The things that God of War: Ragnarok does not tell you and can come in handy (no spoilers)

God of War: Ragnarok builds on the 2018 game in many new and interesting ways, and while there are plenty of tutorials, there’s still a lot of information that isn’t always explained to you. You’ll have to search for yourself or consult this list of things that God of War Ragnarok does not tell you.

• Break small pieces of the environment (barrels, tables, etc.) to get free materials. This can include faraway objects, as destroying them with your ax will still give you the rewards.

• Go through the Mystic Gates to restore your health and rage to full at any time. You just have to interact by approaching the door, going in, and then going back out. Do this before you take on the bosses and mini-bosses to make sure you’re fully prepared.
• Blades of Chaos can be used to pull enemies towards you, but certain enemies like Nightmares and Explosives can be grabbed and thrown like bombs to damage other enemies.
• God of War: Ragnarok allows 60 manual save files. Save often, and if you’re on a linear story mission and feel underpowered on higher difficulties, you might want to explore a bit more first.
• Certain skills allow you to perform new combos or attacks by spacing out button presses. If you don’t want to perform them by accident, you can disable the skills you don’t like in the skills menu by pressing Triangle.
• Poison in God of War: Ragnarok is not limited to damage over time. If you take enough damage, the poison will weaken you and (temporarily) increase an enemy’s level compared to you. However, you can use certain companion skills, gear, and hazards to do the same to enemies (including bosses), which will lower their level and stats, making them easier to kill.

• Enemies’ health bars will change color based on your level, and while normal enemies display their power level number, bosses do not. The green health bars are slightly lower than your level, while the yellow ones are equal to you. Orange health bars are one level higher enemies, purple ones are two levels higher, and red ones are 3 or more levels (and should be avoided!). Poisoning enemies will cause their color to change, but so will poisoning you!
• Poisoned enemies are sometimes weakened enough that their unlockable attacks are now blockable (but can still stagger you if not timed perfectly).
• As you progress through the game, more optional challenges will appear in the Jobs tab of the Objectives menu. This allows you to gain experience for doing multiple things enough times (throwing rocks, smashing frozen enemies, etc.), so make sure to vary your moves.
• It’s easy to forget that the experience you gain doesn’t just buy new skills. You should also put some experience into increasing the power of your Runic Abilities and Runic Summons, as well as upgrading Kratos’ Spartan Rage ability.
• Atreus starts the game with a very small skill tree, but you should expect it to expand over time. In this case, don’t feel the need to unlock all of his first skills at once if you prefer to save.

• In different realms, you may notice certain hazards or items in a fight that can be used against other enemies. Throwing your ax at twilight stones can stun enemies, while Vanaheim’s Poisonous Flowers can be activated to spit toxins at nearby enemies.
• Depending on the shield you equip, it’s easy to forget how powerful his punch can be. Whether charging up his power or parrying on cue: if your shield isn’t glowing, one hit will do a normal amount of damage and stun. When glowing yellow, you’ll deal bonus damage and stun, and a red glow can unleash a maximum damage bonus and stun hit, and will almost always interrupt an enemy or boss unless it’s heavily armored.
• Most regions will have at least one or two things that you won’t be able to unlock until later in the game, so don’t worry too much about trying to hit 100% of a zone on your first visit. If you see something marked “Undiscovered”, it’s likely part of a later side quest.
• Be careful with Ormr, as they can be a great source of resources for crafting. They look like the enemies you fight in Svartalfheim, or the Tatzelwurms from the first game, but these creatures won’t hurt you. They will sit on the surface emitting a repetitive barking cry, and when they see you they will hide underground. Find a nearby vantage point where the Ormr can’t see you before taking him out with a ranged attack to claim your reward.
• Charging your ax or swords usually takes a while, which means you can preemptively charge your weapons before going into combat.

• Certain attacks will make you invulnerable during the animation. While it doesn’t apply to runic attacks, moves like Serpent’s Lasso, Nightmare Throw, and using a Stunning Finisher will prevent enemies from hitting you once the animation starts.
• Spartan Rage’s activation can sometimes interrupt enemy attacks if they’re close enough, causing them to stagger as you explode in rage. This can work even when stepping on health or rage stones.
• Certain health and rage stones that are naturally found in the environment will respawn from time to time, so whenever possible, collect them.
• Regardless of the difficulty, the main bosses you’ll face have certain checkpoints, so if you die you won’t have to go through the entire fight again. The same goes for mini-bosses, but you’ll need to turn them on in the options menu, though they won’t work on higher difficulty levels.

If you need more help, here you will find out how long God of War: Ragnarok is according to different members of IGN and here you can read our analysis of the game.