How many levels are there in God of War Ragnarok?
As a passionate God of War fan eager to dive back into the Nine Realms, I couldn‘t wait to boot up my copy of Ragnarök on release day. While I took my time exploring every corner these first two playthroughs, I know many fans want to know exactly what they‘re getting into with the new saga conclusion.
Let‘s break down how long it takes to experience everything God of War Ragnarök has to offer:
Main Story Chapters: 11 chapters across ~25.5 hours
Full Game Completion: All side quests/collectibles in ~52.5 hours
Expanding on these playtime estimates:
Complete Main Story Campaign Length – Longer Than You‘d Expect
Ragnarök‘s main story path features 11 chapters, comparable to 2018‘s God of War:
| Ragnarök Main Campaign Chapters | Playtime (Hours) |
|---|---|
| Across the Realms | 2.5 |
| The Quest for Tyr | 2 |
| Groa‘s Secret | 3 |
| The Summoning | 3 |
| The Reckoning | 3 |
| Alva | 1.5 |
| The Ruins of Asgard | 1 |
| The Realms at War | 3.5 |
| Ascension | 3 |
| The Dead of Night | 2 |
| Rebirth | 1 |
Compared to God of War‘s roughly 20-hour main story, Ragnarök offers 25% more critical path content, clocking in around 25.5 hours.
Across these 11 chapters spanning multiple realms, the sense of scale compared to the last game feels significantly grander. In my experience, it took nearly 30 hours to fully wrap my head around the story, and I still discovered new dialogues in subsequent playthroughs.
How Long to 100% Complete God of War Ragnarök
While the main campaign pushes 30 hours, Ragnarök‘s side content expands the complete gameplay tenure immensely. Across two personal playthroughs seeking 100% completion:
- Playthrough 1: 38 hours (moderate side content focus)
- Playthrough 2: 49 hours (all side content/collectibles)
Averaging reported playtimes, most completist God of War fans seem to require around 52.5 hours finishing all that Midgard has to offer.
So Much Side Content – It Can Be Overwhelming
With expanded realms ripe for exploration compared to the last game, I occasionally suffered from open world anxiety wondering what to experience next! Once I came to terms that 100%-ing this saga finale would span multiple playthroughs, I could relax and balance major side ventures appropriately:
- Deeply-involved Favor side quests with hours of content
- Epic, multi-part Berserker battles
- Muspelheim trials against absurdly-tough Valkyries and other enemies
- New area The Crater with intense loot caves to uncover
My first run tended to skew toward major narrative side content, then subsequent games focused on cleanup. This helped avoid redundant back-tracking fatigue.
Leveling Up Kratos and Gear to the Cap
A key part of prep before facing Ragnarök‘s ultimate challenges comes from maxing out Kratos‘ capabilities via RPG mechanics newly introduced in the last game:
- Kratos – Level 9 cap
- Weapons/Armor – Level 9 cap
Earning XP to gain Spartan levels, then applying resources to upgrade equipment keeps things fresh in a game covering this much territory. It incentivizes you to battle every monster variety across realms and tackle the toughest optional bosses to extract key crafting materials.
The gear upgrade system adds immense replayability for subsequent New Game+ runs and experimenting with various builds. Maybe I‘ll spec full Runic magic Kratos for effortless large mob annihilations!
Does Ragnarök Wrap Up God of War‘s Story?
As a longtime fan dating back to the Greek era, the epic Ragnarök conclusion left me fulfilled, yet craving more tales from series visionary Cory Barlog.
When asked if Ragnarök represented the franchise finale, Barlog provided hope:
"I think the franchise will continue…The Norse saga is over, but the franchise will continue."
As someone who awaits each new release with great anticipation, I cling to his assurances that God of War‘s adventure has many chapters still unwritten!
The latest tale took Kratos and Atreus on a deeply emotional journey, providing astonishing scale paired with intimate character moments. I can‘t imagine never again hearing the booming voice of Christopher Judge‘s Kratos backed by Bear McCreary‘s exceptional score.
As the credits rolled on Ragnarök‘s secret ending, goosebumps ran down my arms imagining where the series could venture next. Perhaps Kratos will uncover his true origins in Greece? Or maybe we‘ll see Atreus quest off on his own toward destiny as Loki?
The possibilities seem endless, limited only by the imagination of Barlog and co-director Eric Williams‘ SIE Santa Monica Studio.
For now, I‘ll continue scouring every corner of the Nine Realms chasing the platinum trophy until the next unforgettable chapter!
What adventure would you like to see for Kratos next? Let me know in the comments!
