God of War Ragnarok is the second, and possibly the last, Norse God of War game. With so much needing to be packed into the story of God of War Ragnarok, you may be looking for a way to read a summary of everything that happens.
Though it goes without saying, this article contains heavy spoilers. Whether you have played the game and want a refresher or don’t want to play it but are interested in the story, here is the plot summary of God of War Ragnarok.
God of War Ragnarok Plot Summary
God of War Ragnarok begins right where God of War (2018) left off. Though Atreus is a bit older and a bit taller, the adventure begins with Freyr furiously chasing you to get revenge for your actions in the last game (when you and Atreus killed Baldur, her son).
Kratos and Atreus return to their home in Midgard where they meet Odin and Thor. Odin doesn’t want Ragnarok, so he proposes to leave Kratos alone and keep Freya away. Thor and Kratos fight, and during this, Odin offers Atreus an opportunity to work with him in Asgard to discover the answers he’s been looking for.
With prophecy being a central, driving theme in God of War Ragnarok, Atreus persuades Kratos to journey to Svartalfheim to free Tyr in order to start Ragnarok and defeat Odin. Though they freed him because he is the Norse God of War and is prophesied to wage a massive war that starts Ragnarok, Tyr reveals that he has renounced all violence. Kratos, Atreus, and Tyr return to Sindri’s house, which is the base camp of the game.
Atreus sneaks off on his own accompanied by Sindri and they travel to Midgard. Together, they speak to Jormungandr and then Atreus confronts Freya. After failing to convince her to join forces to defeat Odin, Atreus returns home.
Kratos and Atreus then journey to Alfheim to use Atreus’s newly discovered giant ability which allows him to reveal hidden prophecies within shrines. Kratos, Atreus, and Tyr visit Groa’s shrine and discover more about the war of Ragnarok.
They all return home and decide to rest. In Atreus’s dreams, he is transported to Ironwood, which is a hidden region inside of Jotunheim that only giants know about. There, he meets Angrboda, one of the last living giants. Angrboda tells Atreus of his fate. She tells him that Kratos will die and he will side with Odin.
The two work together to stop Gryla, Angrboda’s grandmother, from stealing more souls from the forest animals. Angrboda gives Atreus a bag of orbs that contain all the last remaining giant’s souls. Atreus uses one of the orbs on a soulless snake within Gryla’s house. After all of this, Angrboda, who is prophesied to be together with Atreus, is dishearted knowing that Atreus will try his best to not let the prophesy he’s seen come true.
Atreus returns home and, since he agreed to keep Ironwood a secret from the rest of the world, he doesn’t tell Kratos where he’s been or what he’s been doing. The trust begins the two begins to dissolve. Just then Freya attacks. After the fight, Freya yields and Kratos agrees to help her break Odin’s curse, the one that traps her in Midgard.
Kratos and Freya journey to Vanaheim, meet Freyr, Freya’s brother, and defeat Nidhogg, one of the main World Tree defenders. Nidhogg was an obstacle that stood in the way of breaking Odin’s curse that was rooted in Vanaheim. After the curse is broken and the fight is over, Freya aligns with Kratos in defeating their common enemy: Odin.
Upon returning home, Atreus informs everyone that he has decided the best thing for him to do is work with Odin so that Atreus can find answers and get information on what Odin is up to. The entire party disagrees. Atreus gets angry, turns into a bear, injures Sindri, his best friend, gets called “boy” by Kratos, and breaks through the Mystic Gateway to get dropped off at Midgard.
One of Odin’s ravens visits Atreus and Atreus accepts the invitation to Asgard. Once there, he meets Midgardian refugees that Odin rescued from Fimbulwinter. He then climbs a giant stone wall and meets Heimdall at the top. After walking through Asgard, Heimdall attempts to kill Atreus. Heimdall is a god that can see the intentions of people, so he has never been hit. Odin and Thor step in and save Atreus.
Odin treats Atreus with respect and asks him to be his partner in discovering the truth. Odin shows Atreus a broken mask that, once fixed, can peer into a mystical crack, which he believes holds the knowledge of life and death. Atreus is the only one who can fix it since he is a giant and can interpret every language. Atreus agrees and stays in Asgard to work with Odin.
Thor and Atreus journey to Muspelheim and find the first mask piece. After distracting Thor, Atreus finds another shrine. Angrboda is there and together, they find out the Surtr, a flame giant in Muspelheim, will join with Sinmara, a frost giant, and become Ragnarok. Ragnarok will destroy Asgard.
With Atreus gone, Kratos teams up with Freya to visit the Norns — the Norse version of the Fates. After scouring Midgard, they eventually find the Norns and are told that there is no such thing as prophecy, it’s just that we as characters are so predictable that the outcomes are almost always in line with prophecy. They tell Kratos that he will kill Heimdall to save Atreus, but if he does this, the prophecy says that Kratos will die.
Determined to not lose Atreus, Kratos and Freya return to Sindi’s house and ask Brok and Sindri to make a weapon capable of killing Heimdall. With the Draupnir, a multiplying ring, in hand, Brok accompanies Kratos to The Forge to meet The Lady. At The Forge, The Lady takes Draupnir and gives it the power to produce duplicating spears. This is the weapon capable of killing Heimdall. Brok learns that he has died before and Sindri resurrected him. Kratos and Brok return to Sindri’s house and Odin confronts them to taunt them.
Meanwhile, Atreus and Thrud, Thor’s daughter, travel to Helheim to get the next mask piece. Though they don’t find the missing mask piece, they free Garm, a giant wolf capable of tearing holes in every realm. Heimdall shows up and belittles Thrud and Atreus. Atreus returns back to Sindri’s house to ask Kratos for help.
Like a good father, Kratos takes Atreus back to Helheim to deal with Garm. After a failed attempt to try to subdue Garm Atreus’s way, Kratos tries it his way which is to kill Garm. Thankfully, that also fails since Garm is soulless. With a spark of genius, Atreus uses his knife, which has carried the soul of Fenrir, his pet wolf that died at the beginning of the game, to transfer Fenrir’s soul into Garm. Though their actions are still in line with prophecy, Kratos and Atreus regain trust in one another and decide to be the authors of their own destinies.
Together again, Kratos and Atreus visit Vanaheim to help defeat Odin’s invading forces. Once there, they discover that Heimdall has kidnapped Freyr and stolen the moon. The entire gang teams up and rescues Freyr and the moon. Kratos kills Heimdall which is still in line with prophecy, but his intentions are more refined than before. Kratos takes Gjallarhorn, which Heimdall had. When this horn is blown, Ragnarok begins. Kratos and Atreus also return the moon to the sky and Atreus shoots it which causes Skoll and Hati to chase the sun and the moon again.
Atreus returns to help Odin finish the mask before the news of Heimdall’s death spreads. This time, Kratos agrees. Atreus retrieves a drunken Thor from a bar and they head off to Niflheim. They retrieve the final piece and complete the mask. Sif, Thor’s wife, shows up and convinces Thor to kill Atreus for killing their sons, Magni and Modi. With mask in hand, Atreus uses a special one-way portal back to Sindri’s house.
Back at Sindri’s house, the entire party tries to determine how they can use the mask in Asgard without Odin knowing. There is no way to Asgard, but Tyr says he knows a secret passage. Brok becomes suspicious of Tyr and just then, Tyr stabs Brok and reveals that he was Odin in disguise the entire time. With his spear, Kratos stops Odin from leaving with the mask. Sadly, Brok dies and Sindri turns vengeful and blames Atreus.
With Brok dead, everybody is on board with starting Ragnarok, killing Odin, and destroying Asgard. While the gang breaks up to raise armies in every realm, Kratos and Atreus travel to Muspelheim to get Surtr and Sinmara to join and create Ragnarok. Surtr agrees, but he won’t drag Sinmara into this. They travel to the heart of Muspelheim so Surtr can become Ragnarok. Kratos and Atreus fight Odin’s Valkyries and then join up with everyone in Midgard.
On the following morning, Kratos uses Gjallarhorn to start Ragnarok. The gates to all realms open to Asgard and everybody attacks. Helheim, Vanaheim, and Alfheim attack while Angrboda attacks with Garm and Jormungandr fights Thor. Ragnarok shows up and begins its assault on Asgard. Odin has placed the Midgardian refugees in the way as collateral. Seeing how this pains Atreus, Kratos commands Freya and Freyr to slow down Raganrok so that the Midgardians can get to safety.
The second Sindri breaches the wall and Kratos and Atreus charge in, Thor attacks. Instead of killing Thor, Kratos decides to let him live. This act counteracts the prophesy that would’ve seen Kratos dead. Odin arrives and, seeing that Thor failed, Odin kills Thor.
Now, Odin, Kratos, and Atreus fight. The fight ends in the caverns below the Great Lodge where the rift is. Odin pleads for Atreus to use the mask and look inside. Instead, Atreus breaks the mask and traps Odin’s soul within one of the empty Jotun orbs. Kratos gives the decision of what to do with the orb to Freya. Before Freya can make a decision, Sindri arrives and obliterates the orb in revenge for Brok’s death.
Ragnarok shows up and pierces the Great Lodge with its huge fire sword. Freyr holds it off and ends up sacrificing himself while the entire party escapes via Angrboda’s giant magic rift. In the end, the residents of Asgard go to live in peace with the people of Vanaheim, Asgard is destroyed, and Ragnarok is over.
Kratos and Atreus meet up and Angrboda shows them a final, hidden shrine. It depicts Faye, Kratos’s wife and Atreus’s mother, destroying a mural so that the two of them could forge their own destinies. Atreus leaves Kratos to go deal with the Jotun orbs. On the back of the shrine, Kratos sees a clear depiction of him being the hero of Ragnarok. With that, Kratos, Freya, and Mimir continue to clean up the damage of Ragnarok.
God of War Ragnarok Ending Explained
There are still lingering questions that go unanswered at the end of the story of God of War Ragnarok. What we do know is that Kratos doesn’t die and Atreus is off to restart the race of the giants.
When it comes to Jormungandr, he got hit so hard by Thor that he vanished. Mimir later says that Jormungandr got hit so hard that he became young again and has to grow again to become the World Serpent.
Though this isn’t confirmed, we think that the snake Atreus possessed in Gryla’s shop is the new Jormungandr. Mimir and Kratos mention Atreus telling them about that snake during their conversation about the fate of Jormungandr.
If you want to know where the real Tyr was during the entire story, complete the Favor in Niflheim. Also, if you want the true ending, you can attend Brok’s funeral as a Favor in Svartalfheim and see what Sindri will do next.
There are tons of other loose ends that you can tie up after Ragnarok, but that is the general plot summary of God of War Ragnarok. Though it isn’t perfect, its ambition is definitely commendable and worthy of a perfect score.
God of War Ragnarok is available now on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5.
