God of War - All Runic Attack Locations (Runes) (2024)

April 26, 2018 by PowerPyx 12 Comments

In God of War (2018, PS4), you can find and unlock Runic Attacks – types of special moves. This guide lists all of them and their locations where they are found. Runic Attacks are the most powerful moves in the game but have a cooldown on them. By putting more points in your “Cooldown” stat you can lower the time it takes for such a move to recharge – usually between 20 – 60 seconds. That means you can use them at least once during every enemy encounter. They regenerate automatically, it’s merely a time-specific cooldown.

Most runic attacks are found from Legendary Chests. Others are dropped by bosses and obtained during the story. A few are bought at shops (and are quite expensive), but those can often be found in Legendary Chests also.

For the Legendary Chests, you can look up their locations in the complete God of War Collectible Guide if needed. There is free-roam after the story so you can go back and grab missing runes. The ones from areas that cannot be revisited will be made available for purchase at the shop.

Leviathan Axe – Light Runic Attacks:

• Njörd’s Tempest: A rapidly spinning melee attack that clears out surrounding enemies and deals significant damage.
  • Location: Found in Legendary Chest in “Alfheim” Region, also bought at shop for 30,000 Hacksilver and 20 Aegir’s Gold (requires Story Progress)
• Fury of the Ice Troll:A quick radial shockwave attack that slows enemies and sends them flying back.
  • Location: Found in a chest in “Völunder Mines“, only accessible during / after Brok’sFavor “Second Hand Soul”. In the room where you fight the World Eater Boss.
• Tyr’s Revenge:A powerful spinning attack against a single target, with a follow-up attack that slams the enemy to the ground.
  • Location:Found in Legendary Chest in “The Mountain” Region.
• Leviathan’s Wake: A powerful axe throw that plows through any enemies on its path.
  • Location:Found in Legendary Chest in “Veithurgard” Region.
• Charge of the White Bear:A quick, propulsive dash attack with a follow-up strike. Kratos is protected during the dash.
  • Location:Found in Legendary Chest in “Foothills” Region.
• Wratch of the Frost Ancient:A powerful ice beam that slows all enemies on contact.
  • Location:Found in Legendary Chest in “Fafnir’s Storeroom” Region. Only available during / after Sindri’s first favor “Fafnir’s Hoard“.
• Strike of the Utgard:A wide-arcing attack that inflicts a moderate amount of Frost damage.
  • Location:Found in Legendary Chest in “Alfheim” Region.
• Hel’s Touch:An extremely quick burst of energy that interrupts and knocks back all nearby enemies.
  • Location:The very first Runic Attack you will unlock (unmissable), from the first mandatory Legendary Chest inPath to the MountainMain Quest. You have to pick it up as part of the story.

LeviathanAxe – Heavy Runic Attacks:

• Thiazi’s Talon:A propulsive slice attack that launches a small, vertical wave that inflicts medium Frost damage.
  • Location:Found in Legendary Chest in “Alfheim” Region.
• Ivaldi’s Anvil:A devastating area-of-effect attack that freezes all enemies caught in the blast radius.
  • Location:Dropped by theBrenna Daudi (Troll) miniboss inPath to the MountainMain Quest.
• Mists of Helheim: A lingering area-of-effect attack that creates a small hazard that inflicts FROST damage to all enemies inside.
  • Location: Found in Legendary Chest in “Iron Cove” Region.
• Frost Giant’s Frenzy: 3 powerful slam attacks that launch enemies and then sends them flying.
  • Location:Bought atshopfor 15,000 Hacksilver and 10 Aegir’s Gold (requires Story Progress)
• Blessings of the Frost:Activate to temporarily power up the Leviathan Axe with small explosions of Frost damage on every hit and slight bonus to Runic and normal attacks.
  • Location:Bought atshopfor 50,000 Hacksilver and 30 Aegir’s Gold (requires Story Progress)
• Breath of Thamur: A massive area of effect attack that deals damage to all enemies within an extremely large area.
  • Location:Bought atshopfor100 Smouldering Ember, 10 Crest of Flame, 5 Greater Crest of Flame, 1 Crest of Surtr (requires Story Progress).
• The River of Knives:A destructive attack that sends out a line of ice shards that inflict FROST damage and launch enemies into the air upon contact.
  • Location:Dropped by minibossJarnFotr(Troll), automatically during Story in “The Mountain” Region.
• Glaive Storm:Throw the Leviathan Axe towards any nearby targets, automatically seeking out, hitting, and inflicting Frost damage to any enemies caught in its path.
  • Location:Found in Legendary Chest in “Buri’s Storeroom” Region.

Blades of Chaos – Light Runic Attacks:

• Cyclone of Chaos:A circling sweep attack that clears out all nearby enemies.
  • Location:Found in Legendary Chest in “Helheim” Region., also bought atshopfor 50,000 Hacksilver and 30 Aegir’s Gold (requires Story Progress)
• Nemean Crush:A massive shockwave attack that sends all enemies flying back.
  • Location:Dropped by Troll in Region “Council of the Valkyries“. He’s an optional boss found at the beach near a mystic gateway.
• Rampage of the Furies:A robust flurry attack that ends in a powerful slam.
  • Location: Found in a Legendary Chest in Region “The River Pass“, in the Witch’s Cave.
• Rage of the Titans:A rapid blade attack that ends in a devastating swipe that launches enemies into the air.
  • Location: Found in Legendary Chest in Region “Buri’s Storeroom“. Also bought atshopfor 75,000 Hacksilver and 40 Aegir’s Gold (requires Story Progress)
• Icarus Storm:A spinning attack that hits all enemies along its path.
  • Location:Bought atshopfor 50,000 Hacksilver and 30 Aegir’s Gold (requires Story Progress)
• Wrath of Artemis:A slash that protects Kratos by pushing away all nearby enemies.
  • Location: Dropped by boss “Daudi Munr”.
• Blast of Hephaestus: A quick, fiery blast of energy that inflicts a small amount of BURN damage.
  • Location:Found in Legendary Chest in “Foothills” Region.
• Spartan Charge:A dash attack that slams enemies with a fiery shield and inflicts a small amount of BURN damage.
  • Location:Found in Legendary Chest in “Helheim” Region.

Blades of Chaos – Heavy Runic Attacks:

• Tartarus Rage:A destructive slam attack that hits enemies with 2 Blade slams.
  • Location: Dropped by boss “Grendel of the Ashes”, automatically during the story, in Tyr’s Temple Region.
• Fire of Ares: A slam attack that sends out a fiery wave
  • Location: Reward for completing favour (side quest) “Hail to the King” for Brok + Sindri in Konunsgard. It’s their 5th favour, after completing 2 favours for Brok and 2 for Sindri.
• Prometheus Flame:A deadly slam attack that creates a small tear under up to 4 enemies before summoning a large pillar of flame beneath them.
  • Location:Found in Legendary Chest in “Konunsgard” Region. Only available during / after the 5th quest for Brok & Sindri “Hail to the King”.
• Hyperion Slam:A massive slam attack that causes a destructive explosion
  • Location:Found in Legendary Chest in “The Mountain” Region.
• Meteoric Slam:A powerful slam attack that rains down fire in a wide arc, inflicting heavy BURN damage.
  • Location: Bought atshopfor100 Smouldering Ember, 10 Crest of Flame, 5 Greater Crest of Flame, 1 Crest of Surtr (requires Story Progress).
• Hyperion Grapple:Tosses the Blades of Chaos towards an enemy and on contact, launches Kratos towards them to inflict a large amount of STUN damage.
  • Location:Found in Legendary Chest in “Tyr’s Temple” Region.
• Gift of Apollo:Temporarily enhance the Blades of Chaos so that every hit gives Kratos a small amount of Health.
  • Location: From the Realm tear in Niflheim‘s Workshop (Central Chamber), the one that costs 10,000 Mist Echoes to open.

Runic Summons (Atreus):

• Wrath of the Wolf:Summons a spectral wolf that pounces on enemies 3 times
  • Location: Dropped by the Boss Svartáljqfurr, automatically during the story, in Region “Alfheim”.
• Falcon’s Dive:Summons a cast of spectral falcons that dive into the ground.
  • Location:Found in Legendary Chest in “The Mountain” Region.
• Storm of the Elks:Summons a spectral elk that discharges destructive energy as it walks.
  • Location: Found in Legendary Chest in “The River Pass” Region, outside the Witch’s Cave where the turtle house is. You can climb back out there through the wall, behind the elevator in Witch’s Cave (which is blocked by some red tree sap, but you can blow it up with electric arrows later in the game).
• Bitter Squirrel:Summons a spectral squirrel, Ratatöskr, to unearth consumables.
  • Location: Found inLegendary Chest in “Light Elf Outpost” Region.
• Boar Stampede:Summons a Stampede of spectral boards that trample enemies in their path.
  • Location:Dropped by Stonebeard Kingminiboss (Troll), automatically during Story in “Thamur’s Corpse” Region.
• Murder of Crows:Summons a murder of crows that swarms enemies.
  • Location: Found in Legendary Chest in “The River Pass” Region, in the Witch’s Cave.

That’s all the Runic Attacks in GOW — if you want to see them in action, you may like the video linked above. Enjoy your newfound power and put on some armor with high cooldown stats to get the most out of it.