As with the last game, God of War Ragnarok brings back armour and crafting to upgrade individual pieces. While it is quite similar to how it worked in the original game, God of War Ragnarok armour crafting adds some new twists to the formula and also allows gear to be upgraded more.
This article will go through how that crafting works, and the new higher tiers you can upgrade your gear to. We will also talk through resources and some of the harder-to-find resources in the game.
God of War Ragnarok armour crafting explained
God of War Ragnarok armour crafting allows you to find new armour pieces with unique buffs and abilities, as well as their own set of stats. The buffs on this armour include increased strength, defence, Runic power, Cooldown power, Luck, or Vitality. Crafting new pieces of armour allows you to build a playstyle for Kratos that fits how you want to play.
Your Strength governs your overall attack power, while your Defence reflects how much damage you take. Runic refers to the power of your Runic attacks and elemental damage, while Cooldown either lowers or increases the Cooldown of those attacks, as well as your equipped Relic. Luck increases how much Hacksilver and XP you find in the world, while Vitality reflects health regen and overall health.
Each of the pieces of the chest, wrist, or waist armour in the game has its own set of stats that either lowers your overall stats for each of these categories. The armour can be upgraded by spending Hacksilver and using crafting materials.
There are far more materials in God of War Ragnarok and each armour piece can be upgraded to a maximum of level 9. The cost in Hacksilver to upgrade these armour pieces is also a lot higher. You can find some tips on how to get Hacksilver easily in our guide here.
The different crafting materials available throughout the nine Realms in the game include Bonded Leather, Dwarven Steel, Forged Iron, Beast Scraps, Asgardian Ingot, Beast Bones, Dragon Claws, Dragon Teeth, Divine Ashes, Smouldering Embers, Purified Crystalline, Sparkling Crystal, and Tempered Remnants.
As you can see, there are a lot. But, almost all of these can be found as you are exploring the world, completing missions and quests, or finishing side activities. The crafting materials required for the later upgrades are found a lot later in the game, for completing either late-game activities or post-game quests. So, you should naturally be able to upgrade armour as you play.
The general tip, as with God of War 2018 is that you want to find a piece of armour you like and once you reach about 50% of the way through the game, focus on only upgrading that piece of armour. This will allow you to power up for the latter half of the game, and then better tune your build in the post-game when you find more armour pieces.
Wearing multiple pieces of the same armour set can also provide set buffs. These buffs are quite substantial, sometimes double or triple the amount. So, if you can match up pieces in a set, it may be worthwhile doing so.
With this overview of how God of War Ragnarok’s armour crafting works, you should be more than ready to begin formulating a build or set of armour pieces that fit your playstyle. For more on resources, crafting, and armour, be sure to read through our guides and tips in our God of War Ragnarok walkthrough.