God of War: Ragnarok Crafting Guide

Crafting is essential to any playthrough of God of War: Ragnarok; no one wants to go through the game with base-level gear. You unlock the ability to craft early in the game, and you’ll spend a lot of time in the menu creating equipment for Kratos and Atreus.

This guide will cover all the aspects of crafting you’ll need to know, from where it happens, what you can make, and how to get the best items in the game.

How to Unlock Crafting

After completing the introductory mission and gaining access to Sindri’s House, you’ll be able to go to the workshop to the left of the door and have Brok and Sindri make some early gear. You’ll also find at least one of them near many of the Mystic Gateways scattered across the Nine Realms, allowing you to continue crafting between bouts of questing and exploration. Just look for their tent and/or listen for the cling of their hammers.

What Can I Craft in God of War: Ragnarok?

Within the crafting menu itself, you’ll be able to create and upgrade weapons, armor, shields, and weapon accessories for Kratos’ various gear types, and the list will expand as you play the game. Initially, you can craft the following:

The Leviathan Ax and Knob Upgrades

The Leviathan Ax improves using the rare Frozen Flame material. You’ll get many of these as rewards during the campaign, with the final few being awarded for completing difficult side objectives and exploration tasks. The Knobs sit at the end of the Ax’s handle and have various build-enhancing effects.

The Blades of Chaos and Handle Upgrades

The Blades improve using the also rare Chaos Flame material, which, like Frozen Flames, you get a few of during the campaign. The remainder are hidden behind exploration, side content, and optional and endgame bosses. Handles upgrade using the standard paths and also provide various build-enhancing abilities.

Shields

There are more than half a dozen shield options in God of War: Ragnarok, and almost all of them have a special alternate ability. You can block with all of them, of course, but some are better defensive options, and others are more suited to taking the fight to your enemies. Others are better at parrying. They upgrade along a similar path to weapons but have materials unique to them.

Chest Armor

The core of almost any build, there are dozens of Chest Armors of varying abilities in God of War: Ragnarok. These are upgraded by using more and more Hacksilver and progressively rarer materials, with levels 7, 8, and 9 costing 20,000, 25,000, and 35,000 Hacksilver, not counting the hard-to-come-by mats you’ll need to farm. If you’re looking for the best early-game armors to get you started, focus on these two.

Wrist and Waist Armor 

Both wrist and waist armor are supplementary to a build, granting different bonuses and passive abilities than chest armor. In most parts of the main story, you’ll want a complete three-piece set of any one kind of armor, but you can do a little mixing and matching come endgame.

You’ll earn several new pieces of gear unique to God of War: Ragnarok throughout the story, and these will have their specific upgrade paths, though they follow the systems laid down by what’s above. There are also more than a dozen individual crafting materials, which we’ll cover in another guide.

Crafting Tips and Tricks

Beyond the core mechanics of the crafting system, there are a few things you can do to make your life a little easier while thumbing through the menus.

Tip 1: Buy crafting materials in bulk when needed

Brok and Sindri’s shop has a growing list of basic and uncommon crafting materials you can buy for a small fee. Initially, these will only be the easiest to come by, but by endgame, you’ll have access to six mat types. Though they won’t let you craft everything, they can cut down on the grind somewhat.

Tip 2: Sell what you don’t need

Crafting gets insanely expensive, especially the higher level your gear becomes. Selling the lower-level gear you accumulate can ease some of the cost burden. Don’t worry if you sell something you don’t mean to: it will stay in the shop inventory labeled as Buy Back, and you’ll pay what you sold it for.

Tip 3: Gather from glowing golden water, crash into crates

In the waterways of the Nine Realms, you’ll sometimes come across gold-flecked water. Gathering from these points always yields a few crafting materials; the later in the game you are, the better they’ll be. The same is true in Midgard’s Lake of Nine. Being frozen over, there are no golden pools of water. Instead, circular crates on the ice provide the same benefit. This goes for the sands of The Barrens, too. 

Tip 4: Open every chest, especially Legendary ones

There are hundreds of loot chests in God of War: Ragnarok, and the red and Legendary golden ones always provide some valuable crafting materials on top of their equipment rewards. If you see a chest, be sure to take a few moments to open it, even if it’s locked behind a puzzle. Your future self will thank you. Just keep in mind that you may need specific items (like the Draupnir Spear) to reach them, which become available later in the game.

Tip 5: Consider your build before you craft

You won’t necessarily know what kind of playstyle you want to use early on, but because all equipment can level to a maximum of nine, anything can be viable if you invest in it. However, because of the massive expense that comes with crafting, you’ll want to consider every option before you dedicate resources to your weapons and armor.

Tip 6: Do as much side content as you can

You can probably shotgun your way through God of War: Ragnarok‘s main story in about 15 hours, but you’ll be under-geared and miss out on some of its best content. The side content not only provides you with resources and unique equipment, but it also is a great source of additional experience, boss fights, and a story to enjoy. There’s plenty of Hacksilver in it for you as well. Bucketloads, in fact.

Tip 7: Max out your favorite set when you can

To tackle the toughest challenges, you’ll want at least some of your equipment to be max level. If you don’t want to search every nook and cranny for Frozen Flames and Chaos Flames, then invest in at least your chest piece and one or both of your favorite weapon accessories.

If you can do that, you’ll likely be around Gear Rank 7 or higher, putting you within striking distance of the highest-level enemies in the game. Level 9 items are also the only ones you can transmog to look like anything else you currently own; yet another reason to take something to its maximum.

Those are your core concepts in crafting in God of War: Ragnarok. It’s a complex set of mechanics that lets you create wacky builds that either can’t die, do insane damage, or have some other effect. The more build-makers get into the game; the crazier things will become. For more on where to get all the collectibles, check our guides to the Aurvangar Wetlands and Radsvinn’s Rig, among others. Our guides hub has even more to look through.