socket Jewels of Yggdrasil into it; Enchantments fill those slots with stat bonuses and passive effects, making them the biggest source of stat growth outside armor. Exploring the nine realms and clearing realm challenges are the main ways to farm Enchantments; for build ideas, see the gear and items page.
Runic Attacks: Two Slots per Weapon#
Every weapon has one light runic slot and one heavy runic slot, and runic attacks run on their own cooldowns; a single runic attack can be upgraded to level 3 in the weapons menu, improving its damage and effects at each step. Runes come from legendary chests, boss loot, and favor rewards; for drop and chest locations, see the runic attacks page.
Leviathan Axe Runic Attacks#
Light runic attacks:
| Runic attack | Cooldown | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Winter’s Bite | 74 seconds | Upper wilds of Midgard, loot from The Huntress boss fight |
| Njord’s Tempest | 99 seconds | Svartalfheim, legendary chest at Althjof’s Rig |
| Skadi’s Edge | 93 seconds | Alfheim, The Strond |
| Hel’s Touch | 62 seconds | Alfheim, The Burrows, tied to the “Song of the Sands” favor |
| Wrath of the Frost Ancient | 132 seconds | Southern wilds of Vanaheim |
Heavy runic attacks:
| Runic attack | Cooldown | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Fog of Fimbulwinter | 208 seconds | Myrkr Tunnels |
| Mists of Helheim | 96 seconds | Vanaheim, Cliffside Ruins |
| Leviathan’s Roar | 108 seconds | Vanaheim, Freyr’s Camp, requires the Spear |
| Ivaldi’s Anvil | — | Midgard, Derelict Outpost |
| Breath of Thamur | 211 seconds | Niflheim Raven Tree area, reward for collecting 28 Odin’s Ravens |
Blades of Chaos and Draupnir Spear Rune Lists#
The runes for these two weapons are spread across many realms, so the full list comes first; for each rune’s location and upgrade route, see the runic attacks page.
Blades of Chaos light runic attacks:
- Flames of Anguish
- Hades Retribution
- Helios Flare
- Rampage of the Furies
- Cyclone of Chaos
Blades of Chaos heavy runic attacks:
- Nemean Crush
- Tartarus Rage
- Atlas Eruption
- Tame the Beast
- Meteoric Slam
Draupnir Spear light runic attacks:
- Huldra Charge
- Mountain Splitter
- Thrust of a Thousand Soldiers
- Whisper of the World
Draupnir Spear heavy runic attacks:
- Artillery of the Ancients
- Honour the Fallen
- Vindsvalr’s Windstorm
- The Finger of Ruin
How Side Quests Actually Feed Weapon Growth#
Favor rewards are concrete gear, materials, or runic attacks, stated plainly in the quest log; the game never provides “estimated durations” or “star ratings,” so any guide ranking favors by duration or stars is making things up. Representative favors directly tied to weapon growth:
| Favor | Real reward |
|---|---|
| Animal Instincts (Midgard) | The “Crackle of Bilskirnir” runic attack |
| Hel to Pay | Essence of Hel from sealing the Hel Rifts |
| The Last Remnants of Asgard | Hardened Remnants and Fortified Remnants |
| Song of the Sands (Alfheim) | Tied to The Burrows exploration, grants the Axe light rune Hel’s Touch |
Other favors such as In Service of Asgard, Sigrun’s Curse, Return of the River, and Freya’s Missing Peace focus mainly on story progression and area unlocks; for the full list, see the side quests page.
New Game+ and Endgame Upgrades#
After finishing the story you can enter New Game+: gear climbs to 9.1-9.3 with New Game+ materials such as Skap Slag, then pushes to level 10 with Mountain Root. These materials are spent on the various endgame challenges — Berserker Gravestones, the Valkyrie Queen Gna, Muspelheim trials, Draugr Holes, and Yggdrasil Rifts; see the boss guides and challenges pages for how to arrange them.
The free God of War Ragnarök: Valhalla expansion (released December 2023) adds roguelite-style challenges — a proving ground for builds and rune combinations beyond New Game+.
Revision Notes#
The old version of this page contained systematic errors; this rewrite corrects them one by one:
- The fictional upgrade material chain has been removed: the smithing stones, soft iron, hardened remains, shimmering crystals, flawless remains, Jewels of Yggdrasil, and Reginn’s shards from the old “upgrade levels” table are not real upgrade materials in the game. The actual rule is that weapon upgrades consume only three exclusive Flame collectibles — Frozen Flame, Chaos Flames, and Gale Flames. “Hardened remains” differs from the real favor reward “Hardened Remnants” by a single word but serves a completely different purpose: the latter is a favor reward, not an upgrade material.
- Skill cost numbers were invented: the 1000, 1500, 2000, and 2500 values in the old “XP required” column had no source, and skill names such as “Glacial Surge,” “Flame Burst,” and “Ten-Thousand Spear Volley” could not be verified; those tables have been removed. For skill planning, see the skill system page.
- Status effect numbers were invented: the old tables with a 10%/30% freeze slow, 10/30 burn damage per second, and 100%-300% spear detonation damage were all built on a stat system the game never published (the game has no official enemy health or status numbers); they have been replaced with qualitative descriptions.
- Unsourced test data has been removed: the 2.5 attacks per second and similar figures in the old “attack speed test” table were not official or community-verified measurements; the whole table has been removed.
- Unverifiable appearance tables have been removed: entries in the old “weapon appearance unlocks” table such as “dwarven forging unlocked at level 5,” “20th anniversary update reward,” and “dragon fang ornaments for killing every dragon” could not be verified; the whole table has been removed.
- Acquisition timing has been corrected: the Blades of Chaos are not held “from the start of the game” but are recovered early in the story in Svartalfheim; the Draupnir Spear likewise is not obtained “in chapter 12” but at a dwarven forging story beat in the mid-to-late game.
- Naming and writing conventions have been unified: mixed-language constructions such as the old status-effect labels have been rewritten to follow the site’s language conventions, and the inconsistent spear name has been standardized to Draupnir Spear.
- Broken links have been fixed: the “back to home” card at the bottom of the old page had an empty link that did nothing when clicked; it has been replaced with four internal navigation cards pointing to working pages.
- Everything added is verifiable: the rune lists (with cooldowns and locations) and favor rewards added in this rewrite are all verifiable in-game content, with none of the duration or star annotations the game never provided.