The Leviathan Axe in God of War Ragnarok is arguably the most iconic weapon in the recent franchise. This page will detail how to use it effectively, including the best skills, Runic Attacks, and axe attachments (Grips and Knobs) for it.

All Leviathan Axe Upgrades, Skills, Runic Attacks, Attachment Locations¶

“Forged by the Huldra Brothers, this heroic Axe, with all its glacial force, was once wielded by Laufey the Just.”

As in the first God of War 2018, you will have access to the Leviathan Axe from the beginning of the game. The only difference here is that you have access to some skills by default in God of War Ragnarok, which were previously purchasable skills or acquired from Runic Attacks in the first game. The first skill you’ll be able to use by default which was previously a Runic Attack is The River of Knives, which sees Kratos slamming the ground with his axe and casting a wave of frost damage at enemies in front of him. There are also a number of new skills and combos introduced with God of War Ragnarok, all of which are shown in the tables below.

How to Upgrade the Leviathan Axe in God of War Ragnarok¶

All Frozen Spark and Frozen Flame Locations¶

To upgrade the Leviathan Axe to level 9, you’ll need to find all 8 Frozen Flame items, then visit a Blacksmith Shop to speak with Brok, Sindri, or Lunda (depending on where you’re at in the story) to upgrade the Leviathan Axe once you have the items. You’ll obtain most of the Frozen Flames as you progress through the main story, but a few of them are acquired from other boss encounters which are counted among side quests. We’ve listed all of the locations in the table below.

All Leviathan Axe Skills in God of War Ragnarok¶

There’s a total of 28 skills that you can unlock for the Leviathan Axe, encompassing three distinct categories with 11 Technique skills, 7 Ranged skills, and 10 Melee skills. You can unlock all of these skills by level 6 so long as you have enough XP, but the Leviathan Axe is effective in combat even before that point. As you unlock new skills, the opportunities for diversifying your combat experience with the Leviathan Axe expand significantly. The Technique skills mostly focus on improving the amount of Frost damage that you can inflict in various ways, ranging from imbuing the Leviathan Axe with Frost damage, to creating Frost explosions.

Your ability to inflict Frost damage is greatly enhanced by all Frost Awaken skills, as you can see in the table below, but there are also good skills here which increase your Stun damage, such as the Frozen Lance skill. In addition, as soon as you get the Extinguish Flames skill, you should always consider switching to the Leviathan Axe whenever you’re fighting enemies who are weak to Frost, such as most Draugr. Keep in mind that the more Frost damage you inflict, the more likely it is that your enemies will become frozen, or at least significantly slowed by the Frost effect, making them more vulnerable while you have the advantage.

Technique Axe Skills¶

In terms of the Technique skills, it’s worth making a habit of activating Frost Awaken whenever you get the chance. You can do this initially by holding , but once you purchase the upgrades for this skill (Frost Awaken I and II), you’ll be able to activate it while sprinting towards an enemy, or while transitioning from bare-handed combat to the Leviathan Axe. The Frozen Breach skill is great for inflicting Frost damage to multiple enemies in an arc in front of you, but keep in mind that the Blades of Chaos are generally better for area of effect attacks on multiple foes (since they have greater reach), unless you’re fighting enemies weak to Frost and resistant to Fire damage.

Ranged Axe Skills¶

There are fewer Ranged skill upgrades for the Leviathan Axe, but they’re still useful in various situations. Axe Throw is a good basic opener to most fights if you’re approaching from a distance, since it can stagger or knock back most enemies if you hit them in the head or legs. Freezing Throw I and II are also great for initiating combat with a burst of Frost damage, often capable of freezing some enemies instantly, rendering them immobile for a short duration. Vengeful Sickle I is ideal for attacking multiple enemies from a distance, and its upgrade will only improve the effect. If you find yourself in a situation where you’ve just thrown the Leviathan Axe and you need it back to attack enemies in front of you, Returning Whirlwind is perfect for this, allowing you to quickly regain control of a melee encounter. Returning Storm provides an even more powerful form of this.

Melee Axe Skills¶

The Leviathan Axe really comes into its own once you begin to upgrade the Melee skills for it. The basic early skills such as Frost Rush and Leviathan’s Fury provide a great way to take the initiative at the beginning of a fight, while Whirling Storm and Evasive Storm can be great for staggering multiple enemies at once and give you a quick breather in the process. Glacial Rake is good for inflicting significant Frost damage in melee, and Serpent’s Snare is a fun new skill which allows you to grab most regular enemies in front of you, and throw them into others in the distance, creating an explosion of Frost in the process.

From level 3 onwards, you can begin to master the Leviathan Axe in melee combat if you’re willing to learn the new combos provided by Whirlwind Sweep and Whirlwind Throw. Both of these utilize or in some form, requiring you to press them in quick succession with precise timing. If you manage to pull these combo attacks off, they can be devastating for all enemies within range. As implied by the names, Whirlwind Sweep is good for attacking multiple enemies in melee range, while Whirlwind Throw is often better used against enemies at range. However, the former is still capable of hitting enemies at a reasonable distance in front of you, while controlling surrounding melee enemies by staggering them.

Pride of the Frost I and II serve to further improve this combo attack, giving you the opportunity to finish off a whole group of weaker enemies using just this combo after the initial Whirlwind Sweep combo attack. These melee combos can be difficult to learn initially, especially if you’re not too proficient with your timing, but it’s absolutely worth practicing with them and you can do this freely if you use the training arena in Niflheim.

All Light and Heavy Runic Attacks for the Leviathan Axe in God of War Ragnarok¶

There’s a total of 10 Runic Attacks for the Leviathan Axe, with 5 Light and 5 in the Heavy category. You’ll find that the Heavy Runic Attacks generally inflict more damage than the Light ones, but both have their uses in combat. We’ve listed each in the tables below, and we’ll cover which were think are best for specific combat situations. We’ve also detailed the location for where you’ll find each of them in the game. Almost all are acquired from Legendary Chests, but some of these can only be accessed after completing certain parts of the main story, or after acquiring the Draupnir Spear.

Light Runic Attacks - Locations and Effects¶

You will no doubt be using either Winter’s Bite or Njord’s Tempest for a fair bit during the beginning of the game, and if you prefer ranged attacks then Skadi’s Edge might be an option for you relatively early on too. All of these can be useful for inflicting damage against multiple weaker enemies, but they’re not so useful when it comes to fighting elites or bosses, unless they have additional weaker enemies alongside them. In our view, Hel’s Touch is far superior against bosses, and in most cases against regular weaker enemies as well. This is mainly because it provides a quick way to interrupt potentially deadly attacks, especially red ring attacks which most elite and bosses will frequently use. The only other way to avoid these attacks is by dodging away from them, since they can’t be blocked.

The Wrath of the Frost Ancient attack is acquired fairly late in the game, and it’s hardly worth the wait when you compare it with Hel’s Touch in most cases. It will inflict a decent amount of directed damage which you can aim between different enemies, but it also leaves you vulnerable to attack while you’re using it. This one also has a base cooldown of 132 seconds, which means you won’t be able to use it as frequently as the others. If you consider that Hel’s Touch not only has the fastest execution and inflicts a decent amount of damage, but it also has the shortest cooldown, the superior choice for Light Runic Attacks becomes obvious for us in most cases, but you may still consider the others depending on your own particular playstyle, so it’s worth trying them out if you’re unsure yourself.

Heavy Runic Attacks - Locations and Effects¶

The choice of which Heavy Runic Attack to use is slightly more complicated than the Light ones for us. Although most of them have much longer base cooldown times, they also inflict significantly more damage. Fog of Fimbulwinter is a great one to start with, and it will serve you well against most enemies, especially if you enjoy freezing them as you build up Frost alongside regular Leviathan Axe attacks. Mists of Helheim functions in a similar way, but you won’t have to direct this attack with as much precision as FoF requires, making it potentially more useful against faster groups of enemies, like some of the Draugr or Hel-Walkers. Leviathan’s Roar is decent if you enjoy using ranged attacks, and it certainly inflicts a good amount of damage as it returns to you, but the applications for its use are more confined compared with the others.

As you progress further through the game and kill more of Odin’s Ravens (28 to be precise), you’ll eventually unlock the Breath of Thamur attack. This one inflicts massive damage in an extremely large area, catching pretty much anything in the vicinity within its grasp. It will also continually stagger most enemies for the duration of the effect, so it’s great to fend off multiple enemies when you might otherwise be overwhelmed, but some bosses will still attack you as you’re using it, so it’s worth keeping that in mind. The only major downside to this attack is the increased cooldown. The Ivaldi’s Anvil attack is a decent alternative with a much shorter cooldown, although the area-of-effect and overall damage is significantly less than that from Breath of Thamur. With that said, the attack executes fairly quickly and it will still impact enemies in a decent radius around you, while also staggering them and interrupting some red ring boss attacks, making it a great pairing with the Hel’s Touch light attack.

All Leviathan Axe Attachments (Knobs and Grips) in God of War Ragnarok¶

There are 12 Leviathan Axe attachments in God of War Ragnarok, also known as Knobs and Grips. Each of these provide different combinations of stats increases, but they also come with Perks which improve various aspects of your skills and abilities. To give you a good idea of which might be best for you, we’ve included each of them in the table below, detailing the maximum stats that you can attain from them after upgrading to level 9, the location for where you’ll find it in the game, and also the Perk associated with them.

You will notice that a number of these axe attachments rely on various degrees of Luck chance for their Perk to be triggered, such as The Furious Maul, Haur’s Lucky Knob, Grip of the Fallen Alchemist, and Runic Hailstone Knob. Each of these can be useful if you want to incorporate them into a build which primarily utilizes Strength, Stun, Health regeneration, or Runic damage respectively, but because they’re based on Luck chance to trigger, they’re not the most consistent. The Wooden Knob has no Perk at all, but it provides a more balanced offering in terms of improving your base stats. If you’re focusing on more of a tank build, the Fortified Frost Knob or Grip of Healing Harmony could be good options, although the latter sacrifices increasing incoming damage for Health Bursts.

The other axe attachments here can be powerful when paired with the right gear for a specific build. The Grip of Weighted Recovery, for example, provides a fairly reliable way to reduce Cooldowns on your Runic Attacks, activating each time you Stun Grab () an enemy. Banahogg Knob is more specific in that it benefits Bare-Handed attacks, but only after performing a successful precision throw with the axe. The Grip of the Nine Realms is ideal for those who want a Realm Shift Build, while the Grip of Radiant Reflection provides a useful way to generate additional Permafrost if you enjoy using ranged attacks with the axe. Finally, the Stonecutter’s Knob has a more basic application which can benefit any combat situation, so long as you consistently perform the axe combo, at the end of which you’ll now finish with a concussive wave which staggers and inflicts stun damage.