Best Skills to upgrade early in God of War Ragnarok

God of War Ragnarok allows plenty of battle customization via the Skill Menu. With it, you'll be able to tailor the abilities of your Leviathan Axe and Blades of Chaos. Here's our picks for the best skills you can unlock in the early part of the game.

Best Leviathan Axe Skills to upgrade early in God of War Ragnarok

For the purposes of this guide, we're going to limit the purchasable skills to Leviathan Axe level two, obtainable with a Frozen Flame that you can find in the early game by defeating the Huntress. Here are our top three picks:

• Permafrost: This skill allows you to passively power up the Leviathan axe with frost power so long as you continue to land melee attacks on your enemies without taking any hits yourself. It's definitely a good choice for the "offense is the best kind of defense" type of players.
• Frost Rush: It isn't fancy, but it is a skill that will help you quickly close the gap between you and your opponents. It's also relatively easy to use in many situations. While sprinting, tap R1 to perform a leaping slash and get to your opponent quickly.
• Serpent's Snare: This skill is a bit more intensive but can do significant damage to mobs quickly. Hold R2 in battle for a heavy axe attack that will pick up weaker foes and throw them. When they land, they will trigger a Frost explosion that can deal AoE damage around them.

Related: How to level up and upgrade gear in God of War Ragnarok

Best Blades of Chaos skills to upgrade early in God of War Ragnarok

After upgrading the Blades of Chaos to level two, skills will be limited to those purchasable. You'll need to use Chaos Flames that you can find after defeating the Dreki in Svartalheim to upgrade them. Here are our top three picks:

• Immolation: you can give yourself an easy upgrade passively via this skill. With it, landing quick melee attacks on your enemies without taking any damage yourself will power up your Blades of Chaos and allow you to do burn damage on every hit.
• Hyperion Grapple I: While you can't completely throw the Blades of Chaos like you can the Leviathan Axe, you can still use them to grapple enemies and control the battlefield. If you enter aiming mode with the Blades of Chaos equipped via L2, then press and hold R1 while targeting an enemy, you will impale them and quickly pull yourself toward them, allowing you to dish out more damage quickly.
• Chaotic Rampage II: This skill further improves upon Chaotic Rampage I, adding an additional attack to the flurry of blades that you can unleash by holding R1 in combat. It's a quick and easy way to end close combat scenarios.

Looking for more help in God of War Ragnarok? Check out All God of War Ragnarok difficulty settings, explained and All Stats in God of War Ragnarok & what they mean here at Pro Game Guides.