A stun build in God of War Ragnarok is arguably the most powerful for the majority of fights, especially when combined with equipment which enhance the effects of stun grabbing. We’ll show you the best armor, weapon attachments, runic attacks, relics and enchantments to make one of the best stun builds available for Kratos.

Best Armor Set for a Daze (Stun) Build in God of War Ragnarok¶

You can begin to make a good stun build fairly early on in God of War Ragnarok. The easiest way to do this at the beginning is by obtaining Nidavellir ore during the In Service of Asgard favor, which will require you to complete the Modvitnir’s Rig, Radsvinn’s Rig, and Althjof’s Rig in Svartalfheim. At the end of this you’ll have enough ore to craft the Nidavellir Finest Armor Set, which consists of Nidavellir’s Finest Plackart, Nidavellir’s Finest Arm Guards, and Nidavellir’s Finest Waist Guard. You can see the perks for each of these armor pieces in the table below, and the maximum stats that you can achieve with them when fully upgraded to level 9.

Nidavellir’s Finest Plackart¶

As you can see, this set provides a great deal of Defence and a decent amount of Vitality. The high Defence stat will be even more useful once you start using specific Enchantments, as detailed below. However, the immediate benefits of using this armor set come from the perks. The Plackart is useful on its own, with the prospect of stun grabbing enemies to recover a burst of health being incredibly useful at times, especially since you regenerate a good amount of health from it. This can be especially useful in boss fights which also have multiple waves of lesser enemies, where they effectively become free sources of health bursts.

Nidavellir’s Finest Arm Guards and Nidavellir’s Finest Waist Guard¶

The Arm Guards and Waist Guard each provide the same perk, but together they reduce how quickly enemy stun bars drain by +100%. This means that whenever you stun an enemy, they will remain stunned for a much longer period of time, which not only ensures that they can’t fight back for a while, but also gives you more opportunities to perform multiple stun grab attacks in a row (by pressing ), which in turn will grant you health bursts. You will also be able to get rage bursts by stun grabbing enemies once you acquire the Draupnir Spear and a specific attachment for it, and cooldown bursts from an attachment for the Leviathan axe, but we’ll cover those in more detail below.

Best Weapon and Shield Attachments for a Daze (Stun Build)¶

There are a number of weapon attachments that can be useful for the Leviathan Axe, Blades of Chaos, and Draupnir Spear which fit with a stun build. However, for the purposes of this guide we’ll focus on those which provide benefits to stun grabs, since you’ll likely be using these a lot to finish off enemies and gain health bursts already. You can switch between specific weapons during a fight to gain benefits from stun grabs associated with each attachment according to your needs at the time.

Leviathan Axe Grip¶

Blades of Chaos Pommel¶

Draupnir Spear Sauroter¶

As you can see from the effects of each weapon attachment, you’ll be able to switch between your weapons to execute a stun grab according to your needs. You’ll still get the Health Burst by default from the Nidavellir’s Finest Plackart perk, but you can now also get a Rage Burst at the same time if you execute the stun grab with the Draupnir Spear equipped, a temporary boost of Strength for extra damage if you have the Blades of Chaos equipped, or a Blessing of Cooldown if you have the Leviathan Axe equipped, which will reduce the cooldown for all your Runic Attacks each time you execute a stun grab while using the axe.

The ability to use each of these weapon attachments provides you with some versatility during combat, but you’ll need to get used to switching between weapons quickly based on which effect you could make most use of at the time. It goes without saying that if you already have plenty of Strength to the point where you’ve maxed it out, you won’t need to use the Blades of Chaos when executing a stun grab. This is especially true when you start using the Niflheim Enchantment set, so long as you’re above 75% health, but we’ll explain more about that below. You should also avoid having the Draupnir Spear equipped if your Rage is already mostly full, since you’ll benefit more from the reduction in cooldowns for Runic Attacks, allowing you to use them more frequently throughout a fight.

Shield Attachment - Rond of Fortification¶

The Rond of Fortification is more optional as a shield attachment, but it does provide +63 Defence when maxed out at level 9, which is useful if you need that extra amount to take full advantage both of the highest level of damage negation, and damage output while using the Niflheim Enchantment set. You will generally be able to output more stun damage to enemies by spamming Runic Attacks or melee combos, but if you do need some extra stun damage then this shield attachment will allow you to generate it by holding for a few seconds as you’re holding up a block stance. The stun damage will then be inflicted on surrounding enemies on your next block, or you can target it at a specific enemy / group of enemies by double tapping for a shield strike attack.

Best Amulet of Yggdrasil Enchantments for a Daze (Stun) Build¶

The Niflheim and Svartalfheim Amulet of Yggdrasil Enchantments listed below are intended to make use of a high Defence stat, which you should already have a decent amount of by using the gear shown above, and upgrading it as much as possible. The aim here is to achieve 500 in your Defence stat, which will give you both a great amount of damage negation, but also high melee damage output so long as your health is above 75%. This is because with the Niflheim enchantment set, the amount of melee damage that you inflict will be increased by your Defence stat so long as you’re above that 75% threshold.

The Svartalfheim enchantment set also makes use of the Defence stat, but this time with a more direct impact to the amount of stun damage that you inflict. All stun damage that you output, whether based on regular melee or ranged attacks, or on Runic Attacks or Relic / Sword Hilt abilities, will be increased based on the amount of Defence stat that you have. So, increasing your Defence to around 500 will max this out as much as possible, making it even easier to fill enemy stun bars, which provides you with more opportunities for stun grabs.

The Health Bursts from stun grabs will help to ensure that your health is almost always above 75%, but the Regenerating Essence and Greater Regenerating Essence enchantments detailed below will also help if necessary. You can swap these out for something else if you don’t find yourself struggling to stay above 75% health, but the Stunning Fang unique enchantment will always be useful for this stun build, since it allows any hit to a stunned enemy to create a shockwave which has a chance to increase your strength and stun damage at the same time.

Best Relic / Sword Hilt for a Daze (Stun) Build¶

The Relic or Sword Hilt that you use for this build will be partly based on your personal preference, although there are two which inflict stun damage outright, so they’re by default useful in this sense.

The Hilt of Gram is an excellent hilt which can be acquired relatively early on in the game. It’s one of the quickest relics / hilts to execute which means it’s ideal for interrupting red ring attacks from bosses or elites, but it also inflicts a decent amount of stun damage and replenishes some Rage in the process. Motsognir’s Call is acquired much later in the game, but it inflicts a massive amount of stun damage to nearby enemies and bosses, so it’s great if you’re in a tight spot where you need to incapacitate multiple enemies at once, or just eat away at the stun bar of a boss. The Glaive of Dodher is a mid-game item which doesn’t necessarily inflict stun damage by default, but if you manage to hit multiple enemies with the Bifrost chakrams, it actually inflicts a decent amount of stun damage. Somewhat less reliable than the other two, but still good if used properly.

Best Freya Sword, Accessory and Runic Summon for a Daze (Stun) Build¶

If you want to maximize your overall stun damage even further, you can do this by altering some of Freya’s equipment and abilities. The default Thrungva sword is the best for inflicting stun damage, since it inflict greatly increased stun by default. Sonic Aftershock is the only Accessory which directly increases stun damage when used, but you need to use Sonic Arrows in conjunction for this to make it work. The Queen’s Roar is a powerful Runic Summon for Freya, and it can be especially useful for some extra stun damage during a boss fight, but it will also inflict stun on multiple enemies if you time it right.

You won’t be able to fully perfect this build until you’re nearing the end of the story, but the great thing about this one is that you can achieve a high amount of stun damage even without using everything mentioned here. We’d recommend trying everything listed just to see the immense amount of stun damage that you’re capable of inflicting with it, but feel free to experiment with mixing up different enchantments, relics, runic attacks and weapon attachments. You’ll find this build most useful against multiple groups of enemies, but it also shines in any boss fight with additional lesser enemies in abundance, especially during some of the Muspelheim Trials and Challenges. You’ll find that you’re also inflicting substantial stun damage against bosses in general regardless, but there are arguably better builds for specific bosses, so be sure to check our others if you think they’re more fitting to your playstyle.