Main Story Walkthrough

Story and Plot Summary

Here you'll find an outline of God of War Ragnarok's (GoW Ragnarok) story and plot summary. Read on to learn about everything that has happened in the God of War Norse Arc story so far, as well as Kratos and Atreus' journey through Fimbulwinter up until the incoming Ragnarok!

God of War Ragnarok Story Setting

Takes Place Three Years After 2018's God of War

The end of the previous game saw Kratos scattering his wife's ashes on Jotunheim, along with his son, Atreus. When they returned to Midgard, Mimir told them that Fimbulwinter already began, triggered when Kratos killed Baldur.

God of War: Ragnarok's main story begins with the duo trying to survive in the now frigid Midgard. The long winter is nearing its end, and the beginning of the great war—Ragnarok—is drawing near.

Unlike in the previous game, Kratos and Atreus will be able to visit all the nine realms as part of the sequel's story, including Vanaheim, Svartalfheim, and Asgard.

Is God of War Ragnarok a Sequel?

God of War Ragnarok Story and Plot Summary

Preparing for Ragnarok

Continuing the story, God of War Ragnarok begins in Midgard place three years after the previous game. As Kratos and Atreus travel home from training, Freya, who still holds a grudge against Kratos for killing her son, attacks them. They manage to fend her off and make it back inside the protection stave.

Back at their home, Atreus finds the dying Fenrir and, during the wolf's last breaths, unintentionally transfers its soul to his knife. Atreus buries Fenrir where he loses control of his emotions and transforms into a bear named Bjorn. Kratos subdues Bjorn, and Atreus returns to his human form—to both of their surprises.

Kratos goes back home with Atreus to call it a day, but only a few moments later, Thor visits their home—exactly how Atreus saw it in his dreams years ago. Odin follows him inside, offering a truce if Kratos agrees to stop spilling Aesir blood and if Atreus stops searching for Tyr. Kratos turns down the deal and fights Thor, who knocked him to Tyr's Temple with Mjolnir.

The fight ends in a draw and Kratos returns home quickly with Brok and Sindri's help.

Freeing Tyr

Atreus admits he has been going around Midgard with Sindri to find the shrines and reveal their secrets—hidden stories that only Giants can unlock. He then shows Kratos a shrine near their home where they see Tyr leading an army against Asgard, suggesting that the Norse God of War is still alive and will have a major role in Ragnarok.

A clue from one of the other shrines suggests Tyr is locked up somewhere in a mine in Svartalfheim but since Odin has realm travel locked tight, they have no means to reach it. Luckily, they meet Sindri again, who lets them stay in his house in the Realm Between Realms and gives them an Yggdrasil Seed to travel to other realms without the Bifrost.

The duo travels to the realm of the dwarves to find the Huldra brothers' cousin (kinda), Durlin. Durlin gives them directions, disguised as a fine, to where Tyr is locked up. Kratos and Atreus find and break Tyr out from the Einherjar-guarded mine before returning to Sindri's home.

The Secret Prophecy

The group revisits Alfheim with Tyr to find the shrine of Groa, the Giant who prophesied Ragnarok. Kratos and Atreus fight their way through the Light Elves to the top of the temple where the shrine is found. Atreus then unlocks the secret of Groa's shrine, where they saw Ragnarok destroying only Asgard, and the rest of the realms spared.

Finding the Giants' Wherabouts

When Atreus falls asleep after returning home from Alfheim, he unknowingly travels to Ironwood—a place he first heard from Jormungandr and saw in one of the shrine secrets—as he was dreaming. There he found another giant, Angrboda, destined to tell Atreus his fate. Angrboda shows Atreus murals that Kratos only saw the first time they were in Jotunheim, depicting Kratos' death and Atreus serving Odin.

Angrboda then shows Atreus the "marbles" where the Giants' spirits were transferred to hide from Odin. She also entrusts these stones to Atreus as part of her duty. The two later find Gryla, Angrboda's grandmother, capturing a wolf and stealing souls from other animals. As they sneak into Gryla's house to stop her from stealing more souls, Atreus transfers a soul to a dead snake, which grows later on at an abnormal rate.

Breaking the Binding Curse

Atreus returns to Midgard two days later, where he runs into Kratos just before he enters a gateway. Shortly after, Freya attacks them again, but now in her valkyrie form, Vanadis. Freya spares Kratos, believing he can help her break Odin's binding curse that prevents her from leaving Midgard.

Kratos, Mimir, Brok, and Freya travel to Vanaheim to search for the source of the binding curse. To evade the curse and move outside Midgard, Freya remains in her falcon form while traversing the realm. They meet Freyr, Freya's brother, in his camp with a group of various races from other realms.

Kratos and Freya eventually find the curse with several Yggdrasil roots attached to it. As they try to remove the World Tree's grasp, the Nidhogg appears through a rift to protect it. Freya finds a way to temporarily return to human form and help Kratos kill the guardian. With the Nidhogg out of the way, they proceed to break the binding curse.

Although Freya admits that it's still likely that she will kill Kratos after the mission, she eventually realizes that the cause of all her problems is their common enemy, Odin, and forgives Kratos for what he had done in the past.

Accepting an Invitation

Kratos gets into an argument with Atreus when he keeps on not telling the truth about where he has been for the past two days and plans to go to Asgard, pushing Atreus to run away and wander off to Midgard. There, he meets one of Odin's ravens, on which he gives his answer to the All-Father's invitation to Asgard, with an ulterior motive to find a way to prevent his father's death. Huginn then transports Atreus to Asgard outside of the Walls of Hrimthur.

Atreus climbs the enormous wall and meets Heimdall at the top. Heimdall sees through Atreus' plan and attempts to dispatch him, only to be stopped by Thor. Odin meets Atreus personally and asks him for help in searching for the missing fragments of a mask that he plans to use to peer into "The Rift"—a mysterious glowing tear in space which is said to hold infinite knowledge, including an answer to thwart Ragnarok.

Atreus finds the first fragment in Muspelheim with the help of Thor. After translating more text embedded on the mask, Atreus travels to Helheim with Thrud for the last fragment. During their trip, they accidentally release Garm, who then starts going on a rampage and creating realm tears.

Visiting the Norns

While Atreus is in Asgard, Kratos asks Freya the whereabouts of the Norns, saying he will ask them how to find his son. They find the three somewhere in Midgard and learn from them that Heimdall will kill Atreus in the future. The two return to the Huldra brothers to ask for a way to defeat Heimdall and his ability of foresight in an attempt to break fate.

With Brok's help, Kratos travels back to Svartalfheim to forge the Draupnir Spear. This weapon is said to bypass Heimdall's ability by overloading his senses.

Reunion

After finally deciding to leave Asgard, Atreus returns to Sindri's home, which is being attacked by waves of Hel-Walkers entering from a realm tear Garm made. Kratos arrives to help fend off the creatures and returns to Helheim with his son to stop Garm from creating more realm tears.

Realizing that Garm cannot be put down due to a lack of soul to kill, Atreus tries to transfer Fenrir's soul to the giant wolf through his knife. The successful transfer reincarnated Fenrir into a new and bigger body with the ability to create holes in space to travel between realms instantly.

Facing the Inevitable

With Atreus back safe, Kratos decides not to go after Heimdall to avoid needless bloodshed, but Freya is still bent on taking the battle to Asgard. The Vanir goddess returns to her homeland to help her brother muster their forces.

The father and son follows Freya to Vanaheim to offer assistance, where they also find out that the Einherjar stole the moon from Skoll and Hati. After retrieving the moon, they return to Freyr's camp only to learn that he was captured by the Einherjar. Kratos finds the enemy camp with Freya and runs into Heimdall, who Kratos was forced to kill after he reveals his plan to kill Atreus should he be spared.

In the end, Kratos still had to use the Draupnir Spear against Heimdall and progress the events preceding Ragnarok with them possessing the Gjallarhorn.

The Final Fragment

Atreus convinces Kratos that the completed mask must not fall in the hands of Odin and returns to Asgard to continue his task. This time, he journeys through Niflheim to find the final fragment. After completing the mask, Sif appears and convinces Thor to kill Atreus. Atreus manages to escape with the mask using an item Sindri gave him and lands in the Realm Between Realms.

Just as everything is going according to plan, Odin—posing as Tyr else since the beginning—shows himself and stabs Brok when he starts having suspicions about Tyr's sudden change of behavior. Kratos and Atreus return home to Midgard to grieve.

Ragnarok Begins

Everyone tries to unite the realms against Odin and bring about Ragnarok. Kratos and Atreus travel to Muspelheim to seek the help of Surtr, the last Fire Giant. Surtr leads them to the Spark of the World where he will become Ragnarok through Sinmara's heart and the Blades of Chaos' primordial fire.

While waiting for the summoning's result, Kratos and Atreus are attacked by Hrist and Mist. The duo defeats the two Valkyries and approaches Ragnarok, who tells them that it will answer the Gjallarhorn's call comes the great war.

Confronting Odin

Kratos sounds the Gjallarhorn to start Ragnarok as foretold. Reinforcements from across the other realms rally to Asgard and lay siege to the Wall of Hrimthur. When they arrive at Asgard, war machines are firing at the Muspelheim and Niflheim towers to cut off Ragnarok before it wreaks havoc. Kratos and Atreus rush to the war machines to stop them before the Niflheim falls. They meet Sindri along the way—saying he came alone as no more dwarves have to die—who helps them destroy the war machines.

Atreus helps protect the innocent Midgardians from the attack while making his way with Sindri to destroy the wall's flaw. Thor fights Kratos shortly after they breach the walls. During the battle, Kratos makes Thor realize the error of his ways and how it can affect his daughter. Odin appears to kill Thor for refusing to continue the fight against Kratos.

Kratos, Atreus, and Freya take the fight to the All-Father to put an end to his madness. At some point, Odin destroys the area they are fighting on and has everyone fall underground where the Rift is located. Atreus breaks the mask and closes the rift, angering Odin. After a long and grueling fight, they defeated the All-Father together. Atreus approaches the weakened Odin and transfers his soul to one of the marbles, which is eventually destroyed by Sindri.

Freyr sacrifices himself by stopping Ragnarok destroy Asgard before the others escape through a realm tear created by Fenrir and Angrboda.

Rebuilding the Realms

Back in Midgard, Angrboda shows Kratos and Atreus a hidden mural depicting their true destiny, as well as revealing that Faye was the one who destroyed their murals in Jotunheim. Atreus joins Angrboda in finding the rest of the Giants while Kratos, Mimir, and Freya continue exploring the realms to resolve the aftermath of the war and rebuild what's left of them.

Before leaving, Kratos finds another mural behind the shrine showing him being worshipped by all the races.

Ragnarok Ending Explained

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