God of War Ragnarok: All Difficulty Settings [Ultimate Guide]

God of War: Ragnarok is officially out now, and people love the cinematics and gameplay of this game. However, there remains confusion when choosing the best difficulty settings according to combat and gameplay.

This guide will explain all the difficulty settings separately so you don’t waste extra hours on story mode and complete the side quests in time (unlocked after completing story missions).

Also Read: How to Heal in God Of War Ragnarok

How To Change Your Difficulty Settings

If you have chosen a setting randomly and you are uncomfortable with it, don’t stress about it because you can always switch to another during the campaign.

To change your difficulty settings on PS4 or PS5:

1. Press the options button on your controller.

   

2. Head over to the settings menu.

   

3. Select Gameplay tab

   

4. You will see the first option named difficulty; click on that.
5. Now, you can select any difficulty setting for yourself.

   

God of War Ragnarok Difficulty Settings

God of War: Ragnarok offers 5 difficulty settings, which are mostly similar to the 2018 GOW. According to most community reviews, God of War 4 was tougher than Ragnarok, especially on the Give Me God of War difficulty, but it’s still fairly hard to play.

All the difficulty settings hold their own importance. Remember that you can always change your difficulty settings mid-game if you think it is not the best fit for you.

I will be breaking down all these difficulty settings into separate sections with statistics on each difficulty for your knowledge.

Give Me Story

This difficulty is more suitable for beginners who want to play story missions and get them done quickly. The gameplay is very smooth, and Kratos is involved in easily-fought battles. The enemies deal very little damage to you, so boss fights are less intense, and you easily win them.

In-game gear upgrades are the least important because the gameplay is at the easiest difficulty level, so you don’t have to care for it. Give Me Story is the equivalent of easy mode in any game. This difficulty setting can also be chosen if you only want to enjoy the cinematics of the game.

• Number of hits a level 1 rider takes to kill Kratos: 41
• Number of light attacks by Kratos to kill a level 1 rider: 4
• Enemies and Bosses attack: Very Rarely
• Enemies and Bosses have:
  • Very low Defense and Resistance
  • Very low Damage
  • Very low Stun Bar
• Number of Punches required to fully stun Bjorn (the first boss): 12
• Healthstones provide: Very large amount of Health

Give Me Grace

Give Me Grace is a newly added difficulty setting in the God of War collection. This is also for players focused on story-based gameplay rather than keeping themselves away from fights. This is a little harder than the previous difficulty setting as enemies become a little tougher and start to fight back.

Your gameplay still stays pretty smooth, and the survival rate of Kratos or Atreus is very high, as enemies deal very less damage to you. Again, Give Me Grace is for you if Ragnarok is your first GOW game or you want to speed-run the campaign.

• Number of hits a level 1 rider takes to kill Kratos: 19
• Number of light attacks by Kratos to kill a level 1 rider: 6
• Enemies and Bosses attack: Sometimes
• Enemies and Bosses have:
  • Low Defense and Resistance
  • Low Damage
  • Low Stun Bar
• Number of Punches required to fully stun Bjorn (the first boss): 13
• Healthstones provide: Large amount of Health

Also, check out God of War: Ragnarok Secret Ending.

Give Me Balance

This is the default difficulty setting in the game. As the name suggests, everything is balanced in this mode. Give Me Balance is equivalent to normal mode in any game. Your combat becomes a little tough and balances with gameplay.

The enemies and bosses start to fight back stronger and harder, so you start gaining combat experience from here onwards. Boss fights become more intense and interesting. Give Me Balance is the best difficulty setting for most players as it is fairly balanced.

• Number of hits a level 1 rider takes to kill Kratos: 12
• Number of light attacks by Kratos to kill a level 1 rider: 7
• Enemies and Bosses attack: Most of the times
• Enemies and Bosses have:
  • Moderate Defense and Resistance
  • Moderate Damage
  • Moderate Stun Bar
• Number of Punches required to fully stun Bjorn (the first boss): 15
• Healthstones provide: moderate of Health

Give Me No Mercy

As you progress further down the difficulty settings, it becomes harder and harder. Give Me No Mercy is equivalent to a hard mode in any game. This is fairly harder to play on, so your gear upgrades matter a lot, as they will help in your major battles.

I suggest that you choose this difficulty setting if you have previously played the GOW series or you have already completed the game on lower difficulty levels. In this difficulty setting, the boss fights do not offer checkpoints between them, so if you run out of health mid-fight, you will be respawned from the start.

• Number of hits a level 1 rider takes to kill Kratos: 9
• Number of light attacks by Kratos to kill a level 1 rider: 8
• Enemies and Bosses attack: Consistently 
• Enemies and Bosses have:
  • High Defense and Resistance
  • High low Damage
  • High low Stun Bar
• Number of Punches required to fully stun Bjorn (the first boss): 20
• Healthstones provide: Low amount of Health

Give Me God of War

This difficulty setting is for the best of the best. If you want to have a good relaxing time, then I wouldn’t suggest you play in this setting. Give Me God of War is equivalent to ultra-hard or challenging, as combats are very tough to win.

The healing rate of Kratos will be very low, so defense matters a lot. You will need to be more careful with your reflexes while playing on this difficulty level because even a level 1 raider can deal a lot of damage to you.

A feature only related to this difficulty setting; if you have chosen Give Me God of War as your difficulty setting, and you change it mid-game, you cannot change back to it.

In my opinion, only the God of War veterans should play in this difficulty setting as they will thrive more.

• Number of hits a level 1 rider takes to kill Kratos: 6
• Number of light attacks by Kratos to kill a level 1 rider: 9
• Enemies and Bosses attack: Continuously and Simultaneously
• Enemies and Bosses have:
  • Very high Defense and Resistance
  • Very high Damage
  • Very high Stun Bar
• Number of Punches required to fully stun Bjorn (the first boss): 22+
• Healthstones provides: Very low amount of Health

You can play God of War: Ragnarok on 5 different difficulty settings. Each in-game setting has a different experience-based combat and gameplay. As you go down the list, the enemies and bosses become tougher and harder to defeat, so your survival rate decreases.

If you found this guide helpful, don’t forget to check out our website where you will find more helpful guides on games like Overwatch 2.