How to Level Up and Modify Skills: To Up

Learn how to level up and modify skills in God of War Ragnarök. This guide covers skill trees, XP, Mod Tokens, and ranking up moves for Kratos and Atreus.

Alright, let's talk about getting Kratos and Atreus stronger in God of War Ragnarök! You'll be diving into the 'Skills' tab in your menu to find different skill trees. Each weapon, and even your companions, have their own trees that'll grow as you play. Think of them like branching paths – you'll need to unlock prerequisite skills before you can get to the cooler ones, and it's all pretty straightforward.

To unlock these skills, you'll need XP. You get XP from fighting enemies, finding hidden stuff, and completing quests, favors, and labors. Keep in mind, some skills are locked behind your weapon's level. So, you'll need to upgrade your weapons to unlock certain skills, on top of having the XP and meeting the prerequisites.

As you go through the story, your companion's skill trees will also expand, giving you more options.

Here's a neat trick: use a move in combat enough times, and you'll be able to spend more XP to unlock 'Mod Tokens.' You can swap these out whenever you want!

Upgrading Technique, Ranged, and Melee Skills

Once you've spent your hard-earned XP on a skill, it'll unlock, and you'll start reaping its benefits. Skills generally fall into two types: 'moves' and 'passives.' Passives are always active, though sometimes you'll need to meet certain conditions, like landing a few hits without taking damage. Moves, on the other hand, are special attacks you can pull off by pressing the right buttons at the right time. The game will even show you the inputs on the right side of the screen when you select a skill node. For instance, the 'Serpent's Snare' skill for the Leviathan Axe is a move you can do by holding down the [Square] button.

The cool part is that by using these moves in combat, you'll rank them up through three tiers: Bronze, Silver, and Gold. Now, these ranks don't do anything on their own, but once you've used a skill enough to hit Gold, you'll unlock the ability to buy 'Mod Tokens' for it. Just highlight that Gold-rank skill and press the [Triangle] button. You'll then get to spend XP to unlock one of the available Mod Tokens. These tokens are awesome because they usually give a passive boost to the skill, like increasing elemental effects, damage, stun, or stagger resistance. Don't sweat which one you pick first, though – once you've unlocked them, you can switch between any of the Mod Tokens for that skill anytime you like.

Ranking up skills is all about putting them to use. You've got to successfully land the skill in combat for the counter to go up. It doesn't matter if you're fighting a tough boss or a weak enemy; as long as you hit, you'll get credit. If you're finding yourself short on enemies to practice on early in the game, don't worry! You'll eventually unlock areas with plenty of foes. If you're eager to grind skill ranks, you can intentionally farm enemies like Wretches from nests or Bergsra Mothers – they're great for racking up quick kills and leveling up those skills.