God of War Ragnarok - how to unlock heavy runic attacks

If you're playing God of War Ragnarok for the first time on your PS4 and PS5, you've likely noticed something unusual with its combat. Specifically, it's special runic attacks.

A major element of the game's hacking and slashing combinations, runic attacks are more powerful hits attached to your weapons, usually applying elemental damage on top of the physical damage you normally apply.

These attacks are broken down into light and heavy attacks and despite being common in the 2018 game, they work a bit differently in God of War Ragnarok with the heavy runic attacks being especially confusing.

Let's talk about how you get them.

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How To Get Heavy Runic Attacks in God of War Ragnarok

Unlike the light runic attacks which are implemented early on in the main story of God of War Ragnarok, Heavy runic attacks are kept hidden for much longer, only making their first appearance at 15+ hours into the game and not even through the main story

I first encountered heavy runic attacks through some of the optional chests you'll encounter throughout each of the nine realms. While you don't necessarily need to get them as you aren't limited without them but they are worth picking up and pretty hard to miss.

The heavy runic attacks tend to work best at crowd control and with a lot of the late-game fights having an overwhelming amount of enemies, making sure to have at least one for each weapon you collect on your journey will be an important step in mastering the often-tricky combat of God of War Ragnarok.

These heavy runic attacks will also be very useful in boss encounters, being great for breaking unblockable moves, allowing you to get back into dealing damage as quickly as possible, leading to some very quick encounters which make you truly feel like the God of War.