Death Battle Predictions: Kratos VS Asura

 

“Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured.” -Mark Twain

Kratos, the pantheon-slaying Ghost of Sparta and God of War.

Asura, the fallen but destructive Mantra-wielding Demigod of Wrath. 

Across history, men across the world have looked up to the numerous different pantheons of gods. However, while these gods may look down on humans and are believed to be wise, beautiful, strong, and so much more, they can in truth be as cruel, unjust, destructive, and vain as the mortals they view themselves as above. Depending on how gods acted, they could either be loved, or become a target of anger and rage.

When it comes to these two, while they may have seen the best and worst of the gods firsthand, the worst outweighed the best. They became enraged, spiteful, and sought nothing but the blood of those who ruined their lives, putting them in their rightful place. But even when they stopped aspiring for that blood, it still drenched their past.

But today these god-slayers will not be facing selfish deities, but rather one another. Will the wielder of Mantra overcome Kratos’ might, or will the God of War put an end to Asura’s Wrath? It is time to answer the age-old question: who would win a DEATH BATTLE!

Before We Start…

What we’ll be using for Asura is pretty simple - he really only has one game after all, plus some extra DLC and an artbook. Surprisingly there’s also a manga, which will be included to the best of our ability despite the lack of a full translation. Also we are counting the Street Fighter crossover DLC, because why not really.

Kratos is a bit of a different story. Apparently between the events of God of War 3 and the God of War 2018, Kratos canonically lost access to his Greek magic and the majority of his weapons. He went on to obtain new tools and abilities in Nordic lands, but never re-acquired the majority of his old assets. This is apparently due to his Greek magics having died alongside Greece itself at the end of the original trilogy and thus became unusable, though he's said he still knows how to use his magic.

While we are aware that this is a contentious topic, we will be allowing Kratos the use of both his Greek and Norse equipment and abilities for this battle, to allow him to fight at his peak, rather than lock him out of one or the other arbitrarily. We will be going in-depth for both sides of the character’s history. Additionally, feats, equipment, etc. from God of War: Ragnarok are also being included, which is a relatively recent release at the time of writing. Spoilers should be expected. All novels will also be used for Kratos, as will officially-published guides and game artbooks. As these mainly expand on the games’ existing story.

The big thing that we will NOT be doing is including ANY social media information. This is to say, statements made on Twitter or Facebook posts, or email communications with game developers and other things of the sort. This type of evidence is very prominent in God of War power-scaling debates, and there are a few reasons we won’t be using it. Not only are these types of correspondence much easier to fabricate and reviewed less stringently than in-game information, they’re also a major source of contention in terms of being usable in the first place. There’s a notion that’s become especially prominent recently that all of Kratos’ scaling is reliant on such statements, and that there’s a major distinction between “Twitter Kratos” and “actual Kratos”. Because of these contentious aspects, we’ll simply be doing away with such things and focusing exclusively on in-game and officially published sources, to determine whether his feats and arguments stand on their own or not.

Huge thanks to Jaydee for access to the Asura’s Wrath Artworks book. Raws for the Manga here and the ongoing translation here. Scans from the Capcom 30th Anniversary Character Encyclopedia here.

View here for GOW1 and 2 PS2 Manuals, GOW1&2 Artbook, GOW1 Prima Guide, GOW2018 Artbook and Lore & Legends, GOW2018 Prima. GoW3 Game Guide. Comic for Fallen God. Novelization of GOW 1, 2, and 2018. The art of God of War 2018. Artbooks for Ragnarok and GOW 2 can be found on Youtube. Imgur collecting all item descriptions from Ragnarok here. God of War: The Lost Pages of Norse Myth linked here.

Background

Kratos

”I came to these lands to escape my past. To start a new life. I can hide no longer. I do not want this war. We have suffered enough. Prophecy did not lead us here. Nor will it win this battle. Wars are won by those that are willing to sacrifice everything. If that is the cost of vengeance... so be it.”

A long time ago, in an ancient era at the peak of Greece, there was a man, born to the King of Gods, Zeus. He grew up training with his brother Deimos, and wished to be part of the Spartan army. But Zeus saw premonitions of a marked warrior who was going to overthrow him, one of his sons. Ares and Athena took down the man’s brother, and left him scarred, literally. He made a vow that day, to never falter again, and grew up to become a brutal but respected captain of the Spartan Army. His name spoke of power and strength: Kratos.

In one fateful battle, Kratos was pushed to the brink against the barbarians. He called out to Ares, pledging his allegiance in exchange for victory in the fight, and Ares complied. However, power is heavy; it derails you from your true self, and Kratos learned this firsthand. Under the influence of blind rage, and the lasting effects of throwing away his humanity to serve Ares, he murdered his wife and child. Filled with grief, he renounced his loyalty to Ares, and was cursed to wear the ashes of his now-deceased family on his skin until the day he died. Word was spread, and he became famously known as the “Ghost of Sparta”.

Kratos became a bereaved man and his grief shined through. He swore loyalty to the gods of Olympus, believing their orders would give him some slim chance at redemption. However, no matter what he did, it was all worthless, as the gods only added to Kratos’ suffering in the coming years. Finally, tired of it all, Kratos had enough, and became consumed by all the anger and sorrow that had built up within himself all this time. He tore down all hope he had been holding on to, abandoning the chance of redemption, and sought vengeance instead. He was the marked warrior Zeus had seen in his vision, and it was too late to stop him.

And after years of conflict, spilled blood, shattered bone, lost and regained hope, Kratos finally struck his father down. But due to the death of all the Olympians, the world was reduced to ruin. Oceans overflowing, sky blocked out by clouds, disease spread, all of this was just the tip of the iceberg. As he watched this, the formerly-killed but now spiritually-present Athena asked Kratos to give her the Power of Hope: an energy previously sealed within Pandora’s Box that Kratos had used to defeat Zeus. 

But rather than give the Gods any power, in one final selfless act, Kratos stabbed himself with the Blade of Olympus, releasing the Power of Hope to the remaining survivors of the destroyed world, in hope (literally) that they would be able to use it to survive and rebuild. With a gaping wound left in his chest, all the power of Greece gone, Kratos lay atop the remains of Mount Olympus. The flame of both revenge and his life, finally extinguished… but unfortunately for any Gods in any other Realms seeking selfish goals, Kratos somehow was not dead. He left the remains of his homeland, and sailed until he eventually found the land of the Norse. He had arrived in Midgard.

It was there he would meet the mortal woman Faye, and eventually experience love once again. The pair came to raise a child named Atreus, after a kind-hearted Spartan that Kratos had known long ago. But Kratos did not have luxury for much longer, as eventually Faye succumbed to death. Leaving Kratos with a son who he had not connected with much, whilst Faye told him many tales of the Norse lands. Later on, after the attack of a mysterious stranger on their home, Kratos came to a decision: despite Atreus’ current lack of talent regarding exploration and combat, they had to leave their home. They sought the tallest peak in all the realms to spread Faye’s ashes, to honor her dying wish.

The journey there led them to many dangers, friends, and discoveries. They traversed many realms, from the war-torn lands of Alfheim to the freezing dead of Helheim. They gained a permanent friend in the absolute giga chad bro- I mean, former advisor of Odin, Mimir, currently a reanimated head. They befriended the Witch of the Woods and Vanir Goddess Freya, however came into conflict with her after Kratos was forced to kill the stranger who had previously attacked his home: her son, Baldur. But that conflict does not compare to the one Kratos faced in himself, in revealing the truth of his past and being to Atreus. Their relationship became rocky because of this, leading to many disputes. 

Fortunately, Kratos eventually overcame his inner demons, and connected with his son. They forged a true bond as they traveled to Jotunheim, the realm which was home to the tallest peak in the realms. It is there where they learned that Faye was actually a giant, and that she knew every step that her husband and son were destined to take. After this discovery, Kratos and Atreus finally spread Faye’s ashes, and returned home. The arrival of Fimbulwinter upon their return was certainly a surprise, signaling the arrival of Ragnarok. But that did not matter. As Kratos and Atreus had now triumphed over Gods and trauma, obstacle after obstacle, they were ready for the worst to arrive. 

The Ghost of Sparta has faced many conflicts and tortures, some that hurt him more than others. But now, it can finally be said that whatever challenge he faces next, the God of War will not face it with the desire to simply survive or claim vengeance. Kratos of Sparta will face that challenge with the desire to protect what he holds dear.

Asura

I understand it all now! The true reason for my wrath! I could not stand it! There is always some fool who wants to rule the world! Always forcing others to do what they cannot do for themselves! That's why I pray to no one! Nor will I be prayed to! But above all else, I will never forgive you for making my daughter cry! This is your end!!

On the planet Gaea, life was flourishing. Created by Chakravartin, the god who rules over Mantra, humans, animals and plants thrived, but their very existence was under constant threat by the impure Gohma. Spawned from the planet’s will as a self-defense mechanism, they entered into a never-ending war against Gaea’s inhabitants, secretly in order to find a suitable ruler for the planet, all in accordance with Chakravartin’s design.

Blessing certain humans with the ability to manipulate Mantra, their descendants eventually became known as Demigods. More technologically advanced than regular humans, they ruled over them from their nation of Shinkoku. These warriors were the Eight Guardian Generals led by Emperor Strada. And among the almighty Demigods, the greatest one among them was the general, Asura.

Asura, alongside the other Eight Guardian Generals, defended Gaea with his godlike powers. Until one fateful day, when Asura and his comrades confronted the source of Gohma itself, Vlitra. Fortunately, the Demigods succeed in subduing Vlitra and Asura went home to reunite with his wife, Durga, and daughter, Mithra. However, his reunion was cut short as he was summoned by the Emperor who, upon his arrival, was discovered to have been killed, with Asura framed for the murder.

After fleeing his imprisonment and discovering that his daughter had been kidnapped by his former comrades, Asura fought his way through until coming face to face with his leader, Deus. Deus revealed to Asura that he was the one responsible for the Emperor’s death and planned to use Miltra to “save the world” before killing Asura. Don’t worry, this isn’t where the story ends.

Asura awoke in the limbo realm of Naraka, and eventually found his way out thanks to the help of a Golden Spider, reentering the world of the living 12,000 years after his death. Asura learned from one of his old allies, Wyzen, that the Eight Guardian Generals became the Seven Deities and manipulated the followers they had to grow stronger than before. Hearing this revelation, Asura became enraged at his friends’ treachery and became so powerful, he singlehandedly killed Wyzen.

…Before being killed once again by another past comrade, his brother-in-law, Yasha. Poor guy can’t catch a break.

500 years later, Asura’s body was found and brought back to life, allowing him to make his true stand against the remaining Seven Deities and find his daughter. Eventually, upon confronting the last of his comrades gone rogue, making up with Yasha and subduing Vlitra, the Golden Spider that had helped him escape Naraka twice revealed itself to be none other than Chakravartin. He revealed to Asura that it was he who unleashed the Gohma in order to see if Asura was worthy of being proclaimed the inheritor of Gaea.

Asura, very much enraged by Chakravartin’s plan which caused his allies to turn against him and put his daughter at risk, refused Chakravartin’s offer and thus, challenged him. At first, Asura was defeated by Chakravartin but thanks to Yasha, who gifted him his Mantra Core and the Brahmastra’s Mantra Reactor, he became able to channel Mantra without tearing his body apart. 

With this new power, Asura faced Chakravartin in a climatic duel to decide the fate of Gaea. However, despite Asura’s newfound power that allowed him to stand against Chakravartin, it turned out that should Chakravartin be killed, Mantra-infused beings like Asura would no longer exist. However, Asura willingly accepted his fate, knowing that his daughter could live a life free from danger.

Thus, Asura killed Chakravartin once and for all, said goodbye to his daughter one last time, and faded from existence. However, millions of years later, Asura would be reincarnated into a father in the modern day who, even when hearing of giant meteors hurtling towards the city he lives in, faced them down with determination in his fists. Although the original demigod may have died, Asura’s Wrath is forever immortal.

Oh and somewhere in between all of that, he fought Ryu and Akuma on the moon.

Experience & Skill

Kratos

From his youth, Kratos was trained in the city of Sparta to be the best warrior he could possibly be. This training molded Kratos into an incredibly skilled fighter, knowing multiple Greek martial arts, with his main preference seeming to be Pankration style combat that was practiced during ancient olympic events, based on his heavy kicks, cross punches, and grapples.

Even when he was only a mere BOY, Kratos was capable of taking down multiple fully grown Spartan warriors at once. He has also completed all the traditional Spartan training, including armed and unarmed combat, and wilderness survival. Kratos' training did not stop at Sparta though. He has also trained in the realm of fire and ash, Musphelhim, completing the many challenges placed by the fire giant Surtur in his preparation to battle the Aesir gods.

Kratos has lived for well over a century thanks to his godly status, and said status as the God of War means he has even seen and examined battles he himself has had no relation to. He is a master of any weapon he has ever wielded. And in terms of his own battles? He has taken down numerous gods, Greek and Norse, who have had centuries to millennia more experience than him, besting them in combat with terrifying efficiency.

To summarize, Kratos has numerous years of combat experience against an insanely large variety of opponents, carrying proficiency in both armed and unarmed combat.

In the Norse games, Kratos also has access to an upgradable Skill Tree (because of course he does) that provides a large variety of techniques he can perform, both with his bare hands or with the Guardian Shield.

• Block Break: A shield bash to make blocking enemies drop their guard.

• Countering Strike: A last-second block lets Kratos hit back with a shield strike.

• Countering Crush: Same as above, but takes the form of a slam on the ground instead.

• Countering Blast: A last-second block against projectiles that absorbs the hit and returns it to sender.

• Guardian Sweep: An attack where Kratos attacks an opponent's legs, sweeping them off their feet.

• Guardian’s Justice: A heavy shield slam that deals large amounts of stun damage.

• Guardian’s Judgement: A follow-up attack to which adds a concussive blast to the end.

• Agile Strike: Performs a quick attack while leaning forward while evading.

• Haymaker Crush: Performs a running haymaker attack while sprinting.

• Shoulder Barrage: A powerful running shoulder bash to knock enemies back.

• Guardian’s Revenge: A stance switch type move that performs a strong uppercut before slamming the enemy back down.

• Guardian’s Fury: Another stance switch move that performs a leaping shield attack that can be followed up by a slam attack.

Asura

Asura, despite his tendency to attack without a plan and to rely only on his pure strength, is still a seasoned general who has seen centuries worth of combat. He has spent these years constantly fighting various Gohma as well as being considered on an even playing field to his fellow demigods. He is able to read the moves of the opponent and counterattack accordingly. His fighting style makes extensive use of aerial combos, recovery backflips and evasive rolls and flying dropkicks, rotating kicks, spinning headbutts.

Asura has shown to be able to match his former allies who have just as much experience as him in combat and even best them, being able to dispatch Wyzen and even his master Augus. He was able to go toe to toe with his rival Yasha as well as match and eventually defeat Deus. Lastly on this list of gods he’s defeated was Chakravartin, the absolute Primordial God of his world. Throughout the battle, Chakravartin teleports and even stops time.

Throughout his time as a general and during his journey for revenge, Asura has fought many different types of Gohma. These Gohma include the ravenous Howlers, large airborne manta ray Stingers that have large AoE attacks, the bulky and powerful Chargers, Squashers with their extremely durable shells, Gliders with their venomous spiked fins, etc. Notably, Asura is able to take on these various Gohma at once in large groups without much trouble at all. He was even able to combat and defeat Vlitra, the origin of all Gohma and the most powerful among them.

He also shows a decent amount of application of martial arts, doing so in his sky duel with Yasha while training under Augus. He knows how to put this to devastating use, such as the “Nut-Cracker” hold/slam used on Evil Ryu. Overall, Asura is an incredibly skilled combatant. His centuries of experience speak for themselves and his ability to combat not only various Gohma, but his fellow demigods and the Creator and Apex deity of his own world shows that behind all the rage is an incredibly skilled and battle-hardened warrior.

Equipment

Kratos

Quick explanation on Stats and Statuses

God of War 2018 introduced a variety of unique stats and status effects into the series. We have used the terms for these various stats a lot in the coming pages analyzing the Ghost of Sparta, thus we felt it appropriate to clarify what all of these mean before going forward to prevent any sort of confusion.

• Strength: Increases damage for all standard attacks.

• Runic: Increases damage for Runic and Elemental attacks.

• Defense: Reduces all types of damage taken.

• Vitality: Determines how much health Kratos has, and the higher the stat, the more the flinch reaction Kratos receives from enemy attacks is decreased.

• Luck: The higher the stat, the more XP and currency Kratos receives from defeating enemies. A few abilities use this as a basis for activation.

• Cooldown: The higher the stat, the less time it takes for Kratos to reuse Runic Attacks and Talisman abilities.

• “Health Burst”: When this is activated, Kratos recovers a specific amount of health. These can also be activated from Healthstones Kratos finds on the ground.

• “Rage Burst”: When this is activated, Kratos receives a notable increase to his rage meter (more details later). These can also be activated from Ragestones Kratos finds on the ground.

• Frost: When applied, this effect slows down the movement of the enemies. Moreover, if an enemy is slowed down due to this effect, Kratos can use Frost damage to Freeze them in no time. 

• Burn: The Burn status effects apply fiery damage over time to enemies.

• Weakness: A decrease to enemy attacking stats.

• Hex: A status effect that increases the strength of other present statuses.

• Daze: Afflicted targets become dizzy, unable to move for a time.

• Poison: Afflicted enemies suffer from lower stats.

• Bifrost: Builds up Bifrost charge with hits. While harmless on its own and will pass over time, subsequent hits can cause the built up Bifrost to explode and deal damage.

• Stun Damage: In GoW 2018 and Ragnarok, all enemies have a stun gauge that increases with successful hits. When full, the enemy is stunned. Enemies are then prone to “stun grabs” where Kratos usually performs a finisher or instant kill, but stronger enemies and bosses usually get damaged or lose a chunk of health (latter likely being game mechanics)

There also exists the Sonic and Shock effects, but Kratos has no means to apply these by himself.

Blades of Chaos

These blades are the weapons Ares gave Kratos when he made his vow to the God Of War. The chains of the weapon burned Kratos’ skin until they got to the bone, forming a connection between Kratos and the weapon. The blades make flames that were made by Hades’ furnace, allowing Kratos to perform fire attacks, with the flames being so hot that they are able to burn in the Norse realm Helheim, a Realm so cold that it is believed no flame in the Nine Norse Realms can burn there. Thanks to the long chains attached to the blades, Kratos is able to use them at long distances without putting himself in harm's way. Abilities of the blades are listed below:

• Magic, Statistics Amplification and Empowerment: Granted Kratos a tremendous increase in strength, far more than any he had ever tasted before. The more Kratos kills with these Blades, the more his strength, speed and magic increases in both reserves and potency.

• Chain Manipulation: Kratos can control the length of its chains or make them disappear entirely based on user preference.

• Fire Manipulation, Chaos Manipulation and Holy Manipulation: Forged in the foulest Depths of Hades, imbued with the Primordial Flames of both Tartarus and Chaos. The Fires of Chaos birthed the Primordial Fire, which in turn birthed all other fires in the Greek World and serves as the power source of Helios. It also served as the life-giving light that keeps Morpheus, the Primordial God of Dreams, from consuming the Mortal World in darkness and merging it with his own realm.

• Explosion Manipulation: Able to embed explosive cores into enemies with the Rage of Ares.

• Life-Force Absorption, Soul Manipulation and effects of harming souls (Mind Manipulation and Memory Manipulation, Vector Manipulation, Probability Manipulation, Essence Manipulation  and Non-Physical Interaction):, Absorption, and Power Nullification: Able to absorb life-force, and powers from other sources of magic for its own. With the Soul of Hades, its soul-affecting powers are amplified, and he can summon the Arms of Hades, which have the ability to transform the living into fragilized souls of the damned. Souls are composed of their form, the metaphysical nature of a being, their luck, their mind and their direction, which guides their path to their respective afterlife as per Mimir's word.

• Portal Creation: The Soul of Hades allows him to create portals to strike foes at a distance.

• BFR: The Soul of Hades can also summon the Arms of Hades via Hades Torment, which drag down its victims back to the Underworld. Hades can do the same with his arms, as he did against Kratos' men.

• Summoning and Homing Attack: With the Soul of Hades, which can summon the souls of the Underworld to vaporize enemies, and can summon the rotting Arms of Hades via Plume of Hades or Hades Torment, with the latter being also able to drag its victims down into the Underworld. Can also summon an army of vicious souls with the Army of Hades, which is also usable via Soul of Hades.

• Ice Manipulation and Underwater Breathing: With the Ice of Poseidon.

• Lightning Manipulation, Paralysis Inducement and Power Nullification (Via Lightning of Zeus. The Blades are capable of channeling the lightning of Olympus itself through them via the Lightning of Zeus, as well as summoning them from the clouds directly if Kratos is sufficiently enraged. Even a fraction of Zeus' lightning can nullify magical abilities with lightning strikes.

• Resistance to Corrosion (Blades of Exile): Completely unscathed after being submerged in the River Styx, whereas its previous form, the Blades of Athena, had corroded beyond repairability.

Kratos has also gained a number of attacks and skills for the blade which he can also use in combat, as well as equipable pommels. These pommels can enhance his stats and grant special perks when certain conditions are fulfilled. Perks can include increases to various stats, or special effects such as reducing the cooldown of Kratos’ Runic Attacks.

Skill Tree Attacks (Technique Skills)

• Flame Whiplash I-II: Kratos spins the Blades and charges them. The second level can be instantly charged, in game this takes the form of using the ability button after any attack.

• Scorched Sweep I-III: Light Flame Whiplash attack that does a large sweep and applies burn damage. Creates a wave of fire if fully charged. Higher upgrades increase burn damage and the fire’s waves damage and size.

• Vaporized Frost: Deals bonus damage to frozen enemies.

• Immolation: Melee attacks in quick succession without getting hit charges the Immolation meter, which grants more burn damage. Can also grant a Luck and Runic bonus when active.

• Furious Immolation: If the Immolation gauge is full, it can be consumed to enhance the Blades, granting explosions at the end of all melee attacks that build Kratos’ rage meter.

• Scorched Earth I-III: Heavy Flame Whiplash attack that adds a slam that causes a burning explosion and fire hazard. Levels 2 and 3 deal more damage and increase the length of the hazard.

Skill Tree Attacks (Ranged Skills)

• Hyperion Pull: Uses the Blades as hooks to yank enemies to Kratos, usually followed up by a shield bash, or slamming into the ground if the target is airborne. Can be used as a launcher on weaker enemies.

• Hyperion Grapple I-II: Instead of pulling, Kratos launches himself towards enemies, causing large amounts of stun. Level 2 sends sparks out that can hit enemies behind the target.

• Blazing Surge: Enemies impaled with Hyperion Pull can instead be hit with an exploding spark sent down the chain, dealing burn damage and launching some.

• Blazing Explosion I-II: Can impale the other blade for a second blast. Level 2 of this ability increases blast radius.

Skill Tree Attacks (Melee Skills)

• Rushing Chaos: While sprinting, Kratos can execute a powerful double-slash attack that staggers enemies.

• Rising Fury/Rising Chaos: Kratos performs a powerful attack that launches enemies into the air.

• Plume of Chaos:  During the second-to-last attack of a traditional combo, Kratos can put in extra force for an extra heavy combo finisher.

• Whirling Chaos: Kratos can perform a powerful attack that strikes all enemies around him.

• Chaos Slam: While sprinting, Kratos can leap into the air and perform a powerful chain-slam attack.

• Spinning Chaos/Spinning Chaos Strike: While evading, Kratos can lean forward and attack to perform a leaping spin attack.

• Retreating Slash: While evading, Kratos can lean back and attack all enemies in a large radius in front of him.

• Chaotic Rampage: Kratos can switch offensive and defensive stances by pausing momentarily after any Blades of Chaos attack. Once in a new stance, he can perform an extra quick flurry of close-range attacks. In Ragnarok, this skill can be enhanced through three stages.

• Chaotic Frenzy: A technique that increases the number of strikes in the Chaotic Rampage attack.

• Chaotic Flurry: Just like for the Chaos Rampage attack, Kratos switches stances. Once in a new stance, he can perform an explosive triple-stab dash attack.

• Chaotic Concussion: Kratos can perform a powerful follow-up stab that plants a detonating bomb on any enemies hit, inflicting additional burning damage, after performing the Chaotic Flurry technique.

• Evasive Embers: While evading backwards, Kratos can send a shower of sparks that burn enemies.

• Plume of Chaos: Adds a heavy attack finisher at the end of his light combo that launches and deals burn damage.

Skill Tree Attacks (Elemental Combat)

• Spear of Chaos: Kratos aims at an enemy before stabbing them from a distance via his blade and chain, before pulling them close up next to Kratos.

• Immolation: By performing quick consecutive attacks, Kratos can power up the Blades of Chaos and thus do additional Burn damage on every hit.

• Elemental Slash: Kratos focuses on the area around him before performing a large sweeping attack around the battlefield that inflicts additional burn damage.

• Elemental Surge: After an enemy is impaled via the Spear of Chaos attack, Kratos can send a wave of energy through the chain to blast the impaled enemy into the air rather than pull them closer.

• Furious Immolation: A skill that increases the speed at which the Immolation skill increases power.

• Elemental Charge: By charging up the Blades of Chaos, Kratos can deal additional Burn damage when performing the Elemental Slash attack.

• Elemental Explosion: A skill that increases the size, damage, and Burn damage inflicted by the Elemental Surge technique.

• Engulfing Spear: A skill which causes the Spear of Chaos attack to cause a small explosion on impact, resulting in additional Burn damage.

• Elemental Overcharge: By charging the Blades even further, Kratos can increase the strength of the Elemental Slash technique even further for a large increase in Burn damage across a greater range.

• Essence of Athena, Essence of Ares, and Essence of Zeus are all abilities in the Skill Tree that simply increase Kratos’ Luck, Strength, and Runic stats.

Light Runic Attacks

• Cyclone of Chaos: A circling sweep attack that clears out all nearby enemies.

• Nemean Crush: A massive shockwave attack that sends all enemies flying back.

• Rampage of the Furies: A robust flurry attack that ends in a powerful slam.

• Rage of the Titans: A rapid blade attack that ends in a devastating swipe that launches enemies into the air.

• Icarus Storm: A spinning attack that hits all enemies along its path.

• Wrath of Artemis: A slash attack that protects Kratos by pushing away all nearby enemies.

• Blast of Hephaestus: A quick, fiery blast of energy that inflicts a small amount of Burn damage.

• Spartan Charge: A dash attack that slams enemies with a fiery shield and inflicts a small amount of Burn damage.

• Flames of Anguish: An uppercut that launches enemies and creates a fiery geyser. Upgrades increase the number of eruptions.

• Hades Retribution: A stab with the blades that embeds a fiery bomb, which explodes after a brief delay. Upgrades add more stabs that embed more bombs.

• Helios Flare: Creates a fire bolt that is thrown at enemies. Upgrades let it charge up, increase explosion radius, and set off secondary explosions.

Heavy Runic Attacks

• Tartarus Rage: A destructive slam attack that hits enemies with two blade slams.

• Fire of Ares: A powerful runic attack that lets out one (or three if upgraded) fire shockwaves that deal heavy Burn damage.

• Prometheus Flame: A deadly slam attack that creates a small tear under up to 4 enemies before summoning a large pillar of flame beneath them.

• Hyperion Slam: A massive slam attack that causes a destructive explosion

• Hyperion Grapple: Tosses the Blades of Chaos towards an enemy and on contact, launches Kratos towards them to inflict a large amount of Stun damage.

• Meteoric Slam: A powerful slam attack that rains down fire in a wide arc, inflicting heavy Burn damage.

• Gift of Apollo: Temporarily enhance the Blades of Chaos so that every hit gives Kratos a small amount of Health.

• Nemean Crush: Creates a fiery shockwave that sends enemies flying back. Upgrades add an explosive mortar volley.

• Atlas Eruption: Repeatedly slams the blades into the ground, creating several explosions.

• Tame the Beast: A series of blade whips that scorch targets.

Blade Pommels

• Wooden Blade Grips: Crude wooden blade grips.

• Deadly Grips of Fury: Low Perk activation chance to grant a Rage Burst upon any successful hit.

• Deadly War Handles: Low Perk activation chance to grant a Gift of Strength upon any successful kill.

• Precision Recovery Handles: Moderate Perk activation chance to grant a Blessing of Cooldown upon successfully landing Spear of Chaos on an airborne enemy.

• Precision Grips of Fortification: Moderate Perk activation chance to grant a Gift of Defense upon successfully landing Spear of Chaos on an airborne enemy.

• Precision War Handles: Moderate Perk activation chance to grant a Gift of Strength upon successfully landing Spear of Chaos on an airborne enemy.

• Deadly Recovery Handles: Low Perk activation chance to grant a Blessing of Cooldown upon any successful kill.

• Deadly Grips of Magic: Low Perk activation chance to grant a Blessing of Runic upon any successful kill.

• Deadly Grips of Protection: Low Perk activation chance to grant a Gift of Defense upon any successful kill.

• Weightless War Handles: Moderate Perk activation chance to grant a Gift of Strength upon successfully landing Rising Fury on an enemy.

• Weightless Grips of Protection: Moderate Perk activation chance to grant Protective Barrier, preventing damage from enemy attacks, upon successfully landing Rising Fury on an enemy.

• Deadly Grips of Vitality: Low Perk activation chance to grant a Health Burst upon any successful kill.

• Grips of the Forgotten Flame: Moderate Perk activation chance upon any successful hit to grant Aura of Fire, increasing Strength and restoring a small amount of Health.

• Explosive Grips of Fire: Low Perk activation chance to strike with a fiery explosion that inflicts Burn damage to all nearby enemies upon any successful Blades hit.

• Grips of Cursed Flame: Low Perk Activation chance to plant a three-second delayed fire bomb on enemies upon any successful Blades hit.

• Blightguard: Low Perk activation chance to strike with an explosive curse that inflicts Weakness to enemies upon any successful hit.

• Grips of the Valkyrie: Low Perk activation chance upon any successful Blades hit to grant Power of the Valkyrie, increasing Strength and Runic (stacks up to three times max).

• Steel Handles: Basic steel handles that grant a small strength increase.

• Pommels of the Nine Realms: Activating Furious Immolation while the gauge is full triggers a Realm Shift, slowing down time.

• Pommels of the True Flame: While the Immolation skill gauge is full, increases the damage of the Blades’ Runic Attacks.

• Cursed Empress Handles: Low luck based chance on any successful hit to increase Kratos’ strength and runic attack power.

• Pommels of Burning Unity: Increases the rate at which the Blades inflict the burn status. Also increases Immolation charge gained when striking a burned enemy.

• Luminous Recovery Handles: Flame Whiplash hits have a moderate luck based chance to grant a blessing of cooldown.

• Hardened War Handles: Hyperion Grapple and Hyperion Pull skills do extra damage and stun damage.

• Pommels of Agile Deceit: The Spinning Chaos and Evasive Embers skills do more damage and apply more Burn.

• Pommels of Brutal Might: Stun Grabbing an enemy grants a gift of strength.

• Radiant Warden Handles: While charging Flame Whiplash, incoming projectiles are deflected.

• Pommels of the Undying Spark: The Burn status inflicts more damage on enemies.

• Deadly Obsidian Handles: Grant a small strength increase.

• Darkdale Handles: Enemies killed with Flame Whiplash cause a Burn Shockwave and increase Burn status inflicted for a time.

Greek Magic

During the events of Ascension, Kratos gathered several magic spells for the Blades of Chaos that pull from his magic reserves. They also have special attacks, tied to a rage meter, that can be used after filling the meter with consecutive hits and not being hit in return.

• Fire of Ares: Gives the Blades a fire attunement, seemingly amplifying the Blades’ natural flames. They grant greater area of effect with some attacks, and its special attack attaches a fireball to targets that explodes after a short delay. Its magic has Kratos slam the Blades into the ground to make a large explosion. Enemies killed via incineration drop Gold Orbs that refill Kratos’ rage meter.

• Ice of Poseidon: Makes the blades ice attuned. As well as being one of many artifacts that grants him water breathing, Kratos can launch icicles and freeze enemies solid after enough hits. Its rage attack grapples enemies with the swords and freezes them. Its magic summons a tornado that freezes any who touch it. Enemies who are shattered while frozen grant Red Orbs that help power up Kratos’ equipment.

• Lightning of Zeus: Channels the power of the King of the Gods into his Blades, electrifying them. Can fire thunder orbs, stun foes, or add more hits for longer combos. Its rage attack fires a continuous, short range burst of lightning from the Blade’s point at a target. Kratos is protected whilst doing this. Its spell creates an electric orb around Kratos that hits anything that enters it many times. Enemies killed through electrocution drop magic refilling Blue Orbs.

• Soul of Hades: Uses the power of Hades to release the souls of the dead upon its victims. Many attacks gain the ability to summon hands from the underworld for attacks, or fire off wide beams of energy. Its rage attack summons several souls that fly into enemies to damage them. Magic performed summons several hands, seemingly dragging foes with them back to the underworld. Victims killed with vaporization from the hands drop Health refilling Green Orbs.

Note that Kratos has used very similar weapons to the Blades of Chaos, namely the Blades of Exile and Blades of Athena. However, they are nearly identical in terms of functionality with most differences being aesthetic, at least without added Norse-era upgrades, though with some exceptions.

The Blades of Athena have an added ability known as Thera’s Bane. When active, Kratos places molten cores on enemies that build up after some time, similarly to the Fire of Ares. These then explode, and it’s useful for enemies with extra armour and certain doors. This attack is tied to a bar that refills after a short time. The Blades of Exile also have a built-in magic attack called the Army of Sparta. This allows Kratos to summon a Phalanx of Spartan Spirits that protects him from damage, impales enemies with spears in a radius around him, and can be upgraded to fire arrows in a wide area around him. 

Leviathan Axe

Gifted to Kratos by his late wife (the second one), the Leviathan Axe was forged by the dwarfs Brok and Sindri millennia ago. The axe wields incredible strength, perfect for cutting through and into enemies without difficulty. It also has extremely potent ice powers, allowing it to freeze objects or foes, and it can be thrown long distances only for Kratos to call it back to his hand in the blink of an eye. When clashing with Mjolnir, it creates a streak of frozen lightning, which was also made years back Faye used the Axe to clash with Thor. Abilities listed below:

• Magic: Stated in the Lost Pages of Norse Myth to be an unparalleled creation with potent magic unmatched in any realm.

• Poison Manipulation: Imbued with Eitr poison from Jörmungandr.

• Air Manipulation: Via Thamur's Breath.

• Soul Manipulation and effects of harming souls (Mind Manipulation and Memory Manipulation, Vector Manipulation, Probability Manipulation, Essence Manipulation  and Non-Physical Interaction): The clashing of Laufey's Leviathan Axe with Thor's Mjölnir tore apart many poor souls in the Vanaheim Crater Area. Souls are composed of their form, the metaphysical nature of a being, their luck, their mind and their direction, which guides their path to their respective afterlife as per Mimir's words. Damaging souls can shatter and fragment their memories as a consequence.

The axe is also capable of a variety of unique Runic and Skill Tree attacks, as well as being equipped with various pommels.

Skill Tree Attacks (Ranged Combat)

• Freezing Throw I-II: Kratos can aim at enemies and perform a heavy throw that freezes smaller enemies while causing a small icy explosion to hit others.

• Freezing Burst: Kratos can aim at enemies and charge up the Leviathan Axe before performing a heavy throw that causes a Frost inflicting explosion upon contact.

• Precision Throw Combo: By previously striking a weak point with an axe throw, Kratos can immediately call back the axe to power up the next throw, with said next throw resulting in an even larger icy explosion inflicting Frost damage, with the skill Precision Frost Burst increasing the size of this explosion even further.

• Hunter-Killer I: Kratos aims at 3 targets on a specific enemy, or at 3 enemies at once, before throwing the axe to hit those targets. The additional skills Hunter-Killer II and III increase the maximum number of targets to 5 and 8 respectively.

• Returning Whirlwind: Upon calling back the Leviathan Axe, Kratos can immediately perform a quick spinning attack.

• Returning Storm: Upon calling back the Leviathan Axe, Kratos can immediately perform a quick slam attack.

• Vengeful Sickle I-II: By charging up the Leviathan Axe, Kratos can cause it to continuously spin and slice enemies multiple times when thrown.

Skill Tree Attacks (Melee Combat)

• Executioner’s Cleave: By focusing his strength, Kratos can attack with a brutal cleaving axe attack that deals massive damage.

• Grinding Storm: Kratos can perform a spinning axe attack that hits enemies multiple times and locks them down.

• Pride of the Frost: A heavy attack finisher that can be performed at the end of a fast combo. The later superior Pride of the Frost II also allows for multiple heavy slams to be performed throughout the finisher.

• Permafrost: By performing attacks in quick succession without sustaining damage, Kratos can power up the Leviathan Axe temporarily while also making it inflict Frost on each hit. The skill Glacial Permafrost also increases the rate at which Permafrost increases strength.

• Whirling Storm: While evading, Kratos can lean forward and perform a quick axe attack.

• Frost Rush: After sprinting, Kratos can jump at his enemy and perform a quick but strong axe attack.

• Evasive Storm: While evading, Kratos can lean back and perform a quick boomerang-like throw with the Leviathan Axe.

• Leviathan’s Fury: After sprinting, Kratos can jump at his enemy and perform a slow but incredibly strong axe attack.

• Whirlwind Sweep: After switching between offensive and defensive stances after delaying an attack, Kratos can perform a sweeping attack. He can also do up to three of these sweeping attacks consecutively via the Double Whirlwind and Raging Whirlwind skills.

• Whirlwind Throw: After switching between offensive and defensive stances, Kratos can throw his axe at an incredible speed.

• Whirlwind Fury: After switching between offensive and defensive stances after delaying an attack, Kratos can perform a heavy ranged combo.

• Glacial Rake: By dragging the Leviathan Axe through the ground, Kratos can tear ice from the ground and shoot it out towards enemies to both damage them and inflict them with Frost.

• Serpent’s Snare: Kratos readies the axe before striking an enemy with so much force that they go flying, with weaker enemies also causing an icy explosion upon their unpleasant meeting with the ground.

Skill Tree Attacks (Technique Skills)

• Frost Awaken I-IV: Kratos can instantly imbue the Leviathan Axe with ice, resulting in the next hit dealt causing greatly increased Frost damage.

• Frozen Breach: Kratos can use the enhancement from Frost Awaken to turn a light attack into a wide and devastating swing.

• Frozen Spike: By throwing the Leviathan Axe with the power of Frost Awaken, Kratos can guarantee a Frost inducing explosion on impact.

• Extinguish Flames: A skill that increases Leviathan Axe melee damage on Burn inflicted enemies.

• Frozen Ascent: By performing a heavy attack enhanced by Frost Awaken, Kratos can perform an upwards slash that releases a heavy Frost inducing chilling wave to strike enemies.

• Frozen Lance: By performing a heavy throw enhanced by Frost Awaken, Kratos can perform an extremely strong knocking back throw that inflicts Frost.

Light Runic Attacks

• Njörd’s Tempest: A rapidly spinning melee attack that clears out surrounding enemies and deals significant damage.

• Fury of the Ice Troll: A quick radial shockwave attack that slows enemies and sends them flying back.

• Tyr’s Revenge: A powerful spinning attack against a single target, with a follow-up attack that slams the enemy to the ground.

• Leviathan’s Wake: A quick, yet powerful axe throw which carves a path through enemies.

• Charge of the White Bear: A quick, propulsive dash attack with a follow-up strike. Kratos is protected during the dash.

• Wrath of the Frost Ancient: A powerful ice beam that slows all enemies on contact.

• Strike of the Utgard: A wide-arcing attack that inflicts a moderate amount of Frost damage.

• Hel’s Touch: An extremely quick burst of energy that interrupts and knocks back all nearby enemies.

• Winter’s Bite: Kratos forms a mass of ice around the Leviathan Axe before running up to strike a target with incredible force.

• Skadi’s Edge: A tracking axe throw done by marking targets beforehand.

Heavy Runic Attacks

• Thiazi’s Talon: A propulsive slice attack that launches a small, vertical wave that inflicts medium Frost damage.

• Ivaldi’s Anvil: A devastating area-of-effect attack that freezes all enemies caught in the blast radius.

• Mists of Helheim: A lingering area-of-effect attack that creates a small hazard that inflicts Frost damage to all enemies inside.

• Leviathan’s Roar: A powerful axe throw that blows straight through any enemies on its path.

• Frost Giant’s Frenzy: 3 powerful slam attacks that will launch enemies and then send them flying.

• Blessings of the Frost: Activate to temporarily power up the Leviathan Axe with small explosions of frost damage on every hit and slight bonus to Runic (the higher Kratos’ Runic stat, the stronger has Runic attacks) and normal attacks.

• Breath of Thamur: A massive area of effect attack that deals damage to all enemies within an extremely large area.

• The River of Knives: A destructive attack that sends out a line of ice shards that inflict frost damage and launch enemies into the air upon contact.

• Glaive Storm: Throws the Leviathan Axe towards any nearby targets, automatically seeking out, hitting, and inflicting frost damage to any enemies caught in its path.

• Fog of Fimbulwinter: A massive ice wave that inflicts Frost damage and freezes enemies in its path.

Axe Pommels

• Wooden Grip: A basic crude wooden axe grip.

• Weighted War Handle: High Perk activation chance to grant a Gift of strength upon any successful Executioner’s Cleave.

• Curved Runic Handle: Low Perk activation chance to grant a Blessing of Runic upon any successful precision throw.

• Weighted Recovery Handle: High Perk activation chance to grant a Blessing of Cooldown upon any successful Executioner’s Cleave.

• Curved Recovery Handle: High Perk activation chance to grant a Blessing of Cooldown upon any successful precise axe throw.

• Versatile Warrior’s Handle: Increases strength, defense, and luck stats. 

• Weighted Runic Handle: High Perk activation chance to grant a Blessing of Runic upon any successful Executioner’s Cleave.

• Curved War Handle: High Perk activation chance to grant a Gift of Strength upon any successful precision throw.

• Curved Grip of Fury: Low Perk activation chance to grant a Rage Burst upon any successful precision throw.

• Light War Handle: High Perk activation chance to grant a Gift of Strength after launching an enemy into the air.

• Light Grip of Protection: High Perk activation chance to summon a Protective Barrier temporarily, preventing damage from enemy attacks, after launching an enemy into the air.

• Deadly Grip of Fury: Successful axe kills grant a Rage Burst.

• Deadly Grip of Vitality: Successful axe kills grant a Health Burst.

• Weighted Grip of Restoration: High Perk activation chance to grant a Health Burst upon any successful Executioner’s Cleave.

• Curved Grip of Restoration: High Perk activation chance to grant a Health Burst upon any successful precise throw.

• Ymir’s Breath: Low Perk activation chance to create a freezing explosion upon any successful axe hit.

• Grip of Völunder: Very low Perk activation chance to grant a Protective Barrier temporarily, preventing damage from enemy attacks, upon any successful axe hit.

• Grip of Tanngiost: Low Perk activation chance to strike with an explosion of lightning that inflicts electric damage to all nearby enemies upon any successful axe hit.

• Forbidden Grip of the Ages: An ancient relic that increases all of Kratos’s Stats. Adds a concussive wave of energy to the end of a quick combo.

• Hraezla Farmadr’s Grip: Low Perk activation chance to grant a Health Burst upon any successful axe hit.

• Surtr’s Grip of Flame: Low Perk activation chance to grant Wrath of Flame upon any successful hit. Wrath of Flame greatly increases Strength, restores a small amount of Health, and fires a wave of energy on normal attacks.

• Grip of the Maze: Very high Perk activation chance to restore some protection against the Cursed Mist of Niflheim upon any successful kill. Passively grants resistance to the Cursed Mist. This resistance should apply to other toxic gasses as well.

• Retribution: Light axe throws and recalls become incredibly powerful. Low Perk activation chance to strike with a massively damaging explosion upon any successful hit.

• Wing of the Fallen: Moderate Perk activation chance upon any successful kill to grant Power of the Valkyrie, an effect that increases Runic and Strength (Stacks up to 3 times max).

• Valkyrie’s Might: Moderate Perk activation chance upon any successful Executioner’s Cleave to grant Strike to the Valkyrie, causing a massive explosion on the next attack. Low Perk activation chance to cause an explosion upon any successful hit.

• Blightbringer: Low Perk activation chance to strike with an explosive curse that inflicts Weakness to enemies upon any successful hit.

• Mistbourne: Low Perk activation chance to grant a Healing Mist upon any successful hit. Healing Mist regenerates Health and increases Runic.

• Grip of Weighted Recovery: Stun Grabbing an enemy provides a blessing of Cooldown.

• Fortified Frost Knob: Using Frost Awaken increases defense and stagger resistance.

• Grip of The Nine Realms: Activating Glacial Permafrost triggers a Realm Shift.

• Grip of Radiant Reflection: Successful axe ranged attacks now generate charge of Permafrost, with successful precision throws generating even more.

• Runic Hailstone Knob: Moderate chance upon hitting a frosted enemy to gain a blessing of Runic.

• Banahogg Knob: Successful precision throws increase Bare-Handed attack damage for a duration.

• Grip of Darkdale: Killing enemies with a Frost Awaken attack causes a Frost shockwave and re-Frost Awakens the axe.

• Grip of The Fallen Alchemist: High Chance to grant a Health burst upon any successful hit with the Serpent’s Snare skill.

• Grip of Healing Harmony: When the Permafrost skill gauge is fully charged, axe hits restore Health, but incoming damage is increased.

• Stonecutter’s Knob: Adds a concussive wave to the end of a light axe combo.

• Haur’s Lucky Knob: Moderate chance for any successful precision throw to cause a bonus Stun Blast.

• The Furious Maul: Slayer’s Strength perk gives a high Luck chance to grant a Gift of Strength upon any kill with the axe.

Draupnir Spear

In order to fight the Aesir’s watchman Heimdall, Kratos required a weapon to overwhelm his senses. So, with the help of Brok and a combination of the sounds of wind, a spearhead, the self replicating Draupnir Ring, and Kratos’ own blood, they became the new Draupnir Spear. This new weapon is a perfect fit for Kratos, as in his own words, a spear is the first weapon a Spartan is taught to use.

The spear has a wide variety of abilities. It can be thrown like a javelin and is sturdy enough to climb and jump on. Thrown spears can be detonated just by tapping the handle on the ground, and due to the ring it comes from, new spears can be created on the fly. It has a measure of air manipulation, being able to fire concussive blasts and summon small tornados. It can also absorb an element off an enemy when stabbed, granting a short corresponding elemental resistance (ex. Draining fire gives some brief resistance to afterburn effects), or imbue its concussive blasts with that element. Listed below are some unique powers of the spear.

• Duplication: Can duplicate itself into any given number of Draupnir Spears without any limit.

• Self-Destruction and Explosion Manipulation: Each of the spears is capable of being thrown as a projectile and detonated remotely by its wielder.

• Spam Attacks: Via Artillery of the Ancients, which can summon multiple Spears and rain them down onto its wielder's enemies.

• Air Manipulation: Is capable of creating powerful gusts, tornadoes, vacuums and wind blades to attack one's opponents.

• Energy Manipulation and Projection, Absorption, Resistance Negation: Via Elemental Siphon and Huldra Charge, which can absorb the enemy’s energy source, and it even grants its wielder enhanced resistance to said energy types. In the linked example, Kratos siphons Bifrost from them, imbues his spear with it, enhances his resistance to it and lowers the resistance of the opponent to it. He can do this with fire, ice, lightning, poison, and even the Light of Alfheim.

Just like other weapons, Kratos has a variety of Skill Tree Attacks, Runic Attacks, and special handles that come with the weapon.

Skill Tree Attacks (Technique Skills)

• Draupnir’s Call I-III: Kratos slams the spear on the ground, sequentially detonating all thrown spears. With Draupnir’s Call II, detonated spears briefly weaken enemies, which reduces their resistance to staggering. This increases the more spears are embedded into them. With III, every impaled enemy is hit with an additional explosion when detonated.

• Draupnir’s Wail: Same as above, but holding off the detonation temporarily will result in stronger blasts.

• Spear Arsenal I-III: All three skills increase the number of spears that can be active, up to a maximum of eight.

• Maelstorm: Melee attacks in quick succession powers up the spear, increasing melee damage. Also grants more Luck and better Runic attack power.

• Violent Maelstorm: When fully charged, the charge can be consumed to significantly increase the amount of stun damage done per attack.

• Spear Swiftness: Throwing many spears in succession increases the rate at which further spears are thrown.

Skill Tree Attacks (Ranged Skills)

• Spear Throw: Basic skill that lets Kratos throw spears into any surface. These spears can then be detonated.

• Gale Force I-III: Lets the spear fire a blast of wind to knock targets away. Any siphoned element is used to enhance this blast with that element. With II, nearby foes are sucked before firing. Launched opponents can be kept airborne by the turbulent force. With III, fully charging Gale Force greatly amplifies the force of the blast and lets enemies be launched into the air.

• Spear Drill: Thrown spears can be charged that hits multiple times and drives opponents backwards.

Skill Tree Attacks (Melee Skills)

• Impaling Thrust I-III: Kratos can impale enemies with spears in melee combat. The second and third levels increase the number of spears he can do this with during a combo.

• General’s Deception: While evading, Kratos can launch a blast of wind to knock enemies off their feet.

• General’s Advance: While evading Kratos can hit opponents with the blunt end of a spear before striking downward with the sharp end.

• Elemental Siphon I-II: Kratos can stab enemies and take their element for enhancing his own attacks, though it’s lost if a runic attack is used. Level 2 grants a temporary resistance to that element.

• Hoplite Lunge I-II: A light, sprinting stab attack. Level 2 of this ability embeds the spear for detonation.

• Phalanx Breaker: A heaving sprinting attack for guard breaking, followed by a launching attack on weaker targets.

• Rising Wind I-II: A combo with a heavy attack finisher that launches targets. Level 2 creates a whirlwind that disrupts nearby targets.

Light Runic Attacks

• Huldra Charge: A long-range spear charge that can siphon elements. Level two adds multi-hitting properties, and level three creates a wind shell that fully protects Kratos while charging.

• Thrust of a Thousand Soldiers: Performs a flurry of stabs which embed spears into a target. Higher levels let a player mash the attack button for more spears.

• Mountain Splitter: Launches a number of wind slices that stagger targets. Higher levels increase both projectile count and stagger damage.

• Whisper of the World: Pulls in enemies around Kratos before launching them away. Higher levels increase both area of effect and knockback power.

Heavy Runic Attacks

• Artillery of the Ancients: Kratos hurls Draupnir to the sky, raining down multiplying Spears. Higher levels increase spear quantity, affected area and the attack's duration.

• Honour the Fallen: A long range dive into enemies. Level 2 initiates a strong wind gust to stagger foes, Level 3 lets Kratos charge the attack for extra power.

• Vindsvalr's Windstorm: Creates an array of cyclones that damage anything they come across. Higher levels increase the number and duration of the cyclones.

• The Finger of Ruin: Summons a larger tornado to scoop up enemies and keep them suspended in the air. Higher levels increase damage, duration, and tornado radius.

Spear Handles

• Soldier's Sauroter: Increases Defense. The spear came pre-forged with this.

• Hind of Attuned Elements: Increases Defense and Runic attack power. Deals bonus damage to frozen or burning targets.

• Mighty Olympic Sauroter: Increases Defense and Luck, while shortening cooldowns. Thrown spears have a Luck based chance to increase strength and stagger resistance.

• Charging Assault Sauroter: Increases Defense, Health, and Luck. The Hoplite Lunge and Phalanx Breaker skills apply more Stun damage and have a moderate Luck based chance to provide an Unstoppable Aura, which temporarily stops incoming attacks.

• Hind of the Nine Realms: Increases Health and Runic power, while shortening cooldowns. If the Maelstorm Gauge is full, it can activate a Realm Shift, which slows time.

• Hind of the Four Winds: Increases Strength and Defense. Adds a concussive wave at the end of the weapon’s heavy attack combo.

• Lion's Roar Sauroter: Increases Defense. Greatly increases the stun damage of Gale Force.

• Hind of Weightless Victory: Increases Defense and Luck. When Maelstorm’s gauge is full, successful hits have a chance to shorten cooldowns.

• Battle-Scarred Sauroter: Increases Defense and Vitality. Enemies who are grabbed after being hit with enough stun damage grant Kratos an increase to his Rage meter.

• Hind of Deadly Vitality: Increases Defense, Luck, shortens cooldowns. Luck based chance to gain a health boost upon successful spear kills.

• Warrior's Echo Sauroter: Increases Strength, Defense, and Runic Power. Spear attacks against Sonic-inflicted enemies deal bonus damage and build bonus Maelstorm skill charge.

• Hind of Volatile Might: Increases Health and Defense. Elemental Siphons do more damage, but fade after a time.

Guardian Shield

Another gift from his late second wife, Kratos uses this as his main defensive option during the Norse era. It’s incredibly durable and capable of reflecting projectiles, but even still, it was greatly damaged in a fight against the God of Thunder Thor and The Huntress. It was repaired by Brok and Sindri, and can equip other shield types in its place, as well as shield ronds for additional effects.

Aside from the basic Guardian Shield, he can equip four others:

• Stone Wall Shield: Gives up parrying ability, but absorbs incoming attacks instead, even some heavier attacks Kratos couldn’t block normally. Kratos can use this built up energy in a shield slam that does good damage and stun.

• Dauntless Shield: Trades a more fragile regular guard for better parrying. Automatically deflects projectiles and builds up charge through parries, which deals damage, stun and pushback depending on the charge. 

• Shatter Star Shield: Focused on blocking, it builds up charge by holding the shield up. Charge can be released with a shield bash that deals damage and stun.

• Onslaught Shield: A more aggressive shield, whose bash travels a long distance, doing damage based on distance traveled.

Shield Ronds

• Rönd of Volition: The basic, default shield rond.

• Rönd of Aggravation: Upon successful counters, gives a high chance to grant a rage burst.

• Rönd of Expedition: Grants shortened cooldowns when interrupting certain attacks or parrying.

• Rönd of Affliction: Shield Strikes against status-afflicted enemies consume the ailment, causing a damaging elemental explosion in the process.

• Rönd of Restoration: Upon being hit, Kratos has a luck based chance to gain better  defense, as well as restore health on a successful shield bash. The chance increases with lower health.

• Rönd of Deflection: Increases the timing window for parries.

• Rönd of Purification: If Kratos is inflicted with status effects, a shield bash can cleanse that effect and deal that damage to enemies.

• Rönd of the Nine Realms: Small chance upon parries to trigger a realm shift and slow time.

• Rönd of Disruption: Low chance when parrying or interrupting some attacks to create an elemental storm.

• Rönd of Absorption: The Permafrost, Immolation, and Maelstrom skill gauges increase when Blocking or Parrying.

• Rönd of Fortification: Holding the shield for several seconds will cause a large stun damage explosion on the next block or shield bash.

• Rönd of Obliteration: Holding the shield for several seconds lets Kratos fire a volley of Valkyrie shards.

Mimir

Mimir of Asgard was once Odin’s wise advisor who influenced his decisions. But one day, Odin believed Mimir to be a traitor and thus a problem, and thus imprisoned him within an enchanted tree made of indestructible wood, torturing Mimir frequently for daily pleasure. Eventually however, Kratos would find the advisor and chop off his head at Mimir’s request to escape Odin’s prison, later being revived as a head that would go on to aid Kratos on his journeys with his guidance.

Later during the events of Ragnarok however, Mimir would gain use in combat. Thanks to the efforts of Brok and Sindri, Mimir’s eyes could shoot concentrated Bifrost energy towards targets. This is useful both for opening gateways between realms and burning foes. Though, Mimir seems to find it unpleasant. Poor lad.

Armor

Kratos is capable of equipping a variety of unique armors, with some capable of granting him unique perks that help him in combat. Kratos can also add on various Enchantments to these armors for other additional defensive bonuses which we will also elaborate on. 

Various Armors

• Exile Set: Kratos’ starting set of armor in God of War 2018, it lacks any special qualities. Simply serving as a wall blocking off his past.

• Reaver Set: A set of armor typically worn within Reaver clans that favors basic defensive protection.

• Boar Hide Set: Reinforced armor made from a boar’s hide. It is not very comfortable, but provides a slight increase in strength.

• Arcane Set: A basic armor that is inscribed with Runic symbols that increase Kratos’ Cooldown stat.

• Viken Set: A basic defensive armor that increases Kratos’ Vitality.

• Wolfskin Set: Hardened leather armor allowing a large range of movement, while also favoring Runic and Strength.

• Runic Set: A basic offensive armor that favors Runic attacks.

• Focus Set: A sturdy armor favoring Kratos’ Cooldown stat.

• Defender’s Set: A sturdy defensive armor that favors Defense.

• Metal-Plated Set: A sturdy offensive armor that favors Strength.

• Plated Volunder Set: A sturdy defensive armor that favors Vitality.

• Runeweaver Set: Girded defensive armor that favors Runic.

• Dwarven Runic Set; A sturdy offensive armor that favors Runic and Strength.

• Tyr’s Lost Unity Set: A set of armor forged from offerings made to Tyr and blessed with his luck.

• Brok’s Royal Dwarven Set: A set of the Dvergraeoikr, crafted by Brok. It favors Luck and Strength stats, while also increasing the rate at which Kratos can fill his rage meter by 10% per armor piece worn, with the complete set increasing the rate of rage gain by 30% total.

• Traveler Set: A reinforced armor made with battle-hardened metal scraps from enemy Travelers. The set increases Kratos Vitality stat and will over time regenerate a protective barrier that will allow Kratos to completely absorb a single attack before having to be charged up again.

• True Warrior Set: A set made of dwarven-forged metal embedded with Ogre teeth (ew) that favors Strength.

• Protection Set: An extremely reinforced armor that favors Defense.

• Arcane Might Set: An armor made from Fortified Steel from a dwarven forge, resulting in this armor granting a noticeable increase to Runic and Strength.

• Vigor Set: A heavily fortified armor that favors Defense.

• World Serpent Set: A masterfully crafted set of offensive armor that favors Runic.

• Clarity Set: A set of armor reinforced with steel of unknown origin, favoring Cooldown.

• Sindri’s Royal Dwarven Set: A set of the Dvergraeoikr, crafted by Sindri. It favors Runic and Cooldown, while also having a Moderate Perk activation chance to grant a Protective Barrier that prevents damage from enemy attacks whenever Kratos performs a Runic Attack.

• Ivaldi’s Deadly Mist Set: A well-rounded armor made of Mist Echoes from Niflheim, resulting in an increased resistance to poisonous mists. The armor also provides a very small amount of constant Health regeneration, with the rate stacking up to five times max depending on how upgraded each piece of armor is or how many pieces of the set are currently being worn. The Ivaldi’s Endless Mist and Ivaldi’s Cursed Mist sets seem to have the exact same effects, though they favor slightly different base Stat increases which makes them unique.

• Valkyrie Set: A true warrior’s armor forged from metals located in Valhalla, granting a well-rounded stat increase. The various armor pieces also grant a Low Perk activation chance to grant Unstoppable Aura temporarily whenever Kratos lands a successful attack, an effect that lets Kratos ignore interruptions from enemy attacks whenever he himself is attacking. Think of it like super armor in fighting games.

• Smoldering Brimstone Set: Armor forged in the Realm of Fire, Muspelheim, which provides a well-rounded stat increase. Each piece of the set also provides a Moderate Perk activation chance to grant Aura of Fire when Kratos receives damage, an effect that provides increased Strength and a small amount of Health recovery. With the complete set increasing the Perk’s chance of activation when worn.

• Blazing Magma Set: A set of armor forged in Muspelheim similar to the Smoldering Brimstone Set, with the difference being the Blazing Magma’s Moderate Perk activation chance to create a fiery shield when Kratos takes damage. This shield inflicts Burn damage to enemies who come in contact with Kratos whilst also preventing interruption from enemy attack. Wearing the full set also increases the chance of the Perk’s activation.

• Fallen Ash Set: Another Musphelheim armor set similar to the previous two. The difference being this set’s Moderate Perk activation chance that releases a burst of concussive Burn damage towards nearby enemies whenever Kratos takes damage. And once again, wearing the full set increases the chance of this Perk activating.

• Cod of War Set: A well-rounded armor with unusual properties. Equipping the Tunic will result in Healthstones or Ragestones being picked up causing a powerful explosion that inflicts both Frost and Burn damage to nearby enemies. The Fin-Wraps will heal Kratos if he collects a Ragestone while having a full rage meter, and will fill up his rage meter if he collects a Healthstone while he is at full health. Lastly, the Underbelly-Guard will create a Protective Barrier around Kratos whenever he picks up a Health or Ragestone.

• Ancient + Set: Reinforced plates imbued with the remains of an Ancient being’s Heart grant the armor a well-rounded stat increase and a resistance to all Elemental damage. With each piece of the armor providing an additional 33% damage resistance against Frost, Burn, or Poison attacks. This resistance caps off at 85% with the full set equipped.

• Traveler + Set: Reinforced armor made of battle-hardened metal scraps from more proficient Traveler’s armor. The armor favors Vitality, but has some additional strengths. The Breastplate will slowly regenerate a protective barrier allowing Kratos to completely absorb a single attack, and the Gauntlets provide a 6% increase to Bare-Handed attack damage, with a max of 18% when they are fully upgraded. The War Belt does not do anything special though.

• Ares Set: Armor made to fashion a Greek God of War (hmmmmmmm). Wearing the armor increases the rate at which Kratos can fill up his rage meter, though also both decreases the size of Kratos’ rage meter and increases the speed at which the Spartan Rage (more details later) depletes it. These various effects increase in potency the more pieces of the armor set are worn.

• Fallen Ash + Set: A stronger variant of the Fallen Ash Set.

• Blazing Magma + Set: A stronger variant of the Blazing Magma Set.

• Smoldering Brimstone + Set: A stronger variant of the Smoldering Brimstone Set.

• Zeus Set: Armor made to fashion the king of the Greek Gods… shit. Uh, the set provides a well-rounded increase to all stats, but also acts as a double-edged sword. As while the armor increases the damage of Kratos traditional attacks by an absurd margin, Kratos will also receive more damage than normal from enemy attacks. Just like with other armors, these effects increase when more pieces of the Zeus Set are worn.

• Berserker Set: Crafted from Berserker souls, somehow, the chest plate grants a perk whereupon using a relic will increase melee damage, but also damage received, for a duration. Gauntlets have a small chance to cause a Soul Explosion which damages and restores some Relic cooldown. The Waist Guard can do the same soul explosion upon taking damage, blocking, or parrying.

• Fallen Stars Set: This armor greatly reduces damage taken when using a runic or relic attack. The Gauntlets and Waist Guard restore cooldown upon getting hit while using a runic or relic attack, and having both increases the amount of cooldown restored (up to 30%).

• Dragon Scale Set: Truly unique armor made of valuable pieces from draconic foes. Chestplate grants stacks of strength and defense when blocking or parrying, which resets on being hit. Bracers and waist guard increase shield damage and deal damage to nearby enemies on block and stun, with that damage getting increased if both are equipped.

• Giptumadr’s Set: A beautiful armor which grants a luck chance to immediately restore 70% of a runic or relic attacks cooldown after use. The gauntlets and waist guard grant a chance for enemies to drop health or ragestones when hit with runic or relic attacks that increase when both are worn.

• Survival Set: A basic set that increases strength and defense.

• Undying Pyres Set: A lightweight yet sturdy set. The shoulder guard gives a shield that prevents the first attack from resetting the Permafrost, Immolation, or Maelstrom gauges when full. The girdle and bracers increase the rate these are gained.

• Surtr’s Set: Armor worthy of Surtr himself, enemies hit in the middle of their attacks take more damage. Its girdle and bracers let Kratos take reduced damage and stagger from basic attacks.

• Darkdale Set: Plackart restores some rage and health when in Spartan Rage. Arm and Waist Guards increase the rate at which Rage is gained when attacking status inflicted targets.

• Steinbjorn Armor: Made out of slumber stones, this set’s plackart lets Kratos’ attacks restore health if he’s taken significant damage. Gauntlets and Waist Guard have a luck chance to stagger and inflict some stun to nearby enemies if damage is taken.

• Fate Breaker Set: Crafted by the dwarf Lunda, its shoulder guard grants a strength, defense, runic, and stagger resistance buff when Kratos’ rage meter runs out. Its arm wraps and belt increase the rate at which rage is gained.

• Hunter’s Set: Crafted from some of the fiercest beasts in the Vanaheim Crater. Its pauldron grants a perk where aiming for long periods of time grants a ranged attack damage buff. Gauntlets and Belt give a flat range damage buff.

• Mani’s Wisdom Set: Said to shine like the light of the moon, the pauldrons increase the damage caused by the Extinguish Flames and Vaporize Frost skills. The bracers and belt increase the duration of status effects, up to 50%.

• Guiding Light Set: Crafted from treasures brought to honor Tyr. Breastplate has a luck chance to increase strength, runic, and luck on one of Kratos’ weapons on any hit. Gauntlets and Waistguard have a lucky chance to perform a critical strike, creating a damaging explosion.

• Lunda’s Lost Set: A restored armor set from the dwarf Lunda. Its Cuirass has a lucky chance to deal bonus damage and inflict poison with bare handed attacks, parrying or blocking. Belt and Bracers increase melee damage against poisoned enemies.

• Spiritual Set: Lightweight armor that stack melee and ranged damage with successful runic or relic attacks (up to 3). Arm wraps and belt have a luck chance to restore some cooldown for the equipped weapons runic attacks.

• Raven Tears Set: Armor said to be stronger than the ice of Niflheim. Its Cuirass has a lucky chance to grant a healing mist on hitting an enemy. Bracers and Girdle increase the healing potency of healthstones, ragestones, and Kratos’ gear.

• Sol’s Set: A set whose beauty is said to only be matched by the sun. Its Spaulders increase melee damage based on his rage meter, with lethal attacks being absorbed by the rage meter if available. Arm wraps and belt have a chance to grant a rage burst when hit that increases the lower Kratos’ health is.

• Enlightenment Set: Suited for battle and study, spaulders have a luck chance to increase runic when using Frost Awaken or Flame Whiplash. Bracers and Belt increase runic damage to status afflicted enemies.

• Nidavellir’s Finest Set: Traditional Dwarven Armor made from Nidavellir’s ore. Plackart gives a health burst when stun grabbing an enemy. Arm guards reduces the speed their stun gauge decreases, Waist Guard boosts this effect though it does not have it itself.

• Vidar’s Armor Set: Pauldrons have a luck chance to increase Kratos’ strength and stagger resistance when hitting a combo finisher. Belt and Bracers increase strength and defense.

• Fortified Armor Set: Built from the husks of some of the sturdiest creatures in the nine realms. Cuirass has a luck chance to empower Kratos’ next attack with a damage explosion after blocks and parries. Arm Guards and Girdle increase strength and defense.

• Risen Snow Set: An armor inspired by the elements of Fimbulwinter.  Breastplate has a luck chance to increase Kratos’ strength and stagger resistance for a duration when launching enemies. Gauntlets and Girdle increase stun damage to airborne targets.

• Radiance Set: Found in the Barrens of Alfheim and shares the realms radiance. Shoulder Straps have a lucky chance to grant a runic blessing on a last second evade. Belt and Gauntlets activate a time slowing realm shift on a last second dodge.

Enchantments

In God of War 2018 and God of War Ragnarok, Kratos has numerous Enchantments. To put it into perspective, he has a whopping 150 in ONLY God of War 2018. However, many of them have the same effects, with the main differences being varying stat increases. Thus, since there are so many repeats, we will only be mentioning the best of the best, those being unique Enchantments and Perfect rarity Enchantments. Video link going over them here.

• Leviathan’s Eye: Increases damage of all axe throws by 6% (stacks up to 18% max).

• Tyr’s Shard: Solely a stat increase.

• Eye of the Outer Realm: Solely a stat increase.

• Andvari’s Soul: Very high Perk activation chance to grant a Health Burst on any successful Runic Attack kill.

• Muspelheim’s Eye of Power: Increase resistance to BURN damage by 50% (stacks up to 85% max).

• Ivaldi’s Corrupted Mind: Nearby enemies, within 15 meters, are Weakened.

• Eye of Nifelheim: Greatly increases resistance to the Cursed Mist of Niflheim (stacks with any other resistances to the Cursed Mist).

• Njord’s Temporal Storm: Very low Perk activation chance to temporarily slow nearby enemies when damage is taken via a Realm Shift.

• Asgard’s Shard of Existence: Holding L1 for several seconds grants Fortification, causing an explosive knockback after the next successful block.

• Hrodr’s Frozen Shard +: Increases the damage inflicted by the Breath of Thamur Runic Attack.

• Buri’s Frozen Shard +: Increases the duration of the Wrath of the Frost Runic Attack.

• Hymir’s Frozen Shard +: Increases the duration of the Blessings of the Frost Runic Attack.

• Bestla’s Frozen Shard +: Grants a high chance to grant a short boost to Strength when using the Mists of Helheim Runic Attack.

• Perfect Mark of Kvasir +: Activates Realm Shift, temporarily slowing down surrounding enemies, on a last-second dodge.

• Jarnsaxa’s Fiery Shard +: Adds an explosive bomb to the Wrath of Artemis Runic Attack.

• Dagr’s Fiery Shard +: Increases the damage of the Tartarus Rage Runic Attack.

• Hyrrokkin’s Fiery Shard +: Increases the damage of the Blast of Hephaestus Runic Attack.

• Borr’s Frozen Shard +: Provides a short boost to Runic when using the Hel's Touch Runic Attack.

• Aurvandil’s Fiery Shard +: Increases the duration of the Gift of Apollo Runic Attack.

• Perfect Mark of Protection +: Increases the timing window on parries, and greatly increases Defense when blocking.

• Perfect Mark of the Ancients +: Grants 85% resistance against FROST, BURN, and POISON attacks.

• Perfect Mark of the Traveler +: An Enchantment that slowly regenerates a protective barrier that absorbs a single attack.

• Perfect Mark of Tyr +: Grants a moderate Perk Activation chance to grant a short boost to Strength, Defense or Runic when damage is taken.

• Brilliant Mark of the Dragon +: Sprinting for 3 seconds grants Unstoppable Aura, preventing interruptions by enemy attacks.

Relics/Sword Hilts

An additional form of increasing his stats, Kratos has collected numerous relics and sword hilts during his time in God of War: Ragnarok. These usually give bonuses to stats or serve as extra attacks.

• Talisman of Meign - Grants a Melee damage increase for a short duration.

• Hilt of Hofud - Distorts space and time that triggers a Realm Shift, temporarily slowing time.

• Glaive of Dodher - Throws Bifrost Chakrams at enemies, up to 3 when max upgraded.

• Huldra Project #9 - As mentioned, Kratos uses Mimir to fire a concentrated beam of Bifrost at targets.

• Hilt of Dainsleif - An attack that slams into the ground, creating poisonous puddles. Flavour text describes it as creating “wounds that never heal”.

• Hilt of Gram - Grants a Burst of Rage, increasing Kratos’ rage meter. Also deals stun damage to enemies nearby.

• Hilt of Angrvadall - Fires 3 waves of light. It deals increased damage against targets inflicted with sonic.

• Hilt of Ridill - Sends out a large, electric shockwave in front of Kratos.

• Hilt of Tyrfing - Sacrifices Health, but sends out a wave that deals greater damage depending on the health lost.

• Mystical Heirloom - Used for awakening sleeping trolls. Has no combat application.

• Hilt of Hrotti - Marks enemies nearby. Hitting them reduces the equipped weapons runic attack cooldown. Killing them will increase runic attack power temporarily.

• Hilt of Forsbandr - Pushes enemies back when activated, and grants an aura of protection, protecting Kratos from damage.

• Hilt of Skofnung - Uses collected berserker souls to summon several swords that fight at Kratos’ side.

• Motsognir’s Call - Creates a shockwave that deals a large amount of stun damage to nearby enemies.

Talismans

Kratos is capable of equipping various unique Talisman in battle to give himself an edge. These buffs can either be short bursts of special effects that have a cool down and must be activated manually, or automatic effects that Kratos can use whenever throughout the battle were he to fulfill the needed conditions. He has a lot of them, so we will mainly be mentioning his more useful ones.

• Talisman of Resolute Might: Grants a short boost to Strength when Kratos’s Health drops to a critical level.

• Talisman of Concentrated Vitality: Gain a Health Burst.

• Talisman of Resolute Protection: Grants an invincible barrier for several seconds when Kratos’s health drops to a critical level.

• Talisman of Rejuvenating Fury: Release a shockwave that inflicts a moderate amount of Stun damage to nearby enemies. Also has a Passive Effect that restores a small amount of health every time an enemy is grabbed whilst Stunned.

• Talisman of Eternal Fury: Gain a Rage Burst. Also has a Passive Effect that increases the amount of Rage gained from combat as well as the duration of Spartan Rage.

• Talisman of Betrayal: Activate while aiming for long-distance attacks to slow down time. Ranged attacks in this mode are also more powerful.

• Amulet of Kvasir: A last-second doge activates a Realm Shift, temporarily slowing down surrounding enemies. Upgrading this item increases the duration of the Realm Shift.

• Golden Talisman of Protection: Activate immediately after being hit to recover from being stunned faster. Also has a passive effect that increases the timing window on parries, and greatly increases Defense when blocking.

• Talisman of Unbound Potential: Refresh all Runic Attack cooldowns. Also has a Passive Effect that increases Runic when a Runic Attack is on cooldown.

• Horn of Heimdall: Unleash a powerful attack that inflicts Stun damage and knocks back nearby enemies. Also has a Passive Effect that reduces this Talisman’s cooldown on successful blocks and parries.

• Sinmara’s Cinder: Summon a raging Muspelheim maelstrom that prevents Kratos’s attacks from being interrupted, reduces the amount of damage he takes, and inflicts normal and Burn damage to all nearby enemies.

• Hvergelmir Stone: Summon a cleansing fog that restores a small amount of Health, and increases the amount of time Kratos can stay in poisonous mists like the Cursed Mist of Niflheim.

Yggdrasil Amulet

An artifact that, guess what? Lets Kratos equip several enchantments into it, which provide stat boosts, resistances and extra effects, with up to 9 being equippable at any point. Items of the same set can grant greater effects (3 from the same realm need to be equipped to trigger). 

These enchantments are:

• Midgard's Endurance: Increases Cooldown.

• Midgard's Honor: Increases Cooldown and Luck.

• Midgard's Virtue: Increases Vitality and Cooldown.

• Midgard's Justice: Increases Runic and Cooldown.

• Midgard's Bravery: Increases Defense and Cooldown.

• Asgard's Fortitude: Increases Strength and Cooldown.

• Asgard's Might: Increases Defense and Cooldown.

• Asgard's Security: Increases Runic and Cooldown.

• Asgard's Justice: Increases Cooldown and Luck.

• Asgard's Virtue: Increases Strength, Defense, Vitality, and Cooldown.

• Vanaheim's Fortune: Increases Luck.

• Vanaheim's Honor: Increases Runic and Luck.

• Vanaheim's Virtue: Increases Strength and Luck.

• Vanaheim's Power: Increases Defense and Luck.

• Vanaheim's Fortitude: Increases Cooldown and Luck.

• Svartalfheim's Honor: Increases Defense.

• Svartalfheim's Safety: Increases Strength and Defense.

• Svartalfheim's Fortune: Increases Defense and Cooldown.

• Svartalfheim's Lifeblood: Increases Defense and Vitality.

• Svartalfheim's Fortitude: Increases Defense and Luck.

• Muspelheim's Force: Increases Strength and Runic.

• Muspelheim's Endurance: Increases Defense and Runic.

• Muspelheim's Essence: Increases Runic and Luck.

• Muspelheim's Blessing: Increases Runic and Vitality.

• Muspelheim's Protection: Increases Runic, Cooldown, and Luck.

• Alfheim's Vigor: Increases Strength.

• Alfheim's Honor: Increases Strength and Cooldown.

• Alfheim's Fortune: Increases Strength and Runic.

• Alfheim's Virtue: Increases Strength and Luck.

• Alfheim's Justice: Increases Strength and Vitality.

• Niflheim's Security: Increases Defense.

• Niflheim's Fortune: Increases Defense and Vitality.

• Niflheim's Force: Increases Defense and Luck.

• Niflheim's Virtue: Increases Defense and Cooldown.

• Niflheim's Justice: Increases Strength and Defense.

• Jotunheim's Essence: Increases Strength, Vitality, and Luck.

• Jotunheim's Honor: Increases Defense, Vitality, and Luck.

• Jotunheim's Endurance: Increases Runic and Vitality.

• Jotunheim's Virtue: Increases Vitality and Cooldown.

• Jotunheim's Force: Increases Strength, Defense, Runic, Vitality, Cooldown, and Luck.

• Helheim’s Essence: Increases Vitality.

• Helheim’s Honor: Increases Vitality and Cooldown.

• Helheim’s Might: Increases Defense and Vitality.

• Helheim’s Force: Increases Strength and Vitality.

• Helheim’s Virtue: Increases Runic and Vitality.

• Kinetic Resilience: Combo finishers extra Permafrost, Immolation and Maelstrom, and the lost charge when hit is reduced.

• Emblem of the Nine Realms: Increase Melee damage during Realm Shifts.

• Seal of the Falling Star: Increases damage from all Death from Above attacks (attacks done while falling).

• Emblem of Elusion: Gain a burst of speed and distance when evading.

• Fossilized Keepsake: Slowly regenerate a protective barrier that absorbs a single attack. Destroying the barrier causes a shockwave that stuns enemies.

• Boon of Wrath: Spartan Wrath’s activation shockwave consumes Status Effects on enemies to deal damage.

• Boon of Valor: Spartan Valor heals less, but provides strength and gives lifesteal on hit for a duration.

• Boon of Fury: Spartan Fury’s attack and exit rage costs are reduced, but healing is reduced.

• Celestial Panacea: 25% resistance to all status effects.

• Poison Protector: Added 50% poison resistance.

• Bright Eyed-Emblem: Increases blind and daze resistance by 50%.

• Token of Elemental Evasion: Dodge rolling will hasten the expiration of Burn, Poison, and Frost status effects.

• Remedy of the Bifrost: Successful attacks against enemies will cleanse Bifrost faster.

• Sigil of Doom: Axe and Blades Melee attacks against Hexed enemies have a high Luck chance to trigger bonus Sigil Explosions.

• Seal of Runic Storm: Using Runic Attacks of three different weapons in quick succession grants a buff of increased Stagger Resistances and creates a storm of Bifrost.

• Stunning Fang: Hitting stunned enemies unleashes shockwaves and has a chance to stack Strength and Stun Damage.

• Eir's Armament: Very high Luck chance to grant a Health Burst on any Runic Attack kill.

• Stone Idol of Souls: Using Healthstones or Ragestones grants Soulsteal, during which health and rage can be restored when striking enemies.

• Crest of Desperate Heroics: When health is critical, gain a short invulnerable barrier and Strength increase, and a health burst when complete.

• Regenerating Essence: Adds a small amount of Health Regeneration.

• Greater Regenerating Essence: Same as above, but to a greater extent.

• Attuned Runic Gem: Increases the damage of Runic Attacks when Permafrost, Immolation, or Maelstrom are fully charged.

• Momentous Stride: Last-second dodges now charge the Permafrost, Immolation, and Maelstrom skill gauges.

• Memento of the Ailing: Permafrost, Immolation, and Maelstrom charge faster when hitting status-afflicted enemies.

The set bonuses are:

• Midgard Enchantment Set: Increases the damage of all of Kratos' Ranged Attacks and Abilities based on his Cooldown stat.

• Asgard Enchantment Set: Increases the damage of all Kratos' Triangle Weapon Attacks (Frost Awaken, Flame Whiplash, and Draupnir’s Wail in non-gameplay terms) and Abilities based on his Cooldown stat.

• Vanaheim Enchantment Set: Increases Kratos' Melee damage against Status-Afflicted enemies based on his Luck stat.

• Svartalfheim Enchantment Set: Increases Stun damage inflicted based on Kratos' Defense stat.

• Muspelheim Enchantment Set: Increases Kratos' Melee Damage when Permafrost, Immolation, or Maelstrom skills are fully charged based on his Runic stat.

• Niflheim Enchantment Set: Increases Kratos' Melee damage when he is above 75% Health based on his Defense stat.

• Alfheim Enchantment Set: Last-second dodges empower Kratos' next attack based on his Strength stat.

• Helheim Enchantment Set: Increases Kratos' Melee damage when he is below 50% Health based on his Vitality stat.

• Jotunheim Enchantment Set: Increases Kratos' Maximum Rage based on his Vitality.

Unity Stone

A long dormant object hidden within the Temple of Nine, it provides protection to its holder against the existence erasing effect of the Realm Between Realms (thus allowing for easy travel between them), and likely other areas with similar effects.

Shattered Gauntlet of Ages

An obvious reference to the Infinity Gauntlet, it's a powerful relic Hel split apart in the past. Once it receives 6 enchantments, it is restored to full power:

• Andvari’s Soul (Soul Stone)

• Asgard’s Shard of Existence (Reality Stone)

• Eye of the Outer Realm (Space Stone)

• Ivaldi’s Corrupted Mind (Mind Stone)

• Muspelheim Eye of Power (Power Stone)

• Njord’s Temporal Stone (Time Stone)

Installing any three of the above enchantments together in the Shattered Gauntlet of Ages will add a powerful, enemy-seeking projectile attack to the talisman, which will boomerang to hit its target.

GOW: Ascension Weapons

Amulet of Uroborus 

An amulet stolen from the Oracle Altheia by the Prophet Castor, this gem can manipulate time itself. The amulet can repair or decay structures and even slow down and suspend enemies in mid air. 

Oath Stone of Orkos

A stone that allows Kratos to summon a shadow-like double of Kratos that can assist him in the middle of combat.

Eyes of Truth

A set of eyes that Kratos can use to dispel illusions, immobilize enemies, and destroy magical barriers. 

GOW: Chains of Olympus Weapons

Gauntlet of Zeus

Having vanquished his enemies in the Great Titan War, Zeus commissioned Hephaestus to create a weapon to bind the titans to Tartarus, thus was made the Gauntlet of Zeus. It’s used mainly for heavier attacks, and as the name would suggest, can channel Zeus’ lightning for charged up strikes. Kratos has even used this to chain Atlas, forcing him to hold the world above him. It even seems to possess god-killing power on its own, as it was used to kill Persephone before Kratos gained the Power of Hope to slay Ares. It has the following powers:

• Statistics Amplification and Empowerment, Magic, Lightning Manipulation, Paralysis Inducement and Power Nullification: Armed with Zeus' lightning, which carries these properties. Even a fraction of Zeus' lightning can nullify magical abilities with lightning strikes.

Sun Shield

The personal shield of the Sun God, it allows parries, counters and projectile reflections when used right before being hit.

GOW1 Weapons

Head of Medusa 

The head of the queen of Gorgons. Kratos acquires the head after killing Medusa. With the head Kratos can use it in battle and turn all enemies who look at the head gaze to stone. Though because of Medusa’s death the head is not as powerful and only turns people to stone for about 10 seconds before they can move again. 

Blade of Artemis 

A blade given to Kratos by the huntress god. With the blade in hand Kratos can do big blows to any incoming enemy though the drawback is that it makes Kratos slower then he would be with other weapons. The Blade of Artemis can also interact with and kill Wraiths.

Poseidon’s Trident

The weapon of the Sea God. While Kratos doesn’t use it as a weapon, it instead grants infinite breath underwater. Note that he gains the Triton’s Lance in Ghost of Sparta, but it is functionally identical and not worth discussing.

GOW: Ghost of Sparta Weapons

Eyes of Atlantis 

An ancient relic found in Atlantis that Kratos took for himself. With it Kratos can call the power of Atlantis by sending a bolt of electricity killing enemies hit with it in seconds. It’s said to destroy both body and soul.

Scourge Of Erinys 

After killing Erinys, Kratos took the item. With it Kratos can summon a void that will target foes and kill them and shortly after will blow up instantly killing anyone near it. 

Arms Of Sparta 

A spear and shield that was given to him by a follower of Kratos when he was the God of War. A spear being one of the first weapons Greek soldiers master, Kratos can use it in quick succession, killing enemies fast. With the shield Kratos can parry attacks, ram into foes with it and use it like a weapon as well by hitting heavy blows with it.

Horn of Boreas 

A chain like weapon that was from the God of Northwind Boreas. With this weapon Kratos can spin it around making an ice storm that will freeze anyone in it, killing them.

GOW2 Weapons

Typhon’s Bane

Taken from the imprisoned Typhon, it’s a magic using bow that uses wind as its primary method of attack. It charges up stronger shots, can be fired in quick succession, and fire homing shots, shockwaves, and large tornados.

Barbarian Hammer 

A hammer that Kratos gained after killing the Barbarian King Alrik. With the hammer, Kratos can perform massive swings. It can also summon soul legions that can help Kratos by attacking nearby enemies. He can summon a legion of souls to attack his foes, create portals and create energy-based shockwaves. The Barbarian Hammer can also absorb souls to increase its wielder's powers and overall size.

Head of Euryale

Taken from the gorgon Euryale, it can petrify enemies with its stare, beams, or small explosions. It’s functionally near-identical to Medusa’s head.

Spear Of Destiny 

A spear used by the Dark Rider which Kratos gained. With the spear, Kratos can use explosive based attacks on foes like summoning a crystal that will blow up in seconds, sending enemies flying, and using attacks that make enemies explode after some time passes. It is able to interact with and cut through the Threads of Fate themselves. The spear also has several esoteric abilities:

• Durability Negation and Transmutation: The Spear is infused with powerful energy-projecting and manipulating abilities, with even Kratos being able to sense its lethal energy and aura. It can also turn enemies purple and then make them explode after a short period

• Perception Manipulation: Its energy is so powerful that it was able to warp Kratos' senses even from a distance

• Electricity Manipulation: The Spear also possessed electrical powers.

• Possible Soul Manipulation: Gaia warned Kratos that if he falls at the Rider’s Spear, his shade (Soul) is forfeit for all eternity, Shades and Souls being the one and the same thing. 

Golden Fleece

Torn out of Cerberus’ stomach, the Golden Fleece became Greek Era Kratos’ main defensive option. Like the earlier Sun Shield, it can block hits and deflect projectiles, but counters instead can take the form of large geysers of lava. It can also deflect the petrifying stares of Gorgon enemies, turning them and surrounding enemies to stone. It can also drain magical energy.

Icarus Wings

After an encounter with Icarus, Kratos ripped off his wings and took them for himself, using them to glide through the air, being capable of using them to attack enemies as well.

Blade of Olympus

A weapon forged by Zeus, used during the first Titanomachy in order to defeat the Titans, and one of if not the most powerful weapons in Kratos’ arsenal. Originally given to him by Zeus to trick him into losing his godly powers, Kratos properly gained the weapon after time traveling back in time to stop Zeus in his tracks, and used it during his campaign against Olympus. Outside of its incredible strength, this mighty weapon can create a massive tornado around Kratos, damaging any foe unlucky enough to be in its range. It can also make energy blasts, force fields, and summon lightning to power up its attacks. It additionally has the ability Divine Reckoning Zeus once used to banish the Titans to Tartarus. While Kratos hasn’t used this attack specifically, Zeus has also used it to send out a wave that incinerated an army. Abilities the blade possesses:

• Energy Manipulation and Projection: Is able to shoot powerful blasts of energy.

• Absorption, Life-Force Absorption and Empowerment: The Blade increases in strength the more essence and life-force it absorbs from those it impales.

• Air Manipulation, Weather Manipulation and BFR: Can banish foes to Tartarus using Divine Reckoning. Kratos was later able to replicate the same exact technique himself.

• Elemental Manipulation and Shockwave Generation: Possesses vast amounts of elemental power and can also generate powerful shockwave attacks.

• Power Nullification, Immortality Negation and Regeneration Negation: The Blade absorbed Kratos's godly powers after he drained them into the Blade, which nullified his ability to use his former powers without the Blade and rendered him mortal to the point of being fatally wounded by the Colossus's hands slamming on him. The Blade also nullified Athena's godly powers by draining her life-force, also rendering her mortal.

GOW3 Weapons

Apollo's Bow 

After burning Peirithous, Kratos got the bow used by Apollo. With the bow Kratos can hit enemies from afar, and if Kratos holds the bow long enough he can cover the arrows in fire, burning anyone who is hit with one. 

 Claws Of Hades 

Claws used by the King of the Underworld Hades. With these claws Kratos can grab a person to create skulls for attacks or rip out their very soul and absorb it. Kratos can also use the Claws to summon souls to aid him in battle, which take the form of attacks from various enemies.

• Cerberus Mongrel - A weak breed of Cerberus that attacks with a claw strike.

• Olympus Sentry - A trio of Olympus sentries that attack with swords.

• Olympus Archer - Spawns an archer that fires skulls instead of arrows.

• Gorgon Serpent - Summons a Gorgon that petrifies enemies with its stare.

• Olympus Fiend - Ignite themselves before exploding and damaging surrounding enemies.

• Chimaera - A large beast that launches fireballs.

• Cyclops Berserker - A beast that stomps before hitting the ground with a large punch.

• Centaur General - The summoned centaur charges with a lance, running down any helpless victims.

• Siren Seductress - Lets out a large scream in its area.

Head of Helios

During his war against Olympus, Kratos decapitated the Sun God Helios, and took the head for himself. This turned out to be of great use to Kratos, for the Head of Helios still had enough light to illuminate dark areas, blind foes and reveal invisible enemies and objects. its light can easily stun other enemies, nullify illusions, and uncover secret pathways, hidden treasures and translate garbled-up murals in Pandora's Chamber.

Boots Of Hermes 

A pair of boots Kratos used after killing Hermes. With them, Kratos can perform dashes of speed that allow him to climb up walls. Kratos can also use the dash to ram into enemies.

Nemean Cestus

A pair of lion-themed gauntlets that Kratos took from Hercules; these weapons are incredibly powerful and are said to “make the very earth tremble”. Indeed, smashing the ground with the Cestus is enough to cause explosive waves, and they come equipped with chains that allow Kratos to strike even faraway enemies. They can also be used to destroy crystals and some shields his other weapons can’t damage.

Nemesis Whip

Whips forged by the God Hephaestus in a failed attempt to kill Kratos, the Nemesis Whip is a weapon capable of delivering many fast hits at the cost of power, and also possesses the ability to conduct electricity. It can spawn a static electric orb of magic that fires multi-hitting lightning at enemies.

Asura

Wailing Dark

The Wailing Dark is a mythical nodachi once wielded by one of the Seven Deities, Augus. It can fire off Mantra sword beams, as well as extend its length far enough to go right through Gaea in seconds. A mere slash of the blade can dislodge a good chunk of the moon. Asura briefly took command of the sword to fight off an army of Gohma. Though he was unable to use his hands, which were destroyed at the time, it’s still a dangerous weapon in Asura’s mouth. Heck, he’s skilled enough to use his feet to wield it.

Mantra Reactor

Mantra Reactors were used by the Seven Deities in order to store and amplify their Mantra. As Asura had been betrayed prior, he had never acquired a Reactor and as such, his body was ill-equipped to store the sheer amount of Wrath Mantra he could produce. But after the destruction of the Karma Fortress, Yasha found its Reactor and implanted it in Asura’s body, allowing him to better control his power. This addition also granted Asura the ability to directly absorb Mantra, like he did against Chakravartian. With this ability potentially extending to other forms of energy.

Abilities

Kratos

God Physiology

Because of his heritage tracing back to the God of Thunder Zeus, Kratos himself is a god. His god status is further cemented by the fact that after he killed Ares, he obtained godly strength and was deemed the new God of War. Roll credits. While he did lose his god powers at the start of God of War 2 due to the Blade of Olympus siphoning them, it is clear he has maintained some of his inhuman strength by the events of God of War 2018. The second novel also confirms he regained some of this power after traveling back in time to regain the Blade of Olympus.

As a god, Kratos is naturally massively physically superior to the average warrior. And we do mean massively, as he is able to lift giant structures and wrestle with enormous dragons with relative ease. He is also incredibly durable, surviving what would normally be considered a fatal wound on what is basically a daily basis. Notably however, he is also shown to have a sort of healing factor, allowing him to heal wounds he has received in battle. Due to his godly strength, Kratos also seems capable of massively increasing his size to the point he is as big as mountains. Though this was only possible when he had his complete god powers.

His soul is also special, though this seems to apply to all souls in GoW and not just Kratos specifically. Souls are composed of their form, the metaphysical nature of a being, their luck, their mind and their direction, which guides their path to their respective afterlife as per Mimir's words.

Enhanced Senses

As a demigod, Kratos has incredible senses. He was able to easily fight and judge distances while blinded, relying on his hearing to give him an edge. Shortly after being rendered mortal and being stripped of his godly powers, Kratos was able to sense the energy flow and lethality of the Spear of Destiny well before realizing what the weapon was and right before it was used against him, twice in a row. He has also been able to sense Theseus's magical attacks, sense energy in magical objects, and the presence of the Last Spartan in complete darkness and fight against him.

Magic

Magic in the God of War universe is somewhat vague in specifics, but broadly speaking, Kratos’ Greek magic runs off a magic bar. Magic is wide in its application, from countless elemental effects, to size changing, weapon strengthening, and many things in between. Greek magic seems bound to the earth and its Gods, as when Greece was destroyed and Olympus toppled, the magic of the world went with it. 

Weapons like the Blades of Chaos grant Kratos superhuman abilities on top of his natural physiology. Kratos is also able to use the magic energies to channel it into mundane weapons encountered in the world or on enemies to amplify their striking power and perform special magical techniques with them. He can empower a regular spear to rain down magical copies, make a regular sling-shot release energy charges that explode on targets, and convert swords and mauls into magical powerhouses.

This factor is not exclusive to Kratos, but rather is a common occurrence across both pantheons. For example, Redeemed Warriors are humans who align themselves with gods of their choice who then grant their champions with their own brand of magic. Most notable of these being Zeus, Poseidon, Hades and Ares. Each god imbues their champions with their own brand of magic, which increases their power and those of their weapons.

The size of Kratos’ magical energy reservoir correlates to all of his superhuman physical attributes. This is shown best with the Blades of Chaos, which have the power to absorb magical energies and life force for every hit they score. This increases Kratos’ power and speed alongside the ability to heal himself. In this way, the more Kratos kills with the Blades, the more his strength, speed and magic increases in both reserves and potency. This idea of a general reservoir of magic energy is further proven when Zeus grants Kratos his lightning bolt, which further increases his magic reservoir and ends up enhancing all his magical abilities as a result.

As mentioned in Equipment, Kratos has several abilities tied to magic artifacts, but he also has natural magic that is not bound to any object and which he can use freely. These spells are listed below.

Apollo’s Flame

A power Kratos has in the prequel comics. Kratos used it to kill Gyges, one of the Hecatonchires, by destroying the Ambrosia keeping him alive.

The Efreet 

By channeling the power of a demonic fire spirit, Kratos can create giant eruptions of flames that surround him. 

Light of Dawn

After obtaining the Primordial Fire, Kratos can summon and throw orbs of light to use as projectiles. Upgrades increase the throw rate and add the ability to charge for more damage and explosion radius.

Charon’s Wrath

Taken from the Underworld’s ferryman, Kratos took his mask and power. It blasts orbs of fire at enemies that do high damage and can spread to nearby targets.

Poseidon’s Rage 

A power Kratos can use which was gifted to him by Poseidon. With it, Kratos can call down electricity to damage enemies, and it can also protect Kratos from any incoming attack.

Zeus’ Fury

Kratos can summon lightning bolts with his hands thanks to Zeus giving him some of his power. Kratos can throw these bolts at enemies from a distance.

Army of Hades

 

The last magical gift Kratos gained from the gods during God Of War from Hades. With this power, Kratos can summon souls from the underworld which can help him in battle.

Cronos’ Rage

Another electricity power given to Kratos by Cronos. With this power, Kratos can make orbs of electricity that attack multiple enemies at the same time.

Atlas Quake

An attack Kratos gained from the Titan Atlas. It allows Kratos to create shockwaves with his stomps, sending rocks flying which hit anybody nearby. Atlas has stated his Quake magic can shake the world.

Realm Shift

Realm Shift, an ability used by both Kratos and Heimdall, distorts both space and time by default, and literally shifts an entire realm in the process, further hammering down the idea that the realms have their own separate space and time. Kratos accesses this ability via numerous pieces of equipment gained from the Nordic Realms.

Phasing

In the God of War comics, Kratos has shown the ability to phase through objects, likely through Norse magic. This is not some random one off ability either, as Atreus mentions in God of War Ragnarok that he is not proficient enough yet with magic to phase through objects yet.

Miscellaneous Hax

Note if certain abilities are not listed here, most likely they are listed under weapons/equipment.

Greek Era

• Supernatural Willpower: Never gave in to the Furies' torture to break him and return him back to Ares, even with the prospect of being able to sleep peacefully with illusions of his wife Lysandra, he was eventually able to triumph over them and break his oath to the War God. Developed a will of his own that allowed him resist the Sisters' control over his fate, even to the point where the Sisters cutting off his Thread of Fate, which should have crippled and killed him on the spot, was completely useless against him now.

• Dimensional Storage: Houses all the equipment and magic he's acquired throughout his journey.

• Statistics Amplification: Can channel his divine energy into other objects such as weapons, and use them to filter his own magical power through them, to further amplify their strength, durability and effectiveness. His Blades of Chaos also amplify him back, the more enemies he kills, the stronger and faster he becomes.

• Soul Interaction/Manipulation: Poseidon's Rage is able to completely destroy incorporeal Wraiths. Kratos is capable of harming wraith spirits, with wraiths being incorporeal. The Blade of Artemis can also interact with and kill Wraiths. He is also capable of physically killing souls with his bare hands while having stripped himself of all his equipment and powers at the Forsaken Tree and being rendered completely human. With the Soul of Hades, he can summon the Arms of Hades which have the ability to transform the living into fragilized souls of the damned, and he can manipulate souls in general with the Souls of Hades' Tartarus Energy, and the Army of Hades ability in both Ascension and GoW1. With the Claws of Hades, he easily tore out Hades's soul and absorbed it for himself, and can also summon souls to attack his enemies.

• Underwater Breathing: With Poseidon's power and with Triton's Lance and Poseidon's Trident.

• Weapon Control, Chain Manip: Kratos is capable of controlling the chains that bind him to the Blades of Chaos and extend them to whatever length he wishes, even using the Blades themselves multiple times without having them attached.

• Temporal Abilities: Can slow down, freeze and rewind time, as well as de-age or age both enemies or objects considerably with the Amulet of Uroborus. Is able to shape time itself. Can also use the Amulet of Uroboros to levitate enemies in the air as well as lower their defenses. The Amulet of Uroboros can restore objects back to their previous state and undo the causes of their destruction as if it never happened to begin with, or even freeze them during the cause-undoing phase.

• Reactive Evolution via Ares: Possesses the Rage of Ares stemming from both the Blades of Chaos and the Fire of Ares, whose magic allows its fighters to regain life and increase their strength and combat capabilities in encounters over every advance they make.

• Electricity Manip, Paralysis Inducement, Power Null: Armed with Zeus' lightning, which carries these properties. Even a fraction of Zeus' lightning can nullify magical abilities with lightning strikes

• Portal Creation and BFR: The Soul of Hades can also summon the Arms of Hades via Hades’ Torment, which drags down its victims back to the Underworld. Hades can do the same with his arms, as he did against Kratos' men.

• Illusion Negation: With the Eyes of Truth.

• Magic Absorption, Energy Absorption and Power Absorption: Can drain the life force and magic energies and abilities of opponents on contact with them with just his bare hands. This is seen when he killed the Persian King with his bare hands and absorbed the Ifreet, and then again when he absorbed his previous powers back by physically killing souls. He is able to  experience by bare handedly killing Undead Legionnaires and magic from Gorgons. The Arms of Hades can also absorb both life-force and magical energy of the victims that it drags down to the Underworld With the Souls of Hades being able to do the same as well.

• Enhanced Senses, Extrasensory Perception: Can sense beings thousands of miles away, much like Ares, and other Olympian Gods, who can also sense beings thousands of miles away and even hear other people's prayers.

• Ice Manipulation and Air Manipulation: With Horn of Boreas.

• Wind Manipulation and Homing Attack: With Typhon's Bane, whose arrows can shatter into millions of lethal projectiles aimed at weak spots, and can even home onto enemy targets.

• Size Change: All gods can change their size and shape.

• Fire Breath, Poison Manipulation and Acid Manipulation: With the Chimera Soul Summon, of which the snake tail can spit out acidic poison. The Chimera Soul Summon also has a Fire Breath Attack. It has a poisonous tail.

• Explosion Manipulation and Self-Destruction: Can use the Olympus Fiends Soul Summon, which are capable of self-destructing and emitting explosive energy

• Shockwave Generation and Stun: With the Nemean Cestus, which can generate powerful shockwaves and can easily stun enemies

• Forcefield Creation, Portal Creation and Energy Projection: With the Cerberus Soul Summon, where one of the Cerberus creatures with Hades' power is able to create barriers, use portals and cast attacks by spitting purple Hadean energy

Nordic Era

• Regeneration: Regenerated from brutally killing himself with the Blade of Olympus. Regenerated from being impaled through the abdomen by Baldur. Also regenerated being stabbed through the chest by Freya, and then again survived being stabbed through the abdomen by Odin with Gungnir, which moments before had killed Thor.

• Self-Sustenance: Unsuccessfully tried to kill himself through starvation some time after the events of GoW3, at one point eating only to satiate his appetite. Stated to Mimir that Gods do not nap.

• Spatial Manipulation: Able to interact with Realm Tears, which are holes in the fabric of reality that threaten the existence of individual realms, and can easily seal them off with just his raw strength alone, with said holes also being noted by Mimir to be voids.

• Attack Negation and Redirection: With the Shatter Star Shield, which can nullify AoE attacks.

• Speed Reduction: With Enchantment and Talismans.

• Sealing: Used a device to seal the Lindwyrms as per Ratatoskr's instructions.

• Forcefield Creation: With pommels and armor.

• Weapon Creation: With Berserker Hilts and Skofnung.

• Blood Manipulation: With the Hilt of Tyrfing, which can generate shockwaves made out of blood.

• Time Slow: With Talisman of Betrayal.

• Air Manipulation: Draupnir is primarily a wind-based spear, being able to shoot powerful blasts of air and being able to generate powerful whirlwinds.

Resistances

• Extreme Heat: Mortal Kratos wasn’t harmed from being grabbed by a Phoenix’s flaming tail. Was scarcely harmed from Hades raining fire on him. Launched by an erupting volcano without harm. Withstood prolonged exposure to the Light of Alfheim which supposedly incinerates those inside it. Briefly held onto the Primordial Flame, which Surtr used to conjure the Sun. The elements that Draupnir Spear can siphon include fire, which grant short resistances.

• Extreme Cold: Can quickly break out of being frozen. Arms of Sparta let him push through a chilling wind that came from the Horn of Boreas. No ill effects from being in Helheim, where no magic can create a blaze (the Blades of Chaos are also unaffected by this despite being fire weapons). Survived frost breath from a revived Thamur, whose final breath froze mountains for miles.The elements that Draupnir Spear can siphon include frost, which grant short resistances.

• Poison/Acid: Can survive poison/acid attacks from the likes of Manticores and Chimaeras. Some equipment, such as the Celestial Panacea, grant resistance to poison.

• Power Nullification/Absorption: Able to resist Zeus' Fury thrown at him by his own Clones created by Ares and later lightning from Zeus himself. Even a fraction of Zeus' lightning can nullify magical abilities with lightning strikes. The Light of Alfheim charged Atreus’ bow to allow him to weaken enemies with Light Arrows, to which Kratos has survived long exposure to. Can block strikes from the Blade of Olympus with his bare hands, which was draining Athena of her godly power.

• Electricity/Paralysis: Survived Hephaestus trying to electrocute him. Can power through the Siren's electric shriek. Zeus’ Lightning, which Kratos can survive, can also cause paralysis. Spartan Rage let him get up immediately and overpower being constantly shocked by Modi.

• Stuns: Can block out and resist Helios’ light, which stuns foes.

• Body Puppetry and Empathic Manipulation: Resisted the Siren's songs that physically and emotionally manipulate him.

• Biological Manipulation: Can resist the bugs of Megaera, which can transform its victims into mindless arachnoid monsters on contact alone. Is later able to resist the Sisters of Fate manipulating his Thread of Fate, who can control said Threads of Fate to modify the physiological appearance of a living being, even something mundane like deciding the position of a mortal's legs and feet.

• Illusions, Perception Manipulation, and Reality Warping: Can resist the illusions of the Furies, which is stated to warp the victim's senses and even distort the area around them, with proper focus on his mind or with the Eyes of Truth.

• Decaying/Dissolving: Resists the effects of the Mist of Delphi, which decays everything in its path after activation. Can fight off the Arms of Hades many times, which can dissolve objects on contact.

• Age Manipulation: Was twice unaffected by the Ouroboros Amulet, which can age and de-age objects with time manipulation and has shown to work on people.

• Sleep Inducement: Morpheus’ power put all the world to sleep, even the Olympian Gods. Kratos lasted long enough to stop him despite being specifically noted to be affected by it. Able to resist the Sisters of Fate tampering with his Thread of Fate, with the Sisters being able to easily wake up people by tugging their Threads. Can hold Slumber Stones that contain magic which maintain an eternal slumber and wear the Steinbjorn Armour, which is made out of said stones. Kratos can go days, even months without sleep.

• Fate Manipulation: The Sisters of Fate can’t forcibly change Kratos’ fate due to the Power of Hope.

• Soul Based Abilities: Hades failed to rip his soul out. Leviathan Axe and Mjolnir clashing in the past split apart nearby spirits, to which Kratos should be capable of surviving.

• Clairvoyance: King Minos can't see Kratos' future, saying it’s cloaked in shadow.

• Petrification: Despite being affected by it, he can still break out of the effect quickly. The Golden Fleece also lets him reflect Gorgon stares that cause this.

• Power Absorbing: After absorbing the soul of Hades, he could swim in the river Styx without harm, where he was previously depowered greatly

• Instant Death attacks: The River Styx kills any who drink from it. Kratos is able to swim in it and not die even without Hades’ soul.

• Possibly Memory Erasure: The River Lethe is “within the bounds of the mighty Styx”  and can erase memories. Kratos in the first novel tried to erase his memories this way before Athena intervened, but he possibly gained resistance to this as he can swim in Styx unharmed in GoW3.

• Corruption: Is able to resist Hades' dark mist, which corrupts everything in its path

• Madness Inducement: Some sources cite that Siren screams can drive mortals mad, and Kratos is unaffected. He’s also unaffected by Gondul, who can drive men insane with her beauty. Kratos was also unaffected from prolonged exposure to the Light of Alfheim, with Odin (disguised as Tyr) being surprised he was still of sound mind.

• Possibly Mind Control: Unaffected by Persephone seemingly using magic to convince him to let her plans go through, though it’s never specified what she’s doing exactly.

• Sound Manipulation: Frequently powers through Siren screams. Their death screams scream at a pitch that causes men’s heads to explode.

• Curse Manipulation and Statistics Reduction: Ivaldi’s armor resists the toxic mists of Niflheim which weakens and curses its victims.

• Disease: Was never affected by Hermes death spreading out affliction that affected other mortals. GoW 2018’s novel also says Kratos is "immune to the frailties of the human condition".

• Minor Telepathy Resistance: Atreus has a hard time reading Kratos’ emotions, although Heimdall is still able to read his mind. Kratos however had the Draupnir spear made to overwhelm his senses.

• Existence Erasure: With the Unity Stone, which grants protection against the Void in the Realm Between the Realms if one were to stray from the Path, where Kratos would normally be erased. This is due to it being forged from some of the Primordial Jotnar Creative Essence, the building material of the Nine Realms.

• Possession: Has the Dream Charm, which absorbs nightmares capable of this.

• Void Manipulation: Survives Erinys' powers, which are described as being voids. His Norse self is able to easily interact with and resist the effects of Realm Tears, which are holes in the fabric of reality that threaten the existence of individual realms, and can easily seal them off with just his raw strength alone, said holes also being noted by Mimir to be voids. His Norse self is also able to resist bites and claw swipes from Garm, who can make Realm Tears with his raw strength and can chew through the fabric of the realms, even surviving being chewed on by the latter.

• Possibly Radiation: In the GoW1 novel, Kratos witnesses what's implied to be the atomic bombings in WW2, saying “the [bombs] could not harm him”. This may be due to this being a vision however. 

• Possibly Spatial Manipulation: Able to withstand attacks from Nidhogg, which create Realm Tears with just its claws and brute strength, as well as attacks from Garm, who can not only tear holes between the Realms, but also chew through their fabric.

• Possibly Concept Manipulation: Fine after getting chomped on by Garm, who can devour things like seasons and a word.

Asura

Demigod Physiology

In Asura’s Wrath, demigods are descendants of genetically-altered humans who are born with the ability to harness and manipulate Mantra, an energy source that greatly enhances their physical abilities. This ability to manipulate Mantra comes from reactors that are placed in their chest. Their bodies in general are mostly if not entirely mechanical, and as such can survive wounds that would kill normal mortals countless times over, such as being impaled by numerous spears. They are additionally shown to live thousands upon thousands of years without showing signs of aging.

Mantra Empowerment

“Pride, Lust, Greed, Sloth, Vanity, Violence, Melancholy and Wrath. These are the Mantras that govern the world.” - Yasha

The cosmic energy produced by emotions and prayers, it is the energy source that powers the demigods. It expedited the technological progress of the enhanced humans to the extent that they were considered as gods by those incapable of accessing it, thus creating the demigods. Mantra exists as vibrations similar to those emitted by sound waves and flows within living beings and can be utilized in a manner akin to electricity. 

Each of the demigods is implanted with a Mantra Reactor into their chest at birth that slowly converts commonly used parts of their body into a type of metal, such as Yasha’s fingers or Asura’s arms. All characters use this energy source to perform their various feats of strength or abilities such as projectiles and growing in size.

Asura can also use his own wrath to further increase his power, as shown when unlocking his numerous other forms throughout his game. He also gets some form of adaptation, as he went from roughly even with Chakravartin at the start of their fight to him hurting himself when trying to fight back against Asura.

Supernatural Willpower

Asura's desire to save his daughter and exact revenge against those who betrayed him motivated his rage and made him a truly unstoppable force capable of enduring unbearable pain, defying death itself on multiple occasions, and surpassing his limits every time he needed it and ultimately triumphed against all odds. He also rejected the temptations of Chakravartin, choosing to end the tyrant over saving his own life.

Unlimited Mode

By making his Mantra flow through his entire body, Asura can enter Unlimited Mode, where he becomes far more powerful and extremely durable, to the point where most attacks are unable to even damage him.

Regeneration and Resurrection

Asura has really potent regeneration. In the games, he’s able to grow back his limbs and shake off massive damage to his body. From being crushed, exploded, impaled and so forth. Typically they take quite a bit of time to regrow but in the manga, he was able to regrow his arms almost instantly. He’s also able to resurrect from climbing out of Naraka itself though return varies from hundreds to thousands of years. In the manga though, there is one instance where he was once again able to come back after being sliced in half when the two pieces were brought together (the halves were kept separate for hundreds of years in an effort to prevent this).

Asura’s timeframe for resurrection reduces each time he comes back. By the time of his third resurrection, he came back from Naraka in a few hours. The manga takes this further, with his resurrection being instant after being killed by Deus in the Karma Fortress. His regeneration also improved after each resurrection, eventually being able to regenerate the loss of his core or being reduced to a metal skeleton by Yasha. This is done on panel instantly in the manga. It took the loss of Mantra as a concept to finally kill Asura, when his wrath was finally appeased by killing Chakravartin.

Energy Blasts

Asura’s secondary method of attacking besides punching are energy based attacks that he launches by… punching them out of his hands… Well, it still works as they pack a serious punch (gottem) ranging from one shotting a spacecraft, huge Gohma and obliterating hundreds of ships at once, all of which vary in power with each form he’s in. These likely draw from the power of his mantra and are also capable of homing in on its target. He can also unleash his mantra as a shockwave or an AOE blast. They can also lock onto targets and home in on them.

Flight

Asura and many other characters have shown capable of flying and fighting in aerial battles, usually in space.

Mantra Arms

Shown in chapter 11.5, Asura can grow large arms out of Mantra. While they can simply be extra arms, they can grow to be large enough to devastate whole armies of Gohma and are hot enough to burn holes through mountains. They can streak out in beams for even larger AOE.

Fist Projectiles

Yes you heard that right, Asura punches fists out of his fist. This is seen in the Street Fighter DLC and episode 11.5, where he rains down fists from the sky that annihilated a massive Goma army. What can you say, he really does punch the best.  

Wrath Cannon

A technique that allows Asura to pour his mantra into a target and detonate it outwards. This move seems to be far more powerful than any of his other attacks, as it fatally wounded Deus and cracked Chakravartin apart.

Raging Demon

A combo that directly attacks and destroys a person’s soul. This technique brings death to its victim through the weight of their own sins. Yes, he can use the Raging Demon, it’s literally the exact same input.

Life and Burst Gauges

Asura has nine different Life and Burst gauges that give different effects.

• Avenger - The default gauge, it gives no effect.

• Defender- Decreases damage taken.

• Destructor- The Unlimited Gauge fills up faster.

• Thermoregulator-  Recover from overheating faster.

• Survivor- Length of time in Unlimited mode is extended.

• Blind Master- None of the gauges are visible.

• Augur- All counterable attacks are automatically countered.

• Mortal- Reduces the length of the Life Gauge.

• Obliterator- Maintains the Unlimited Gauge at maximum at all times.

Brief term explanation, the Life Gauge is Asura’s health, the Unlimited Gauge when full allows Asura to spam heavy attacks without overheating. Overheating is a cooldown period between heavy attacks.

Resistances

• Extreme Heat: Shown in-game and in DLC to be mostly fine from atmospheric reentry (3000 Fahrenheit, ~1650 Celsius). The fight against the Vlitra Core seems to take place in the core of the planet (9392 Fahrenheit, 5200 Celsius).

• Cosmic Radiation: Countless fights throughout Asura’s Wrath take place in space, which would expose the cast to cosmic radiation.

• Soul Destruction: Could clash against Evil Ryu’s Raging Demon. He can also survive the same being used by Oni. Asura survives partial or full exposure without dying.

• BFR: Chakravartin seems to send Asura back to Naraka during their fight. Despite this, Asura simply punches his way back. 

• Possibly Petrification: Broke out of being a statue, and DLC shows he can move and fight as one. This may however simply be him shaking off rust so to speak, as both instances were after centuries of inactivity.

• Possibly Existence Erasure: Asura is able to take attacks from Chakravartin’s creator form, whose mere touch turned Event Horizon into a literal void. In the process of transforming, Chakravartin mentioned he would “erase Asura’s very existence”.

• Time Stop: While initially affected by Chakravartin’s time stop, Asura eventually adapted and was shown to be able to move in it. Does so again here.

• Possibly Soul Removal/Absorption: Despite the Seven Deities ability to take souls (an ability the Gohma have as well), neither Deus or Yasha were able to take his after killing him. This may be due to his soul automatically being transported to Naraka after death. Even after dying twice, his soul has never been absorbed by Naraka, the place where all deceased beings go to reunite with the wheel of life and death and become one with the flow of Mantra. Since the beginning of time, Asura is the only known being to have resisted such a process and even escaped Naraka. However, falling into the depths of Naraka would likely have still represented doom for Asura's soul.

• Possibly Life and Death Manipulation: Chakravartin cannot directly affect Asura, despite embodying and controlling Saṃsāra, the cycle of life, death and rebirth. This is never used directly in combat, but we do know Chakravartin created and sustains the cycle of Mantra.

Forms

Kratos

Greek Era Rage Modes

Kratos has a number of different rage modes throughout the main trilogy, although he does lose some. In general, they power up Kratos’ moves and make him more difficult to kill. He has access to:

• Rage of the Gods: This mode increases his physical capabilities, powering up his attacks and making him immune to knockback. At full power, he gains an infinite magic meter for the mode's duration.

• Rage of the Titans: After freeing Prometheus (we use the term “free” very loosely here), he gained Rage of the Titans, which grants him new moves, greater strength and vastly reduced damage.

• Rage of Sparta: Kratos becomes much stronger and faster, and switches to using the Blade of Olympus. He gains higher damage and greater protection from attacks.

Rage of the Gods as a transformation has foundations rooted in magic. While it is an amplification/transformation that is emotion based; specifically rage. It uses rage to enhance magic, which in turn enhances all other statistics. It even grants an indefinite magic supply. It is even influenced by specific magical elements like Fire, Lightning, Soulfire and Ice.

Rage of Titans, which was bestowed by Prometheus, increased the general strength of Kratos. Again displaying the magical nature of every aspect of Kratos's arsenal. Later this Rage undergoes one further upgrade, further increasing Kratos's strength.

Spartan Rage

Through the nature of his godhood, Kratos is capable of channeling his anger to activate the state of the Spartan Rage. When enhanced, Kratos becomes massively superior physically, being able to immediately overpower foes he would have been held back by beforehand. Alongside this increase in strength, Kratos is also able to recover lost health by dealing damage to foes, and he also seems to generate some sort of fire. It is also worth noting that while in gameplay Kratos needs to fill up a rage meter to enter the Spartan Rage, he seems to be capable of instantly activating the state at any point where he feels severely angered in cutscenes, so the rage meter being filled up is likely not that big of a necessity.

Unfortunately, the form seems to put Kratos into a, well, rage. He does not seem to use his weapons while enraged and only sticks to his bare hands. Which, considering how hard he hits when angered, does not really seem like that bad of a drawback in actuality.

Whilst in the state, Kratos does also seem capable of pulling off some special techniques, most of which he learns via, you guessed it, a Skill Tree:

• Fury Strike: Performs a dashing punch that can be followed up with a rapid series of punches.

• Raging Smash: Jumps into the air and slams back down, creating a large blast.

• Fury Drive: A heavy punch that sends enemies flying away at great speed.

• Spartan Stomp: A heavy stomp that damages and disrupts all foes nearby.

• Raging Ultimatum: Allows Raging Drive to charge for a stronger hit and wider area of effect.

• Fury Beatdown: Extends the duration of Fury Strike’s series of punches.

• Spartan Surge: A stronger Spartan Stomp that launches enemies.

• Seething Earth: Rips a large boulder out of the ground and throws it.

Kratos as of Ragnarok can also use his Rage for Valor and Wrath. Valor trades rage for a health restore. Using it just before getting hit increases health recovery and grants a short melee damage buff. Wrath consumes rage before performing a single powerful, charging hit.

Power of Hope

(Original artist unknown)

An ancient strength previously sealed within Pandora’s Box alongside many other negative functions of the world. Kratos originally used this power to kill Ares, but the power seemed to vanish after this. However, by forgiving himself when all was lost, the power that was previously dormant in Kratos reawakened, allowing him to finally defeat Zeus once and for all.

The Power of Hope provides a massive increase to Kratos’ stats. This increase is to the point where Zeus was completely unable to do anything to Kratos even whilst wielding the evil of Fear, an increase in strength that had previously allowed Zeus to easily defeat Kratos before he had reawakened the Power of Hope.

The Power of Hope grants Kratos abstract abilities, as it is the very concept of hope. As explained in great detail here, the Great Evils (like fear) and the Power of Hope are literally conceptual in nature. The abilities granted to Kratos from it are as follows

Offensive Hax

• Conceptual Manipulation: Kratos Is capable of using Hope as a weapon against Fear Zeus and banished Fear itself, Hope is considered the most powerful weapon in the God of War verse, surpassing the Great Evils, which in turn surpass even the Primordials, who are abstract concepts that predate reality itself, being responsible for creating everything in the Greek World and being the literal concepts of the aspects of nature that they represent.

• Advanced Non-Physical Interaction: Kratos can harm Fear Zeus with Hope. Terrified Athena and was capable of striking her down, the latter of whom had ascended to a higher plane of existence that granted her power and a level of existence beyond everyone else.

• Improved Immortality/Resurrection: After Fear Zeus killed him, it was the unlocking of Hope within him that brought Kratos back to life.

• Immortality and Curse Negation: Kratos is capable of bypassing Fear Zeus' immortality, and is far superior in potency than the Flame of Olympus, which can kill Pandora, a being that is neither alive nor dead. Kratos was also able to remove Hope out of himself, by stabbing himself with the Blade of Olympus channeling the power, in order to give Hope to mankind. He’s also superior to the Flames of Olympus, which in turn is superior to the Fires of Olympus, which nullified Prometheus's regenerative curse and killed him.

• Size Increasing: In the final battle with Ares in the original God of War, Kratos was able to use the Power of Hope to increase his size to the height of mountains.

Resistances

• Possible Conceptual Invulnerability to Fear: After Kratos unlocked Hope, he became immune to the effects of Fear Zeus, who is the very concept of fear itself.

• Statistics Reduction: Immune to all of Fear Zeus’s effects, who before had completely drained Kratos of all his powers and strength to zero.

• Power Nullification and Absorption: Even after Kratos killed himself with the Blade of Olympus (which drains godly power) and released Hope to the world, he was still brought back to life by Hope. Also able to resist Fear Zeus's abilities, which includes the Power Nullification of his base state.

Asura

Six-Armed Vajra Asura

First achieved when fighting Gohma Vlitra, this is the first of Asura’s many forms. Triggered by using Mantra and rising anger, he sprouts 4 extra arms and gains greater strength, defeating foes like Augus, Gongen Wyzen, and Deus.

Wrath Asura

The result of Asura’s Wrath reaching its peak, transforming his body and making him lose control of his own mind, becoming a being fueled exclusively by pure anger. In this form, Asura’s body is constantly releasing Mantra, making him extremely dangerous for all those around him, being more than capable of destroying entire Shinkoku Armadas by himself. However, the constant release of Mantra means that eventually his own body will start to decay and lead to his death.

The form can fire a continuous stream of crimson energy, homing blasts and explosive orbs capable of engulfing huge distances. The initial usage of this form sent Asura’s soul to Naraka, meaning the body fought off instinct alone. Asura was later able to use the form at will and generate its energy arms in his base state.

Mantra Asura

After being powered up by Mithra’s prayers during the final battle against the Gohma, Asura obtained one of his most powerful forms: Mantra Asura. With his armored fists now containing the power of 1000 arms, Asura’s sheer power is far greater than ever before, and he is fast enough to avoid several laser attacks from Gohma Vlitra. This is also the form he took while facing off against Oni from Street Fighter, where its power was enough to blow the moon apart. During that fight, Mantra Asura displayed the ability to compress and reflect energy attacks back at his opponent.

Six-Armed Mantra Asura

When Asura entered Chakravartin’s Event Horizon dimension, he took on this form, which combines the Mantra and Six-Armed forms. It functions as a more bulky version of his normal six armed form, but it can create a Halo that fires rainbow-coloured Mantra blasts and bombs that explode after a short duration.

Asura the Destructor

After Yasha placed the Karma Fortress’ Mantra Reactor into Asura’s body, it became capable of harnessing an incredible amount of Mantra, letting him absorb an attack from Chakravartin and transform into the Destructor. In this state, Asura becomes massive enough to dwarf even the planet Gaea itself, and gains a great boost in power, to the point where he could easily destroy planets and stars launched towards him by the Creator.

Asura is also shown to have the Mantra of all the Deities, which combines into a rainbow colored aura, which is present for all his attacks. This applies to his shockwaves, energy blasts, and powered up punches. He can also control his size in this state, taking on his original height when fighting Chakravartin. He also gains some sort of dimensional interaction ability, as he is able to punch his way out of Naraka, despite being sent there prior by Chakravartin.

Feats

Kratos

Overall

• Defeated nearly the entire Greek Pantheon, Hræzlyr, Magni and Modi, Baldur, the Council of Valkyries, Heimdal, Thor, and Odin

• Escaped the Underworld multiple times

• He would later go on to escape Helheim alongside his son Atreus, after a fight with Baldur blasted the three of them deep into the Realm. With Helheim being the Norse equivalent to the Greek’s Underworld.

• Destroyed most of Greece in his pursuit of revenge against the Greek Gods

• Alongside Atreus, found the long hidden path to Jotunheim

• Raised Atreus to be a strong warrior capable of battling Gods

• Was able to forgive himself for his past transgressions and thus prioritize the good of his allies

• Became (the goat) Mimir’s best friend

• Managed to kill David Jaffe

Power

• Can fight all manner of building sized monsters and gods and compete with them in strength

• The spell Poseidon’s Rage created a crater that was “100 feet deep and almost as wide” (73.7 kilotons of TNT)

• Stopped one of Alecto's tentacles which can throw ships and pull down large structures

• Swinging the Barbarian hammer caused an earthquake

• Threw the Colossus of Rhodes

• Giant Kratos shook a nearby mountain with his voice

• Leviathan Axe has frozen bolts of lightning from Thor

• Created a small valley by struggling in an armlock against Baldur

• Flipped Tyr’s Temple

• Killed the three Furies. Alecto created an illusionary pocket realm with an ocean and raging storm. (139.1 megatons of TNT)

• An interview for Ascension confirms the Furies are capable of making the illusions physically real

• Stronger than Redeemed Warriors who:

• Can swing the Atlas Hammer, which possesses the weight of the world (3.6 petatons of TNT)

• Possess the Hyperion Spear, which can hold the weight of the cosmos

• Killed Ares who

• Could stomp and make an earthquake around Athens

• Move clouds with his hands

• Created mountains and destroyed them (403.5 kilotons - 1.7 megatons of TNT)

• Fought and killed Poseidon, whose death flooded the world (10.6 - 22.5 exatons of TNT)

• One-shot Perses, who himself nearly killed Helios

• Helios has the power to destroy the world

• His death caused the world to be blanketed in clouds

• Helios’ power illuminated all of the underworld, which is potentially infinite in size (See Q&A)  (35 trillion FOE at minimum)

• Helios constantly defeats and banishes the primordial Nyx. Two other primordials fighting created the universe. (At least 4.2 X 10^69 Joules)

• If Helios was absent, Morpheus’ realm would merge into the main one

• Killed Zeus who

• Changed storm patterns across the Mediterranean with a breath

• Took another breath which made clouds pelt sleet

• Threw a mountain on top of Typhon

• Shook the foundation of the world with his rage

• Held back Cronos from crushing him

• Cronos killed Uranus, who survived the universe being created just by him getting punched really hard, which is confirmed multiple times

• Chained Atlas to the underworld, where he holds up the cosmos. Held back Atlas trying to crush him.

• Atlas can hold the world with just one arm

• Kratos also killed Hercules, who references the real mythological story where he also held up the sky (Novels also reference this)

• Fought Thor multiple times, even disarming and defeating him. The Leviathan Axe is also stated and shown to be equal with Mjolnir.

• Thor and Faye’s fight destroyed the Vanaheim crater valley

• Thor is shown fighting Jormungandr and Surtr, the latter of whom created the sun. His realm is also the source of all the stars.

• Surtr in his Ragnarok form detonated all of Asgard (521.7 quattuordecillion FOE)

• Thor had a fight with Jormungandr that was felt in all Nine Realms

• Defeated Odin, who used Ymir’s guts to create Midgard

• Odin stabbing Ymir caused all of creation to be swept up in a flood of his blood

Speed

• Casually dodged an arrow

• The Colossus of Rhodes, which was imbued with Kratos’ power, can catch a point blank ballista shot

• Slapped away a head thrown by a Harpy and the head was like a missile

• Perceived lightning as slow

• Reacted to a strike from the Hippocampi, which quickly ascended Mount Olympus (Mach 5553.2 - 8329.8)

• Used the Blades of Artemis to block a beam attack from a Wraith described as a sizzling light

• Fought Zeus multiple times

• Zeus threw a lightning bolt from Mount Olympus to Egypt in an instant (Mach 8447.9 - 4.8% SoL)

• Zeus dragged himself and Kratos from Rhodes to Mount Olympus (Mach 4202.3)

• Can utilize the Hyperion Dash in combat, which is stated to move at light-speed 

• Defeated Hermes and Hercules, both of whom can react to light from the Head of Helios. Helios lit up the entire Underworld in a short timeframe (At least 81.5 trillion c, possibly higher, see Q&A)

• Hermes also guides the souls of the dead. Hundreds of people were dying in a short timeframe by the time of God of War 1.

• Killed the Sisters of Fate

• Clotho spins the Loom of Fate, which has threads in every point and all living beings in the world, even inanimate objects like the Nile River, and across all time (166.8 billion c, likely far higher)

• Atropos sent a projection at infinite speed (debatable, see Q&A)

• Stronger than Cronos, who could fight Ceto, who created the universe with her punch (733.2 quadrillion - 1.4 quintillion c)

Durability

• Got launched miles by a volcano and was fine

• Survived the Hydra biting him to the bone

• Survived a stab to the chest

• Survived Hephaestus trying to electrocute him

• Barely survived the Colossus crushing him without his godly powers

• While not even at full power, blocked an explosion that partially destroyed the Pillar of the World, which held up the above world and prevented both from destroying each other

• Tanked a lightning bolt from Zeus that knocked back Gaia and nearly blew her arm off

• Gaia can move continents just by sighing

• Can deflect blows from the Blade of Olympus with his bare hands

• Survived frost breath from a revived Thamur, whose final breath froze mountains for miles (4 - 555 gigatons of TNT)

• Fine after getting chomped on by Garm, who devoured several mountain ranges as a pup

• Could endure walking into the Light of Alfheim which normally fatally burns people upon contact

• Seems to survive the blast that destroys Asgard (partial exposure, Atreus was at least exposed as it knocked him out). The same blast shook Yggdrasil to its very roots.

• Survived his own suicide attempt, falling from insane heights to the rocky shores below

Asura

Overall

• Defeated the majority of the Seven Deities, including Wyzen, Augus, Yasha and Deus

• Destroyed Gohma Vlitra, the Will of Gaea itself, freeing the world from its wrath

• Killed Chakravartin, getting rid of all Mantra in the world in the process

• Ended the cycle plaguing Gaia

• Finally ended his own wrath

• Climbed out of Naraka several times 

• Fought Akuma for 500 years

• Killed 100 million soldiers

Power

• In Base Form:

• Split a Gohma carrier in half with a kick

• Blew away several Gohma by powering up

• The shockwave of a headbutt destroyed a stone column

• Matched base Wyzen, who destroyed a Gohma carrier (16 teratons of TNT)

• Wiped out a Gohma army and parted clouds in a large explosion (2.81 gigatons of TNT)

• Flung an Elephant Gohma

• Broke Augus’ sword which had just stabbed through the whole planet and spat magma out the other end

• Mantra Arms burned holes through mountains

• Scales to Yasha and got gaming’s best bro fist in the process. Yasha kicked the planet sized Karma Fortress off target. (19.8 yottatons of TNT)

• Stopped Oni Akuma’s strike, which lifted part of the Moon’s surface

• In Six-Armed form:

• Subdued Vlitra for a time, who sent country sized debris flying just from emerging out of the planet (237.8 zettatons of TNT)

• Destroyed a large spaceship

• Punched Vajra Wyzen into orbit

• Stopped Gongen Wyzen’s finger poke, who was planet sized (4.89 yottatons of TNT)

• Later destroyed this form (390.8 ronnatons of TNT)

• Manga Version

• Can match Augus blow for blow. Augus sent an Elephant Gohma flying with a thumb flick.

• Wrecked Augus’ fleet (manga)

• Caught Augus’ blade, which raised large amounts of terrain on the moon

• Stopped the Moon from hitting Earth and destroyed it alongside Yasha (manga)

• Defeated Lord Deus, who merged with the Karma Fortress and performed the Messatsu hand clap with it (53.8 - 471.6 yottatons of TNT)

• (DLC) Punched Ryu to the moon 

• In Rage Form:

• Destroyed scores of starships, sometimes with just an explosion’s shockwave

• In Mantra form:

• Overwhelmed the Karma Fortress clap with Yasha and blows up over half of it up (manga)

• Manga uses artbook size for the Fortress (16.4 quettatons of TNT to 0.103 Foe - 0.906 Foe)

• Defeated Ghoma Vlitra and its core, who could flail around tentacles of massive size. The explosion destroyed a part of Gaia.

• Manga Version

• As The Destructor:

• Can easily annihilate planets and stars

• Punched through a celestial body far larger than him (keep in mind he’s planet-sized in this form)

• Caused a stellar sized explosion and shattered part of Chakravartin’s statue form

• Most forms of Asura fought against Chakravartin, who:

• Created a large celestial object (174.7 quettatons of TNT)

• His death caused an explosion that destroyed his Golden Statue form (115.2 septillion - 304.1 septillion FOE) 

Speed

• In Base Form:

• Dodged beams fired by Vlitra

• Dodged Chakravartin’s spears

• In Six Armed form:

• Can catch missiles

• Scales to Augus, who jumped from the moon to earth (2.56% SoL)

• Reacts to Augus swinging his blade

• Reacts to Deus’ lightning and electrically-amped attacks

• Blocked and intercepted lasers from a reawakened Gohma Vlitra (5.8c)

• Jumped to the Karma Fortress alongside Yasha in a few seconds from Gaea

• In Rage Form:

• Fired beams into orbit from ground level (24.4% SoL)

• In Mantra form:

• (DLC) Fought Oni from the moon to earth

• As The Destructor:

• Flew from Gaea to Chakravartin’s statue form, who was outside the galaxy, in a few minutes. (108.3 billion c)

• Dodged Mantra beams from Chakravartin that crossed stellar distances in a fraction of a second (437.82 trillion c)

• Dodged several later in the fight

Durability

• In Base Form:

• Survived the above

• Could still fight Vajra Wyzen after getting jumped on and beaten

• Got sent flying by Augus

• Tanked being thrown into spaceships by Augus (manga)

• Survived being stabbed into Gaia by Augus, with the “force of a comet”

• In Six-Armed Form:

• Survived a large beam from Vlitra; smaller blasts were destroying starships

• Relatively unharmed from Kalrow’s ship’s beam

• Tanked Kalrow’s suicidal blast (manga)

• Blocked and pushed through Gohma Vlitra’s beams

• (DLC) Blown back by Evil Ryu’s transformation which kicked up large volumes of debris

• (DLC) Survived Evil Ryu’s Raging Demon

• (DLC) Survived Evil Ryu punching him so hard into the moon that it fixed the displacement caused by Augus

• In Rage Form:

• Briefly clashed with and survived the Brahmastra beam, albeit barely

• In Mantra Form:

• Survived the Gohma core’s destruction

• (DLC) Blocked a strike from Oni that split the moon in half and shot debris out the other end (990.9 zettatons of TNT at its highest)

• As The Destructor:

• Was unphased being inside of a beam that previously vaporized a planet (303.17 ronnatons of TNT)

• Survived planets being thrown at him

Weaknesses

Kratos

Despite his godly power, Kratos can still be killed by mortal means. A strong enough attack would be capable of injuring him, and his healing factor does have limits. Other gods like Baldur who had healing powers have not been able to recover from fatal attacks, suggesting that an instantly lethal attack would put Kratos down once and for all. Kratos also seems to suffer from trust issues, refusing to give others significant information if he believes it best not to tell, and these issues are most notably towards any being of godly origin.

Once Kratos’ actions were purely influenced by his rage. As of current, Kratos actively suppresses himself and his rage, to the point nordic wolves could harm him. He has learned to lessen this suppression, in order to protect himself and his son, and in doing so fully mastered his rage.

Asura

Asura’s Wrath is both his greatest asset and weakness. Because of his iconic anger, he’s prone to rash decision making and lacking strategy in battle. It can also destroy his body if he’s too consumed with rage, due to the excess power flowing through him. His resurrection also has its limits, as he cannot immediately return to a battlefield after death. He was also willing to give up his very existence to protect his daughter, which admittedly, likely would not come up in a regular fight.

It should be noted some of these weaknesses do not apply later on, as after receiving the Mantra Reactor, his body became capable of handling any level of his power, and his resurrection eventually greatly sped up, to the point of reviving near instantly.

Also, he ummm, canonically folded to boobs.

Before the Verdict

Usage of Word of God

To reiterate our note from the beginning, for the purposes of this blog, there will be no usage of any Twitter or Facebook responses from any member of the God of War team, whether it be for scaling, cosmology, etc. The reasoning is fairly simple: Bruno and Cory tend to contradict each other on location or even scaling details, and both of them alongside the rest of staff are constantly bothered by people on twitter and other social platforms. In the same fashion as barring Hideki Kamiya’s Twitter responses for Dante vs Bayonetta, the same will apply here. Only responses given by GOW staff from official interviews will be considered, so long as they are used only to support information from the source material (games, comics, novels).

Universal Asura

Chakravartin is generally argued to be universal from the supposed narrative implication he made the “world”. In context however it is Gaia, which is confirmed by the Official Artbook Storyboards (Chak: It is I who keeps the wheels of this planet in motion). The other issue is that, ignoring the artbook for a moment, there is no time frame for his creation feat. As such, Chakravartin’s best feat is the explosion of his idol form, calced at Galaxy - Multi Galaxy.

As for the claim that Chakravartin created the universe. This is never stated. All he ever said was that he created the "world" and Mantra, and that he could bring an end to it and re-create it. In fact, the word universe is never ever mentioned by him. With the context of him creating the world also describing "Gaia" which is the name for Asura's Wrath's Earth analogue planet. So he obviously did not create the universe because it is never stated in the first place.

Information regarding the statements:

Chakravartin keeps the wheel of the planet in motion (meaning he rules the world and orchestrates everything behind the scenes up until that point) - Chakravartin said: "It is I who keeps the wheels of this planet in motion".

Chakravartin saying that he will bring an end to the world - Chakravartin said: "In that case, I shall bring an end to this world and begin it anew. Just as I have always done.

I will eventually rebuild this world."

Chakravartin talking about how Asura will become the "god" of this world with it being Gaea in the context and not the universe - Chakravartin said: "You are indeed the one who shall inherit this world. Gaea... must be led on its own."

The Episode Intermissions also state this as well, Gaia is his creation and it needs a new god, that being Asura.

It's also argued Chakravartin gets this tier from making a huge moon. The issue is that the calc compares the moon in the foreground to the idol in the background, ignoring perspective and massively inflating its size. The moon is shown in comparison to Asura’s Destructor form (which is a bit larger than Gaia in a cutscene) and is nowhere as large as this calc suggests. Calcing it this way can get barely above baseline star levels of GBE. Furthermore, GBE cannot be applied to a celestial object as large as the calc suggests, and it cannot be applied to non-spherical objects like in this separate calc. 

Summary for why this is the case:

1. Planet/star GBE is essentially the kinetic energy of its mass times its escape velocity squared, plus a couple other factors

2. Black holes are created when a star core is so crushed that its escape velocity exceeds the speed of light

3. Impossibly massive celestial bodies in fiction have escape velocities waaaay higher than lightspeed, and should thus be black holes

Addendum

That all said, Chakravartin ironically is still “universal”, depending on what energy value you use as the baseline for such. When Asura kills Chak, his idol avatar detonates into countless small shards, each smaller than Mithra. Originally we were using the artbook statement of Chak being in the center of the Milky Way, but chose to use the galaxies (dwarf galaxies to be specific) shown in comparison to it instead to scale, for the following reasons:

-The bit about him sitting atop the Milky Way isn't stated in the game and is instead from an art book with some discrepancies (such as dropped concepts like Chakravartin using Naraka pillars in combat). It's inconsistent with the visuals from the game because the golden spiral thing he's sitting on is visible from Gaia, which is within the Milky Way. He's also facing Gaia which would be impossible if he was sitting atop the galaxy that Gaia is located within.

-Beyond this there is no explanation for what the small galaxies are if they aren't galaxies. This is a contradiction that the opposing interpretation provides no answer for.

-There's no way to prove they're full-sized galaxies and not dwarf galaxies, hence the premise of the new calc.

Low End is 1.152186e70 joules, High End is 3.0417712e70 joules

Mass-energy of the universe: 4 X 10^69 Joules (here)

“Endless” Naraka

Naraka is claimed to be infinite in size because it has a statement that it has endless pillars. Besides endless not automatically meaning “infinity”, we know the pillars have visible ends:

We know the pillars don't go forever, and do not know the actual size of the realm itself. Asura also never actually destroys the realm or crosses the entirety of it.

God of War Cosmology

Statements from Interviews (Supporting Evidence)

New Direction & Deep Mythic Roots in God of War - E3 2016 Stage Show

“The way I see the mythologies (in God of War) is kinda like that Hubble telescope image. That image shows the universe with all its individual galaxies - and each galaxy is a representation of a mythology. You sort of wrap that around the Earth, and in any given moment, all of those mythological belief systems existed. They all deal with the creation myths around their region - it’s just separated by geography.”

Game Developers Conference of March 2019

"What I was talking about was the idea that all the mythologies of the world are kinda like this Hubble Telescope Image. They are like galaxies spread out through a complete universe, and the world is the universe. They are sort of the origin stories of various cultures throughout the world, starting from the beginning of time and stretching all the way out, so at any given time all the mythologies existed together - and currently - and they are simply separated by geography. This is important because some people had the conception that Kratos at the end of God of War III destroyed the world. Well, he destroyed what they believed the world was in Greece, their version of the world. Everybody believed their world was the only world; in fact, we still believe that today."

Source Material Distinction

Greek Era

The Universe - God of War Ascension / God of War 2010 Comics

The universe was created in the war between the Primordials, specifically when Ceto punched Uranus. This punch sent all sorts of cosmic matter (stars for example) flying out of Uranus, creating the setting of the Greek era. This would be affirmed years later by Gyges (link to comic). Uranus is noted to be the Heavens itself in the artbook for Ascension. This device, called the Antikythera Mechanism, is stated in the description to be used to track "the heavens". It is based on a Greek invention of the same name, used to predict astronomical positions, so it makes sense that the word "heavens" means universe in this context (relevant for later). Other gods like Ares are aware of the existence of galaxies, as shown with his realm.

A trailer for Chains of Olympus depicts the world in space, alongside the existence of the Sun (more on that below). It is also noted in the God of War Ascension multiplayer (which is noted to be canon by The Art of God of War: Ascension) that there is indeed a cosmos alongside the Sun.

Note:

Hyperion is Cronos' brother, both sons of Gaia and Uranus. You can see Uranus' name referred to in the special move list on the right. Since the Spear is supposed to hold the weight of the cosmos in it, referring to the embodiment of the universe in the move list only strengthens that claim. The move is called "Scars of Uranus" as you see, so it gives extra gravitas to the 'weight of the cosmos' description since it has a special move that refers to the literal father of the cosmos.

Greek World - Novels 1 and 2, Artbooks and Guides, God of War 3 and Ascension

The sky of the world has a statement in the first novelization of it being described as “infinite”. “Sky, Universe, Heavens, and Cosmos” are all used interchangeably in the Greek Era. Uranus is the Primordial of the Skies and Heavens, so this may be referring to the cosmos created from his body. The Sun is a separate entity from Helios himself, being an actual celestial body with a core that still exists after Helios dies (his death only clouded the sky).

The world itself is depicted as being a flat disk of sorts (God of War 3 Artbook/Guide), which contains Mount Olympus and multiple nations such as Egypt. In the games and novelizations, Kratos and/or the Gods visited many lands outside Greece, such as Persia, Egypt, Libya, the Mediterranean Sea, and Italy, which are all on this disc of land. “Below” this is the Underworld and the World Pillar. As for Mount Olympus itself, it is stated to take three days to fall from it to the surface.

Underworld

 

The Underworld is the final resting place of souls in the universe (Greek) and is divided into three sections. According to excerpts from the God of War website during the release of Chains of Olympus, the Underworld is cut off from the mortal realm by a barrier. This may be the Domain of Death, which cuts between both places as a sort of “purgatory”. There are two descriptions in the God of War 3 artbook that suggest the world is separate from Hades (The World that sits on top of the Underworld, and Kratos fell through the entire world to reach Hell/Underworld).

Hades is thought to have an edge (Chains of Olympus Guidebook and a statement from Gaia) What Gaia is referring to is the upper edge of Hades, after which lies the waterfalls leading to the plains of Tartarus below. Hades is but one section of the entire Underworld, which is Hades, Asphodel, Elysium, and Tartarus. The first three are the top portions. Tartarus is the bottom-most layer where the Great War took place and where the Titans are locked up. 

Tartaus is considered to be separate from the rest of the cosmos in the God of War 2 artbook.

Size of the Underworld

The Underworld has stars shown within it, present in several games and the realm extends out far past the World Disk. These are indeed shown to be more akin to stars. The Underworld also has notable clouds, and lightning is shown to come down from them several times throughout God of War 3.  

The Underworld has been described as a chasm of immeasurable magnitude in the God of War 1 Bonus Disk and as a “limitless domain” on the God of War website (In the Temple of Helios promo for Chains of Olympus). Visions of Ancient Greece (Interview with Cecil Kim, Concept Artist of God of War) and the God of War 1 Official Strategy Guide (Page 246, repeats the interview) mention that the Underworld “has an infinite distance in the background”. The temple of Helios promo for Chains of Omlypus describes Tatartus as having boundless and unending pits. This lines up with the infinite Sky/Heavens statement for the overall Greek World.

Note: The statements above are not necessarily literal:

"limitless domain of the dead"

"boundless pits of Tartarus" (note that immediately before in the same sentence they reference the "uttermost bowels" of Tartarus)

"unending pits of tartarus"

"there is this infinite distance in the background - stuff is flying, falling or exploding"

"a scarlet chasm of immeasurable magnitude"

"a vast waterspout roared up to mate the sea with the infinite sky"

Limitless, boundless, unending, and immeasurable are all words that can just mean "really big" or so big that they don't have a visible end. The infinite distance statement is referring to what can be seen, i.e. there's no visible end, it continues as far as the eye can see. Some of them, namely the Tartarus one, do imply that the area in question has a limit to its size. Likewise the "infinite sky"/endless sky is a common phrase used to refer to the sky hyperbolically, although the context of Uranus being the literal heavens makes it at least more passable than the others. Regardless, the Underworld is likely a universe in size given the context regarding the cosmos.

The World Pillar

A massive structure that connects the Underworld to the realms/dimensions above it, that being the Domain of Death and the Mortal World. The destruction of said pillar has the potential to destroy creation. Persephone herself says that all that came before would end and that the world would revert into Chaos if the pillar was gone. Chaos is one of the Primordials, who was subdued by Uranus and currently exists as a realm separate from the universe. Atlas acted as its replacement after its destruction.

Other Realms: Morpheus

Morpheus rules an alternate reality that mirrors the normal universe. During the events of Chains, he attempted to merge it with the normal universe.

Nordic Era

Note: Sources for the translations of the Jotnar Shrines/murals. Imgur collects all of them here.

Origins

In the beginning there were no realms, only primordial forms - fire and ice, all inhabiting a cosmic void named Ginnungagap:

“In the beginning, there was Ginnungagap, the great void. There were no realms yet. There was Fire, and there was Ice, and there in the void they met and produced . . . more than water - the mystic life-blood of something entirely new. From this water, Ymir took form, and became a being of pure creation and chaos, mother and father to all that came after. Every god, man and beast came first from Ymir’s flesh.”

Ymir's mural shows the making of Midgard, from his corpse:

Surtr also came into being, Creating the sun and the stars:

“Back when Ymir emerged from Ginnungagap, it was Surtr who followed next. He came from Muspellheim, the fire realm, bringing heat to the young cosmos, conjuring the Sun from his primordial flame.”

“The whole realm is a great fire. The source of fire itself, and all the sun and stars, if legend is to be believed.”

Ginnungagap, also known as the Spark of the World, is a cosmic void with noticeable nebulae. It is a primordial place and is the very place where the realms of Muspelheim and Niflheim meet each other.

Nine Realms

Mimir notes there are multiple worlds - God of War 2018:

“Odin is extremely clever, you see. Nearly as clever as he thinks he is. And he’s a collector of prophecies. If it’s about the future, he adds it to his collection. Helps him style himself as all-seeing and all-knowing. But of course, the idea is control. Control of the future, control of his fate. He’d control every realm of every land in every world if he could.”

The realms are on different planes:

"All the realms exist in the same physical space - reflections of each other. These doors, the towers outside, and the nine realms are all intertwined, and co-existing on the branches of the World Tree."

“All nine realms occupy the same physical space, only on different planes of existence.”

Matt Sophos clarifies the nature of the realms in his interview with Game Informer, where he repeats that all of the realms are separate dimensions existing within the same physical space and that they are dimensions on top of each other. This space is Yggdrasil, explained in the next section.

The realms being separate dimensions is further supported by realm tears and the description for Bifrost from Comic Con 2018 (“Fractured Reality”):

Each of the nine realms have different flows of time relative to each other. Atreus travels to Jotunheim via his sleep, has a full journey with Angrboda, and then returns back to Midgard, only to get caught by Kratos who tells him that two days passed since Atreus left, whereas we saw only hours pass in Jotunheim. Realms have their own cosmos, such as Asgard with stars shown in its sky.

Realm Shift, an ability used by both Kratos and Heimdall, distorts both space and time by default, and literally shifts an entire realm in the process, further hammering down the realms having their own separate space and time.

At the bare minimum, the nine realms together are a singular universe, as the destruction of them is labeled as the destruction of the universe on Surtr’s Mural.

Yggdrasil

The abstract tree that supports all nine realms. The World Tree completely encompasses and is ever-present throughout all of the realms. Freya has stated the tree reaches out to infinity (which is also affirmed in the God of War 2018 novel) and that its strands transcending both time and space. Yggdrasil exists on another plane, called the Realm Between Realms, which is a cosmic void where the boundaries of all the Nine Realms are located (Abe Taraky's official artworks of Yggdrasil in his story "Yggdrasil Coming to Life"). The void has noticeable  constellations and distant stars. It is also called a “cosmic light shower” that transcends the realms. This triptych panel shows the Norse God of War Tyr stepping off a branch of Yggdrasil into the surrounding void, and like other triptych panels the artwork seems to indicate stars all around (which lines up with how it's shown).

Conclusion

Within the games themselves, the realms in both pantheons are supported to be universes, with the main conflict being wog from twitter. We are not using anything of the sort, as such statements generally conflict with each other (heck, Facebook timelines state the world pillar being destroyed would end all of creation). 

In regards to the interview statements starting this section, Cory Barlog states the God of War mythology could be better summarized as being similar to the Hubble Ultra Deep Field image, except you’d have to wrap it up around the Earth. Each of these dots would show the number of mythologies that existed at the same time. All of their creation myths hold true around their region, with it being separated by “geography”. In the Game Developers Conference of March 2019, he decided to touch on the mythological pantheons' subject, and he resurrected his old analogy about the Ultra Deep Field:

"What I was talking about was the idea that all the mythologies of the world are kinda like this Hubble Telescope Image. They are like galaxies spread out through a complete universe, and the world is the universe. They are sort of the origin stories of various cultures throughout the world, starting from the beginning of time and stretching all the way out, so at any given time all the mythologies existed together - and currently - and they are simply separated by geography. This is important because some people had the conception that Kratos at the end of God of War III destroyed the world. Well, he destroyed what they believed the world was in Greece, their version of the world. Everybody believed their world was the only world; in fact, we still believe that today.”

Under this view, it establishes the idea that the world is shaped by each different mythological belief system, except within its own borders. In essence, a view of a “world” that has all the mythologies would basically be something akin to this trope. We know the realms have their own stars, yet are dimensionally cut from one another. One could argue against this with twitter statements, but there exists an equal amount if not more of these kinds in favor of the above view. (Example would be Cory Barlog: All of them. They have all carved out their piece of history. When talking about the "universe" though, they are - in my mind - referring to the universes that they themselves have dominion over. The greater "actual" universe has yet to be explored) 

Sticking purely to the games, novels, artbooks and non contradictory interview information, the realms are indeed cosmic in scale-

Q/A

What about Kratos literally just sailing to Midgard?

Who called Phoenix Wright? Ok so, The comic Fallen God and other material seem to suggest Kratos sails to Midgard. In the comic itself, Kratos sails and walks the earth, entering Egypt at one point, and returning to it a while later in his travels. Kratos is kind of in a fever dream of sorts during the events of the comic, but the important part is traveling by boat. So did Kratos just travel by sea?

The God of War 4 novel explains that the wolves Skoll and Hati kidnapped Kratos against his will and brought him to Midgard (who are capable of flying and chasing after celestial objects like a sun). Ragnarok also points out a difference in realm travel for the pantheons, with the method of travel for the Nordic Realms being Yggdrasil. Kratos is explicitly referring to realm travel on his pantheon (explicitly in reference to how he says his Lands had no World Tree, which causes Ratatoskr to be shocked, thus asking how he realm-traveled there), not from pantheon to pantheon. Just sailing into Midgard would not make much sense given the void that is the Realm Between Realms (travel into void without the protection of the Unity Stone, which Kratos did not have, flat out erases the unfortunate victim). The Realm Between Realms is made of Primordial Jotnar Creative Essence, the building material of the Nine Realms.

What about the Boat Captain’s key from GOW1 then being in the realms?

…. A reference, no we mean literally. The Boat Captain is referenced in nearly every game, even ones chronologically before GOW1. Easter Eggs aren't new to this franchise, even to the infinity gauntlet.

Garm eats a good portion of Midgard, which were mountains, how do you explain that?

The boat story about Garm. Mimir says that Midgard used to be bigger and Garm came there as a pup. He lists the mountain ranges, the fifth season and the word for "so hungry you're no longer hungry" as examples of what he ate. 

Of course, Mimir never actually specifies that mountain ranges make up a decent portion of Midgard (he says "oh, only a few mountain ranges" even) and the fact the realms can hold stars and constellations kills this dead anyway.

What about the confirmed size limit of Yggdrasil Branches?

Ratatoskr mentions branches snapping off due to the extra weight because of the stray branches growing on it, which the Seasonal Stags have to trim off to keep the main branches in check. This is about the stray branches messing with the main ones, and thus the stags keep stray ones off the tree. Freya and the narrator/Kratos comments on the tree from 2018 are about the tree in its normal condition, with the stags doing their job.

Are you sure Mount Olympus is as large as you say?

Refer to this document for that.

What about interviews mentioning the realms are all on 1 planet?

In an interview that Kotaku did with Cory Barlog, he mentioned this:

“I’ve always looked at this universe like our world. The geography separates the cultural mythologies. The cultural mythologies are stories of the zero-point to present day. These are the birth and the origin of these cultures. So the Norse mythology exists in Scandinavia, and simultaneously, across the world, the Mayan mythology has its origins, right? These are cultural stories about how they explain the birth of their cultures. And I think, as I look at the whole world, that each of these gods had their own domains, right? The way that countries had their own domains…"

“Right [laughs]. But yeah, it is a consistent single universe. As we start to look at these things, there’s little bits, here and there, that let you know. Like, Tyr, had connections to a lot of other pantheons. And there is reference, in Norse mythology, of gods interacting with Roman gods. It’s very small, it’s very minimal, in their connections, but it shows that there was an awareness. And whether that awareness was post-the time where they were moving the pagans away from the pagan religion by having the mythology slightly modified, to kind of move towards Christian religion… I think it is fascinating to imagine that at all times, there [are] these connections to every one of these locations.”

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This basically goes back to his analogy about the Hubble space photo. Cory distinguishes the pantheons by their irl moniker (Scandinavia for the Nords, etc). We know Tyr traveled across the 9 realms because he had the Unity Stone.

This triptych by itself conveys a lot of the lore we learn in-game. The four symbols circled in red in each corner represent the specific Pantheons which exist in the God of War world, aside from the Norse myths. From top to bottom, we have the Eye of Horus, which symbolizes the Egyptian mythology, the Omega, which symbolizes the Greek pantheon (we have been there, done that), the Yin-Yang balance, symbolizing the Shinto myths, and lastly the Triskelion, which symbolizes the Celtic culture which Mimir is most likely from.

In the center of the image, we have a depiction of the god Tyr holding the Unity Stone while he is on one of the branches of the World Tree Yggdrasil, in the cosmic void located in the Realm Between Realms which symbolizes the act of traveling to other pantheons. As gone over before, one cannot simply walk into the realms without being erased by this void.

All in all the realms are separate universes. If WOG was pushed (including Twitter), the cosmology would be more akin to something from Elder Scrolls, where the world has the realms separate as massive spaces cut off from each other by geography. As we are not using contradictory social media word of god, we are going with the former view. 

What about Hades having an edg-

Objection! Already covered in the Underworld section of Greek Cosmology.

Okay buster, explain Egypt being accessible from Greece, as shown in Fallen God

Wel- HOLD IT! There is a simple yet fascinating solution to this conundrum. It is true Egypt exists on the Greek World disc, with Zeus throwing lightning to an Egyptian desert and a mention from Ascension of an oracle from Egypt. To answer the question regarding Egypt, first let's explore an element from Ragnarok, the Mask of Creation. The purpose of the mask is to be able to access the rift, which is defined as being “all truth”. The mask itself is a catalyst and appears in different forms, its role to view “the truth of creation”, which itself is most likely the Higher Plane Athena accessed after her death that drove her insane. The sisters of Fate also briefly question if there's a higher fate that dictates what they do but they dismiss it out of arrogance in novel 2.

Why bring this all up? It ties back to Cory’s statements on the world of GOW. As mentioned before, Tyr traveled to other Realms (including the Greek Realm). These realms are separate, but bound all by this higher truth/fate linked to the mask. Note that both the mask and rift are associated with “Creation”. This leads us back to Cory:

 

“The way I see the mythologies (in God of War) is kinda like that Hubble telescope image. That image shows the universe with all its individual galaxies - and each galaxy is a representation of a mythology. You sort of wrap that around the Earth, and in any given moment, all of those mythological belief systems existed. They all deal with the creation myths around their region - it’s just separated by geography.”

Cory defines that all realms have their own creation stories that were meant to line up with the actual religions/mythologies. Greece has Uranus and Chaos, Nords have Ymir and Ginnungagap (in Norse and Germanic mythology, the void in which the world was created). All the realms have these cosmic events that occurred and led to their existence. The rift is the ultimate truth, having all the answers, including those related to creation. Future games may expand on this. What we do know is that the actual Egypt realm is separate from the Egypt located on the Greek disc, as it is a separate realm Tyr had to magically travel to. Fallen God depicts the Egyptian God Thoth within the comic, but this doesn't lock that location to being the Realm Kratos will reach in time. Thoth is associated with the ascended Athena in the comic, and she seems to have the ability to travel the nordic realms as well. Egypt within the Greek World cannot be the actual Egyptian realm, as the Sisters of Fate’s influence reaches there and the Nile River, yet their power/influence does not exist in other realms.

Overall, there is far too much evidence that actual realms (not locations like Egypt and Persia that are on the Greek Disc) are separate dimensions that have to be accessed magically in order to traverse them. Too close out, let's have the games speak for themselves:

This view is firmly established in the game by Mimir himself, who acts as the Word of God since he has an in-depth amount of knowledge on the gods and tales of the Norse:

• “Odin is extremely clever, you see. Nearly as clever as he thinks he is. And he’s a collector of prophecies. If it’s about the future, he adds it to his collection. Helps him style himself as all-seeing and all-knowing. But of course, the idea is control. Control of the future, control of his fate. He’d control every realm of every land in every world if he could.

As stated here, if Odin could, he would control all the realms within every world and every land, which tells us that the separate mythological pantheons that exist in the God of War universe are each considered parallel worlds in comparison to each other.

“That’s the Unity Stone! If Tyr possessed this, that explains how he could visit all the other realms, and other lands, to boot.

This establishes that traveling to other pantheons was considered more difficult than just visiting other realms - with the realms themselves being alternate dimensions.

Please Play Ace Attorney, it is fantastic

Anti-Feats, Scale, and Feat Explanations

There’s been a lot of recent discussion regarding “anti-feats” surrounding Kratos - discussion which has been had to death on various sites. The issue with using this as some sort of smoking gun is that nearly all of the common anti-feats presented are misrepresented or just flat out taken out of context. If you want an example of a more effective breakdown, see this post.

We would however like to address two specific game anti-feats, the pillar killing Kratos in GOW1 and Kratos not being able to break ice in GOW 2018 (Game version).

Pillar: The pillar throw is described as being more powerful than anything Kratos had been hit with before (which would include the Furies, Persephone, etc). Makes sense considering it's thrown by the God of War, whose own body is unharmed by his own death explosion and can throw said pillar thousands of miles in mere seconds (or less).

Ice: Said ice is magical ice generated by Thamur. The entire region was covered in ice by the final breath of Thamur when he was killed by Thor, since the ice was created by unnatural means it could be unnaturally durable due to the power of Thamur. This is supported by Thamur releasing a "great burst of freezing energy".

Scale

A common complaint against cosmic views on God of War is that the games don't “represent” this tier of power through their explicit scale. While this is an understandable concern, the games and their side material do in fact display this at times.

Ascension: The Spear of Hyperion has the literal strength to bear the weight of the cosmos (Uranus) and the Primordials created the universe in their conflict, indisputably, on screen. The Furies are capable of turning their illusions into physical realities, several which are shown with a sun, stars, and moon (an interview for Ascension confirms the Furies are capable of making the illusions physically real)

Chains of Olympus: Helios is stated able to destroy the world itself and had the energy to destroy the World Pillar. As discussed earlier, the destruction of said pillar would destroy the World and the Underworld. Atlas holds all of existence (Greek World + Underworld) up for 20 years. Helios' light spans the whole of the Underworld, a realm the size of a universe at least and possibly infinite. Morpheus attempted to merge his universe with the normal one while Helios was missing.

God of War 1 and Novel: Hercules temporarily replaced Atlas in holding up the heavens so that he could retrieve the Apples of Hera. Ares pulls Kratos into a dimension with a galaxy present in it, and he can manipulate the realm to his will. While the nature of the realm was left ambiguous by the first novel implying it to be a mental effect, this was clarified as not being the case in the second game and novel (it was an actual vortex that BFRs Kratos).

God of War 2 and Novel: Atlas states the war of the gods and titans literally shaped the world. He also states his Atlas Quake can shake the world. Atlas’ hammer is described as having the weight of the world behind its swing.

God of War 3: The death of the Gods affects the World and the Underworld. Poseidon’s death floods the entire world, Helios death blocks out the sun via clouds across the sky, Zeus’ death generates storms across the World. Kratos with the Power of Hope had the power to kill ascended Athena if he had wanted to, who had ascended to a higher level of existence that gave her power above all the beings in the Greek Era.

Novel 1 and 2 Feats:
- Ares roars and shakes the heavens and earth (Novel 1)

- Zeus roars and shakes the foundations of the world (Novel 2)

- Zeus alters weather across the Mediterranean by breathing. (Novel 1)

- Poseidon shakes the world by raising his fist. (Novel 1)

- Gaia breathes and creates continents. (Novel 2)

- Gaia is the world itself, and cracks entire continents (Novel 2)

God of War 2018 and Ragnarok: Thor’s clash with Jörmungandr violently shakes all nine realms (happened twice), which also sends the serpent back in time (Mimir confirms the legends regarding this are true). Freyr was able to hold off Surtr’s final attack for some time, that said attack destroying Asgard and shaking Yggdrasil to its roots. Surtr’s mural depicts his Ragnarok form bringing an end to the universe. Thor is also shown to be on par with Ragnarok and Jörmungandr.

Garm is stated to be able to devour all nine realms, and can make Realm Tears, which have the potential to destroy an entire realm, as they are literal tears in the fabric of the realms. Likewise Nidhogg chews off under roots of the Yggdrasil, similar to how the Seasonal Stags trim off stray branches of the tree. Nidhogg’s children, the Lindwyrms, can devour the nine realms if they are left unchecked (there are six of these critters in total). Nidhogg and the Lindwryms can all make Realm Tears. Kratos himself is capable of physically closing Realm Tears with his own hands. Skoll and Hati were originally destined to literally eat the sun and moon at Ragnarok.

Odin killed Ymir and then carved out his flesh to create six out of nine realms, as well as their space-time (since Niflheim, Muspelheim and Jotunheim were already there). Ymir’s death threatened to flood all of creation (check here as well). Surtr filled the nine realms with stars and encompassed the entirety of the cosmos with his heat. Original Ragnarok (Surtr and Sinmara fused) were actually meant to be the end of everything in the Nine Realms (better pic). The Ragnarok Artbook explains exploding stars and black holes and many other cosmic phenomena were integrated into Surtr’s Ragnarok form design.

Overall there is a sufficient amount of implication, if not flat-out showings, of a general cosmic level of power for the stronger gods in both eras. Kratos has defeated most if not all of them. While he has lower showings, they do not limit the power ceiling of GOW, and most are for narrative progression or gameplay purposes (like the infamous chests).

Speed Note: Redeemed Warriors aligned with Zeus can dash at light speed via Essence of Hyperion. The actual move is not teleportation, as Essence of Hyperion only channels the power of a Hyperion Portal to advance onto the enemy, as a dash. It is specifically gifted to  redeemed warriors from Zeus alliance in Ascension Multiplayer, as in it comes from Zeus’ moveset.

Hercules (folder showing not to be aim dodging) and Hermes can react to Helios’ light, which can illuminate the entire underworld. Kratos as early as GOW 1 has a move allowing him to move at the speed of Hermes. The sheer movement of the Primordials is MFTL+ from their cosmic clash, and Cronos has fought his father. Zeus not only scales to Cronos, but his lightning can blitz Hermes. Kratos keeps up with Zeus on the regular. Atreus can launch an arrow at the sun at MFTL speeds or higher. Kratos can also perceive lightning as slow.

Kratos can also tag and evade attacks from the Sisters of Fate. The Sisters can send out projections at speeds described as being infinite (though this might not be an actual speed trip, more like “teleporting” the astral projection). The Fates also monitor and micro-manage the threads of fate of the entire world. They have so many threads that every point in the world is connected to a thread (continents, rivers, volcanoes, etc) and as is time itself. This is an insane reflex/multi-tasking speed feat and they do it all in real time.

Realm travel for the Valkyries is not a speed feat, as they most likely use the Bifrost to teleport across the realms, similar to the Einherjar. Realm Travel is mainly done in this manner, as Bifrost is what allows it to occur.

Surtr Scaling

To close off, we discuss Surtr. Surtr in his Ragnarok form detonates Asgard, burning it away entirely and in the process shakes the Yggdrasil tree violently. Said explosion consumes the realm entirely, destroying all the celestial objects in it as well (a representation shows the whole realm being destroyed), which lines up with the statement Ragnarok would destroy everything in the realm. To add on, the original point of Ragnarok was to make him a literal force of nature. There were plans to include hurricanes and snowstorms in his body, but the game developers got to the point of looking at exploding stars and black holes and many other cosmic phenomena and then proceeded to integrate that within his physical rocky form. Surtr is meant to have a cosmic level of power. Surtr’s mural depicts his Ragnarok form bringing an end to the universe. This lines up with base Surtr filling the nine realms with stars and encompassing the entirety of the cosmos with his heat.

Surtr’s detonation of Asgard nets 5.2e91 joules considering the energy an explosion would need to bust stars on the edge (surface area is weird, everyone hates it for a reason), under the notion Asgard is 1/9th of a full universe (Surtr’s mural depicts the destruction of all nine realms being classified as the death and rebirth of the universe, so that's why 1/9th).

As for actual scaling to this, that is where things get tricky. Surtr’s destruction of Asgard is treated as narratively fatal to most characters. What is possible is the following:

• Freyr while wielding Ingrid could hold off Surtr’s sword temporarily (for about a minute). Freyr is then killed by the detonation. Kratos is stronger than Freyr, who is at most comparable to Freya, and Atreus himself may have taken partial exposure to the blast. While he was knocked out by it, he survived completely intact.

• The Leviathan Axe and Mjolnir are the strongest weapons in the Nordic Realms, besides Gungnir. As such they should be stronger than the Dwarven Cannons that could knock back and notably cause pain to Surtr/Ragnarok. Surtr takes a few minutes to recollect himself and continue moving after the cannons are cut off, implying they did some damage or at least severe pain. 

• The cannons are magical siege weapons. They were meant to destroy the bridges and cut off reinforcements. If Odin thought he could kill Kratos with them he'd have just aimed them at him. Thor himself should be stronger than the cannons, being the primary defender of Asgard.

• Thor is expected to at least be able to delay Surtr which is why he is sent to fight it. He clashes with it and the World Serpent mostly offscreen, holding both of them off all by himself quite easily and survives to later fight Kratos.

• Thor and Odin are said to kill Surtr in the original prophecy, just that in his dying moment Surtr still nukes the realms. It should be noted Groa lied about parts of the prophecy, so at most this is supporting evidence rather than a direct argument.

• Odin killed Ymir, whose guts threatened to flood all of creation, which is a similar premise to Surtr. Both Surtr and Ymir are described in verse as forces of nature, similar to one another.

As such, there is at least evidence for Thor, and by extension Kratos, to downscale from Surtr. Furthermore the Power of Hope should scale to Surtr/Ragnarok anyways, as it has the potential to kill Ascended Athena who sits in a level of Power above any denizens of the realms (Greek or Nord).

Bonus, is Nordic Kratos stronger than his Greek self?

There is repeated confirmation that Nordic Kratos was not only rusty, knocking the rust off, and "shaking of the cobwebs" so to speak, but that he was also reawakening his dormant powers and was a lot more muscular in his days in Greece. Not to mention that he had lost his divine powers and magics when Greece was destroyed. There are some statements from Thor or Baldur that at least suggest some level of relativity to the Greek Gods, but these statements would not be taking into account the full Power of Hope, since current Kratos only has a sliver of it left.

Fight Script

Y’all should know the drill for Wave 2 by now.

We hope you enjoy!

Bonus Fanart 

By Dekhead

By Redrunner- (Tribute Video by Hyperstarman)

Verdict

Stats

On paper, Asura seems to have the better feats. He has an assortment of large planet level showings, like scaling to Wyzen’s finger poke and Yasha kicking the Karma Fortress off balance. Both feats get several yottatons of TNT. Asura can go a step further with Wyzen’s destruction as well, a feat that gets into the ronnatons. These feats also are done and/or scaled to by Asura’s weaker forms, putting aside his stronger stuff that he does in his higher forms like Asura the Destructor. With the Destructor form being able to obliterate planets and stars.

In comparison, Kratos is not as visually “obvious” in terms of feats. His scaling, however, includes mountain freezing, storms, earthquakes, the instant creation of the entire universe… casual stuff. Being serious, this obviously gets way higher than Asura’s more typical feats. Dramatically so. This universe level feat is not inconsistent with the God of War verse either. There are other feats like Atlas holding up the entire Greek World, a universe-sized space. Odin killed Ymir, whose blood would have flooded the entire Norse cosmology, another universal space. And Surtr was infamously going to - and did - destroy Asgard during Ragnarok, a space that is at least 1/9th the size of a universe. Given that he carved his way through the entire Greek Pantheon and fought most of the Norse, it’s pretty natural that Kratos scales to all of these characters, with specific reasons having been previously explained in both the feats and pre-verdict sections.

The best measurable feat in Asura’s Wrath is the big final explosion of Chakravartian’s giant golden statue. Compared to the dwarf galaxies surrounding him, Chak’s big golden ass is hundreds of thousands of light years tall. To shatter such an immense amount of gold all at once, the explosion that wrecked the statue must have yielded a whopping 3 times 10 to the 70th power joules. For reference, the mass-energy of the universe is 4 times 10 to the 69th power joules, 7.5 times less than Chak’s output upon death. And keep in mind, Asura eventually could surpass and defeat Chakravartin in his base form, without any transformations. Meaning if he had been able to activate his transformations against Chak after his incredible adaptation, his increase in power would have been absolutely ludicrous.

However… remember that feat we mentioned of Surtr destroying Asgard? Keep in mind the method through which he did so. Surtr’s feat is pretty explicitly described as a large explosion, starting in the center of Asgard and expanding outwards until it completely obliterated the entire realm, with explicitly nothing remaining. This means that even stars or planets located on the very edge of the realm would have been completely destroyed.

You are probably wondering, why are these specific details important? Well, on paper, destroying all of the matter in the universe wouldn’t require exceeding the universe’s mass-energy, buuuuut the immense surface area of the blast makes it more complicated than that. Essentially, the yield of the blast would be spread out over a massive area, with only a small portion of the explosion actually touching the physical matter that it’s destroying.

The farther from an explosion you are, less energy of the full explosion will be imparted onto you. At its full size, Surtr’s detonation would have a surface area of over 5.6 times 10 to the 53rd square meters, with an average star on the edge of the universe having a surface area of only a few hundred million square meters. And again, we know that all matter in the universe was destroyed, including stars on the edge. For such an infinitesimal portion of the explosion to destroy a star, the total energy of the blast would have to equal… 5.2 times 10 to the 91st power joules. Far greater than Chakravartin’s death explosion, and thus greater than anything Asura (or anyone in his verse) has shown, even as the Destructor. Even supposing Chakravartin did create the universe, it still wouldn’t measure up. And this is ignoring the possibility that the realms in God of War are infinitely vast, or that wiping out Asgard’s space-time would make the gap in power unquantifiably large. Simply put, the gods that Kratos has fought and routinely slaughtered are operating on a higher level of power than Asura.

Luckily, speed is dramatically easier to explain when comparing these two. Both have their fair share of relativistic speed feats. Kratos and other God of War characters have dodged light or crossed tremendous distances in short time frames, with Asura and other Asura’s Wrath characters having similar feats involving space crossing distance and lasers. But those kinds of feats hardly compare to their good stuff. Asura was able to dodge Chakravartin’s Mantra beams, which could cross tremendous distances in a fraction of a second, at 437.82 trillion times the speed of light. 

In comparison, Kratos bodied Helios and compares to characters like Hermes, who can dodge Helios’ light. This light is ironically a lot faster than the real thing, having illuminated the entire universe-sized Underworld in a short time-frame, at 81.5 trillion times light-speed. The Sisters of Fate are able to move threads dictating the fate of every object in the universe, 166.8 billion times the speed of light. And the Primordials, who were slaughtered by Titans who are inferior to Kratos, could punch the Greek universe into existence at a whopping 733.2 quadrillion to 1.4 quintillion times the speed of light. Thousands of times faster than Asura’s best speed scaling.

And it’s worth noting that Kratos could potentially be even faster, by an infinite degree. The Greek Underworld has statements that could imply infinite size, and Helios light was able to paradoxically illuminate all of it, which could mean his light travels at an infinite speed, saying a lot about the characters who can dodge it. Likewise, one of the Sisters of Fate, Atropos, had this said about how fast one of her projections was: “The speed of her journey was infinite,”. No exaggeration, no fancy wordplay, straight up called infinite speed. Of course, as laid out in the pre-verdict section, the statements about the Underworld being infinite are pretty likely hyperbolic, and some are internally inconsistent. Likewise Atropos’ astral projection is arguably more like she’s just “willing” herself to her location and arriving instantly, rather than something you could apply to her reactions.

For talk of the Underworld’s size, go through the Greek Era section of the section for God of War Cosmology, if you keep scrolling you should seek a section discussing the Underworld. For talk of the Atropos feat, go to the section labeled Anti Feats, Scale, and Feat Explanations and scroll down until you see mention of speed. Some of us are more against or in favor of them than others on the blog, but in reality, Kratos is still outpacing Asura’s strongest form over a thousand times over, regardless of whether his speed is infinite or not. So it is not too important in the grand scheme of things.

With all that elaboration out of the way, it’s obvious both are incredibly strong, but Kratos is Asura’s superior in both strength and speed. With enough time and rage, Asura could potentially reach Kratos’ level eventually, but it’s not something he could do quickly or easily in a combat situation. Asura can and has lost fights in the past, defeated before getting angry enough to match his opponents, with Yasha and Chakravartin being prime examples. It’s unlikely he would be able to reach Kratos’ stats in a realistic combat scenario.

Arsenal and Abilities

Let’s get the obvious out of the way: Kratos’ arsenal absolutely humiliates Asura’s. This extends to versatility in general as well. Sure Asura has a lot of projectiles and hands to (literally) throw out, but in comparison to Kratos’ list of options, it is pitiful. Kratos has control over all the elements, whether it be with his primary Leviathan Axe and Blades of Chaos controlling heat and cold, the Nemesis Whip controlling electricity, the Blade of Olympus being able to summon storms, or even the Draupnir Spear being able to absorb elemental attacks and return them to sender. He has projectile-reflecting shields, bows with explosive elemental properties to catch Asura off-guard, multiple methods of summoning other beings to give himself the number advantage, the list goes on and on. 

And within this large list of versatility, Kratos also has methods for immediately ending the fight. With the Head of Medusa or Eurydale, Kratos can petrify Asura and turn him to stone. With the Claws of Hades, he can straight up tear out Asura’s soul and absorb it. You are probably thinking though, does Asura not resist petrification and soul-based attacks? After all, he was able to restore himself after he was turned to stone after being immobile for a long period of time. Against Ryu, he was able to survive his devastating Raging Demon, which is a direct attack that obliterates a person’s soul. The issues presents themselves in that:

1. There was nothing that actually turned Asura to stone specifically. When he was restored in the main story, it was because he had escaped Naraka again, and thus his soul returned to his previously dead body. When he started moving again against Akuma, it notably took several years for him to move again. There is no direct evidence Asura can immediately break out of petrification.

2. While the Raging Demon does attack a person’s soul, directly attacking a soul is not what the Claws of Hades do. They specifically tear out the soul, not attack it, before the wielder of the claws proceeds to absorb the soul for a power boost. Essentially, the Raging Demon and Claws of Hades are different ways of interacting with the soul, and thus are not necessarily comparable.

In comparison, Asura lacks any special offensive abilities to match Kratos’ abilities. Thus, his only means of a killing blow would be hitting Kratos very, very hard. Something that Kratos can also do, and better, thanks to his plethora of weapons packing unique effects and status effects to make it easier to put Asura down. So while Asura may punch the best, Kratos definitely hits better.

That sounded weird.

Speaking of status effects, it would also be good to look at the defensive abilities the two have. Unfortunately for Asura, he does not do much better in this regard. If anything, he does worse than he does in an offensive comparison. Kratos’ variety of armors provide numerous increased resistances to various effects, provide one-hit barriers, can provide Kratos with various buffs at random points depending on circumstance, etc. etc. Even if Asura did have any special durability-negating abilities to end the fight quickly, Kratos has so many different and unique hax resistances that it would not even matter.

But Asura definitely deserves some credit here, as he does have some useful tools in this fight. He himself knows the Raging Demon, and for the same reason Asura cannot resist soul tearing, Kratos cannot exactly resist a direct attack on the soul either. Remember, there is a difference between the Claws of Hades’ soul removal and the Raging Demon’s direct assault on the soul. It is also worth bringing up how Asura has a far superior healing factor. While Kratos’ is certainly impressive, being able to heal after long battles, and being further supplemented by his many methods of gaining health back (i.e. armors or talismans), it clearly has limits. Asura on the other hand can recover from far more fatal attacks and regrow his limbs in seconds. In addition, Asura is able to resurrect, almost instantly in one case in the manga, while Kratos needs outside help to accomplish that, in the form of Atreus giving him resurrection stones.

However these things in Asura’s favor are not exactly game changers. Starting with the Raging Demon, he still needs to actually land it which, well, refer to the stats section. Kratos also might be able to survive it, given he can be at the epicenter of a Leviathan Axe and Mjolnir clash and not have his soul ripped apart. As for the healing factor and resurrection? Kratos has counters to that. Remember the Claws of Hades and petrifying heads we mentioned earlier? By absorbing Asura’s soul with the claws, Kratos would prevent it from traveling to Naraka. Thus, Asura would be unable to return to his body and be incapacitated permanently. The petrification would also immobilize him permanently, likewise resulting in complete incapacitation and thus a win for Kratos. And to top it all off, it is also possible the Leviathan Axe could just overpower Asura’s soul and tear it apart itself.

It is also worth addressing that, while he would not need to win through brute force, it is still possible Kratos could. Asura’s resurrection in the manga implies he still needs some sort of stable body to return to, as one time he could not return from Naraka until his split in two body was reconnected. Thus it is possible to argue that Kratos could simply hit Asura hard enough to prevent his body from being in a stable enough position to reform. Though it is also worth noting that Asura’s resurrective prowess did improve with time, as the same manga also shows him later regenerating large chunks of his body and even his missing Mantra Core incredibly quickly after a bout with Deus. 

So it could also be argued that Asura could regenerate with a significantly less stable body to return, just as much as it can be argued he does need one. The exact limits of Asura’s regeneration and resurrection are never exactly shown, so all we can really do is assume. You could also argue the Power of Hope being able to directly attack the concept of fear would mean Kratos can quite literally punch Asura’s soul, though that comes down to if you think conceptual manipulation means someone can attack a soul. But regardless of whether or not Kratos could beat Asura traditionally, he still could just use the Claws of Hades or petrifying heads anyways.

Asura is definitely a bit more versatile than you would think, but regardless he could never stack up to the sheer size, versatility, and powers of Kratos’ catalog of equipment and powers. And while Asura does have some special powers up his sleeve with the Raging Demon and his resurrection, Kratos still has counters regardless.

Oh and most importantly Asura does not have MIMIR THE ABSOLUTE GOAT

Tertiary Factors

Before diving into the whole deal of skill and experience, there’s one question many ponder with this match. “How would Kratos deal with Asura the Destructor?”. Well, yeah, Kratos has experience fighting large Titans the size of many mountains, but the Destructor is well… a bit bigger.

However, conveniently, the Power of Hope actually allowed Kratos to reach this mountain towering size in the climax of God of War 2005. Now obviously, he would still be dramatically smaller than the Destructor. However, the fact Kratos can grow at all definitely helps mitigate this problem, and he has fought enemies much larger than him like Cronos. Though obviously, even if Kratos has experience with the issue and can mitigate it, the issue is still there, so the Destructor’s size is still an advantage for Asura. It should also be pointed out however that being very beeg wouldn’t exactly give Asura an easier time ending the fight.

Now then. Surprisingly enough, both angry men should have relative feats of skill and finishing foes with hundreds of thousands more years of experience than them, and both have experienced all sorts of unique and fierce attacks. Both were once extremely skilled generals as well, making them adept in the art of war. What makes their connections also makes up for their fighting skill and experience, basically. However, if there was someone who’d edge out, it would probably be Kratos. Not by a landslide, but Kratos has been training since youth to become a strong Spartan, and was especially successful at it. This should edge out over Asura’s experience as a general, since we don’t exactly know whether Asura had been training his whole life, and large portions of his millennia-spanning existence were spent dead.

As for stamina, Asura more than likely takes the advantage here. Kratos’ endurance is absurd, with him being able to go for months without so much as a nap. Throughout his adventures, he also very rarely takes breaks. For example, in God of War 2, once Kratos arrived on the Island of Creation, he performed non-stop exploration and combat until he finally defeated the three Fates. But in comparison to Asura, this could be seen as laughable, considering his feat of fighting against Akuma for a little over five-hundred years. Obviously, they were shown slowing down after the five-hundred year mark had passed, but the fact they remained in one spot punching each other for so long means they must have never gotten any food, water, or sleep whatsoever. So Asura clearly has an advantage in stamina. However, considering both are able to maintain peak performance for as long as they can, this giant advantage also likely is not that significant. The battle likely will not take long enough for either side to exhaust themself. So while it is an advantage, Asura’s greater stamina is not anything too drastic here.

Essentially, while Asura definitely has advantages with his size and stamina, they are advantages that Kratos either has experience dealing with, or advantages that are going to be less impactful in reality than on paper. And for direct skill, Kratos should be taking a minor edge. So while Asura definitely takes the overall edge in terms of tertiary factors, it is not one that massively shifts the battle in his favor by any means.

Conclusion

“I have nothing left to hide.”

Advantages:

• Superior stats

• Significantly larger arsenal

• Has a large variety of attacks and abilities that Asura has no experience combatting

• Hax options that Asura has no counter against

• More methods of ending the fight with his various equipment options

• Better at keeping his anger in check during combat

• Has Mimir

• Expert Soccer/Football player

Disadvantages:

• Asura’s adaptation could catch Kratos off-guard if the fight drags on long enough

• Raging Demon could kill Kratos depending on interpretation 

• Destructor Asura’s sheer size could make him harder to kill

• Inferior regeneration and stamina

• Literally fatherless behavior

• Never got a hit from the cabbage of the gods

“I... I couldn't bear to see you suffer. No more crying. Smile. My wrath... is finally... gone. Durga... I'll be home... soon.”

Advantages:

• Adaptation could catch Kratos off guard if the fight dragged on long enough

• Raging Demon could kill Kratos depending on interpretation 

• The sheer size of the Destructor form could make him significantly harder to kill

• Greater mobility and area-of-effect, especially in Destructor form

• Superior regeneration and stamina

• Had a Street Fighter crossover

• The intro to his game is literally Among Us

Disadvantages:

• Inferior stats

• Significantly smaller arsenal compared to Kratos’ diverse and unique equipment

• Less options for quickly ending the fight

• Not as good at controlling his emotions

• Does not have Mimir

• Didn’t get into Marvel vs Capcom rip

With these two gods going head to head, only one could be left standing, and while Asura was a powerful foe, Kratos is the one who wins this battle. Now, Asura has his fair share of advantages, like higher stamina thanks to his battle with Akuma. He also has superior AoE options, and thus has the advantage in range. However, these are simply delaying the inevitable, and won’t prevent Kratos from getting in close to end the fight.

In terms of stats, Kratos is stronger, faster and more durable. Comparing Asura to Chakravartin’s avatar exploding, which would yield over 3e70 joules of energy, to Surtr blowing up Asgard, which would yield over 5.2e91 joules of energy, it’s clear that Kratos is the stronger of the two and wouldn’t have trouble killing Asura with a good hit or two. It’s a similar story with speed. Asura dodging Chakravartin’s Mantra beams clocks in at 437 trillion times faster than light, while the Primordials’ universe punch hits 733.2 quadrillion times FTL on the lowest end, giving Kratos the edge by a fair margin. 

In terms of abilities and weapons, Asura does fair a bit better, but it is nothing he can really take advantage of. Kratos on the other hand still has loads of weapons at his disposal from his Greek and Norse adventures that will prove troublesome for Asura. There are also the many many status effects Kratos has that can help with healing him, damaging Asura etc. Obviously, Asura does still have a few tricks up his sleeve, mainly his healing factor and the Raging Demon, which could possibly get Asura the win.

However, there is a difference between could and would, and it is very unlikely that Asura would be able to pull out a win with what he has. Again, Kratos is far faster than Asura, giving him the means to dodge the Raging Demon, and given he’s taken hits from Mjolnir, which can split nearby spirits with attacks, it’s pretty likely he could survive the attack if Asura somehow lands it. In regard to the healing factor and resurrection, Kratos can simply counter them with Claws of Hades, which would just tear out Asura’s soul and absorb it. Finally, there is the argument for Asura growing so big he can overwhelm Kratos, but yet again Kratos has a counter. With the Power of Hope, Kratos can simply grow big as well, and while this growth is absolutely not as big as Asura, the increase in size makes the gap somewhat closer to what Kratos has dealt with in the past. 

Overall, Asura was certainly able to put up a good fight with his regen and AoE, but Kratos was too strong, fast, and had too big of an arsenal for the Demigod of Wrath to handle. Ultimately, the former God of War was able to Burst out a win. Guess you can CHAK Asura’s demise up to him not standing a Ghost of a chance.

The winner is Kratos.

Final Tally

Team Kratos (13) - Blue Igneous, Dark Behemoth, Hi Hi, SoMaShadow, Dragon, Bananabot, notatruename, Rina, Cyber, Andrex, Dazz, Black Shulk, HeavenPiercerChris

Team Asura (2) - Hyperstarman, Greymerlion2 

(Art by Vladyslav Kutuzov)

Next Time…

DEATH BATTLE! is returning May 22nd, which gives us… a little under two months left to fill. Arceus VS Aslan and Brainiac’s blog will just be releasing whenever they’re finished, and this is the last match we had scheduled, so……. this is awkward. Guess we’ll be hibernating for the rest of the break! Wait... what's that...?

…Just kidding! Wave 3 baby.

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